Draft 6

FIVE HABITS OF THE NEW LIFE
1/30/05; TSL #6 – 1 Corinthians 9:27; Gateway Sermon Notes

INTEREST / NEED / ORIENTATION

Up to this point in our series on the spiritual life, the victorious abundant life, we have spoken almost exclusively on what God does, and what He has given us by virtue of our salvation. I have done this purposely because so often when it comes to spiritual growth we rush to what we should be doing and we have no biblical or theological foundation upon which to base our practice. If we are not doctrinally and theologically sound in the fundamentals of experiential sanctification the entire superstructure of our practice is weakened. So today we turn the corner and begin to look at how God allows us to participate. But first, because the importance of what we have seen in our the last two times together, let’s review.

I. REVIEW: THE NEW LIFE …
God causes the new life received at rebirth to live itself out. It prevails.



1. Starts immediately. Romans 6:5-11, Philippians 1:6

We see first that Paul is pointing out an established fact that took place upon the inception of our Christian lives. A real change has taken place in the sense of a new bent in life, a new disposition, a new course. In verse 11 we find “consider” which does not refer to some mind game we play in which we mystically vanquish the old man and live by the Spirit. Rather it is having an absolute, unreserved confidence in what one’s mind knows to be true – confidence that affects one’s decisions and actions. Paul calls on us to embrace the truth of the new life and the victory over sin it brings.

In this passage Paul is confident about something in regard to the Philippians. “He who has begun” is a compound verb that occurs only here and Galatians 3:3 (where Paul expresses his astonishment concerning the Galatians fleshly approach to sanctification). The idea is that God started something in the past (justification) and it has ongoing results and progress (sanctification) culminating in the glorification of the believer in heaven. “Begun” (#1728 is enarchomai in the Greek) is a combination of the preposition “in” and “arche” meaning “beginning.” The compound emphasizes the beginning as an event. The word means “to begin, to make a beginning, to commence. In this case it is the beginning event of salvation that has ongoing results. “Until” can be translated “as far as” expressing progress toward a goal (the goal being glorification). In the same way that God initiates salvation, He continues it, and finally completes it.





2. Grows inevitably. 2 Corinthians 3:18

It will inevitably take place. There will be signs, there will be fruit. There will be indications of a God-ward change in the Christian’s life. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Seminary spoke of this inevitability in his book Grace (page 35). In his comments on James 2:14-26, Chafer says: “True salvation will be manifested outwardly by good works.” And then, Charles Ryrie, in his book So Great Salvation he writes fruit will be seen “somewhere and somehow.” Saving faith is unrelenting.

Paul speaks here of the superiority of the New Covenant over the old. Moses veiled his face after visiting God on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:34) because the radiance could harm the people who saw him, but he also veiled himself according this context because of the fading of the glory. In comparison and contrast to that is the inner life of the Christian. Rather than fading we grow “in ever increasing glory.” Rather than veiling we reflect the glory of God to the world. In the illustration our souls act as mirrors of the glory of God as we grow. We reflect God to the world as we grow in conformity to the image of Christ. Thus, the idea here is the inevitable nature of the sanctifying work of God in believers, in contrast to the old fading covenant. The description of this change is the word “transformed” or metamorphoo (#3339) and it is also the word used at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2) and Romans 12:1-2. Here it is a present, passive, indicative, first person, plural. The correspondence to the transfiguration speaks of the affect we can have on the world when they see the affects of our sanctification.

3. Continues imperfectly. Romans 7:21-25

In God’s infinite wisdom, and in respect for us and desire for us to have a real role in salvation, He allows the battle to rage on in this life between the principle of sin and the new life that we have been given. So this is an immediate and inevitable process, yet it will vary in its progress. There may be times when we are really walking with God as we should and making progress and bearing fruit, but then there will be times of failure and retrogression.

4. Works inclusively. Galatians 2:20

The old Paul died. Donald Campbell in the Bible Knowledge Commentary says of this verse, “If He loved me enough to give Himself for me, then He loves me enough to live out His life in me.” Here we are reminded of the participation of the will. God chooses to work inclusive of human will. Experiential sanctification is inevitable but it is not automatic. God’ chooses to include our will in order for the progress to occur. God gives us that dignity and that privilege. What is the relationship between God’s will and my will when it comes to sanctification?



INCORRECT VIEW CORRECT VIEW


God’s Will Completely Free = My Will Equally Free God’s (My Free But Limited Will) Will







INCORRECT VIEW


Will of Man
Will of God

God’s Will Completely Free &
My Will Equally Free



























CORRECT VIEW


Will of Man
Will of God


My Free But Limited Will -
Within God’s Sovereign Will





Our will is not equal with God’s will. God’s will is absolute. Our will is free but not absolute. Within God’s absolute will He grants us the dignity of real freedom to choose and affect outcomes, including being accountable for our choices and actions. This concept - God’s absolute will and our personal responsibility is called a biblical antinomy. “Anti” is Greek is “against” and “nomos” in Greek is “law.” An antinomy is against the laws of logic in the sense that God has designed something that supercedes logic. The fact that God has decreed everything according to His eternal plan, yet still holds man responsible for his own actions, is called an antinomy — something contrary to human understanding. An antinomy, of course, is such only in the mind of man; with God there is no antinomy. What is mysterious to us is perfectly clear to God. Dictionary.com says that an antinomy is “A contradiction between two statements that seem equally reasonable.” See the balance in Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 15:10, Hebrews 12:28, Colossians 1:29.


II. TODAY’S STUDY: HABITS TO GROW BY …

A. Habit #1 Learn the Word. 1 Peter 2:1-2

See also James 1:21, Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

B. Habit #2 Avoid and confess sin. Romans 8:13, 13:14

Oftentimes in our modern super-sensitive Christian world we miss this point. As a result we don’t adequately warn Christians. In an effort to be loving and sensitive we don’t completely convey what the Bible says about how sin can affect sanctification. The other problem is that we can easily fall into legalism, which we have been warned of in our last two studies. But the fact remains that sin can hinder our Christian growth. There are all kinds of sins; sins of the action, sins of the tongue, sins of the mind, sins of omission. All of these can hinder our experiential sanctification.

(Illustration: Spiritual Growth, General) A couple of hundred years back the Puritan theologian John Owen wrote a volume on sanctification. He wrote the entire book on Romans 8:13 b – just the last half of the verse and he called the book on sanctification – The Mortification of Sin. In the first half of the verse we are told what happens to people who live their lives apart from God – spiritual death. This refers to people who are not Christians. In the second half of the verse we find the reference to the person with new life. Among the efforts that God allows us to participate in our sanctification is “mortifying” sin. This effort is in the present tense and is an ongoing continuous endeavor. It is done through the motivation and energy of the Holy Spirit. Check Proverbs 4:23; 5:22-23; 14:9. Check too 1 Corinthians 6:18 (four “flees” in the NT – 2 to the Corinthians and 2 to Timothy – don’t fight, flee – Joseph and Potiphar’s wife) and 1 Thessalonians 4:4. Check too Galatians 6:7. And finally check 1 John 1:9. Sanctification for the true believer is not automatic; God will not automatically keep us away from sin and make us walk a completely spiritual. Sanctification is inevitable, but not automatic.

(Illustration: Spiritual Growth, General) When we live in Arkansas I once took an old Christmas tree to our back yard and burned it. All it took was one match in the middle and it nearly exploded from the middle to the bottom and the middle to the top. In many ways the old principle of sin is us is like that tree. We are so vulnerable to sin, and it can soon consume our lives.

(Illustration: Spiritual Growth, General) There is a story told of how Alaskan Eskimos once killed wolves. The wolves were dangerous and were a threat to the Eskimos way of life. It is said that the Eskimos would take a sharp knife and coat it with blood, freeze it, and then repeat the process over and over until the knife was caked in frozen blood. And then they would secure the knife in the snow and wait. The wolves would pick up the scent of the blood and find the knife. Then they would begin to lick the blood. They would taste it and become more ravenous in their desire to consume all of the blood. In their desire they do not notice that they have cut their own tongue, neither can they decipher the difference between consuming their own blood or that of the knife. The Eskimos would find the wolves dead near the knives they left – with bloodied lacerated tongues. Sin has a way of killing our spiritual lives. Perpetual carnality could indicate no salvation at all, but apart from that question is it going to impede our sanctification.

Note also Psalm 66:18, James 4:3, and Isaiah 1:16, 17, 59:2. See too Amos 5:15, Matthew 16:24 and 2 Corinthians 7:1.