Quotes That Keep The Church In Bondage Pt 7

 God Uses The Law For The Purpose of Sanctification

Old Covenant Sanctification

We are told when we come to Christ that we are saved by grace alone, but in order to become holy, God uses the law as a means of sanctification.

Sanctification means to ‘make holy’, therefore we are to use the law in this process of becoming holy.

Using the law as a means of sanctification is an Old Covenant concept. This approach puts the onus on the believer to make him/her self holy.

Let us look at why I don’t believe this approach works.

Rom 3:20 For by the law is the knowledge of sin. (NKJV)

1 Cor 15:56 The strength of sin is the law. (NKJV)

Rom 5:20 The law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.

A careful reading of the above scriptures show us that:

The role of the law was to point out to man his sin.

The role of the law was to strengthen the grip that sin had over our life.

The role of the law, rather than setting us free from sin, keeps us imprisoned in sin.

Hence, the purpose of the law is to bring us to a place of realisation that we cannot save ourselves,  we cannot set ourselves free!

Only Jesus by His grace can save and deliver and set us free. Therefore the law was given to drive us to Christ, for where sin abounded, grace did MUCH MORE abound!

New Covenant Sanctification

Heb 2:11  For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one.

Heb 10:10  We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

As we have seen, the Old Covenant puts the emphasis on man making himself holy, whereas the New Covenant puts the emphasis on God making man holy!

The Old Covenant majors on outward change. (behaviour modification) The New Covenant majors on inward change!

When we came to Christ we became a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). In essence, God gave us a new spirit. Our new spirit is perfectly holy, righteous and glorified!

In Christ we have become a saint (a holy one) through the new birth. We are not trying to be holy, we are holy by dint of becoming a new creation.

Now we are holy, God exhorts us to live out our holiness through the word of the New Covenant!

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Col 3:12  Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering.

The Church at Corinth was the most carnal Church full of extremes, yet when Paul wrote to them he began his letter thus:

1 Cor 1:2  To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints  (Holy ones), with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

Paul knew he couldn’t change the Corinthians by appealing to the law, instead he always pointed them back to who they were in Christ!

Meditation Point: We are made holy through the new birth in Christ Jesus!

Heb 10:10  We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

 

 

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