Hello and welcome to Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davie. Stephen is the President of Wisdom International and he's been teaching God's Word for over four decades. to learn more or to access Stephen's articles, books, daily devotionals, and more. Visit WisdomOnline dot org. There's a link in the show notes.
Now here's Stephen. We also are royalty. Peter tells us that we as Christians are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and what we need in the church more than ever before is people who will say with passion and conviction: since I am headed for that future throne as co-regent with Jesus Christ and that crown, I will live here on earth with character to match that crown. Because of who I am in Christ. Justification.
I will live for Christ. Sanctification. For the first time in his letter to the believers living in Rome, Italy, Paul begins to deliver some commands. Having developed the doctrine that the believer has died to the reign of sin, he now will begin to challenge the believer with the reality of sin. When you were saved, that point when you trusted Christ personally for your salvation, you were delivered from the penalty of sin.
That is the doctrine of justification.
Now you are in the process of being delivered from the power of sin. That is the process of sanctification. Justification takes a moment in time. Sanctification takes a lifetime. And you never really arrive until that day when we see him in our glorified state and are perfected in him.
We have to be careful not to combine these two doctrines erroneously. Many cults and isms and false religions have made sanctification how you live. The basis for justification. how you are saved. Sanctification will reveal the authenticity of justification.
While our sanctification does not determine our justification, it does verify it. That's part of our challenge, isn't it, in life? We are holy in our position in Christ. But we are not always holy in our practice for Christ. And that's where sanctification goes to work.
The goal of God through sanctification is to bring our practice in line with our profession. You could define sanctification this way: it is the work of God's Spirit in our willing hearts and minds that conforms us into the character of Jesus Christ. A shorter definition of sanctification could emanate right from the very Greek word that is used. You could simply define it by translating the word to mean set apart. We are set apart.
Unto God. We are set apart for God's use.
Now, the concept of sanctification then isn't too hard to grasp because all of us have things in our homes that have been set apart or dedicated for a particular use. When you were little, if you ever used your mom's favorite pair of scissors to cut cardboard in the garage to make a fort, and I'm not sure why that's on my mind, but you found out a little lesson on sanctification. Probably a long lesson on sanctification. If you ever took your dad's golf clubs out in the backyard to hit rocks, you discovered the principle of sanctification. See, the goal of God through sanctification is in the same way.
These tools are set apart for a particular purpose and they use.
So, our bodies, Paul will teach us, is dedicated to God to be set apart unto God. There are things that our bodies should do and were designed to do, and there are things that our bodies should not do and are not designed by God to do. When little Victoria discovered the truth and was told at age 11. that she was next in line for the British throne. She burst into tears.
Historians record for us that then she regained her composure and said with some conviction.
Well, if I am going to be queen. I will be good.
Now, does that mean that from then on, Queen Victoria, little Princess Victoria, was? Perfect. I've never met a perfect 11-year-old. Have you? Yeah.
It just means that she grasped this concept that Christians need to catch. It is this principle of set apartness, this principle of sanctification. Victoria determined with some measure of conviction that her practice would measure up to her position. She determined that she would reveal in her character those things that seemed to fit her crown. We also are royalty.
Peter tells us that we as Christians are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and what we need in the church more than ever before is people who will say with passion and conviction, since I am headed for that future throne as co-regent with Jesus Christ and that crown, I will live here on earth with character to match that crown. Because of who I am in Christ, Justification. I will live For Christ. Sanctification. Question remains, how do we live separated lives under Christ?
What does sanctification look like? What are we supposed to do?
Well, As we have been studying this chapter, we've reached that hinge point in verse 12 where Paul will now begin to give the command as to what sanctification or holy living is all about. He will give us a two-fold command under the inspiring ministry of the Holy Spirit. The first part is negative, and the second part of this command is positive. Look at verse 12 of Romans chapter 6. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts.
And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. This is the negative command of God through Paul. Let's stop here for a moment. These are present imperatives. You could literally write into your English translation the word at the beginning of verse 12 and at the beginning of verse 13: stop.
With an exclamation point. Paul is literally saying, therefore, stop. Letting sin reign in your bodies. Verse 13, stop. presenting the members of your body to sin.
The Apostle Peter personifies sin as someone who is at war with us. He writes in 1 Peter 2.11, I urge you to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against your soul. We are delivered from the kingdom of darkness, but that old monarch. trails around, he wants to slip back in. But he will try every day.
John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, also wrote a lesser-known book. Which he entitled The Holy War. In this book, he personified The soul as a city. and he named it Man's Soul. And he said that man's soul had five gates.
The ear gate, the eye gate, the nose gate, the field gate. and the mouth gate. And he personified sin as a would-be conquering monarch, taking his cues, I believe, from Romans 6 and 1 Peter 2. And he talks about in this allegory how the enemy of man's soul would come every day and make his attacks at these five gates. He would speak through the ear gate, tempting.
tempting messages. He would paint before the eye gate vivid and alluring pictures. But the interesting thing in his allegory is that man's soul could never be toppled by outside attacks. The only way the enemy could ever conquer the city was if someone on the inside opened one of the gates and invited him in.
Solomon, I think, has a little bit of this thought in mind when he says, guard your what? Guard your hearts. Literally, post a guard. at the doorway of your heart. Both Peter and Paul urge the believer to engage in this kind of battle.
In fact, when Paul in verse 13 says, stop presenting your members to sin, he is using a military term or terminology to bring to our minds, if we were Greek students, we would immediately catch it, this idea of battle. To present your members is a military expression of presenting your arms. It may represent the transfer of weaponry or arms. In other words, Paul then is saying: don't let the enemy use your body as a weapon against you. You want to be a holy man.
A holy man for God. Then When you sit down and you watch that movie that's the average movie on television, Or on the movie screen, we know statistically that a little more than 90%. Of all sexual content in the average movie today is between unmarried people or between people who are married to somebody else. You are, in effect, handing over your eyes to the enemy and saying, Here, would you use these against me in my war for holiness? You want to be a holy woman?
You look at the C D s and cassettes. You look at her favorite songs as she listens on the way to school or work or around the house, and you listen to the lyrics, and you discover that she is really, in effect, doing nothing more than handing over her ears and her emotions to the enemy to use them against her in her war for holiness. There is a war afoot, as it were. In the life of the believer, and Paul is saying, stop handing over your body to the enemy. Find out which gate he's at.
and go post extra guards there. Paul writes, Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts. And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. Now you died to the reign of sin. That is your position of justification.
Now he says, put it to death in a way, this monarch who will whisper in your heart and in your ear and to your thoughts and in your plans. Make sure he doesn't slip back in. And that's a daily practice. Paul says, stop.
So, in other words, what we have to do is we have to learn to say no. We have to learn how to say That little word. Yeah. Have you ever thought about the fact that early on, as a child picks up the English language, that they never have to have lessons in saying no? You never have a three-year-old running around the house saying, Yes, mommy, yes, mommy, yes, yes, mommy, yes, mommy.
Uh-uh, it's no, mommy, no, no, no, no, mommy. How is it that a two-year-old can so easily say no, but a 20-year-old can? Or a 30-year-old, or a 50-year-old. Or 60-year-old. Isn't it a fascinating revelation of our sinful nature that we say no so easily when we're young and when we're older, it's so difficult to say it?
We say no to the things we should say yes to, and we say yes to things we should say no to. The average believer, I am convinced, in this war for holiness, needs to learn to say a little word that has all but disappeared from our vocabulary. That little word is no. Let's practice it, shall we?
Alright, let's say it all at once. No, say it louder. No, shout it. No, say it louder. No.
This kid really got into it down here. I think he's warming up for mom after the church service. We have to say no. Many, many times. I was on the campus of a Bible college about a year ago and One of the students told me that they had just built a Krispy Krem shop right down the hill from campus.
Not just a place where they sell them, but a place where you can watch them being made. Have you ever seen that happen, where you can watch them being made? You walk in, and they have this little factory, and it's surrounded by a glass wall. You just walk up there, and you press your nose against the glass, and you just watch. Those little balls were formed and Flattened a little bit, and a piercing blast of air shoots through them and creates that hole.
And then they are on this series of elevators, these little miniature elevators that go up and down in this oven with the right amount of humidity and heat. And you can watch them rise. And then eventually they're finished in there and they come out of this conveyor belt, perfectly shaped, and they move toward this waterfall of icing. And they move underneath that waterfall of icing. And there you are, you know, watching this.
And then you can kind of keep your eye on one or two of them, and then you can go up to the counter and you can say, I want that one. Have you ever eaten? A doughnut like that that just came off the belt. They melt in your mouth. In fact, you have to have another one just to make sure you had it because it happened so quick.
And then a third one, just to. And then what happens? They begin to swell. Yeah. And you get this really yucky feeling and you think, why did I do that?
You know, the problem for me wasn't Standing there. The problem wasn't the fact that I had this nose smear all the way down this glass as I was watching. You know, I could get up to that counter and I could pull out my wallet and I could open it up, and then at that moment I could say, Lord, now you've promised me that there hath no temptation taken me but such as is common to man. But you are faithful and you will allow me a way of escape that I may be able to bear it.
So now, Lord. Give me a way of escape. Wouldn't that be foolish? When should I have said that? before I ever pulled into the parking lot.
Right? Before I had a little nose smear all the way down the glass to the end of that counter. That's when I think most Christians, and this is our problem: we get as close as we can and then we say, Okay, Lord, I'm ready for the escape hatch now.
Well, I can't understand why I'm controlled by sin. You know what my problem was? My problem wasn't even parking. And getting out. My problem was earlier when that student told me there was one.
I should have covered my ears and said, no, no, no, don't tell me about that. That's where it began, that's where you post the guard. For us, in real terms with real sin, ladies and gentlemen. It is very important early on. to say no.
Now, Christianity is just not one big negative. Or people that think that. You just say no to all the wrong things, and you'll be fine. That's only one side of the coin. You actually have to have a very big yes.
In your Christian experience, not just a very big no. Look at the middle part of verse 13. Paul goes on, and now he turns over the coin and he says, But. Present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Pristemi, you offer yourself to God.
We talked in our last session about yielding your body to the one who has the right of way. That's the yes. You say no to sin. You say yes to the Savior. And in this text here, you discover This principle of cooperation, sanctification, living a holy life.
There are two extremes to avoid, by the way, in this doctrine. One extreme would say that, well, it's all up to the individual. You've got to muster up the strength. You've got to think positive thoughts, and you can do it, and you can do it, and you can do it. And you put posters all over your office, and all this stuff to remind you that you've got the power, and you can.
That's one extreme, and that's wrong. But the other extreme that I think is very popular within the Christian church or the evangelical church today is the extreme that says, well, there's nothing up to the individual believer to do. You know, we believe that God is sovereign, so we're just going to misinterpret that particular doctrine, and we're going to say that unless He does everything in my life, then I won't be able to do it, and I therefore won't do it. And one of the verses that's used as a proof text is Philippians 2:13, where we read God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
So we read that and we say, There it is. If God doesn't will it in my life, then I'll never do it.
So if I don't want to read the Bible, well, He didn't give me the will, so I didn't read it, so it's His fault. I would grow up if he'd just give me the will to do it. That's the other extreme. The truth is, the previous verse to the one that I just read out of context. Says this, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Now note, he is not talking about justification. He is talking about sanctification. You don't work out what you don't have within you. Work it out, he says, live it out. Decide to live for God's pleasure.
And then he adds, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. In other words, Paul will encourage the one who decides to live a holy life and develop holy discipline, that God will enable him. God is the source ultimately of power and that ability to say yes. He is not saying that we are robots and that if God doesn't give us the will, we never will. Listen, if you don't decide to study the Bible, God is not going to take it off the shelf, whiz it over to where you're sitting, turn off the television, open it up, and say, study here.
He won't do it. If you decide not to come to church, he'sn't going to levitate you out of the bed, put you in the shower, put your clothes on, in the car, drive you here, and sit you here suddenly. I wonder how I got here. Say, well, if I don't have the desire, then Then it's God's fault. One author said that when we use the word cooperation, we do not mean a 50-50 partnership in which you put in your half and God puts in his half.
No, the power is all his. But he does not act. without the submission of the believer in this process of sanctification.
So Paul says part of growing up in Christ is not only saying no, Not presenting. Your arms to the enemy, but presenting your arms. to God. Sanctification is not a matter of spiritual abduction by God. It is a matter of spiritual submission to God.
John MacArthur wrote it this way: God's will is active in our lives only as our wills are submissive to His. A large part of the battle in the Christian life has to do with this saying of yes. In fact, I have found that it's easy to decide what I'm going to say no to and to say no to those things. But saying yes to the right things is really part of the larger battle, isn't it? That's why Paul would exhort Timothy.
Timothy? Train yourself. For godliness. He didn't say sit around and just wait for God to do something. Train yourself.
For godliness. This is a realistic command. There's no mysticism, there's no pietism, there's no monasticism. You don't wait for some special blessing to come along, and then now, purity, and holiness, and joy, and faith, and patience just immediately attach themselves easily to my life and yours. That's why Paul used the word discipline.
It's the Greek word gymnatzo. It gives us our word gymnasium. Ken Hughes makes a good point when he says we're to break out of spiritual sweat in the word. We're to work out in these spiritual disciplines for the sake of spiritual growth. We're to long for the pure milk of the word, whereby.
We grow. Reinecker defines the Greek word gumnadzo, discipline, to quote that vigorous development, vigorous application of all the believer's strength and ability that he may serve the glory of God with every thought and action. That sounds more like a war, doesn't it? And it is true, we do not naturally, even after coming to faith in Christ, drift. toward holiness.
We will never drift. And all in us. We do not drift toward obedience, but disobedience. The gravitational pull of our flesh is not toward prayer, but. prayerlessness.
We do not find humility easy. We find pride easy. we do not easily acquire faith. we easily acquire fear. We do not naturally delight in the things of the Lord.
We delight in the stuff of planet Earth. You can say no to all those wrong things, but you need to say yes. to those right things. It's easy to do that on Sunday. It's easy to say no.
It's easy to say yes. But living a holy life means we're sacred beyond. Sunday. Dr. Lauren provoked my thinking when he commented on this text, and he wrote this question.
What use will you make of your bodies? Will they be temples? Or toys. Toys serve a childish and temporary purpose. They are later laid aside, battered.
worn out Is that what your body is to you? How empty and sad such a life would be. On the other hand, temples are for the presence of God. They are made to hold communion with God. They are to be filled with music and dignified by worship.
Your bodies are, as temples, are stately objects of the beautiful reminder among all of mankind of both the presence and power of God. What a great question. Is your body a toy? Or a temple. which receives and displays the power and glory of God.
It's the very point Paul is teaching here. He says in another text, have you forgotten? Have you forgotten? Evidently the Corinthians had. Have you forgotten?
That your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which you receive from God. You're not of your own, you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God with your literal. Body. And those things you do.
That's the same thing he means here. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members, your body parts, your mind, your heart as instruments of righteousness. In other words, he is reminding us, dear friends, that our bodies are not toys. They are temples. And so, because we have been brought to life and we are in Him, we live for Him.
Therefore, we, if we hope to grow in Christ by His strength and power and our submissive will living through us, we say no to sin and we say yes to sin. The Savior. That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart, a production of Wisdom International. Learn more at wisdomonline. org
