By request, here’s the complete paper from July 2010 from which the Completed by the Spirit blog series was adapted. You’re welcome to download it and distribute it freely as long as you do not modify it:
Completed by the Spirit: New Covenant Sanctification in Paul (PDF, 240 kb)
This is the 21st part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
Given all that we’ve studied in this series, how do we apply what is shown to us about sanctification in Scripture?
How do we grow in holiness or counsel those who are combating sin by relying on the Holy Spirit and following imperatives grounded in the indicative of the gospel and the gift of the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us?
Our study has provided us two answers: one positive and one negative.
We do focus on the gospel.
We do not focus on the law.
When we set our eyes on Christ and look at His person and work, we behold more and more what it is that our union with Him has granted to us. Continue Reading…
This is the 18th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
If sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, why do believers — who have received the Spirit — still need instruction and exhortation?
First, it is important to remember that believers are still imperfect this side of glory. As we have seen, the incarnate Christ as God-Man was the prototype of the believer given the Holy Spirit.
But unlike us, the incarnate Jesus’ communication with the Holy Spirit was perfect.
In Christ, the Spirit’s communication was complete. Continue Reading…
This is the 16th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
Abraham Kuyper
The Holy Spirit is “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Paul wrote in Colossians 1:27. It is, according to Abraham Kuyper, a “mystical union with Immanuel.”[1]
Our sanctification is achieved by God through our union with Christ. “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thess 5:23–24).
The great existence-altering event that happens in our salvation is our union with Christ through His Spirit.
Paul writes in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
To the Romans, he writes:
[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (Rom 6:3–5).
This is the 15th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
While we have seen that the law is ineffectual against sin, and (as Paul argues) that the law promotes sin in sinful flesh, and while we have just seen that it is love that fulfills the two tables of the law, we then must ask, “What, according to Paul, produces growth in holiness?” And that brings us to the great antithesis between the Spirit and the flesh that Paul expounds in Galatians 5. Let’s emphasize once again that Paul is writing to the church. He is not writing a treatise solely on justification by faith. He reminds the Galatians, as we noted above, “You were running well!” These are believers that Paul is cautioning against turning from the Spirit.
[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Gal 5:16–17)
While the struggling man of Romans 7 may or may not be a representative of the unregenerate man facing despair in trying to obey the law, the man addressed by Paul is one who fights the Christian fight, the war between the flesh and the Spirit. Continue Reading…
Pastor Moe Bergeron
Pastor Moe Bergeron spoke at the Earth Stove Society’s 2011 Think Tank (in which I participated) on July 27 on the topic “The Neglect of the Spirit of God in NCT.”
Paul contrasted the Old Covenant economy of the letter with the New Covenant economy of the Spirit (2 Cor 3, Gal 3) but most theological systems — including the New Covenant Theology movement — obscure, ignore or diminish the role of the Holy Spirit as the indwelling Spirit of Christ in the believer. Moe believes that it’s time to change that.
I highly recommend you give Moe a listen: http://earthstovesociety.com/?p=314
This is the 11th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
T. J. Deidun: New Covenant Morality in Paul
There is one more passage in which Paul speaks against the law for sanctification, and that is 2 Corinthians 3. It is perhaps the most specific comparison between a law of letters and of the Spirit – the γράμμα/πνε̣̣ῦμα antithesis.
[1] Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? [2] You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. [3] And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
[4] Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. [5] Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, [6] who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:1–6)
This is the 10th part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
In Romans 8, Paul provides the solution to the wretched state of the chapter 7 man, as he joyfully proclaims, “[1] There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. [2] For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:1–2). But that does not mean that the law is now harmless to the regenerate man who nevertheless still has remaining sin – and as we noted above – will continue to have remaining sin in his flesh until glory. Paul issues this stern warning:
[5] For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. [6] For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. [7] For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. [8] Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5–8)
This is the ninth part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
As we saw in our previous three installments, there are three ways the man of Romans 7 may be identified.
1. Paul describes his experience as an unconverted Jew under the law, a view we saw explained in the previous installment.
2. Paul describes his experience, perhaps shortly after his conversion, as he sought sanctification through the law.
3. Paul describes his experience as a mature Christian.
But as we closed part 8, we asked, “Does it matter to us as an application of Romans 7 which of the three men Paul is describing?”
Whichever of the three views one might hold, two of the same conclusions can be drawn from Romans 7.
This is the sixth part of a series of posts adapted from a paper I presented at a New Covenant Theology think tank in upstate New York in July 2010.
As we noted in the previous installment of this series, Paul draws no distinction in separating a New Covenant life in the Spirit from an Old Covenant life of the letter or written code (Romans 7:6).
But Paul does more than tell those who would look to the law that they are wrong; he calls them adulteresses. In his analogy, he says that a woman who lives with another man while he is alive commits adultery. We have died to the law; to live as under the law is to commit adultery against Christ, to whom the church is betrothed, and to whom He gave His Spirit as a guarantee until the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
Paul continues in chapter 7 in a pericope of which the subject is widely debated:
[7] What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” [8] But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. [9] I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. [10] The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. [11] For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. [12] So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
