Tag Archive - Martin Lloyd-Jones

Completed by the Spirit Part 9: ‘It Cannot Justify, It Cannot Sanctify’

June 26, 2011 in Completed by the Spirit, Law, New Covenant Theology, Papers, Sanctification, Theology with 0 Comments

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

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.

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Completed by the Spirit, Part 1: Five Propositions

May 23, 2011 in Completed by the Spirit, New Covenant Theology, Papers, Sanctification, Theology with 1 Comment

This is the first 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.

For the apos­tle Paul, the Mosaic law – or any exter­nal com­mands not grounded in the indica­tive of the Spirit of God given to dwell in the believer – is anti­thet­i­cal to our growth in holi­ness; rather it is the Holy Spirit who is trans­form­ing the believer from “one degree of glory to another,” (2 Corinthi­ans 3:18). Paul’s teach­ing on the inabil­ity of the law to effec­tively com­bat sin in the life of the Chris­t­ian has been dis­torted by many, result­ing in an improper focus on law that con­tin­ues to enslave believ­ers in sin.[1] Per­haps Paul’s exas­per­ated excla­ma­tion and rhetor­i­cal ques­tions to the “fool­ish” Gala­tians is sum­mary enough of Paul’s view of the law:

[2] Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hear­ing with faith? [3] Are you so fool­ish? Hav­ing begun by the Spirit, are you now being per­fected by the flesh? [4] Did you suf­fer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? [5] Does he who sup­plies the Spirit to you and works mir­a­cles among you do so by works of the law, or by hear­ing with faith— [6] just as Abra­ham “believed God, and it was counted to him as right­eous­ness”? (Gala­tians 3:2–6)

Rembrandt's painting of the Apostle Paul, c. 1635

Rembrandt’s paint­ing of the Apos­tle Paul, c. 1635

“Hav­ing begun by the Spirit, are you now being per­fected by the flesh?” That antithe­sis – the Spirit and the flesh – draws the bat­tle lines for Paul between those who would have believ­ers con­tin­u­ing as slaves to sin instead of liv­ing as slaves to Christ and reap­ing the fruit of the Spirit. It is, as Paul tells the Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans, the will of God that they – that we – be sanc­ti­fied, “because God chose you as the first­fruits to be saved, through sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 2:13). God did not choose believ­ers to be sanc­ti­fied by the law; God did not choose believ­ers to be sanc­ti­fied by their own actions, behav­ior mod­i­fi­ca­tion or self-help tech­niques; God chose believ­ers to be sanc­ti­fied by the Spirit of Christ via the gospel of Christ.

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