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 22nd and final 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.
The apostle Paul writes throughout his epistles that the law was given for a different covenant and that believers are not under its jurisdiction. He makes no qualifications in this: he does not separate the law into component parts – moral, civil and ceremonial – and he does not prescribe commands of the Torah for our Christian walk.
Paul warns us of the power of the law to promote sin in the flesh and implores us not to submit to its yoke of slavery.
While John is often referred to as the apostle of love, love is a major focus of Paul’s teaching. (A search for “love” in the Pauline epistles returns 115 results in the ESV.) It is love that fulfills the law in the Christian; it is a perfect love of God and of neighbor that is a reflection of the relationship among the Trinity and it is a perfect love of God and of neighbor that is the outworking of our completed Christ-likeness in glory.
Until then, an increasing reliance upon the love of Christ – given to us by His Spirit –molds us more and more into His image.
No law can produce the fruit of the Spirit. All that the law can do is produce sin, despair, self-condemnation and self-righteousness in our remaining imperfection.
It is our union with Christ through His Spirit that results in our sanctification.
“I have come to realize,” writes Jerry Bridges, “that the deep work of spiritual transformation of my soul has been what the Holy Spirit has done, not what I have done. I can to some degree change my conduct, but only He can change my heart.”[1]
Thus, while Paul gives us imperatives in his exposition of what it means to be a follower of Christ in our hearts and in our conduct, those imperatives have their basis only in the indicative of what Christ has done in us.
“[1] There is therefore now no condemnation,” self or otherwise, “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).
Next: Commentary on this series, the aftermath of the paper, and further thoughts on the Gospel vs. Law sanctification debate — perhaps several posts!
[1] Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), 106.
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…
There seems to be a growing intramural discussion on the internet among those who say we must “try harder” to attain growth in holiness and those who say our growth in holiness comes from constantly returning to the Gospel — understanding that in Christ, it is finished. I’m with the latter camp; our standing is not based on our performance and our growth is based in His completed work.
Growth in holiness — progressive sanctification — is not a battle to be fought in the flesh but in the strength of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:3) in light of the Cross.
Check out this clip from Josh Harris as he makes the case:
HT: Tim Brister
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 seventh 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.
In the previous installment in this series, we saw that theologian Douglas Moo describes three different ways in which the man Paul describes in Romans 7 can be identified:
1. Paul describes his experience as an unconverted Jew under the law.
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.[1]
Moo advocates for the first position: Continue Reading…
This is the fourth 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.
Despite Paul’s warnings that the law arouses sin, many will point to the law as a prime mover in sanctification, essential to convicting us about our remaining sin and measuring our growth in holiness. In doing so, they will attempt to draw a distinction between being “under the law” and following the law. For example:
This convicting use of the law is also critical for the believer’s sanctification, for it serves to prevent the resurrection of self-righteousness — that ungodly self-righteousness which is always prone to reassert itself even in the holiest of saints. The believer continues to live under the law as a lifelong penitent.
This chastening work of the law does not imply that the believer’s justification is ever diminished or annulled. From the moment of regeneration, his state before God is fixed and irrevocable. He is a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). He can never revert to a state of condemnation nor lose his sonship. Nevertheless, the law exposes the ongoing poverty of his sanctification on a daily basis. He learns that there is a law in his members such that when he would do good, evil is present with him (Rom. 7:21). He must repeatedly condemn himself, deplore his wretchedness, and cry daily for fresh applications of the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses from all sin (Rom. 7:24; 1 John 1:7, 9).[1]
This is the third 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.
The first of the five propositions we introduced in Part 1 of this series is that the law cannot cope with sin.
The law cannot prevent sin; the law can’t curb sin; the law is powerless against sin.
In fact, Paul tells us, the law provokes sin.
Although what the law commands is holy, it was given to stiff-necked Israel to increase transgressions until the Messiah, the single seed of Abraham, was to come:
[19] Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. [20] Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
[21] Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. [22] But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
[23] Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. [24] So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. (Galatians 3:19–27)[1]
In his analysis of this passage, Jason C. Meyer references Thomas Schreiner’s argument that, “although the phrase ‘because of transgressions’ could refer to defining or increasing transgression, the latter option is preferable.”[2] Schreiner gives three reasons for that interpretation: first, that the context of the passage is that salvation cannot be attained by the law; second, that the relationship of “under law and under sin” reveals the law’s role in arousing sin; and third, that there is a parallel with Romans 5:20: “Now the law came in to increase the trespass. …”[3]
I was going to post a review of Russell D. Moore’s Tempted and Tried but Mike Leake’s review at SBC Voices sums it up well enough: Review of Tempted and Tried | SBC Voices.
Just a few additional comments:
Moore’s crisp writing gets right to the point: temptation is a danger and sin is far more serious than we usually treat it. The author’s candid warnings jarred me in several places; for example, when he calls us to be honest about sin: it’s not that we “struggle with procrastination” but rather that we are “lazy.”
I highly recommend this book and I’d put this right along side some of the best works by Jerry Bridges on the subject.
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
“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.
