The transition which enables people to escape sin's slavery by existing as God's people is often called the process of "getting in" and of "staying in." Thus far these lessons focused on the "getting in" part of the transition. One has to leave slavery to sin (Romans 5:6-11) and become a citizen in God's kingdom (Ephesians 2:19-22). The power that allows any person to exercise this option does not arise from any form of human power, but from God who created our option in Jesus Christ. All we [any person] can do is accept the opportunity God offers us in Christ.
"Getting in" considerations are salvation considerations. "What did God do in Christ to create the opportunity for me to be rescued [redeemed] from evil's slavery and permit me to enter God's kingdom?" God created every Christian's opportunity to escape the control and consequence of evil, and every Christian must exist as God's new creature (Ephesians 4:17-24). Our "sinner's response" to what God did in Christ allows God to place us in Christ. That is "getting in." Our "Christian's response" to what God did in Christ allows God to keep us in Christ. That is "staying in." In both instances, God is the source of the power. All any person can do is respond to God with trust in God's achievements in Jesus Christ's death.
Through this loving God's incredible kindness [grace], God in Jesus' death atoned for our sins, redeemed us from sin's slavery, propitiated divine wrath, and provided us justification. No sinful human has the power or ability to do any of those things. God's love for us is so incredible that He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. The cumulative result of all God does for us in Jesus' death is our sanctification.
God's achievements in Jesus' death include our atonement, redemption, propitiation, and justification. The combined effect of God's achievements in Jesus' death produce our sanctification. We are able to be "set apart" for God as God's people because of what God did for us in Jesus' death.
Through the atonement, redemption, propitiation, and justification of Jesus' death, God enabled us to be His holy people. To sanctify is to make holy. The basic meaning of sanctification is to "set apart." What God did for us in Jesus' death enables us to be "set apart" from slavery to sin to exist as God's people, God's church.
The point: no human being or any group of human beings can make himself, herself, or themselves holy before God. God sets us apart from sin through Christ so we can exist as His people. Our responsibility is not to create holiness, but to live consistently with the holiness God gave us.
If in your thinking the word "church" means "institution" in the sense of an "organization" that offers people "membership," let Acts focus your thinking. Read Acts 5:11 [after Ananias and Sapphira's deaths]; 8:1-4 [noting the persecution and scattering]; 9:31 [with attention to the words "fear," "comfort," and "increase"]; 11:22 [the ears]; 14:27 [collecting the church]; and 16:5 coupled with 2:47. The church was and is those people who belong to God. People who have entered Christ to escape slavery to sin in order to be God's people are the church. According to Ephesians 5:25-27, these are the people Christ's death enables to exist as God's sanctified [holy] people who are set apart for God's purposes. The cleansing, the presentation to God comes from Christ. These people are sanctified because they are in Christ.
The "institutionalized" concept of the church in which individuals are provided and maintain "membership" in that institution by complying with the "directives and control" of that institution's "board of directors" is not a New Testament model. Early Christians existed as a community and functioned as a community. In their sense of community, they cared about and took care of each other because God in Christ blessed each of them by doing the same things for everyone. The church was simply people who were in Christ--nothing more and nothing less. Faithfulness was not determined by criteria that involved institutional expectations. Faithfulness was determined by service to others in a spirit of love and caring.
At the end of Paul's letter to Thessalonian Christians, he pronounced a blessing of hope. The God of peace could produce the total sanctification of these people. He could preserve them entirely. He could make them to be "without blame" at Christ's return. It was not because they were exceptional people. It was because of what God makes possible in Christ. God could do that for them, and God wanted to do that for them. He is a God who is absolutely dependable. He is faithful. He does not and cannot lie. He could make it happen. Note the source of power is the God who can make it happen, not us.
The Christians at Thessalonica were far from spiritual perfection. They were urged to be aware of the dangers of sexual immorality [the warning was given because a problem existed] (1 Thessalonians 4:1-8). They were urged to develop appropriate love for each other (4:9-12). That admonition included a prohibition against meddling, taking unfair advantage of each other, and gossiping (1 Thessalonians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13). They were confident that a Christian who died before Christ's return lost his or her reward (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Thus, they expected the Lord to return very soon (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11). Even with all their imperfections, God [through what He did and does in Christ] could enable them to be God's sanctified when the resurrected Jesus returned.
Hebrews 2:11 stated that Jesus came from God so that Christians could exist as God's people. God's Son made it possible for the sanctified to be God's people. Hebrews 13:12-16 compared Jesus' death to the Jewish sin offerings on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:27). Just as those sin offerings were burned "outside the camp" [the distance removed sins from the people who committed the sins], Jesus as our sin offering died outside the camp. He died so his blood could set us apart from our sins in order that we might be God's people. He was not ashamed to be our sin offering. We must not be ashamed of him.
Existing as God's sanctified people involves two things: (1) being made God's sanctified people, and (2) living as the sanctified people God made us. The power and opportunity to do both is found in God's power. Apart from God's power, we cannot become God's sanctified people, and we cannot live as God's sanctified people.
In the last of the Hebrew 13:12-16 statement and the 1 Peter 1:13-21 statement, we are informed of a "staying in" reality. We are not the power source for our own salvation. We cannot be our own atonement, redemption, propitiation, or justification. We cannot sanctify ourselves. Yet, we can live lifestyles consistent with the things God did for us in Jesus Christ. In Peter's emphasis, Christians must diligently devote themselves to the responsibilities of sanctification. God did not save them to "do your own thing" in unholy lifestyles. They were the slaves of sin. Now they are God's people. The slave's lusts do not control their existence. God controls their existence. Nothing in life is more serious than God's call to holiness. God did not redeem them with mere money. He redeemed them with His innocent Son's blood. Therefore, their faith and hope were in God, not in themselves. Obedience declares our appreciation to God for delivering us from sin's slavery and confidence in God's ability to keep us in His Son.
This introduces us to a prominent point made repeatedly to Christians in the New Testament epistles. We respond to the fact that God' sanctified us in Jesus' death by living like sanctified people. The values of the living God determine our thinking, our behavior, and our relationships. The contrast was made directly and plainly: Christians DO NOT behave, form relationships, or treat others in the same manner as do people who do not belong to the living God (see Ephesians 4:17-20). He or she who has been set apart for God thinks and behaves on God's values and understandings.
There is an ancient principle God always uses in redeeming people. Ancient Israel is an understood example. They were slaves in Egypt (Exodus 1:8-14). They thought like slaves, behaved like slaves, and had the morality of slaves. God used ten powerful acts to redeem them from their slavery (Exodus 7-11). God separated them from their slavery by placing the Red Sea between them and the land of their slavery (Exodus 14). After deliverance from Egypt, God gave them law [the responsibility of redemption] at Sinai (Exodus 20). God made it clear that if they made and kept covenant with Him, they would be His people (Exodus 19:3-6). They were no longer slaves. They were not to think like slaves, behave like slaves, or have the morals of slaves. They were to be God's people. God rescued them. They did not rescue themselves. If they appreciated God's deliverance, they would express their appreciation by living lifestyles of people who belong to God.
Ancient Israel exists as an example to Christians (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 and note verses 6 and 11). God rescued them to be His people, not slaves.
Ancient Israel never understood. They thought, "WE are special. God did all these things because of US." Read Deuteronomy 9:4-6. Because they failed to understand the "why" of their deliverance, they failed to live as God's people. Their existence was not ruled by their appreciation. God did not save them to think and behave as slaves.
Ancient Israel made a horrible, destructive mistake. They mistook God's incredible kindness and His faithfulness to His promise to Abraham as evidence of their extraordinary worth. They were convinced that God was partial in His treatment of them. Therefore they made two basic mistakes, and made these mistakes frequently. (1) They never understood nor focused on God's core concerns. (2) They rarely repented. Christians as individuals and congregations make both mistakes so easily today. Because we think God will show us partiality, (1) we emotionally, powerfully emphasize matters God says little or nothing about, and (2) we rarely repent.
The same point is made repeatedly in the New Testament epistles. To the Christians at Rome, "God ended your slavery to sin" (Romans 5:6-11). "Now think and behave as the redeemed" (Romans 12-15). To the Christians at Corinth [repeatedly!], "Do not continue in the acts and lifestyles of people who do not know Jehovah God and His Christ!" To the Christians in Galatia, "Do not live in the desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16-21). "Live lifestyles that allow the Spirit to produce his fruit in you" (Galatians 5:22-26). To the Christians at Ephesus, "Before redemption you were dead" (Ephesians 2:1-3). "Now you have been recreated by God" (Ephesians 4:20-24). "Live lifestyles consistent with your new existence!" (Ephesians 4:25-32). To Christians in northern Asia Minor, "God made you unique" (1 Peter 2:4-10) "Form and maintain relationships that reveal you belong to God" (1 Peter 2:11-5:11).
This paragraph provides documentation for the fact that New Testament Christians were expected, as the sanctified, to live consistently with their sanctification. God did not save them to live the lives of the unconverted motivated by the desires of the unconverted. These are not the only examples, but they provide obvious examples.
God redeemed us. He by His power rescued us from sin's slavery. BUT...He did not redeem us from sin's slavery for us to continue to live lifestyles of slavery to sin. No one can save himself or herself. God provides us opportunity to accept atonement, redemption, propitiation, justification, and sanctification. We can do two things. (1) We can accept the salvation God provides. (2) We can, in faith, live the life of a person redeemed in Christ.
The man or woman who accepts sanctification in Christ accepts responsibility to think, behave, and conduct his or her life on God's values and priorities.
Discussion: share the basic lesson(s) about sanctification in each of today's texts.
Ephesians 5:25-27
1 Thessalonians 5:23,24
Hebrews 2:11
Hebrews 13:12-16
Link to Student Guide
Lesson 7