Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the image of his Saviour, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin which remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it.
John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 145.
Tag Archives: Spirit
What is a ‘Relationship With Jesus?’
In an evangelical culture where phrases like “personal relationship with Jesus” have become common lingo, it is refreshing and intensely edifying to realize that there is no such thing as a relationship with Jesus apart from the Holy Spirit. My seeing and knowing and loving Jesus Christ is the present and continual work of the Holy Spirit in my life. My relationship with Jesus and his residence “in my heart” are just different articulations of the glorious reality that the Spirit makes real! He engineers my present experience of Jesus that is solely rooted in the objective, historical work of Jesus on the cross. It is by the Spirit that the objective work of God outside of me, in election before the world began and in the crucifixion of Jesus, is brought to have its intimate effect inside of me. The Spirit is my feet, my eyes, my tongue—so that I would walk in Christ’s way, see Christ’s majesty, and taste Christ’s glory.
Old is Passing Away, the New has Come: Get Rid of Your Junk Because of the Eternal Purpose of God in the New Covenant
“For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2Corinthians 6:16-7:1 ESV)
It is upon this Spirit-born new covenant reality that Paul makes his imperative to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit” (7:1). The flesh is used often in 2 Corinthians in a sneering way as synonymous to that which is being brought to an end (cf. 2 Cor 4:11; 10:2-4). Earlier in 5:17 he has pitted the flesh as the old nature that was brought to an end for those who are in Christ. “In Christ” actualizes the new creation that eclipses the old nature that is passing away. The old nature is passing away and the new creation is coming to a more present reality in the work of sanctification, or said another way, “holiness is being brought to completion in the fear of God” (7:1). This is the essence of Paul’s command. Because of the new covenant reality that is ours by the Spirit, let us cleanse ourselves of that which is of the old nature and therefore bring sanctifying work of God to its full effect. The basis of the Spirit’s empowering work is His already established presence in the actuality of the new covenant.
Radical New in the Regular Old: Gordon Fee on Pauline Theology
On the one hand, it seems impossible to understand Paul without beginning with eschatology as the essential framework of all his theological reflection; on the other hand, salvation in Christ is the essential concern within that framework. Salvation is “eschatological” in the sense that final salvation, which still awaits the believer, is already a present reality through Christ and the Spirit. It is “in Christ” in the sense that what originated in God was effected historically by the death and resurrection of Christ, and is appropriated experientially by God’s people through the work of the Holy Spirit–who is also the key to Christian life “between the times,” until the final consummation at Christ’s parousia.
Gordon D. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 13
Calling Out the Junk to Be Transformed Into the Image of Jesus Christ
“For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”
(2Corinthians 6:16-7:1 ESV)
Based upon the reality that God has made us, the church, His dwelling place–because He has redeemed for Himself a people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: we are cleanse ourselves of every uncleanness. And in obedience to this imperative, we are bringing to completion the sanctifying work of God in our lives.
To say it more concretely: there are areas in our lives that are not in accordance with the gospel. They are defilements, uncleanness, inappropriate realities. What does it mean to cleanse ourselves of these things? They are only cleansed by the gospel. The gospel conquers them, puts them in their place, reigns over them victoriously.
We are never sanctified apart from the gospel. Paul is not commanding us to try harder and do better. He is telling us that because Jesus has saved us, we are to press in deeply, call out our junk, and let the wonder of Jesus rule in every corner and crevice of our being. And in so doing, we are being transformed into the image of Jesus. We are being sanctified. Holiness is being brought to completion. Jesus is glorified by His work.
On the Word and Spirit Together
For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has joined together the certainty of his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God’s face, shines; and that we in turn may embrace the Spirit with no fear of being deceived when recognize him in his own image, namely, in the Word.
John Calvin, Institutes IX.3
