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Sanctification Unto Obedience
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, California
Delivery: 2005-10-15
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2005-10-14 04:45Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-1pet1.php
As it turns out, there are several books often neglected by Christians. One is First Peter. Let’s do some exploring!
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
This is a general letter, as signified by its large distribution. We come up against several words and ideas here, first, the idea of election, and next, the idea of foreknowledge.
Elect
The idea of “elect” is from the Greek word “eklektos,” with two major meanings. Sometimes the meaning is “chosen by God,” and other times, “choice,” as in “the best of a class.” Old English would say “elect,” where we would say, “select.” When it comes to Christians, of course, there is a powerful overlap. Christians are chosen by God and they are also intended to be the chief among believers. It makes a difference whether you are strapped to the old-line Judaism and the law inscribed in stone or whether you recognize the Messiah, the Law, in person.
God’s blessing was never withheld from His obedient people. The wrath of God was brought upon the Jews by their disobedience of his law. Many persons contrast the freedom found in Christ with what they regard as the severe requirements of the law of God. Their words and example say to the world, Christ is so lenient and forgiving that we need not be particular to keep to the strict letter of the law. They slide away from their allegiance in a loose reckless manner, doing the works of Satan, while professing to love the Lord. Yet Jesus positively declared in His last conversation with His disciples, that those who love Him will keep His commandments. In the Old Testament entire obedience is required in order to secure blessings, and entire obedience is also required in the New Testament as the conditions of receiving the approval of God. Obedience of the divine requirements is the demonstration of our faith, and the test of our love and discipleship. Professing theories, and observing forms will not answer the requirements of God. The vital principle of love is kept active through obedience. ‘Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.’
All through His ministry Jesus impressed upon His followers the necessity of obeying the law, and His own life was a demonstration of its principles… (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, January 17, 1878).
God’s purpose for His followers today is that they be select. If they are truly following the Lamb, they will be select Christians indeed. They will rise above personal preferences, even at church. For the good of the congregation of which they are part, they will not blend personal identity with church office and become confused which is which.
For the good of the body, they will seek peace with their brothers and sisters, even when they don’t feel like it. Their criterion is the criterion of the select; it is for the mission of the church, both on a worldwide scale and at the level of their local church, they will labor quietly, steadily, in humility for the Master who gave so much for them.
Foreknowledge
Here is another word, “foreknowledge” which has launched some people in the wrong direction. It occurs twice in the Greek Testament, here, and in Acts 2:23. Beneath it is a word those here in the medical professions should understand: “prognosis,” to “know before.”
Peter writes to those Christians in a vast area who are the chosen of God, select, and who He has looked forward to seeing in action from beforehand. How God has longed for the day when Jesus would come and walk the earth; when His people, renewed at the time of Christ and following, would step out in faith for Him and walk the earth as His witnesses. He knew everyone who would come before they existed, for He exists, in part, outside the flow of time. He is omniscient. But the fact that He can know does not mean He pulls little strings and makes everything in the universe work out His way. No. He is, from His standpoint as deity, able to see us choosing and acting before we choose and act.
God “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). But He refuses to bypass our free choice; He insists on respecting it. While it is not His ideal will that any ultimately should be destroyed, while He longs for everyone to turn back to Him, many refuse to. And He does not require them to. Human choice is part of the picture.
Justification and Freedom to Work Unrighteousness?
Our Sabbath School lesson today included this quotation to give assurance to the believer that he will be saved:
Grace is unmerited favor, and the believer is justified without any merit of his own, without any claim to offer to God. He is justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who stands in the courts of heaven as the sinner’s substitute and surety (Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 398).
There is nothing found in these two sentences removed from the larger context, that suggests that we must overcome sin. This is most unfortunate. Because some of us will miss the larger context of the document, let us read the rest of the paragraph as given in inspiration. Without skipping a beat, she continues thus:
But while he is justified because of the merit of Christ, he is not free to work unrighteousness. Faith works by love and purifies the soul. Faith buds and blossoms and bears a harvest of precious fruit. Where faith is, good works appear. The sick are visited, the poor are cared for, the fatherless and the widows are not neglected, the naked are clothed, the destitute are fed. Christ went about doing good, and when men are united with Him, they love the children of God, and meekness and truth guide their footsteps. The expression of the countenance reveals their experience, and men take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus and learned of Him. Christ and the believer become one, and His beauty of character is revealed in those who are vitally connected with the Source of power and love. Christ is the great depositary of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.
Sometimes well-meaning people go too far in trying to modify the gospel of God. They will even quote enough of a statement to sound as if they are in favor of the gospel as understood by the early Adventists, when they refuse to quote the rest of a statement that would show that God actually is calling us to an even higher standard.
Sanctification
The next phrase from Peter’s letter is, “through sanctification of the Spirit.” Here we have another dilemma, for the popular line today is to say that sanctification is only a following fruit of the gospel, separate even from the gospel, a nice frosting, a pleasant aroma after the baking is already done. But part of our election, our selectness, is actually our sanctification. “Making right” as an add-on that follows “being saved”? Not so!
Being counted right and being made right happen at the same time. Justification has both one part and another. Both are integral parts of the gospel. People are today urging that we are “saints” solely through being set apart for a holy purpose, that there is nothing about what we become that has anything to do with whether or not we are “saints.”
But the Greek word for saints means literally, “holy ones.” It is true, of course, that we do not see the term as do the Roman Catholics. They hold that the believer, through the church, receives salvation, in part, through his own merit, his own virtue. The especially “good” believers generate more merit than they need, and that goes into the “treasury of the saints.” This is the Roman Catholic view of saints. Their extra merit can be applied where our own merit has fallen short.
This is not the biblical view of merit or sainthood. The truth has been stretched much too far. We do not hold anything close to that, but our Bibles do include the truth of Hebrews 12:14: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” You have to have holiness—a quality, not merely a title or a category of set-apartness—in order not merely to be titled but fitted for heaven.
The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven (Ellen G. White, Messages for Young People, p. 35).
The “sanctification of the Spirit” is more than a phrase with an appealing sound; it is God working on the inside. It is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-29). We are the choice of God, the select, the elect, through the sanctification of the Spirit. Jesus died on the cross for me, outside of me, objective to me, external to me, without asking me. The Holy Spirit fills me, inside of me, subjective to me, internal to me, as I permit.
Obedience
I choose to be Satanlike or I choose to be Christlike. First Peter is full of the idea of obedience. Look at 1:13-19:
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
See how obedience is to be part of your life now? Our being holy is based upon the example of Jesus’ being holy. Was Jesus’ holiness merely a set-apartness? Or, was He holy in attitude, in manner? Was He holy in terms of mere title, or was He holy in terms of fitness? And we are to wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14).
Who chooses whether you obey? You do. You are not saved as some fluke or a preprogrammed part of a divine script. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, wonderful possibilities are open to us!
Wonderful possibilities are provided for every one who has faith in Christ. No walls are built to keep any living soul from salvation. The predestination, or election, of which God speaks, includes all who will accept Christ as a personal Saviour, who will return to their loyalty, to perfect obedience to all God’s commandments. This is the effectual salvation of a peculiar people, chosen by God from among men. All who are willing to be saved by Christ are the elect of God. It is the obedient who are predestinated from the foundation of the world. ‘To as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believed on Him’ (Ellen G. White, Gospel Herald, June 11, 1902).
Certain conditions are to be complied with on the part of man, and if he refuses to comply with the conditions, he cannot become the elect of God. If he will comply he is a child of God, and Christ says if he will continue in faithfulness, steadfast and immovable in his obedience, He will not blot out his name out of the book of life but will confess his name before His Father and before His angels (Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 2, p. 149).
The idea of “sprinkling” takes us back to the blood of the offerings in the Hebrew sanctuary, sprinkled inside. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice offered the ultimate blood of sprinkling. “With His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sin, but more: He died to make you holy. Like the old hymn, “Lord Jesus I long to be perfectly whole. I want Thee forever to live in my soul. Break down every idol, cast out every foe, now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” This is what we want: to live Christlikeness now, to be washed white in His blood ministered in His sanctuary.
It is only after speaking of these powerful truths of sanctification unto obedience, that Peter proceeds to greet is readers with his invocation of “Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” And based on what he has beforehand said, there is considerable grace and considerable peace to be had from the nail-pierced hand of our beautiful Savior.
Conclusion
So, we have looked at election, foreknowledge, sanctification, and obedience. And we are just getting started with 1 Peter. May His goodness bless us and help us as we go further with the aging fisherman who Jesus made a fisher of men and makes the characters of His character His hooks! May our characters present powerful testimony to the goodness of God. GCO
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