Grace, Justification and Sanctification
Sermon text for July 19, 2009:
Romans 3:21-26
Preached at Church of the Hills Presbyterian Church, Evergreen, Colorado
Sometimes he felt a soul jarring restlessness somewhere deep inside. He couldn’t put his finger on the problem, but he knew that something was missing, like there was something important he was supposed to do or say, but for the life of him he didn’t know what it was. He remembered very clearly when the restlessness began. It all started because of a sermon that the pastor preached. That Sunday the pastor spoke about salvation. Up until that time he had always assumed that when he died he would go to heaven and it never occurred to him that there was something more than heaven in the Christian life.
On the way home from church that Sunday, he and his wife drove in silence, each one lost in thought. The scripture reading for the day echoed in his mind and seemed to be getting louder and louder as he drove. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” the pastor said. He’d heard that phrase before but this time the words seemed fresh, new and powerful. “All have sinned.” “All have sinned.” “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!” Until that day he had not spent time thinking about sin, or how far his life was from what God desired. Such things simply were never on his list of things to think about. He was a good guy, better than some and not a whole lot worse than others. So why waste time thinking about such things?
Maybe it was the way that the pastor illustrated sin that day that caught his attention. He said that the biblical word that is translated “sin” in our English Bibles is used in other places of a hunter taking careful aim at his quarry only to have his arrow fall to the ground far away from his goal. The hunter missed the mark! If that was so then perhaps sin describes believers continually missing the target or the goal of Christian life. “All have missed the target. All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Now that was something to think about.
The great Reformer John Calvin, whose five hundredth birthday Presbyterians are celebrating this year, helped rediscover the biblical ideal of a goal or a target for Christian living. Calvin thought the target was sanctification, an ideal that was dropped from the conversation of the medieval Church. Perhaps sanctification might be aspired to by a Cardinal or Pope, but it was beyond the imagination of the rank and file members of the Church who knew only what the priests told them. But as Reformers like Calvin and Luther read the scriptures for themselves, a new understanding began to dawn.
The idea of sanctification can only be understood in the context of two other important concepts. The first is “grace” and the second is “justification”. In the third chapter of Romans Paul says that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This is an appropriate diagnosis of the human condition. All of us like the hunter with bad aim have fallen short of the life God wants for us, and on our own initiative we will never hit the target. But from the beginning God has had a plan. Further in the third chapter of Romans Paul speaks of believers in this way, “They are now justified by his grace as a gift.” Grace and justification, two important words for Presbyterians.
Grace as the unmerited, unbuyable, uninheritable, favor of God always comes to us as a gift. It is God’s unconditional love for us – just because that is what God wants. And we are the happy recipients of God’s desire.
Just because God wants, and because of God’s grace you and I are brought into a right relationship with God, which the bible calls justification. Justification is the beginning of a life long journey that leads us toward sanctification.
Sanctification is the process of becoming holy, and living life in a way that is pleasing to Jesus. Scripture speaks of sanctification in several different ways. In Romans 12 Paul cautions us like this: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you will know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.” Paul knew that it is human nature to model our lives so that we are basically the same as the people around us. It is that quality that enables us to feel at home in the world. But Paul felt that, “fitting in” was a problem and not a solution. He believed that we should be different from others even as Jesus was different from his neighbors, and the Scribes and the Pharisees. Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I had a professor who taught that one of the jobs of the pastor is to help parishioners to become maladjusted in a sick society. Transformation, not conformation. A holy life, not an ordinary life. Transformation. Sanctification. A genuinely Christian life is one that is lived on a pathway toward holiness.
The man I talked about earlier? He’s okay but restless to move faster toward the goal of sanctification. And he is genuinely sorry he wasted so much time trying to be like everyone else, when he could have practiced living as Jesus wants him to live.
Because of Calvin’s rediscovery we can live our lives in the assurance that God desires to mold us so that one day at the end of our journey we will at last be transformed into the likeness of the One who is holy.
A New Testament ascription speaks about that moment this way, “And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you spotless (that’s sanctification) before the throne of his glory. To the wise God be glory and praise now and forever.”
Copyright © 2009 by Dwight R. Blackstock
Romans 3:21-26
Preached at Church of the Hills Presbyterian Church, Evergreen, Colorado
Sometimes he felt a soul jarring restlessness somewhere deep inside. He couldn’t put his finger on the problem, but he knew that something was missing, like there was something important he was supposed to do or say, but for the life of him he didn’t know what it was. He remembered very clearly when the restlessness began. It all started because of a sermon that the pastor preached. That Sunday the pastor spoke about salvation. Up until that time he had always assumed that when he died he would go to heaven and it never occurred to him that there was something more than heaven in the Christian life.
On the way home from church that Sunday, he and his wife drove in silence, each one lost in thought. The scripture reading for the day echoed in his mind and seemed to be getting louder and louder as he drove. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” the pastor said. He’d heard that phrase before but this time the words seemed fresh, new and powerful. “All have sinned.” “All have sinned.” “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!” Until that day he had not spent time thinking about sin, or how far his life was from what God desired. Such things simply were never on his list of things to think about. He was a good guy, better than some and not a whole lot worse than others. So why waste time thinking about such things?
Maybe it was the way that the pastor illustrated sin that day that caught his attention. He said that the biblical word that is translated “sin” in our English Bibles is used in other places of a hunter taking careful aim at his quarry only to have his arrow fall to the ground far away from his goal. The hunter missed the mark! If that was so then perhaps sin describes believers continually missing the target or the goal of Christian life. “All have missed the target. All have fallen short of the glory of God.” Now that was something to think about.
The great Reformer John Calvin, whose five hundredth birthday Presbyterians are celebrating this year, helped rediscover the biblical ideal of a goal or a target for Christian living. Calvin thought the target was sanctification, an ideal that was dropped from the conversation of the medieval Church. Perhaps sanctification might be aspired to by a Cardinal or Pope, but it was beyond the imagination of the rank and file members of the Church who knew only what the priests told them. But as Reformers like Calvin and Luther read the scriptures for themselves, a new understanding began to dawn.
The idea of sanctification can only be understood in the context of two other important concepts. The first is “grace” and the second is “justification”. In the third chapter of Romans Paul says that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This is an appropriate diagnosis of the human condition. All of us like the hunter with bad aim have fallen short of the life God wants for us, and on our own initiative we will never hit the target. But from the beginning God has had a plan. Further in the third chapter of Romans Paul speaks of believers in this way, “They are now justified by his grace as a gift.” Grace and justification, two important words for Presbyterians.
Grace as the unmerited, unbuyable, uninheritable, favor of God always comes to us as a gift. It is God’s unconditional love for us – just because that is what God wants. And we are the happy recipients of God’s desire.
Just because God wants, and because of God’s grace you and I are brought into a right relationship with God, which the bible calls justification. Justification is the beginning of a life long journey that leads us toward sanctification.
Sanctification is the process of becoming holy, and living life in a way that is pleasing to Jesus. Scripture speaks of sanctification in several different ways. In Romans 12 Paul cautions us like this: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you will know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.” Paul knew that it is human nature to model our lives so that we are basically the same as the people around us. It is that quality that enables us to feel at home in the world. But Paul felt that, “fitting in” was a problem and not a solution. He believed that we should be different from others even as Jesus was different from his neighbors, and the Scribes and the Pharisees. Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I had a professor who taught that one of the jobs of the pastor is to help parishioners to become maladjusted in a sick society. Transformation, not conformation. A holy life, not an ordinary life. Transformation. Sanctification. A genuinely Christian life is one that is lived on a pathway toward holiness.
The man I talked about earlier? He’s okay but restless to move faster toward the goal of sanctification. And he is genuinely sorry he wasted so much time trying to be like everyone else, when he could have practiced living as Jesus wants him to live.
Because of Calvin’s rediscovery we can live our lives in the assurance that God desires to mold us so that one day at the end of our journey we will at last be transformed into the likeness of the One who is holy.
A New Testament ascription speaks about that moment this way, “And now unto him who is able to keep you from falling and present you spotless (that’s sanctification) before the throne of his glory. To the wise God be glory and praise now and forever.”
Copyright © 2009 by Dwight R. Blackstock
posted by Dwight Blackstock | 6:41 AM
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