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Justification, Sanctification, and the Holy Spirit (view source)

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==Because you are justified, you are sanctified==
==Because you are justified, you are sanctified==
In the New Testament justification (the acceptance of believers as righteous in the sight of God) and sanctification (progress in actual holiness in our lives) are closely intertwined. Did you get that? Justification is God’s acceptance of us. Sanctification is our actual holy life. The gospel, the heart of the gospel, the essence of the gospel is the order. That’s why Paul can talk about reverse.
 
In the New Testament justification (the acceptance of believers as righteous in the sight of God) and sanctification (progress in actual holiness in our lives) are closely intertwined. Justification is God’s acceptance of us. Sanctification is our actual holy life. The gospel, the heart of the gospel, the essence of the gospel is the order.  


It’s not just this and this and this and all these things are part of the Christian life. It’s the order, the logic. Which is the primary and which is the result? Which is the cause and which is the effect? That’s everything in Christianity. It utterly changes your view of yourself, the world, God, everything, if you get the cause and the effect mixed up.
It’s not just this and this and this and all these things are part of the Christian life. It’s the order, the logic. Which is the primary and which is the result? Which is the cause and which is the effect? That’s everything in Christianity. It utterly changes your view of yourself, the world, God, everything, if you get the cause and the effect mixed up.


What he says here about justification and sanctification, the order in the gospel, is, because you’re justified, the effect is you’re sanctified. Because you are justified through grace, because of what Jesus has done, you’ve been totally accepted. Now you’re living a life without fear, in gratitude to God, with a new dynamic of joy and a new desire to be what God wants you to be. So justification is leading to sanctification.
...justification and sanctification, the order in the gospel, is, because you’re justified, the effect is you’re sanctified. Because you are justified through grace, because of what Jesus has done, you’ve been totally accepted. Now you’re living a life without fear, in gratitude to God, with a new dynamic of joy and a new desire to be what God wants you to be. So justification is leading to sanctification.
Another way to put it is your sanctification over here is based on your justification. However, that’s not the way it works in most conservative churches, not at all. This is what Lovelace says: “… in their day-to-day existence, they [conservative Christians] rely on their sanctification for their justification …” They do it the other way around, “… drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance, or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”


Lovelace goes on to say, “Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons—much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have.
Another way to put it is your sanctification over here is based on your justification. However, that’s not the way it works in most conservative churches, not at all. Lovelace says: “… in their day-to-day existence, they [conservative Christians] rely on their sanctification for their justification …” They do it the other way around, “… drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance, or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”
 
Lovelace goes on to say, “Christians who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons — much less secure than non-Christians, because they have too much light to rest easily under the constant bulletins they receive from their Christian environment about the holiness of God and the righteousness they are supposed to have."


Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity.” This is powerful stuff.
Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce defensive assertion of their own righteousness and defensive criticism of others. They come naturally to hate other cultural styles and other races in order to bolster their own security and discharge their suppressed anger. They cling desperately to legal, pharisaical righteousness, but envy, jealousy and other branches on the tree of sin grow out of their fundamental insecurity.” This is powerful stuff.
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You go into liberal churches, and you don’t see changed lives. You see people living like everybody else. You see people being devastated. They’re told God loves them in general, but there’s no electrifying love of God which comes from the knowledge that though we were under wrath, look what Jesus Christ has done for us. There are no changed lives, but when you go into conservative churches, I don’t know that you see changed lives any more.
You go into liberal churches, and you don’t see changed lives. You see people living like everybody else. You see people being devastated. They’re told God loves them in general, but there’s no electrifying love of God which comes from the knowledge that though we were under wrath, look what Jesus Christ has done for us. There are no changed lives, but when you go into conservative churches, I don’t know that you see changed lives any more.


I told you Galatians was a controversial book. It’s the most controversial book. Therefore, I can’t preach it without saying more controversial things than I usually do. In conservative churches, what do you have? You have lives that through willpower have been changed in the sense of, “I don’t cuss anymore. I have my quiet time. I read the Bible. I get to church all the time. I dress differently. I don’t hang out on the street corner anymore. I’m doing all these right things.” That’s not a changed life. In fact, what Lovelace is saying is true.
Galatians is a controversial book. It’s the most controversial book. Therefore, I can’t preach it without saying more controversial things than I usually do. '''In conservative churches, what do you have?''' You have lives that through willpower have been changed in the sense of, “I don’t cuss anymore. I have my quiet time. I read the Bible. I get to church all the time. '''I dress differently.''' I don’t hang out on the street corner anymore. I’m doing all these right things.” That’s not a changed life. In fact, what Lovelace is saying is true.


In conservative churches, there’s a tremendous amount of insecurity, of defensive criticism of others, of Phariseeism, of legalism, of condescending, condemning attitudes toward anybody who isn’t right on everything: baptism, government, Christian conduct, tongues, or against tongues. They’re down on everybody. Why? There hasn’t been that change on the inside. They’ve utterly reversed the gospel.
In conservative churches, there’s a tremendous amount of insecurity, of '''defensive criticism of others''', of Phariseeism, of legalism, of condescending, condemning attitudes toward anybody who isn’t right on everything: baptism, government, Christian conduct, tongues, or against tongues. They’re down on everybody. '''Why? There hasn’t been that change on the inside.''' They’ve utterly reversed the gospel.


When in the conservative churches you say, “Here’s the gospel. If you give yourself to God, if you promise you will serve Jesus Christ, if you ask him into your life, he will come in and forgive your sins and change your life,” is that the gospel? Yeah, in the most general possible … Yes, plenty of people have become real Christians through that.
When in the conservative churches you say, “Here’s the gospel. If you give yourself to God, if you promise you will serve Jesus Christ, if you ask him into your life, he will come in and forgive your sins and change your life,” is that the gospel? Yeah, in the most general possible … Yes, plenty of people have become real Christians through that.
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The other thing he says in verse 7 is, “These people who are reversing the gospel are troubling you.” I think in the NIV it says in verse 7, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion …” Almost no matter how I’ve seen it translated, no matter what the translation, that’s just too weak. The word means to destroy. That’s not too bad. It means to throw into confusion, to knock down the house.
The other thing he says in verse 7 is, “These people who are reversing the gospel are troubling you.” I think in the NIV it says in verse 7, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion …” Almost no matter how I’ve seen it translated, no matter what the translation, that’s just too weak. The word means to destroy. That’s not too bad. It means to throw into confusion, to knock down the house.
This is what Martin Luther says about what Paul says. Baptism is not the article on which the church or the Christian stands or falls. Tongues is not the article on which the church stands or falls. Church government is not the article. Whether Christians should drink or not is not the article. None of these things … But if you pervert the gospel, if you reverse the gospel, you destroy the church. It’s gone. It’s not there. There’s nothing to stand on.
This is what Martin Luther says about what Paul says. Baptism is not the article on which the church or the Christian stands or falls. Tongues is not the article on which the church stands or falls. Church government is not the article. Whether Christians should drink or not is not the article. None of these things … But if you pervert the gospel, if you reverse the gospel, you destroy the church. It’s gone. It’s not there. There’s nothing to stand on.


Therefore, we must begin to make a distinction. There is no doubt in my mind that because of a loss of orientation to the gospel and the power of it, the luminescence of it, the incredible beauty and wonder of it, on the one hand you have, in liberal Christianity, no need for controversy at all. Everybody has their own beliefs so we never fight. In conservative Christianity we’re fighting about absolutely everything.
Therefore, we must begin to make a distinction. There is no doubt in my mind that because of a loss of orientation to the gospel and the power of it, the luminescence of it, the incredible beauty and wonder of it, on the one hand you have, in liberal Christianity, no need for controversy at all. Everybody has their own beliefs so we never fight. In conservative Christianity we’re fighting about absolutely everything.
In both cases it’s because of a lack of orientation to the gospel. Neither understands it. They don’t see it. Over here they’re fighting all the time. It’s because they need to throw bricks at other churches and other Christians so they can deal with what Lovelace called that fundamental insecurity, deep insecurity. Over here you might say liberal Christianity has no concept of why the gospel is special at all. “You have your gospel. I have my gospel.”
Do you see? There has been no transformation either place, and as a result their understanding of controversy is lousy. What Paul is trying to say is this is the only thing worth fighting for, but you must fight for it. If the gospel is at stake, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, “You must not go quietly into the night. You must raise your voice against the dying of the light.” You have to lift your voice up.
You can have a spectrum in every other doctrine. It’s possible for somebody’s view of baptism or tongues to be kind of close to me. It’s not possible for somebody who has a different view of the gospel to be close. The other doctrines are not things that destroy the church if they’re not there. This one it does. Therefore, there does need to be, unfortunately, a division.
If you’re Amish and you really believe Christians should not use technology, then unfortunately you’re going to have to have your own church. You’re just going to have to. That’s even true, though, on baptism and tongues. If you believe in worship services people should pray in tongues and get them interpreted and then another group over here doesn’t believe we should be doing that, we’re just going to have to have two different churches.
We have to, but those divisions should be done with almost no controversy at all. I believe that. That means there should be humility. You should realize we might be wrong on this. We realize this is not the heart. If I lose a finger, that hurts. If I lose my heart, I’m gone. If I lose a hand, that’s very, very bad. If I lose my heart, there’s nothing left. Do you see?
Therefore, we should do that with almost no controversy, but when that happens, when we get to the gospel, we need to raise our voices against the dying of the only light we have. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do


In both cases it’s because of a lack of orientation to the gospel. Neither understands it. They don’t see it. Over here they’re fighting all the time. '''It’s because they need to throw bricks at other churches and other Christians so they can deal with what Lovelace called that fundamental insecurity,''' deep insecurity. Over here you might say liberal Christianity has no concept of why the gospel is special at all. “You have your gospel. I have my gospel.”


Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).
Do you see? There has been no transformation either place, and as a result their understanding of controversy is lousy. What Paul is trying to say is this is the only thing worth fighting for, but you must fight for it. If the gospel is at stake, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, “You must not go quietly into the night. You must raise your voice against the dying of the light.” You have to lift your voice up.<ref>Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).</ref>


=More quotes of William Branham=
=More quotes of William Branham=
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