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Chapter 10
SANCTIFICATION:
Jesus
Is The Answer
To
Your Needs
Doctrinal Statement on
Sanctification
Just as Man is not the answer to
his salvation so Man is not the answer to his sanctification. 1 Corinthians 1:30
states "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from
God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." Only Jesus
can save us and only Jesus can sanctify us. Paul wrote in Romans 7:24-8:1
"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body
of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus-Christ-our-Adonai! So then, on the
one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with
my flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ-Jesus."
In this passage Paul tells us (actually in all of Romans 7-8)
he was not able to sanctify himself. When he cried out to God for the answer, He
showed Paul that just as Jesus was his only answer for salvation so Jesus is his
only answer in sanctification. Paul does not say at this revelation all his
problems suddenly disappeared. He states that with his mind he agrees with God’s
moral laws that they are right, but that with his body, whether he wants to or
not, he continues to serve sin. But now knowing that only Jesus can change him
and make him what He created him to be and that his problems are now no longer
his own, but the Lord’s, Paul can be happy in Jesus despite his current problems
in the flesh because there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in
Christ Jesus.
How do we have victory over sin and how do we draw upon
Jesus’ power of sanctification? This issue and the work of the Holy Spirit
related are discussed extensively in my books titled
Jesus Is The
Answer To Your Needs; in
Section 4 of my Basic
Textbook of Evangelism titled
Evangelism: the Time Is Now!; and in
Section 4 of my Advanced
textbook titled
Relationship With Jesus the Key to Effective Ministry. |
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