We have finally arrived! Thanks to everyone for their patience. I realized this has been a long, ongoing post, but, in order for you to see the point we have to see the purpose behind all of these things. Now it’s time to get to the meat of the issue.
Sanctification- The act of God by which deals with our state almost entirely, just as justification deals with our standing. In Justification we are declared righteous so that in Sanctification we may become righteous. Justification is what God does for us, while Sanctification is largely what God does in us. Justification puts us into a right relationship with God legally, while Sanctification exhibits the fruit of that relationship experientially in a life separated from sinful world and dedicated unto God. Justification makes us safe; Sanctification makes us sound.
There is, however, an aspect of Sanctification called “positional” which should not be overlooked. Although it is similar to Justification, positional Sanctification views man from the moral rather than legal perspective. In Justification man is positionally righteous; on this phase of Sanctification he is positionally holy.
The Bread and Butter of Sanctification in which we will show refutes the “Carnal Christian” Heresy is that of Progressive Sanctification. This is the process in which God uses through our new nature, desires, purposes and the conviction of sin through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to make us Holy, as He is Holy. We are born of God after Faith and Repentance. Carnality is enmity to God. We are to judge believers by their fruit, for by their fruits ye shall know them. Sanctification exhibits the fruit of our relationship through the way we talk, walk, act and think. Do we still sin? Yes. The difference is our reaction to it. You now hate sin and do not glory in it! When someone is living out the same sin day after day after day, making no war with it, and shows no sign of conviction or repentance, NOT REMORSE, but repentance and conviction, you begin to wonder. These are the ones who make the profession and there is no change. What happened was at the turn of the century, the Church abandoned the preaching and teaching of the Law of God to reveal sin and bring conviction as Paul said, using it as a schoolmaster to bring people to Christ. They started preaching and teaching this false gospel of God is love, joy, peace and everlasting happiness. Why? Because warning people of the hell fire and wrath to come seemed “too harsh”. So this HERESY was created to justify all of these false professions that the Church was seeing, instead of preaching against sin, repentance, damnation and hell and exercising Church discipline. God is love, but you can’t give people the cure before they know that they have a disease. This is the very thing that modern Evangelicals did and continue to do. They are to afraid to offend people. Well, the Truth of God does offend people. If you see a blind man walking towards a cliff, do try to be kind say “Excuse me sir. Sir, I don’t mean to bother you but..” and then he falls off the cliff. Is that love? No. Love is showing someone you care by sharing with them the Truth of God. You are a firefighter, pulling people from the fire of hell by showing them that they are heading for the fire by reveling their sin through the Law and how it offends God. Then you share with them what God did for them to save them from the fire. These so called “Carnal Christians” use the Grace of God for an occasion of the flesh. This is enmity to God. You can’t be a child of God and an enemy of God at the same time.
Ray Comfort describes this best with the parachute analogy. He says, “Two men are seated in a plane. A stewardess gives the first man a parachute and instructs him to put it on because it will “improve his flight.”
Not understanding how a parachute could possibly improve his flight, the first passenger is a little skeptical. Finally he decides to see if the claim is true. After strapping on the parachute, he notices its burdensome weight, and he has difficulty sitting upright. Consoling himself with the promise of a better flight, our first passenger decides to give it a little time. Because he’s the only one wearing a parachute, some of the other passengers begin smirking at him, which only adds to his humiliation. Unable to stand it any longer, our friend slumps in his seat, unstraps the parachute, and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart because as far as he is concerned, he was told a lie.
Another stewardess gives the second man a parachute, but listen to her instructions. She tells him to put it on because at any moment he will be jumping out of the plane at 25,000 feet.
Our second passenger gratefully straps the parachute on. He doesn’t notice its weight upon his shoulders nor that he can’t sit up upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without it. When other passengers laugh at him, he thinks, “You won’t be laughing when you’re falling to the ground!”
Let’s now analyze the motive and the result of each passenger’s experience.
The first man’s motive for putting on the parachute was solely to improve his flight. As a result, he was humiliated by the passengers, disillusioned by an unkept promise, and embittered against the stewardess who gave it to him. As far as he is concerned, he will never put one of those things on his back again.
The second man put the parachute on to escape the danger of the coming jump. Because he knew what would happen to him without it, he had a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart. Knowing he was saved from certain death gave him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward the stewardess who gave him the parachute was one of heartfelt gratitude.
Now listen to what the contemporary gospel says: “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ; He will give you love, joy, peace, and fulfillment.” In other words, He will improve your flight. In an experimental fashion, the sinner puts the Savior to see if these claims are so.
What does he get? Temptation, tribulation, and persecution. The other passengers mock his decision. So what does he do? He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ; he is offended for the Word’s sake; he is disillusioned and embittered, and quite rightly so.
He was promised peace, joy, fulfillment, and all he got were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed at those who gave him the “good news.” His latter end is worse than the first - another inoculated, bitter backslider! (By the way, what is a backslider? It’s a sinner that never slid forward in the first place. Another false conversion.)”
That is a great analogy. For Christ came to save His people from their sins, not in their sins (Matt 1:21). A holy life, sowing to the Spirit, must follow the salvation that God gives us in Christ or God’s purpose in saving us would be defeated, and this cannot be. Did we not read that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph 1:4).
To be continued…
