The Cross and Christian Community

The Cross and Christian Sanctification

Dr. David Platt
November 10, 2013

THE CROSS AND CHRISTIAN SANCTIFICATION

2 Corinthians 3:18
If you have Bible, and I hope you do, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 3. One of the doctrines
in Scripture that we talk a lot about is the doctrine of justification: What it means to be
justified before God. Its a doctrine that has been confused and misunderstood throughout
all of Christian history. Its the doctrine that brought about the Protestant Reformation
centuries ago, when men like Martin Luther stood before the Catholic Church and said, We
are not justified by what we do for God, but by what God has done for us in Christ.
Justification is the crux of the gospel, and for every non-Christian who is here today, this is
the good news that we hope you will hear in your ears as you listen to singing and praying
and preaching today. We pray that this good news will make its way into your heart: The
good news that God loves you and has made a way for you to be saved from the penalty of
all your sin against Him. And the good news that this way is not dependent on anything you
can do for God.
We had the opportunity to share the gospel yesterday with a man whose entire belief
system is based on what he can do to earn his way to God, and we shared with him the
good news of the God who has made the way to us. God has come to us in the person of
Christ, and God Himself has graciously paid the price for our sins in our place. Jesus has
died on a cross for our sins, and in so doing has done all the work that is necessary for us to
be saved from our sins.
And all that is left is for us for you and for me is to trust in His love for us and His
lordship over us. And we invite you, today, to trust in His love. You say, Thats all I have to
do? Trust? I only have to put my faith in Jesus? And the answer to that question is yes.
Turn from your sin and yourself, and your every attempt to earn your way to God and trust
in the way He has made for you. This is the good news of the gospel, and it is literally the
best news in the history of the world: You can be saved from all your sins against God
today, not by your own work, but by Christs work on your behalf. Solely because of His
grace, you can be declared, Not Guilty, before God today and forever. This is what it
means to be justified before God.
Now, this doctrine of justification then leads directly into the doctrine of sanctification. So
what happens once youve been declared, Not Guilty, before God? What changes once
youve turned from your sin and yourself and youve trusted in Jesus as your Savior and
Lord? And the answer is, Everything changes. The Bible teaches that at the moment of
justification, God not only forgives you of your sin, but He frees you from sin. He fills you
with His Spirit, and as a result, your life takes off on an entirely new trajectory. And that
trajectory is what is meant by the doctrine of sanctification.
So for every Christian in this room and for every non-Christian in this room who may
become a Christian today or one day, this doctrine is extremely important, because this
doctrine basically summarizes the Christian life. And when our pastors/elders went away on

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our annual retreat a few months ago, and were praying, this is one of the topics/truths that
came up as being something we need to constantly revisit: Sanctification - what it means to
grow in Christ.
So today, I want to show you a picture of sanctification in the book of 2 Corinthians.
Sanctification is one of the major themes of this book, so what Ive done is Ive organized
these notes basically to walk you through a definition of sanctification, so that together we
might think through practically what it means to be sanctified in our lives.

Sanctification is the process

Justification occurs at a point in time; sanctification is a process over time.
You say, What does that mean to be sanctified? Heres what it means: Sanctification is the
process. And thats a key word that distinguishes sanctification from justification.
Justification occurs at a point in time; whereas sanctification is a process over time. We
read about this in passages like Romans 3:21-26, 1 Corinthians 1:18 and Hebrews 10:14.
So theres a point when you trust in Christ to forgive you of your sins, and that point then
begins a process.
Think about it like birth, which is one of the images the Bible uses to describe justification.
Being justified before God is like being born again, and once youre born, that triggers a
process in which you grow. Almost exactly one year ago, a baby named Isaiah was born
into our family. All he could do was lie down, eat, sleep, and cry. Now, the kid is all over the
place. You let little Isaiah alone in the house, crawling around, and within an hour, the
house will be a wreck. Hes grown, and hes active in ways he wasnt when he was born.
Because he was born at a point in time, but hes growing in a process over time.
And this is the Christian life. This is why sometimes Scripture talks about how we were
saved by God. Romans 3:21, there in parentheses: By grace through faith you are justified
before God. Ephesians 2:8, It is by grace you have been saved through faith. But then
Scripture also talks about how we are being saved. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, to us who are
being saved and Hebrews 10:14 says, those who are being sanctified. So justification
occurs at a point in time; sanctification is a process over time.
Justification refers to how we stand before God; sanctification refers to how we
live before God.
Maybe another way to put that: Justification refers to how we stand before God;
sanctification refers to how we live before God. That can be seen in Romans 5:1-8:39 and
Galatians 2:15-21. Romans 5:1 says, Since we have been justified before God by faith, we
now have peace with God. So we stand with peace before God, forgiven of our sins and
justified before Him.
But then after that, in Romans 6-8, the Bible talks about the result of that: Since weve
been justified before God, we now live following God. Romans 6:11 By grace through
faith, you are now dead to your sin and yourself and alive to righteousness and God. So do
not let sin remain in your body, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been
brought from death to life, and live in Him. Romans 8 The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus
from the dead is now living in you, and so you live for Him.
Galatians 2 is another great example of this. There the Bible talks about how we are
justified by faith alone in Christ alone in the first few verses, and then you get to verse 20,

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and Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
And the life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. Basically, Paul says, I was saved by faith, and now I live by faith.
And its this life before God that then brings us to the main verse I want to show you today
kind of the verse that everything is going to revolve around and its 2 Corinthians 3:18.
Read along with me as I read aloud, for there Paul says, And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one
degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. So here Paul
describes the Christian life as a process of transformation, and the language he uses is
from one degree of glory to another, which is another way of saying exactly what weve
already said: Once we trust in Jesus, we begin a process of becoming more and more like
Jesus.
Justification knows no degrees; sanctification progresses in degrees.
So yet again we see this contrast: Justification knows no degrees. In other words, youre
not kind of justified, or partly justified, or somewhat justified before God. Youre either
justified before God or youre not; youve either trusted in the work of Christ on your behalf
or youve not; its one or the other. Justification knows no degrees, but sanctification
progresses in degrees, and we see that 2 Corinthians 3:18. And this whole picture this
process of the Christian life is a progression in degree of likeness to Christ the goal of
the Christian life, in this sense, is to look more and more like Christ, to look more like Jesus
today than we did last week. We desire to look more like Jesus today than we did last
month or last year at this time.
Just pause there for a moment and think about that. Does your life look more like Jesus?
Does it reflect Jesus more today than it did this day a year ago? What about a month ago?
What about a week ago? Is your goal this week to look more like Jesus next Sunday than
you do this Sunday? This is Gods goal for you. His desire for you is to be transformed from
one degree of glory to another, from one degree of Christlikeness to another. And when this
happens over time, it doesnt mean were being justified over and over again.
This is so key. I think sometimes as we grow in Christ, we come to new realizations in our
Christian lives. And when we come to that new realization, its almost like these blinders
come off our eyes, and we think, Ive never realized this before. How did I miss this?
And its in those moments that sometimes people conclude, This was so obvious. I dont
know how I could have missed it. Maybe I wasnt even a Christian before. For example,
some people (professing Christians) will come to a point where they realize in a deeper way
what it means to be surrendered to Christ, which is great. But then theyll start to think,
Well, I guess I wasnt surrendered to Christ like this before. Maybe that means I wasnt
even a Christian. Or a Christian might come to a new understanding of a spiritual discipline
like prayer, and prayer will move from being this rote, routine activity to really being lifegiving time that you look forward to and long for, and its almost like that Christian will start
to think, I dont even know if Ive ever really even prayed before this. I have missed the
entire point. And then they may start to conclude, Well, maybe I wasnt even a Christian
before.
And this is where I want to encourage us to be careful. And were going to talk about this in
a minute. There are many people who call themselves Christians who are not actually
Christians (Im guessing some people in this room), and they/you may need to come to the
realization that youve never actually trusted in Christ alone to save you from your sins and

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put your faith in Him as Lord over your life. And if thats the case, then I want to urge you
to do that.
At the same time, I want to encourage many of you who are indeed Christians, who have
trusted in Christ as Savior and Lord over you, and you know Christ, that when you come to
new realizations about who Christ is and what it means to follow Him, this is not you being
justified all over again. Remember, you were justified when you first repented and believed,
and when you trusted in Christ for salvation. And now, you are growing in Christ,
progressing in degree of likeness to Christ, and this is a process that will involve new
realizations all along the way every step of the way. And as you grow, its not that youre
being justified over and over again, which means you need to doubt or question your
salvation over and over again. No, this is the process of sanctification where God is
gradually bringing us to a deeper and deeper understanding of what it means to follow Him
as Lord and to be loved by Him as Father.
So all of that to say, this is Gods goal for you, to be sanctified, to grow more and more into
the likeness of Christ. And God is committed to making this a reality in your life.

By Which God
Sanctification is the process by which God ... Now were going to see in a minute how our
work factors into all of this, but I dont want us to forget (because the Bible doesnt let us
forget) that this point in time when were saved (our justification), and this process over
time in which were being saved (our sanctification) is all of God. God is working in it all. Its
His initiative, His power, His mercy, and His grace at work in every single bit of this. Its not
that were saved by Christs work, and now its time to put our work on the table to even
things out. No, we have been saved by Christs work, and we are being saved by Christs
work, because even what were about to talk about in terms of the work we do in the
Christian life, it is really Gods work in us. Salvation is all of God. Sanctification comes from
God.
This is most clear in the beginning of 2 Corinthians. Turn back there to the first chapter,
Chapter 1, verse 21. Paul is talking here about his desire to be more like Christ, and listen
to what he says in verse 21. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has
anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a
guarantee.
Now that is a loaded verse, but I want you to see that word anointed there. It literally
means to be set apart by God, which is what the reality of sanctification is all about. We are
set apart to become like Christ, and listen to who is doing this: It is God who establishes
us...and God who has anointed us.
We are sanctified by God the Father.
So, we are sanctified by God the Father. This is found in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 and 16:14.
And just as a side note, I put 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 and then 2 Corinthians 16:14 in
parentheses there, but I have no idea what I was thinking when I put 16:14 in your notes.
Theres no such thing as 2 Corinthians 16:14. There are only 13 chapters in the book.
Usually Ill put the outline together, turn that in, and then write a manuscript, and when I
went back to write the manuscript, I could not for the life of me figure out why I put 16:14
there. I thought maybe 1 Corinthians 16:14, but I looked at that verse, and it didnt really
make sense. So maybe I thought I meant 6:14 or 4:16, but those verses didnt really work

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either. I looked all over 2 Corinthians trying to make sense of this, and Ive got nothing. I
have no idea what I was thinking here, so if you figure out what I was thinking, Id love to
know. Otherwise, just kind of scratch that out in your notes.
The only thing I could think of is maybe I was thinking 2 Corinthians 13:14, which is the last
verse in the book, because there is a Trinitarian picture there with God the Father and God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I dont know. But regardless of whether I was thinking
that, that is what I want to show you here: How all three persons of the Trinity are
committed to and involved in our sanctification. We are sanctified by God the Father.
We are sanctified in God the Son.
Second, we are sanctified in God the Son. I have the passages Exodus 34:29-35 and 2 Cor.
3:16-18. Paul says, God establishes us with you in Christ, and thats really the whole
emphasis back in the passage we read a moment ago in 2 Corinthians 3.
Turn back there with me, because I want you to see this. I want to show you the context
that leads up to this verse about being transformed into the image of Christ. Start reading
with me in 2 Corinthians 3:7, and this may be a bit confusing at first glance, but hang with
me because theres incredible treasure to be discovered here.
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory
that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which
was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even
more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation,the
ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case,
what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory
that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory,
much more will what is permanent have glory.
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put
a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of
what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this
day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted,
because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever
Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the
veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Now the background here is Exodus 34:29-35, which I put in parentheses, and which is in
your Bible, by the way that is a real passage and that passage talks about how Moses
met with God on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament and received Gods law, and when Moses
came down from the mountain, his face was shining; he was literally reflecting the glory of
the Lord. And so what Paul does here is he uses that illustration to make a point.
And the point is here in your notes: We become like what we behold. In Exodus 34, Moses
went upon a mountain and met with God, and he beheld the glory of God. He was exposed
to the glory of God. So when he came down the mountain, his face was expressing what he
had been exposed to. It makes sense.
And we all know this principle to be true. Children are probably the clearest example of this.
I look at all four of my kids, and I see reflections of me in them sometimes for better, and

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sometimes for worse. They act like me, they react like me, and they talk like me. Even
Isaiah, even in the noises he makes, he mimics me and Heather. Well say something with a
certain inflection, and hell say something back with the same inflection. Because hes
around us all the time because we all live under one roof because, for better or worse,
theyre constantly around me, beholding me, they are becoming like me.
I remember a buddy of mine growing up who loved Michael Jordan. He studied Michael
Jordan. He watched Michael Jordan carefully. And when he played basketball, he played like
Michael Jordan. He wasnt as good, obviously, but he wore those Jordan shoes and Jordan
shorts and Jordan shirts. And he ran and shot his form looked like Michael Jordan the
ball just didnt go in all the time. Or you look at Facebook on a Saturday like yesterday. All
of the sudden, team colors come out in full force, and everyones talking about this game or
that game that their team is playing. What our mind is focused on is clear in what our lives
look like.
Now, take this principle, this reality, and apply it to our lives in Christ. The more we look to
Christ, the more we look like Christ. And this is the point that Paul is making here. Now its
interesting because this veil that Paul mentions here, again, goes back to Exodus 34,
because Moses would put a veil over his face until the glory on his face faded away. And he
uses this imagery of the veil to talk about how many Jewish people in his day were still
reading the Bible with a veil over their hearts, and they couldnt see. They hadnt realized
how all of these things that are written in the Old Testament are intended to point us to
Christ.
But then Paul says in verse 16, But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. And
the reference here to the Lord is a reference to Christ, which is a bit confusing because in
the next verse he says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and were going to talk about the Spirit
in a moment. But even the Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and Paul later makes clear in
Chapter 4, verse 5, that the way we behold the glory of God is in the face of Christ.
So when one turns to the Lord, to Christ, the veil is removed. When you turn to Christ, you
behold the glory of God. And Paul says in verse 18, with unveiled faces, we are beholding
the glory of God in the face of Christ, and we are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another. Do you see it? We become like what we behold. The
more we look to Christ, the more we become like Christ.
And again, it makes sense. If we fix our attention and our affection on football, then well
think and talk and dress and whatever around football. If we fix our attention on money,
then well reflect a passion for money. If we fix our attention and affection on this or that,
then well begin to look like this or that. And yet, if we fix our attention and our affection on
Christ, then well begin to look like Christ. When we rise in the morning, and we look to the
Lord, when we go into our prayer closet and we pray before Him, and we open up His Word,
then this gazing upon the glory of God in Christ in the morning then sets the stage the
entire day for fixing your minds attention and your hearts affection on Christ on what
honors Him, on what brings most glory to Him. Then at the end of day, youre going to look
more like Christ than you did when you woke up. We are sanctified in Christ more and more
into the image of Christ.
We are sanctified through God the Spirit.
And its the Spirit who is actually doing this work. We are sanctified through God the Spirit.
We see this in 2 Corinthians 3:1-18, Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27. See how
many times he mentions the Spirit here in Chapter 3. Verse 3, And you show that you re a
letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God,

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not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. Verse 5, Not that we are sufficient
in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has
made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Verse 7, Now if the ministry of death, carved in
letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses face
because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit
have even more glory? And then you get to the end of the chapter, and he says in verse
17, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. End of
the verse, last phrase of the chapter, For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Now what Pauls doing here is hes making a contrast between the Old Testament and the
New Testament, specifically what God did through His law in the Old Testament and what
God is now doing through His Spirit in the New Testament. And understanding this is huge.
God had promised in Jeremiah 31 that he was going to make a new covenant with His
people, and in that covenant, He wasnt just going to write His law on stone as He did in the
Old Testament, but He was going to write His law on the hearts of His people; He was going
to put His law within them. He says in Ezekiel 36, I am going to give my people a new
heart, and I am going to put a new spirit (my Spirit) in them. Ezekiel 36:27, I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my
commands.
So I want you to see the contrast here between Spiritless Christianity and Spirit-filled
Christianity. And even using those terms, I want to be careful. Im not saying that the Holy
Spirit wasnt active in the Old Testament. He was. But the Holy Spirit did not dwell in the
people of God like we see in the New Testament.
And I wonder sometimes how much of contemporary Christianity, including many, many
Christians in this room, have totally missed the beauty of what has happened in the new
covenant. Heres the contrast. First, Spiritless Christianity relies on external regulations.
These are regulations written on stone that the people of God were to obey. The only
problem is, the history of the Old Testament makes one thing clear: Those people didnt
have the power in and of themselves to obey those regulations. Before Moses even gets
down from the mountain with the law, theyve already broken that law. And in the rest of
the Old Testament, we see them over and over again rebelling against the law of God.
They could never measure up to it, which leads to the second facet of Spiritless Christianity
here: It revolves around our performance for God. Over and over again, they were trying to
obey the law, but lacking the power to do so. And this is the whole picture we see in the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law in the New Testament, thinking that they could be
made right before God if only they obeyed the law.
And that kind of thinking, Paul says, results in condemnation and death. Because the law
demands that you follow it perfectly, so if you cant keep all the demands of the law (which
no one could), then the result of the law is condemnation. It sentences you to death. Thats
why Paul says in 3:7, this is the ministry that brought death. In verse 9, its the ministry
that condemns men. They couldnt follow it, they couldnt keep the covenant commands,
and as a result, the law only condemned them.
Now let me pause for a minute because Im convinced this is how so many professing
Christians are living today. Weve created a whole religious system and church culture that
revolves around performing for God. Do this, do that, do this, pray this prayer, go to
church, pray, read your Bible, be a decent Christian and dont sin, and this is what

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Christianity is all about. This is what sanctification is about. Muster up what you can to
follow these rules, and God will be pleased.
But this is not New Testament Christianity. It misses the whole point of New Testament
Christianity. See the difference when you realize the role that the Holy Spirit plays in all of
this. Spirit-filled Christianity relies, not on external regulations, but relies on internal
transformation. This is the beauty of what Jeremiah and Ezekiel were promising. God is
going to give us a new heart and a new spirit.
This is our problem. We have hearts that are set in rebellion against God, and we need new
ones. And God has given us new ones through His Spirit. He has put His Spirit inside of us,
to transform us from the inside out. Not just to tell us what to do, but to give us the want to
do that and the ability to do that. Ezekiel 36:27, I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you walk in be statutes. This is incredible, and this is what makes the new covenant so
much more glorious, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, because when we trust in the
work of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, to live in us and to enable us to obey
His commands.
This means follow this Christianity no longer revolves around your performance for God,
but Christianity revolves around Gods performance in us. It depends on God working in us
through His Spirit. Now just the law written on stone telling you what to do, and leaving you
on your own to try to do it. But the law written on your heart, and the Spirit living in you,
are enabling you to obey it. God said in Ezekiel, I will be in you, and I will cause you to
obey! This is the startling, amazing, breath-taking picture of NT Christianity the Spirit of
Christ working in you!
And the result of this is not condemnation and death, but the result is salvation and life.
Second Corinthians 3:9, For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the
ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Exceeded in glory, and exceeded in
freedom, down to verse 17, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. What does
that mean? It means freedom to do whatever God commands you to do. Freedom to walk
with God, to enjoy God, to glorify God, to obey God in ways you could never do in your
flesh, but now you have freedom to do in the Spirit. Romans 8:1, There is now no
condemnation...
Oh, ladies and gentlemen, without the Spirit of God, we are destined to live tired, defeated,
dutiful, superficial Christian lives. And by Christian, I mean the culturally acceptable
Christian life that in so many ways operates on an Old Testament understanding of the law.
Well, I need to do this, I have to do that in order to appease God and save my skin in
eternity. This is not biblical, New Testament Christianity. Biblical, New Testament
Christianity revolves around the Spirit of God, and yes, we obey God, and yes, we gather
with the church, and yes, we pray and we read the Bible, and yes, we make disciples, but
not because we have to, but because we want to. We do it because the Spirit of Christ
dwells in us, moving us to obey God and transforming us from the inside out.

Transforms Our Lives

See the battle for transformation.
This leads to the next part of our definition of sanctification here. Sanctification is the
process by which God transforms our lives. Now, even in pointing out how huge the Holy
Spirit is in our lives, in transforming us, I dont want to give the impression that this process

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of transformation is easy. Instead and its there in your notes I want you to see the
battle for transformation. You can read that 2 Corinthians 2:11, 10:3 and 11:13-15.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10. On a few different occasions in 2 Corinthians, Paul
references the spiritual battle that is going on in sanctification. In Chapter 2, verse 11, he
talks about not being outwitted by Satan and not being ignorant of the fact that Satan, our
adversary, is working against our sanctification. In Chapter 11, verse 14, he talks about
how Satan often disguises himself as an angel of light to deceive us, and to pull us away
from Christ.
And then I want you to hear Pauls language in Chapter 10, verse 3, where he says
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the
flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine
power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey
Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is
complete.
Do you see the battle here, the war? Follow this: Becoming more and more like Christ every
day is a battle; its a war. Its a war in which God transforms our minds. You can see that in
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 and 11:3-6.
This is what the beginning of Chapter 10 here is all about. The weapons of our warfare are
divine truths that destroy arguments and opinions raised up against the knowledge of God
the Bible tells us, Take every thought captive to obey Christ. What imagery! Sanctification
is the process of taking every thought captive to obey Christ, working by the power of the
Spirit of God in us to think like Christ.
Also, the Spirit is working in us to feel like Christ. God transforms our affections. It says this
in 2 Cor. 7:10. You turn back a couple of pages to 2 Corinthians 7, and hes talking about
repentance, turning from sin, and he says in 2 Corinthians 7:10, Godly grief produces
repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
Oh, this is so huge, and it goes back to all we were talking about just a minute ago. When
we sin and we get caught, are we simply sorry that we got caught? Or are we deeply sorry,
sorrowful, grieving because weve disobeyed God? The more we grow in Christ, the more we
hate sin and the more we love righteousness. We want God, we want to walk with God, we
want to obey God, and we repent whenever we dont obey God, not because we got caught,
but because were grieved before God. Is this the way you feel when you sin? Do you
experience godly grief that leads you to turn away from sin, to repent?
God transforms our minds, He transforms our affections, and God transforms our actions.
That is what 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 and 12:19-21. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul talks obeying with
action in such a way that we will be ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ one
day. In Chapter 12, he calls them away from quarreling and jealousy and anger and hostility
and slander and gossip, and conceit and disorder. The more we grow in Christ, the less
these things will be evident in us.
And the more we grow in Christ, the more Christ will be evident through us. God transforms
our relationships. Oh, just reading through the whole book of 2 Corinthians this week,
thinking about sanctification, I couldnt help but to notice Pauls love for people in this
church, and his exhortations for them to love one another.

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The more we grow in Christ, the more we show the love of Christ to each other in the
church. You can read this in Corinthians 2:4, 5:14, 6:11-13, 7:2-4, 11:2 and 11, 12:14-15
and 19. Youve got to see this. Turn back to Chapter 2, verse 4, and just real quickly, I want
you to get a glimpse of the love here that Paul has for this church, and his longing to show
them that love. In Chapter 2, verse 4, Paul says, For I wrote to you out of much affliction
and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the
abundant love that I have for you. Pauls writing with anguish, with tears, out of abundant
love. In Chapter 5, verse 14, he says, For the love of Christ... What a statement! I dont
live for myself anymore. Im controlled by the love of Christ.
In the next chapter, Chapter 6, verse 11, it says, We have spoken freely to you,
Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in
your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. Hes
pleading for them to open up their hearts to others, including him. Also, look at Chapter 7,
verse 2. It says, Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have
corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you,
for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
Turn over to Chapter 11, verse 2. Keep in mind that there was tension between Paul and
the church at Corinth, and he says some pretty tough things in his letter to them, but hes
showing them the heart behind these things. He says in 11:2, For I feel a divine jealousy
for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
Then down in verse 11, And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! God knows
I love you!
Then, next chapter, Chapter 12, verse 14 and 15,
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden,
for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up
for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and
be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
Hes talking to them like their family. And down in verse 19, he says, Have you been
thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God
that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. Oh, I read this,
and Im going to get sappy for a minute, but I think about you. I think about us, this
church. I love this church - you - this people called The Church at Brook Hills. I want to lead
this church well because I love this church deeply.
And sometimes that means saying tough things, and sometimes that means us saying
tough things to each other, but its all because the love of Christ controls us. And the more
we grow in Christ, the more we will show the love of Christ to each other in the church, and
the more we will spread the love of Christ to others in the world. Were going to talk about
this more next week when we think about our role as Christians in the world, but I want to
point out two things in particular this week along these lines.
How do we spread the love of Christ to others in the world, according to 2 Corinthians? We
do this in two primary ways. One, we do this through a clear reflection of Gods holiness.
We read this in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. Turn back with me to 2 Corinthians 6:14, where
Paul talks about living holy lives in this world. And specifically, when it comes to our
relationships, he says not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. This is one of those
passages that makes clear why a follower of Christ would not date, for example, or marry

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someone who is not a follower of Christ, and I want you to follow the reasoning here. It
says,
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has
righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share
with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we
are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will make my dwelling among
them and walk among them and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says
the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a
father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord
Almighty.
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every
defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of
God.
Do you see the picture here? God dwells in us; we are His temple. In the Old Testament,
you had a place that was set apart the temple that depicted and demonstrated the
holiness of God. The temple was kept pure and holy because people would see in the temple
a reflection of the character of God. Well, today, there are no holy places like this. The
building were in now is not a temple. This is not Gods house; this is not a holy place. Once
you get to the New Testament, there are no holy places, but only holy people. And our lives
are intended to be the depiction, the demonstration before others of the holiness of God.
Think about it: In the Old Testament, where would people go to see the holiness of God on
display? Theyd go to the temple. Well today, where do people go to see the holiness of God
on display? They go to you and to me. This is how we show the world the love of God,
through a clear reflection of His character in our lives.
Now if we stopped there, wed think, Okay then, I just need to go isolate myself from the
world, not interact with the world at all and become a monk and live in a monastery, holy
and separate from the world. But thats not all here. We spread the love of Christ to others
in the world, not just through a clear reflection of Gods holiness in the world, but also
through the urgent proclamation of Gods gospel. We read that in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.
Turn back to 2 Corinthians 4. I want you to put all this together with what we saw in 2
Corinthians 3. In 2 Corinthians 3, we saw that the more we behold Christ, the more we
become like Christ. The more we look to Christ, the more we look like Christ.
Now I want you to see the effect of this. The effect of this, to use the imagery of Moses
shining face in 2 Corinthians 3, is that we go into the world radiating the glory of Christ. The
more we look like Christ, the more Christ is going to be evident in us to the world around
us, and see where this leads. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6 says,
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as
Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, Let
light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

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There is a real battle raging for real souls of men, women, little boys, and little girls around
the world. And the stakes in this battle are high higher than any war or battle that will
ever be fought physically in this world. From the very beginning tonight, I want you to feel
the weight of this text. There is a battle waging between the god - little g god - of this
world who is blinding the minds of unbelievers and the true God - big G God - that is
shining light into hearts.
Feel this. There is a God over heaven and earth who desires people to be eternally saved
and delivered from sin. And there is god in this world who desires people to die in their sin
burn in everlasting hell. And we are right in the middle of it, preaching Christ. We are not
preaching ourselves, not preaching our sports, not preaching about the weather, not
preaching about our hobbies, and not preaching about our political opinions. No, when we
realize that eternity is on the line, we are focused on preaching one reality: Christ, and we
preach Him with urgency.
Are you doing this? Or maybe a better question to ask is, Is this transformation that were
seeing here taking place in your life? Is your mind becoming more and more like Christ?
Are your affections being driven more and more by Christ? Do your actions more and more
reflect the person of Christ? And do your relationships more and more reflect the love of
Christ in the church and in the world around you? This is what sanctification is all about,
growing in all of these ways. And its a battle, its a war.
See your need for examination.
See the battle for transformation, and then also see your need for examination. You can
read this in Corinthians 13:5-10. This is the last place well turn in 2 Corinthians Chapter
13, verse 5. Paul gets to the end of this letter where he has called out the church at Corinth
on a number of different levels, and he gives them this exhortation:
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or
do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?unless
indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not
failed the test. But we pray to God that you may not do wrongnot that we
may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though
we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but
only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong.
Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason I write these things while
I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my
use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for
tearing down.
Paul says, Examine yourself. Test yourself to see if you are in the faith. And the
exhortation the Bible gives to them then is the same one the Bible gives to every single
person in this room now: Examine yourselves.
Look at your life. Is there any evidence of this process of transformation in your life? Are
you thinking, feeling, acting, loving more and more like Christ? Is there evidence of this
process of sanctification in your life? And if theres not, then maybe its because theres
never been that point of justification in your life. Maybe youve never turned from your sin
and yourself, trusted in Christ as your Savior and Lord. And if thats the case, then I invite
you to do that today. I urge you to do that today. Even now, in your heart, or maybe that
point of justification has occurred, but today youve been convicted about ways this process
of sanctification has not played out in your life. Im pretty confident that for every Christian
in this room, there are numerous areas of our thoughts, our affections, our actions, and our

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relationships where we need to grow more into the image of Christ. And its good, its
healthy for us regularly, if not daily, to pause and examine ourselves, and to say, In what
ways do I need to become more like Christ? And to realize that God is working in you to
make that a reality, to make you more into the image of Christ.

Into the Image of Christ

For this is the goal of sanctification: Sanctification is the process by which God transforms
our lives into the image of Christ. To look more and more and more like him. Now heres the
deal and I put this in particular in your notes because it came to my attention recently
that theres false teaching spreading in different ways here in Birmingham, particularly on
college campuses, that says we can get to the point where we are fully transformed into the
image of Christ in this world. In other words, we can get to the point where we never sin
any more in this world. False teaching like this is nothing new. Theres no new heresy, just
revised heresy throughout the ages that deceives and pulls people away from Gods Word.
For as much as I long for that day when sin will be no more in my life, the Bible clearly
teaches that this will not happen this side of heaven.
Our sanctification will not be complete in this world.
Our sanctification will not be complete in this world. We can read about that in Romans
7:18-19 and 1 John 1:8-10. This is evident in places like Pauls clear battle with sin in
Romans 7. Or even 1 John, a book that proponents of this heresy often go to, yet the book
opens by saying in 1 John 1:8, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. Anyone who says they have reached sinless and holy perfection clearly
does not know God.
You might think, Well, maybe, as you grow in your relationship with God, you might get to
a point where you dont see sin in your life. But listen to this wonderful quote from John
Murray, where he points out that the exact opposite is true. Murray says:
Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the
image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity
to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God,
the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning
for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the
more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin that remains and the more
poignant will be his detestation of it....Was this not the effect in all the people
of God as they came into closer proximity to the revelation of Gods holiness?
In other words, the closer you get to God, the more cognizant you become of even the
smallest sins in our lives that separate us from God. So this process of sanctification will
always be progressing in this world.
Now, this is not an excuse for spiritual laziness. We read that in 1 John 2:1-6 and 3:4-10. 1
John makes that clear. The Bible says in 1 John 2:1, My dear children, I am writing these
things to you so that you may not sin, and then were exhorted to walk in obedience to
Christ. 1 John 3, which is often used as a proof text for sinless perfection, is actually a clear
exhortation to turn from sin day after day after day in this world.
So some people, I guess could say, Well, if Im not going to become perfectly sinless like
Christ on earth anyway, then its okay to sin every once in a while. But a Christian would

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never say that. Someone who has been justified before God, saved from hell, forgiven for
their sin, freed from their sin, and filled with the Spirit of God would never be casual with
sin or comfortable with sin.
No, this is not an excuse for spiritual laziness this is an exhortation to spiritual
perseverance. We read that in Hebrews 12:1-3. Its why the author of Hebrews 12 says,
Lets throw off, then, every hindrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and lets run
with perseverance the race marked out for us lets fight this battle around us lets fix
our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith... Oh, what a great phrase. Jesus is
the author and perfecter of our faith.
Our sanctification will be complete in the world to come.
So mark it down: He will perfect our faith. But it just wont happen in this world. Our
sanctification will never be complete in this world, but our sanctification will be complete in
the world to come. We can understand that from 1 John 3:2-3. There is a verse that ties all
of this together. 2 Corinthians 3:18, We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to another. As
we behold Christ, we become like Christ. The more we look to Christ, the more we look like
Christ.
And this flows right into what the Spirit of God says in the Word of God in 1 John 3, where
we read, Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared;
but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Do you see it? When we finally behold him, we will finally be like Him. This is why
sanctification wont be complete in this world, because it cant be complete until we see
Christ. When we behold Him, we will become like Him, look like Him, and one day we will
see Him, and we will be like Him. So the Bible says, And everyone who thus hopes in him
purifies himself as he is pure.

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