Quote:
Originally Posted by JBaldwin  As I see it, sanctification has everything to do joyously obeying Christ as His Spirit leads us moment by moment. Obedience is a pleasure rather than a burden. I found this to be true. May I never go back to jot and tittling again, and may I always live to please my Lord.
NOTE: I wrote this post with fear and trembling lest I be misunderstood or that someone thinks I am pointing fingers. Also, I am not an expert on the finer points of sanctification. I am only trying to point out what I see from my perspective. |
No need to be fearful.
Let me just "improve" what you wrote above because your view of sanctification states something that needs to be tightened up.
The Spirit does not lead us in an
immediate way. By that I mean to state that you are correct in stating that our sanctification is a result of a heart that should be transformed to love Christ and hate sin. But, it is also vitally important to note that the knowledge of what pleases God and what sin is is
mediated to us by the Word. It is the Word with the Spirit that teaches us what pleases God. I think this is what is throwing some for a loop here.
The problem that some are having understanding the third use is somehow interpreting this to mean that we read the Word on the surface and see a "Thou Shall Not" and conclude that we reach the end of righteousness by wearing a phylactery on our head. No. That is the way the flesh handles the Word and deceives itself to be righteous apart from Christ.
A man is set upright by the power of God to be saved by faith and live in newness of life. This new man is to be meditating on the Word, searching it, probing it, and as the Spirit illumines the Word to our minds, our consciences become more and more aware of sin and more and more aware of what pleases God. We become trained and wise to the things of God. We no long stop at the "Thou Shall Not" of Adultery but "get behind" the command to see in it what the positive command therein is to love neighbor and how we would please God and serve neighbor.
Romans 12-16 is very profound toward that end because it is preceded by our status in Christ but then proceeds to the "end of the Law" in Romans 12-16 where new hearts take on the things of God as their delight.
Thus, I think you've "got it" but I want to make sure you don't think that the "day by day being guided by the Spirit" is the modern, neo-Gnostic version of "being led by the Spirit". I'm not trying to insult you by saying that but I simply want to make sure it's explicitly stated that it is Word and Spirit and not merely Spirit
immediately teaching our hearts.