We are to reckon ourselves as dead to the penalty and power of sin because we are dead to the penalty and power of sin. We are not to obey the lusts of sin because sin is no longer our master. For we have not just died with Christ but by the Holy Spirt been raised with him, even seated with him in heavenly places, so that we might walk in newness of life. God would have us delight in the realities of our adoption as sons, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our definitive break with sin. Taking pleasure in all the entailments of our hope of glory is what it is to walk in newness of life.
We live in a day in which personal testimony is considered more powerful than the ordinary means of grace. Many young men who are believed by profession to have entered through the narrow gate that leads to life have become indistinguishable from those that remain on the broad road to destruction. Because succumbing to internet temptation is now considered normative, the church has adopted a false view of the means and fruit of sanctification. Belief in a transformative gospel has given way to salvation by confession of guilt alone. Ungrounded accountability groups coupled with unbiblical candor about one’s darkest sins has replaced the biblical measure for salvation, which is non-delinquency in doctrine and lifestyle.
Perhaps more than ever since the time of the Protestant Reformation, the church needs to recapture a biblical understanding of salvation, and quit letting willful transgressors shape our soteriology. More than ever, the reality of our standing in Christ, along with God’s covenant promises and warnings, must be understood, believed and relied upon, but first they must be articulated.
The ordinary means of grace:
Growing in the knowledge of our union with Christ’s vicarious work on our behalf is no mere theological exercise for the mind. Indeed, when true theology penetrates the mind and is touched by the Holy Spirit, it is the very fountain of spiritual transformation. In the context of Word, sacrament and prayer, we are transformed only through the renewing of our minds after Christ, without which we do not, nor cannot, offer our bodies a living sacrifice in any way that is holy and acceptable to God. Apart from the transformative power of the ordinary means of grace released by faith alone, we forever remain conformed to this world and a stranger to biblical sanctification. The Bible is clear, “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:8
Realities, promises and warnings:
Any attempt at personal holiness that is not according to faith in the realities, promises and warnings contained in Scripture is not transformative. For what is not of faith is sin. (Romans 12:1-2; 14:23) Conversely, our growth in holiness will be proportional to (a) believing on the authority of Scripture who we are in Christ, (b) trusting in the covenant promises of Christ and (c) heeding Christ’s warnings. These objects of faith are made real to us as we prayerfully receive the whole Christ in Word and sacrament by faith alone. It’s only through even a minimally conscious realization of our union with Christ that we begin to lay hold of God’s covenant promises and heed its warnings. That is what it is to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.We must believe who we are in Christ as we make conscious of God’s covenant blessings and cursings.
First and foremost, the realities (or indicatives):
What is often absent in a “preach yourself the gospel” approach to sanctification is the full orbed ordo salutis. Believers aren’t merely to remind themselves that they are constituted and declared righteous for the sake of Christ. Although that is a precious reality, there is more sanctifying truth to embrace. We are to apprehend that our judicial pardon comes with spiritual adoption and definitive sanctification in Christ. Even allowing for an understanding of our having been buried, baptized or hidden in Christ, the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and our pardon in him is not without our having been definitively sanctified and declared sons in the Son. Victory over sin entails a heartfelt conviction of the forgiveness of sins, but there are still other gospel realties to receive by faith. These realities are not an addendum to faith but at the very heart of true Christian piety. When we see ourselves as God sees us, we begin to behave more as we truly are in Christ. This is why the apostle can say, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1)
The incongruity of not living according to a contextual biblical reality:
Effectual calling does not merely result in gifts of repentance and faith that lead to justification but is accompanied by all other saving graces. Through faith in Christ we have not just died to the penalty of sins in Christ, but to sin itself. Contrary to common evangelical thought, the old man is crucified with Christ once and for all, definitively releasing him from the power of sin in his life. Because we are justified and definitively sanctified, there is an incongruity of yielding our members to ungodliness. Christians are recreated with a position of dignity that makes sin not just incongruous but unsuitable because of our royal standing in Christ.
After the work of the cross, sin no longer had dominion over Christ. The penalty of sin, even the pangs of hell, awaited Christ until his earthly mission was finished. Having entered into Christ’s rest through the great exchange, sin no longer has dominion over the believer. In Christ we’re not merely free from sin’s penalty but from its power in our lives. Because sin no longer has dominion over us, it’s incongruous to live in it any longer.
It makes no sense to tell an imprisoned man to live as a free man. Yet it is most sensible to tell a free man to live as a free man. Similarly, the reason we are commanded not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies is because we are dead to sin’s penalty and power. Having been made alive in Christ, we can willfully yield ourselves to God and our members as instruments of righteousness. Such works of righteousness begin with believing the reality of what Christ has accomplished, and reckoning ourselves as we truly are in him.
We are to reckon ourselves as dead to the penalty and power of sin because we are dead to the penalty and power of sin. We are not to obey the lusts of sin because sin is no longer our master. For we have not just died with Christ but by the Holy Spirt been raised with him, even seated with him in heavenly places, so that we might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6; Ephesians 1) God would have us delight in the realities of our adoption as sons, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our definitive break with sin. Taking pleasure in all the entailments of our hope of glory is what it is to walk in newness of life.
Our tendency toward legalism in sanctification:
The Scriptures do not teach we are justified through faith alone so that we might be perfected by works. There is far more good news for the poor in spirit, which crushes our self-righteousness even more than when we first believed. We are not just justified through faith alone but also progressively sanctified by the grace of faith. Our salvation is faith unto faith, for the righteous shall live by faith. (Romans 1:16-17)
Our sin of forgetting that we are pure in Christ will lead to immorality. If we live immorally, our election will justifiably become suspect. Without justifiable confidence in our union with Christ, we will become increasingly immoral. We can safely say, God has built into his system of sanctification a symbiotic relationship between assurance, faith and the practice of personal holiness. Similarly, if we confess our sins we will know God’s forgiveness and be cleansed anew. When we receive God’s cleansing, we walk as children of light and our sin will be increasingly abhorred. In that orbit we are more sensitive to our sin, quicker to confess, and more desirous to be cleansed. In the light we see more light, and we loathe the darkness. (2 Peter 1: 1 John 1)
The faith by which we live is not just a matter of believing God’s covenant promises and availing ourselves to the third use of the law, though those spiritual disciplines are essential to Christian living. Indeed, we are to be normed by the commandments of God as we embrace the promises in Christ. Surely, a proper use of the law when wrought by the Spirit can save us from the slavery of antinomianism and the bondage of legalism! Faith in the promises of God and love for the law of God will guide and shape the believer in the beauty of holiness, even as the Christian grows responsibly in liberty of conscience. Notwithstanding, the gospel of the cross must have preeminence in the life of the believer as he endeavors by grace to assimilate the whole counsel of God as he grows in Godliness, perfecting holiness.
Faith, a manner of life:
The conduit for our justification is the same for our sanctification. Again, the righteous shall live by faith. Accordingly, saving faith extends beyond justifying faith unto sanctifying faith. Faith envelops the entirety of the Christian life. We aren’t to receive Christ by faith alone only so that we might live our lives by sight. The Christ whom we have not yet seen is our sanctification. If we have received Christ by faith, it oughtn’t surprise that we are to walk in him by this very faith! “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” (Colossians 2:6) Simply stated, we were saved, are being saved, and will be saved by faith.
The Christian life is to be offensively marshalled according to deep meditation that gives way to conviction over the already implications of the reality of the Christ event. It is through embracing the indicatives, (in particular our having died, been raised and seated with the ascended Christ), that the holy commandments of God become a lamp of light rather than a source of discouragement and condemnation. In the hands of the Holy Spirt, the law is good, for it brought us death, but God does not leave his adopted children there. God is not our accuser but our liberator. By reckoning ourselves as having been united to Christ in his sin-bearing life-giving work, as justified sinners we can participate in Christ’s resurrected life in our union with him.
Our position in Christ is a reality whether we’ve begun to understand it or not! But it is only by understanding it more fully that we walk in true holiness, more powerfully and victoriously. Gethsemane and the cross no longer yawn before Christ and, therefore, neither does condemnation await the believer in Christ. Because of that reality, sin is contrary to who we are, for we are not under the judgement of guilt and shame in our union with Christ. Because we are holy and without blemish in Christ, it’s incongruous to live as we too often would.
Boots on the ground, the battle ahead:
The gospel reality that we are to behold and receive by faith alone is the very foundation for the incongruity of walking in the paths of sin and death. It is in the context of all the entailments of our position in Christ that we seek to obey our Lord and Savior. We are to become who we are in Christ. It is only by faith in the contextual biblical reality that we can delight in the law of the Lord, even meditate on it day and night. With that, we turn to God’s instructions.
Read More
Related Posts:

The wise counselor is, in a sense, a realist. He knows from Scripture that we live between the ages. And so, he helps the counselee to see how his desires and expectations point to a deeper longing for eternal pleasures that are only found in God (Ps. 16:11). Not only that, the faithful counselor points to Christ—crucified, raised, ascended, seated in heaven, and given to and in us by the Spirit. He is our hope of glory.

We live and suffer according to the hopes and expectations we hold. I mean this in a general sense. The things we long for drive how we behave. And that longing makes the wait to be experienced as a type of suffering. To not have what is deeply desired is painful. It makes the heart sick.
The author of Proverbs noticed this reality: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov. 13:12). Like my initial statement, this verse seems to depict a general reality about human psychology. When the object of our longings—of our hopes—is delayed, our hearts grow tired and discouraged. The continuous lacking that is perceived becomes a burden in prolonged waiting.
In contrast, the desire that is met and fulfilled is compared to the tree of life. There is joy and delight in having that which has been anticipated and wanted. When that baby girl is finally held in her mom’s arms, everything in life takes new colors. When the doctor declares dad to be cancer-free, the tastes of grace in life are accented in new ways. When that promotion finally comes after years of hard work, the scents of life grow more fragrant. The fulfilled desire is like a source of new energy and motivation, a tree that produces life.
What Kind of Longing?
It may seem that the solution for our anxieties and angsts is straightforward. All we need is to get what we long for most deeply, and then all pain will fade away. I would say that is true, depending on how we look at these longings. Created with desires, we were meant to long for something. The problem is that our wants are based on longings that shoot too low. We expect ultimate fulfillment from things that cannot deliver the delight for which we were made. And so, our hearts find no peace until they rest in God.[1]
Now, the fact that we do have desires is revealing. The reality that we find delight when desires are met points to a greater reality of ultimate delight. The temporary quality of the delight we experience from inferior desires exposes the reality that our hearts yearn for final peace and permanent blessedness. Our souls are thirsty for God, the only source of living water (Ps. 42:1-2).
Read More
Related Posts:

Those who grope around in darkness (see Deut. 28:29) cannot praise Jehovah for they see Him not. Light in the context of Genesis 1, John 1, and myriads of other verses says to believers that if they want to understand the world around them, be at peace, and receive all the goodness which comes to the those who love the Lord than they best be abiding in the light and seeking out the light wherever He may be found.

There is a call to love the light that reverberates throughout the Bible. The marking out of darkness as the realm of evil is an image which is meant to evoke for us the vanity of seeking after wicked things, for they lead us astray from the good and they actively take us away from the truth. Darkness has always, in every culture, been the domain of the dead. Your grandaddy’s old saying that nothing blessed happens after midnight has been shared by old men to their progeny in Romania as much as Mongolia. It is a universal knowledge. It is part of the reason why the color black is the shade chosen by those who which to be seen as transgressive, non-conformist, and those who wish to let everyone know they mean trouble. The silver and black of the Raiders was chosen on purpose.
In the beginning (no pun intended) when we are first introduced to our God it is mentioned that darkness was on the face of the deep. The Holy Spirit is seen hovering over the waters. Then God makes light which comes neither from the sun nor the moon, but from the command of His voice. Why was it made? It is not as if the Third Person of the Holy Trinity needed it to see. Our God does not have eyes like men. Also darkness isn’t meant to imply the absence of God, and light the presence of God (more on that in a minute). It can seem as if there is a deeper thing going on here that we are not quite ready to comprehend completely, especially if you are coming to Genesis with preconceived notions of what to expect. However, as we think about what the Lord is doing we need to remember that as the patriarchs gave us testimony, they knew that one was to come who would give light to the answers we seek.
The Apostle John as he writes his gospel will mimic these opening words of Genesis and apply them directly to Jesus Christ. He writes:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Read More
Related Posts: