Your Daily Bread – Right Motive Of Sanctification

I want you to turn now in your Bible to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. We are looking at just the statement primarily in verse 19 where the Apostle Paul says that he is again in labor until Christ is formed in you. This was a profound agony in Paul’s life that believers, true Christians, be sanctified. That is, see the decreasing of sin and the increasing of righteousness. This was on his heart. It caused him no small amount of pain and agony. And we looked at that last time, and we’ll do it again this morning and then again next Sunday as well, because this is such an important verse and an important concept.

Sanctification means to be separate, a continual, progressive separation from sin. We were, in a moment, justified. We will be, in a moment, glorified. But all our lifelong in between, we are being sanctified. That is the present, wonderful, gracious work of the Holy Spirit on our behalf, and it goes on throughout our life. And it is inevitable, and it is absolutely occurring in every true Christian, and it manifests itself in increasing holiness. Now, as Paul declared in verse 19, that he was in labor until Christ is formed in you, he therefore makes the declaration that Christ already is in you.

He already is in the believer. He wants Christ to be fully formed. That is to say, to literally take over the believer’s life so that the believer becomes a manifestation of Christ. This is sanctification. This is what sanctification is. It is becoming more holy, which is to become more Christ-like, becoming more righteous, which is to become more Christ-like. And it reminds us of a profound and wondrous reality. In Matthew 1 and Luke 1, we find the truth that the divine miracle of the virgin birth meant that the Son of God in human form lived in the womb of Mary.

For nine months, the God-man, Son of God, Son of Man, was in the womb of Mary. Mary carried in her body the Eternal Son of Heaven, the Creator and Sovereign Lord of Life, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world as an infant. There is a wondrous parallel to that in our own lives, and that is this, that we as believers have in us the Son of God, Son of Man, the living Christ. He lives in us, not as an infant and not for nine months, but he lives in us in all his fullness permanently, permanently.

If you are a believer, you have the Spirit of Christ living in you permanently. It is his presence that is the sanctifying reality. Galatians has brought this into our minds pretty clearly. If you go back into chapter 1, verse 15, Paul referring to his own testimony, says when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the nations. Here he says, his Son is in me. At the point of salvation, the Son of God takes up residence in the believer.

Chapter 2, verse 20, a very familiar verse, I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. There explicitly is the statement that Christ is in the believer. In chapter 3 and verse 27, all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. That is to say, he is in us and he is around us. Chapter 4, verse 6, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba Father, the Spirit of the Son of God, the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of the Son, who is the Spirit of God in the wonder of the Trinity, lives in our hearts, in our souls, in our lives permanently.

The New Testament makes much of this. Colossians 1, 27, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 3, 11, Christ is all and in all. Romans 8, 10 through 11, Christ is in you, his Spirit dwells in you. 1 Corinthians 3, 16, you are the temple of God. 2 Corinthians 6, 16, we are the temple of God. Ephesians 2, 22 says, the believer is a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 3, 17, Christ dwells in your hearts through faith. 1 John 4, greater is he that is in you, meaning Christ, than he that is in the world.

That is the astonishing and gracious reality of life for a believer. God the Son by the Spirit takes up permanent residence in the soul of every believer. He is your life. He is your life. Scripture says, when Christ who is our life, he is the very eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He is that everlasting life. He is life. As a true believer then, Christ has full residency in your heart, in your soul, in your person.

1 Corinthians 6, verse 15, shows us some of the implications of this on a negative side. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6 and what the Apostle Paul writes. Do you not know, verse 15, that your bodies are members of Christ? Because he is in you. Because he is around you. He clothes and covers you. He dwells in you. Your bodies are members of Christ. You are inseparable from Christ. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, as we saw in Galatians 2, 20. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, so that my body is a member of Christ’s.

Then Paul asks this question, shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? He said, would I join Christ to a prostitute? May it never be. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says, the two shall become one flesh. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. If you’re one spirit with the Lord and you join yourself to a prostitute, you have joined the Lord to a prostitute.

Unthinkable. May it never be. Flee immorality. Flee. Why? Because your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. You’re not your own. You’ve been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Your body is his temple. Now that brings us back to Galatians chapter 4. You can look at it again. Christ is in every believer. Christ is in every believer permanently. But Paul’s agony here is that Christ be formed in you, that literally you take on the very person of Christ so that there is less distinction between you and him.

You are so much like him. I find this powerful, clear definition of sanctification to have Christ formed in the believer so that the believer takes on the shape of Christ, the mind of Christ, the attitudes of Christ, the words of Christ, the behaviours of Christ. Sanctification is the work by which the Holy Spirit, using the word of God, shapes the Christian into Christlikeness. And that goes on through your entire life. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the right motive of sanctification. Until next time, remember to keep the faith. Stay strong and continue to shine your light in the world.

To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].