Hebrews
Lesson 28 September 29,
2005
NKJ Isaiah 40:8 The
grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever."
Now the subject in Hebrews 2 beginning in verse 10
down to the end of the chapter is on the doctrine of sanctification. The
passage is often misunderstood by numerous people to refer to salvation. In one
sense that is true if you properly understand how the author is using the word
“salvation”. We looked at Hebrews 2:10.
NKJ Hebrews 2:10 For it
was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
He is the pioneer of our salvation. But is that phase
1 salvation that we talk about, justification salvation – the point at
which the individual comes to understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross
for the sins of the world including every one of our sins and by faith alone in
Jesus Christ alone we have salvation? The word is often used that way. As I
frequently point out in American religious patois we often think of salvation
as only referring to justification salvation. We are used to the evangelist
saying, “Are you saved brother?” We think of it only in that restricted sense.
It really puts blinders on people because the word group based on the verb sozo in the
New Testament is not restricted to simply that initial stage where a person
moves from death into life. It often refers to the entire process from
justification to spiritual growth to glorification. In some places it has that
ultimate phase 3 glorification concept in mind. That is what we have seen in
this book.
NKJ Hebrews 1:14 Are they
not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit
salvation?
When soteria the word salvation is connected with inheritance, we know
that it has a future in mind. It looks forward to our time in heaven when we
are absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. Thus in that immediate
context there is an application in the question that is pretty well known out
of 2:3.
NKJ Hebrews 2:3 how
shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
Often that is used to apply to phase 1 but in light of
word usage in the context; it also is referring to our inheritance salvation,
the completion of the spiritual growth process, phase 3 glorification. In light
of those first two uses of the word soteria when it refers to the making the
pioneer of our soteria
mature, it is talking about the fact that he is the pioneer of our entire
spiritual life and the one who completes the process the Lord Jesus Christ. In
His completion He pioneers and sets the precedent for us in the Christian life.
That is the subject.
I want you to think with me a little bit as we get an
overview of verses 10 down through verse 18.
NKJ Hebrews 2:10 For it
was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
What is that talking about? “Bringing many sons to glory.” That is not talking about
phase 1 salvation. That is talking about ending up in heaven, in glory. So it
is talking about that whole process with the focus on the end product.
The first verse in this paragraph and the paragraph
begins in verse 10 and proceeds through verse 18. Verse 11 opens up the real subject of this section.
NKJ Hebrews 2:11 For both
He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is
not ashamed to call them brethren,
The focus is on the process of sanctification, the
spiritual life in phase 2. Verse 11 gives us the doctrinal focus of this
paragraph. It is on the doctrine of the Christian life called sanctification.
Then there are quotes from the Old Testament. There are two quotes. There is a
quote in verse 12 from Psalm 22:22 and there are two quotes in verse 13 from
Isaiah 8:18-19. Those quotes come into substantiate the point that is being
made in verses 10-11.
Then in verse 14 the writer comes back.
NKJ Hebrews 2:14 Inasmuch
then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power
of death, that is, the devil,
It talks about the importance, the reason why, the
eternal second person of the trinity had to become incarnate and take on or add
humanity to His eternal deity. The rationale here emphasizes why the eternal
second person of the trinity had to become true humanity.
…15 and might
release those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their
lives.
Release has to do with redemption.
He focuses on the fact that Christ’s work was directed
to the human race, not to angels.
NKJ Hebrews 2:17 Therefore,
in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Therefore indicates a conclusion.
Again we have the rationale for the hypostatic
union.
The high priest ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ
relates to what aspect of your life?
Phase 1 justification, phase 2 experiential salvation or spiritual
growth, or phase three glorification? It relates to phase 2 sanctification, the
spiritual life. So you see verses 10-11 focus on the spiritual life and they
drive us in the direction of the conclusion in verses 17-18 that He had to be
made like us so that He could be a faithful high priest in all things
pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Now that is
the work on the cross. That is the foundation for all of His work.
NKJ Hebrews 2:18 For in
that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are
tempted.
What is the testing process? Phase 1? Phase 2? Phase
3? Phase 2. So what we see here
throughout this section is that verses 10-18 are driving on the principle of
why Jesus Christ did what He did for the purpose of accomplishing something
today in His high priestly ministry in relationship to maturing you as a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ so that He can bring you to glory. That is
what this passage is talking about. The whole point is not just about what
Christ did on the cross in terms of phase 1 justification, but how that fits
into where He is taking us in the future. So now that you understand the
overall framework we have to go back and talk about this important doctrine of
sanctification.
I started an introduction two weeks ago. We went
through our introduction to sanctification. I spent some time in the set up
talking about the historical perspective in terms of the fact that every
theological system or denomination has their own approach to sanctification. I
pointed out that there are basically only two schools. There is the replacement
theology camp which is every body – Roman Catholics, Lutheran,
Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and everybody except for dispensationalists.
Dispensationalists hold to a consistent distinction between Israel and the church
so the spiritual life as it flows out from that understanding. The spiritual
life is distinct for the Church Age believer. Its precedent is not in the
Mosaic Law. The precedent is in the spiritual life of Jesus Christ as our
pioneer during the First Advent. We don’t look back to the Mosaic Law and say,
“The reasons that Christians are failures today is because we aren’t applying
the law.” I went through the passages in Galatians last time and this is what
the Galatian problem was. It is amazing how many people don’t understand this
today. Paul in the first two chapters of Galatians focused on the gospel error
that had infected the Galatian congregation because they listened to the
Judaizers.
NKJ Galatians 3:3 Are you
so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the
flesh?
They said it was okay to believe in salvation by
grace. “It was a fine message that Paul gave. He was an erudite scholar. He
knows the law, but he left something out. You had to become circumcised if you
want to experience all of the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. You didn’t
get it all at salvation. You need a post salvation shot or infusion of
spirituality.”
That is a two-step approach to the Christian life
which is like the charismatics have today. “They didn’t get it all at the cross
brother. You need full sanctification after you are saved.” That is what the
charismatics teach. Other groups came along and said that now that you are
saved you need to go back to the law and become moral. Apply the law so that
you can grow. It is the same thing that was going on in Galatia. Paul confronts
them with their error in 3:3.
NKJ Galatians 3:3 Are you
so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the
flesh?
At salvation you were saved by the means of the Holy
Spirit who regenerates and washes. Titus 3:5. Are you now in your post
salvation life being made perfect? That is the Greek verb teleioo. Are you being brought to
maturity by means of the flesh? The flesh is also a term for the sin nature. In
terms of your unaided human ability, are you trying to reach spiritual maturity
through the works of the law? Having said that in 3:3 I pointed out that there
were three key words in that verse - Spirit, teleioo (being made complete or
perfect), and flesh. We don’t see those three words show up again in the same
verse until Galatians 5:16. Everything that Paul said from Galatians 3:3-5:16
is to build his doctrinal case. He goes back to the Old Testament, talks about
the Abrahamic Covenant, and he builds his case point by point so that he can
finally come to his application in 5:16 that we are to walk by means of the
Spirit.
I finished up last time talking about how frustrated I
get sometimes with these English translations. They take key words and don’t
translate them the same way every time they are used. Sometimes you can’t and
sometimes you shouldn’t. But in a passage like this you must because it picks
up those threads of Paul’s thought that he is tying together when he gets to Galatians
5:16. Galatians 5:16 is the benchmark passage for the unique role of God the
Holy Spirit in the life of the Church Age believer.
NKJ Galatians 5:16 I say
then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Ou me (a double negative in the Greek)
plus the aorist active subjunctive verb in the Greek indicates the
impossibility of bringing to completion the lusts of the flesh. After that he
sets up the whole warfare between the flesh versus the spirit. It is one or the
other. This is the verse folks. This is the verse that tells you that walking
by the Spirit is mutually exclusive to walking by in the flesh. You can’t do
something with mixed motives and partially go with the Spirit and be partially
sinful. It is one or the other. That ou me plus the subjunctive mood verb nails that
according to the grammar of the passage. This sets up that distinction.
This comes out in the history of our understanding the
Scripture, specifically sanctification within dispensationalism as a distinctive
in dispensational thought. It is over the development of the doctrine of the
Church Age. By the late 18th century and early 19th
century theologians began to realize that there was a distinction between God’s
plan for Israel and the church. I pointed out that this has come to us in terms
of our heritage through people like John Nelson Darby (who was fuzzy in places
on this but he is pointed in the right direction), C I Scofield who was the
editor of the Scofield Reference Bible, and his student Louis Sperry Chafer.
That is how it has been developed.
I was doing some reading this last week and I ran
across a little book that I think Jim Myers picked up for me at a used book
store a couple of years ago up in Michigan called “Plain Papers on the Holy
Spirit” by C I Scofield. Not everything in here is as tight as we would like it
to be. That is okay. We were gradually coming to an understanding of things. As
I read through this I was interested to see how clear he was on some things and
how he lays his arrangement out very much the way that Dr. Chafer laid it out.
Chafer developed it a little more and systematized it a little more. Then you
read Dr. Walvoord and his article on the “Augustinian Dispensational View of
Sanctification”. You see how as time went by each man got a little more focused
on his understanding of these things. In his last chapter in his book Scofield
titled it “The Filling with the Holy Ghost”. Remember that good old King James
terminology? The filling of the Holy Ghost is indispensable. At the beginning
he states.
“Much of
the speaking about the filling of the Holy Spirit implies that such filling is
desirable indeed but not indispensable. It is treated as one of the spiritual
luxuries of the Christian life.”
That is true even today.
“A
minister said to the writer, ‘I am going to look into that subject this one of
these days.’ He seemed utterly oblivious to the sorrowful fact that as long as
he was not filled with the spirit no act of his service could be with power and
that because of that lack his very sermon might work injury to his hearers.”
He has a couple of points that he develops. The first
point that he emphasizes is that no Christian should be willing to perform the
slightest act in the service of Christ until he is definitely filled with the
Holy Spirit. Then he writes on that for 3 or 4 pages. In his second point he
says that no Christian can possibly live a right Christian life who is not
filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he develops a few things on that.
In his concluding remarks he states.
“One
final but in the light of what is said and written necessary word to the ground
of Christian assurance of the filling. Much is said most harmfully as the
writer believes concerning consciousness. That is consciousness of the filling
of the Holy Spirit. The harm done by that word lies in identifying it with
feeling.”
You see you thought emotions just cropped up in recent
decades. He goes after those who want to identify the filling of the Spirit on
the basis of emotion.
“It
seems to be supposed that the Christian who definitely and continuously feels
and yields himself and his members and has really been filled with the Spirit
will know it by feeling holy or powerful.”
Of course he goes on to show why that is not
correct.
I thought that you would be interested in light of my
comments the last time to hear a voice from our historical past to give us a
little insight as to how these things have been handled. Our understanding of
the spiritual life didn’t just pop up in the last 50 years. It was held by
Chafer, held by Scofield, and held by others.
Several years ago I got into a discussion with someone
whose name I won’t mention, a pastor who should know better and said that the
whole concept of confession of sin and the filling of the Holy Spirit was
developed within the last 50 years. I had just been given a book by Arno C. Gaebelein
who was a well known dispensationalist in the part of the 20th
century and a contemporary of Chafer’s back in the teens and the 20’s on the
Holy Spirit in the epistles. Under Ephesians 5:18 he wrote that the filling of
the Holy Spirit could be lost when you sinned and then recovered when you
confessed sin. Unless the believer was living his life in the filling of the
Holy Spirit then all of his works were wood, hay and straw. This book was the
written in 1918. So I quoted the whole page to this particular pastor and I
said, “I am so sick and tired of you and your two or three friends who keep
trying to say that this teaching is relatively new. Your own historical
ignorance is showing through. Quit trying to invent theology and get back to
what the Bible says.” This is a problem today. People are theologically and
historically ignorant. This was from a man who had even gone to seminary. But
these things are not always understood by seminary professors today and they
are not taught well. So it is a constant battle to protect the truth.
So we look at our passage here. It is talking about
the role of Christ as our pioneer in our sanctification. That pioneer work that
he performed was laid out during the First Advent so that it would prepare Him
to be able to function as our high priest because He has gone through every
category of testing that we go through to prepare Him for that. All of this is
integrated together.
Now what I want to do is go back and give a little
survey of sanctification before we get into a detailed exegesis of the passage.
We will look at a couple of details I want to highlight in verses 10-11 first.
NKJ Hebrews 2:10 For it
was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
The word translated in the New King James as captain
and in some places the author of our salvation is the Greek word archegos from
the Greek arche
meaning to rule and the verb ago meaning to lead. When you join these two words together it came
to mean someone who is an originator, a founder, a leader, a chief, the chief
person, the first person. Perhaps the best understanding for us is this idea
that He is our pioneer in that He sets the standard, the precedent. He is the
one who blazes the trail. You could also translate it He is our trailblazer. He
laid the track for the spiritual life that we have today.
The same verbiage is used over in Hebrews 12:2, a
verse that is familiar to all of us.
NKJ Hebrews 12:2 looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God.
The word translated “finisher” is a form of the verb teleioo. See
how these things fit together. It is so important. It is like those old songs
that we used to see on the cartoons when we were little kids. You would follow
the bouncing ball. The bouncing ball hits on that word teleioo. It’s important. It’s not perfect. This is how the translators
of the King James translated it and set a precedent for all subsequent
translations. They translated it perfect. It has to do with mature or complete.
He is the pioneer and the completer of our doctrine. This was part of His role
in the First Advent.
Now we are told in verse 10 that He was made mature
through suffering. Now sometimes folks have a funny idea of what suffering is.
They get a subjective tone to it. The word here pathema really has the idea of
adversity. You are going through some external set of negative circumstances or
circumstances that test the metal of your soul, your spiritual life. So I
prefer to translate this …
Corrected translation: In bringing many sons to glory to make
the pioneer of their salvation mature through adversity.
So Jesus in hypostatic union as true humanity, sinless
humanity, had to go through a process where He went through category after
category of adversity in order to blaze the trail on spiritual growth and
spiritual maturity. That’s the point of verse 10.
That is why we have to understand that participle
there. “Bringing” is an anarthrous adverbial participle. It should be
translated “in order to bring many sons to glory”. This explains the purpose of
His non-soteriological suffering in the First Advent. By that I mean the
suffering He went through living in a fallen world with a bunch of rotten
sinners around Him and going through the adversity of a fallen world. I am not
talking about the suffering that He went through on the cross related to paying
the penalty for our sins. We are talking about the adversity He went through as
part of His spiritual life during the First Advent. The reason I bring that out
(It doesn’t matter to most of you here.) is that in some theological circles
all the adversity that Jesus went through is soteriological, not just what went
on at the cross. That is just plain false. It is only what went on at the cross
that has soteriological effect. The adversity that He faced in His ongoing day
to day spiritual life is related to His pioneering work of our spiritual
life.
This is indicated in I Peter 4:13.
NKJ 1 Peter 4:13 but
rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His
glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
When we go through the adversity in the same way He
did and we handle it with the problem solving devices and doctrine, then we
advance in our spiritual life and mature just as He did.
Notice how all of this drives us to a future point in
terms of the return of Christ and future glory.
NKJ Hebrews 2:11 For
both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is
not ashamed to call them brethren,
He who sanctifies is Jesus Christ. We all partake of the
same flesh. We are both human. In His true humanity He had to go through the
sanctifying process. Isn’t that interesting? We tend to think of sanctification
in relationship to sin. But in the spiritual life of our Lord there was no sin.
But He had to be sanctified. Adam still had to be sanctified because Adam, even
though he was sinless before the fall, still had to go through the
sanctification process.
So let’s start putting all of this together – a
little overview of sanctification.
NKJ Exodus 3:5 Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take
your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."
Now
let’s do a little word substitution. “Take your sandals off your feet for the
place you stand is morally pure ground.” Does that make sense? No. Ground can’t
be morally pure. Then you get over later on to Exodus and you get into the
consecration of the temple furniture – the bowls and the tables and
everything else. Bowls and tables and curtains can’t be morally impure. They
can’t be morally impure. They are morally neutral. This is to give you a better
way of understanding and explaining the fact that holiness has to do with being
dedicated to the service of God - an area, a land a vessel, a person who is
identified as being primarily for the use of God. That is the root idea in the
Hebrew. Exodus 12:16 is another
use of the word “holy” related to the holy calling out or the assembly of the
people. They are called out for the purpose of serving God. It doesn’t have to
do with morally pure. That is a secondary idea that gets added on in certain
context. Now you get into the New Testament. In the New Testament word group is
based on the noun hagios. The verb form is hagiazo. This verb is used 28 times in the New
Testament. It sometimes describes things.
It is the same idea - the things that are set aside for ritual purposes
for the service of God. So it has
that idea of consecration. That is what consecration means. It means to be set
apart to the service of God. The main idea is to be set apart to the service of
God.
Another
Greek form of the word is the noun hagiosmos. Hagiosmos is used ten times in the
New Testament. It is used for the quality of being set apart, holiness,
sanctification. It is used for the process. It is used for the position. It is used for the result, which
is the state of being set apart to God. In fact the Semantic Dictionary which I
usually don’t recommend nails the definition. “ To dedicate to the service of
and to loyalty to deity.” That’s it. It’s not being morally pure. It is being
set apart to the service of God. Hagiosune. The sune ending indicates quality or attribute. Thus it refers to someone who possesses
the attribute of holiness or being set apart for the service of God. Romans 1:4 shows that this state is in
contrast to a life based on the flesh. That gives us an understanding of what
you are talking about. When you are talking about sanctification you are
talking about being set apart to the service of God. This is a very positive concept. Notice that it is not
talking about getting rid of sin in your life – not that you can go sin
with impunity. This is not licentiousness. The focus is rather positive, not
negative. It is not going around and saying you have to stop this or stop that
and don’t do this. The focus is rather positive. It is being set apart for the
service of God.
NKJ Hebrews 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are
surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that
is set before us,
If you
are looking unto Jesus, if your focus is on the Lord and if you are occupied
with Christ then our attention is on where we are going and not on the sin that
encumbers us. So the result is that rather than going around like the legalists
do and try to put out all the sin fires in our lives we focus on spiritual
growth and spiritual advance. Over time what you discover is that the sins that
easily beset us begin to be less and less issues if you walk by means of the
Spirit. Romans 6 is a classic core passage in understanding the spiritual life
- actually Romans 6-8 which is why I did a basic study on the spiritual life
just looking at these three chapters in Romans. Romans 6 starts off talking
about the fact that we are all baptized into Christ Jesus. We are identified in
Christ. We are identified into His death so that we should walk in newness of
life. The foundation for understanding the spiritual life is that baptism by
means of God the Holy Spirit. It identifies us with Christ. That is positional
truth. That is the term that we use. We are identified with Christ in His
death, burial, and resurrection. That has a consequence. The consequence is
that we will walk in the newness of life. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the
foundation for positional sanctification. The result of that Paul says in verse
6 is that our old man, the sin nature, is crucified with Him that is the body
of sin (That is our sinful activities) might be done away with in the course of
spiritual growth. “That we should no longer be slaves to sin.” In verse 7 he
says that he who died has been freed from sin. That is, freed from enslavement to the sin nature. Therefore
we are not to continue to live in sin because we know. Then we get down to
verse 11.
NKJ Romans 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The focus
is on what we have in Christ. Then in the development of his thought starting
in verse 15, he emphasizes the fact that we have been freed from sin. We are
now slaves to righteousness. What is another term for slave? Being a servant.
Sanctification is learning to serve God with your whole heart. So it is
learning what Christ did for us at the cross and applying those principles to
our day to day life and to day to day adversity so that in the same way that He
applied doctrine to His adversity we apply doctrine to our adversity. In the
process we are matured and brought to completion. So that the goal –
there is a goal in the process – is identified in Hebrews 2:10 as
bringing many sons to glory. We are saved for a purpose. Ephesians 2:10 We often talk about
Ephesians 2:8-9 and we stop there.
NKJ Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of
works, lest anyone should boast.
But
verse 10 continues.
NKJ Ephesians 2:10 For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them.
It
doesn’t stop with getting eternal life. Eternal life and our new life in Christ
is only the starting point and the starting point is to prepare us to enter
glory. That comes only by following the Lord Jesus Christ in His pioneering
work, His precedent setting work in the spiritual life. So we are headed
somewhere.
NKJ Hebrews 5:8 though
He was a Son, yet
He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
He
learned obedience. So even in a sinless state in His humanity our Lord Jesus
Christ had to advance. There is
something about the way that God made us as human beings as finite creatures
that we have to learn to be obedient.
NKJ Hebrews 5:9 And
having been perfected [matured], He became the author of eternal salvation to
all who obey Him,
What
word do you think that is in the Greek? Teleioo. You are going to get sick of that
word.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 10:13 No
temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful,
who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the
temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Now that
ability is connected to the end clause in the verse. “That you may be able to
endure it.” That is the last clause in the verse. Not to escape it in the sense
of avoiding it, but so that you can endure in the midst of the trial.
Positional sanctification emphasizes what we have in Christ. Progressive
sanctification emphasizes its application in time as we grow. We learn to serve
God. We learn to live a life that is set apart to His service. And then
ultimate sanctification is when we are absent from the body and face to face
with the Lord and we have been brought to glory. There is a future destiny
there. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. That is what verses 12 and 13
deal with.
So I Corinthians 6:11 is a verse that talks about this
positional aspect of sanctification.
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:11 And
such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
This is the aorist passive second person plural. Remember
second person plural? All of y’all were sanctified. Every one of them!
Now in the last phrase he ties the sanctification that
he talks about to justification. So there is positional sanctification that
takes place at the instant of our justification. He uses it in a similar way in
Heb 10:10.
NKJ Hebrews 10:10 By that
will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all.
Salvation at the instant of faith alone in Christ
alone there is a positional setting apart to the service of God. It is a
perfect passive participle there. We have been sanctified emphasizing an act
that is completed in the past with results that go on in the present.
NKJ Hebrews 10:14 For by
one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
This is the process of the Christian life.
(See spiritual growth chart)
There is a spiritual growth process. We go from spiritual
adulthood to spiritual maturity. When we are spiritual babes we spend a maximum
amount of time in carnality and a small amount of time growing spiritually. As
we advance we spend more time in fellowship applying the Word and less time in
carnality until we reach spiritual maturity and spend more time in the filling
of the Holy Spirit and walking by the Spirit and less time in carnality. The
way we go through that is through testing, learning to apply the Word. This is
what the writer of Hebrews says.
NKJ Hebrews 2:18 For in
that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are
tempted.
We are not out there on our own.
NKJ Hebrews 4:15 For we
do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in
all points tempted
as we are, yet
without sin.
So He is the pioneer of our testing.
Now this gives us an overview of the spiritual life or the doctrine of sanctification. It is crucial. The key elements are the Word of God plus the Spirit of God. It is not just a matter of pulling yourself up by your own moral boot straps. It is a matter of learning to walk by means of the Spirit. We walk by means of the Spirit by studying the Word, being in fellowship with God, and in partnership with the Holy Spirit where He is teaching us the Word and producing growth within us. It is not an easy process. It is not a one shot process. It is a process that we go through the length of our lives. So that when we are finally taken to be with the Lord absent from the body, face to face with the Lord we will hear Him say those desired words, “Well done good and faithful servant.” It is about being set apart to the service of God.