Positional Truth: Baptism of Holy Spirit:
The spiritual life
is how most people talk about their relationship to God, if they have some
biblical background. The technical term for it is, sanctification,
specifically, progressive sanctification. But before we get into that we
need to note a few things about the importance of understanding the spiritual life
and the concept of spirituality. Whether you have noticed it or not, it seems
like one of the key words that has come out of the last decade of the 90’s is
“Spirituality”, everyone seems to be talking about spirituality, and getting in
touch with their spiritual side and focusing on the spiritual side of their
life. Nobody takes the time to define what they mean by spirituality.
For some people
spirituality relates to ritual, going through certain sorts of “religious
activities” such as church attendance, contemplation and meditation. Other
people define spirituality as the veneration of the saints, worship of relics,
pilgrimages to shrines, and a priest or some designated mediator functioning in
ritualised services. Others equate spirituality with asceticism. Asceticism is
the idea that I’m going to give up something and somehow that is going to
impress God and through their sincerity, self denial and self mortification
that they are going to be spiritual. Other people think of spiritual life as
nothing more than emotional well being. Other people equate spirituality to morality,
some system of morality, whether it’s cloaked in the guise of religion or not.
Other people think it is withdrawing from the world into some sort of mysticism
and subjective contemplation. For others it is nothing more than a quest for self
identity, self fulfilment – in other words its just another opportunity for
emotional self absorption.
So these are all
the different concepts that are going around in the cosmic system, in terms of
spirituality, so when you talk about spirituality and you mention being
spiritual or spirituality then you need to be aware that that can mean just
about anything to anybody and it’s a very vague concept, especially today. So
we need to get into this subject and we need to look at just what the
scriptures says and we will be going back and forth between the term spiritual
life and sanctification.
So let’s begin
with a few introduction notes about the significants of the doctrine of
Sanctification.
1.
It is
Gods will that we are sanctified. 1 Thes 4:3 states, “...For this is the will
of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality...” So
there because of the context, which is talking about one particular sin in this
instance, we know this is not positional sanctification but this is
experiential sanctification.
2.
We
need to realise that all three members of the trinity are involved in our sanctification.
Ø 1 Thes
Ø Eph
Ø Heb
Ø Heb 9:12 &14 states, “...and not through the blood of
goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for
all, having obtained eternal redemption... how much more will the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,
cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ...”
Ø Heb
Ø
Romans
15:16 states, “...to be a
minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of
God, so that {my} offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by
the Holy Spirit...” a reference to the Holy Spirit.
Ø
2
Thes 2: 13, “...But we
should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because
God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by
the Spirit and faith in the truth...”
Ø
In
this verse (2 Thes 2: 13), we have the two elements that are necessary for
sanctification, as we will see again and again that is the filling of the
Holy Spirit and doctrinal orientation.
Ø
We
have to take in the Word of God, they work together, it functions in tandem, we
can’t separate the spirit from the word of God and we can’t separate the Word
from the Spirit. Those who emphasise the Spirit and leave out the Word always
end up in some kind of mysticism,
because the tendency is to take the Spirit and identify the Spirit’s leading
and the Spirits work with our subjective emotional state and then there
are those who ignore the Spirit and they just emphasise the word of God and you
just end up in some academic knowledge that has no real impact or value in the
life and its just the accumulation of gnosis instead of epignosis
or it becomes legalism,
and it is just an emphasis on nothing more than human morality.
3.
Our
sanctification from God involves four factors:
Ø
1
Pet 1:2, states “according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit,
to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be
yours in the fullest measure...”
Ø
Eph
Ø
Gal
3:3 states, “...Are you so
foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
...”
Ø
It is
possible according to Gal. 3:3 to have a pseudo-spirituality that is engineered
and energised by the sin-nature, and we have to understand how to avoid that
and what the dynamics are.
So we have seen three introductory points related to the importance of
our sanctification, that it is God’s will for our life. All three members of
the trinity are involved and God has done everything for our sanctification.
Terminology
Now, we need to look at some basic terminology from the Greek and
Hebrew in order to understand the significance of the spiritual life for us.
The first word is the Hebrew word qadash, it is usually translated Holy. This is
just the root word depending on what vowels you add to it. It can be a vowel or
a noun or a participle but we have to look at the root meaning. Now originally the Canaanite word Qdsh (qadash) had a basic meaning that was related to
their religious ritual. The word came over into Hebrew and we read passages
such as Exodus 3:5, “The ground around
the burning bush was Holy”, that’s the basic way that the word qadash is translated which means to be holy, the noun form would be holy or
sanctified/ sanctification based on the Hebrew root qadash.
Gilgal where the Jews setup a worship centre, according to Joshua 15
was declared to be qadash, or holy. The temple in Isaiah 64:10 is
said to be holy. Days are said to be holy in Isaiah 58:13, offerings are said
to be holy in 1 Samuel 21: 5- 7. Tithes are said to be holy in Det 26:13. That
obviously indicates that if you look at what is said to be holy that is, the burning
bush, Gilgal, the temple offerings, tithes, none of that can be moral or
immoral. So the root concept qadash has nothing to do with morality but it has
to do with being set apart to the service of the ‘god.’ In fact, both the feminine
and masculine nouns of qadash were used by the Canaanites to refer to
the temple prostitutes in the fertility worship. So obviously, the root concept
here does not have anything to do with morality, but that which is set apart to
the service of their ‘god.’ That is the root meaning of the word qadash.
In Greek, terms are all based on the Hebrew term qadash. Hagiazo is the verb, it is used 28 times in the New
Testament and it’s used of things meaning that they are set aside to the
service of God or made suitable for ritual purposes. It also means to consecrate,
to dedicate, to sanctify, to treat something as holy and to set something apart
to the service of God. It is used in a number of different passages; Matt
Hagiasmos is the noun it is used 10 times in the New
Testament, and is usually translated holiness, consecration or sanctification.
It is used for the process but often to emphasise its result, the final result
of the process, which is the state of being made holy. Now holy is a word that
is used in religious circles for so long that it loses a lot of its punch! I
think a better word to use is integrity but integrity doesn’t really convey the
concept of being set apart to the service of God. But Holy does in that sense
but it does not mean pure or right. It’s used in Rom 6:19 & 22 so we will
run into that in our opening chapter of our study. It’s also used in 1 Cor.
Now, another noun that is used is Hagiosune, if you look at that word it has a suffix sune. Sune has the concept in Greek of a quality or an attribute
like dikaiosune, which is another critical word in our
study. It is the word for righteousness, it is the quality of being righteous
and set apart. It is used 3 times in the New Testament and it relates to
someone who possesses the attribute of Holiness or sanctification. It is used
in Rom 1:4, 2 Cor 7:1 and 1 Thes 3:13. In Rom 1:4 it is in contrast to a life
of the flesh, the flesh being a technical term for the sin-nature. What I am
building here, just by looking at the terminology, we see that there is a
contrast to a sanctified life, a set apart life and the sin-nature. If you are
living in sanctification then the sin-nature is not in control of the life. So
we are already seeing the contrast.
Another term is Hagiotes it is a noun, 2 Cor. 1:2 and Heb 12:10 and
it is usually translated sanctity. Then there is the adjective hagios which is used 233 times in the New Testament, generally it is used to
modify pneuma which is Greek for Spirit 94 times that is
as is in the Holy Spirit. It is used to define the Spirit 94 times and it is
used to define believers as saints 61 times. A saint is not a special category
of Christian. A saint is any believer because he has been positionally set
apart in Christ. We are all sanctified ones, by virtue of our positional
sanctification.
Now all those words are based on the same root word hagios and then we shift to a different word a synonym hasios and that is an adjective translated pure, holy, pious. It is used 8 times
in the New Testament and it emphasises the cleansing result of sanctification
and that is what comes from application of 1 John 1:9. It is not used in 1 John
1:9, but it emphasises the consequence of having been cleansed.
Then the last word is eusebeia it is used 15 times in the New Testament
and is usually translated godliness. Godliness like holy is another one of those
terms used so often that you wonder what it means. Entomologically in English
whenever you see that ‘ly’ ending or ‘liness’ ending, it is the concept of
being God-like. So it God –likeness and that goes back to the old English, its God
– likeness, it has a quality of God about it. Well, what are we talking about
here? The ‘quality of God’ is talking about someone who reflects the image and
character of Jesus Christ. Godliness is someone who has been transformed by
the renewing of their minds so their character mirrors and is an image of Jesus
Christ. In essence what we are talking about is just the spiritual life and
spiritual growth to spiritual maturity. It’s behaviour that reflects correct
religious beliefs and attitudes, thus meaning the believer’s spiritual life.
Now a few conclusions are in order at this point.
Sanctification
The technical terms are positional sanctification, experiential or
progressive sanctification and ultimate sanctification.
Morality is a system of right and wrong based on a number of different factors
including social, cultural and religious ideals. One of the greatest areas of
confusion in Christianity is that morality and spirituality are the same
things. You cannot be spiritual and be immoral or amoral, but just because
you are moral doesn’t mean you are spiritual.
This was the problem with the Galatians believers. Gal. 3:3, “...Are
you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the
flesh? ...”
The highest ethical code that man has had is that revealed to man in
the Mosaic Covenant and it was a legislative code that was to govern the nation
Romans 6:1
“...What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may
increase? ...”
Why is Paul asking this particular question?
In order to understand why this question is being asked we need to do
some contextual study and understand the framework for Romans 6.
If we go to Romans 1:16-17, this is where Paul states the purpose for
this epistle.
In Romans
He is going to deal with the whole issue of salvation and how the
gospel relates to the righteousness of God.
In this particular verse (17b), it is a quote from the Hebrew in Habakkuk
2:4. One of the interesting things that is clear from the Greek is that this is
a mistranslation; see you have a phrase in the Greek EK PISTEOS. EK plus the genitive of PISTIS that is thrown in the English to the end of the sentence. But in the Greek
you have the righteous man, this is the man that is DIKAIOS, and then the next two words in the Greek
are EK (preposition from) PISTEOS (faith), genitive form there.
Now, what does that say? I think it should be translated:
“But the righteous man by faith… (The one who is righteous by faith) – That’s
how he got his righteousness; by faith, he didn’t get his righteousness because
of what he did, he got his righteousness because he trusted Christ as his
saviour and that righteousness is imputed to him.
The imputation of righteousness is the theme of the first five chapters
of Romans. Then in Romans 6 through 8 is the impartation of righteousness. So
the impartation of righteousness is our experiential sanctification and the
imputation of righteousness is our positional sanctification.
So this should be translated: “The one who is righteous by faith shall
live.” There you get the break down, the one who is righteous by ‘faith’ is
phase one, the one who lives - who develops capacity for life through learning
and assimilating doctrine into his soul - shall live. Remember Jesus said in
John
Now we have to go back to understand the three key components or attributes
of Gods Character. Righteous DIKAIOSUNE, Justice DIKAIOSUNE. See the Greek’s as well as the Hebrew’s
use the same word for both righteousness and justice. The Hebrew’s use Tsedaqah, the Greeks used DIKAIOSUNE, but they had to do with both aspects. Why?
Because one aspect is righteousness relates to a standard and justice relates
to the application of that standard. So from this we can conclude,
righteousness is the standard of Gods character, justice is the application of
that standard and Love (from John
Now the introduction to the epistle is given in Romans 1:1 – 17. The
first 17 verses provide the introduction where we first run into the term DIKAIOSUNE and that is used again and again in the
first five chapters and then it is hardly used again. Another interesting thing
just to give you a framework the kind of overview that very few people do, is
that you don’t see the mention of the Holy Spirit until Romans 8:1. Not only
that but you don’t have an imperative verb until Romans 6. So the first five
chapters are dealing with what has been done for us with no imperative, no
mandate and no application, just what Christ has done for us. Then starting in
Romans 6 where we have imperatives, which bring in our volitional
responsibilities in terms of our spiritual life. So the theme of righteousness
is introduced in the first 17 verses.
Then Paul is going to have to lay the case why there is no
righteousness in the human race from Romans 1:18 – 3:20. From Romans 1:18 –
3:20, Paul demonstrates that there is a universal lack of righteousness. First
of all he shows that the Gentiles are guilty, they have rejected God and
rejected Christ in 1:18 – 32, then he is going to show that all of the Jews are
under condemnation from 2:1 – 3:8, the conclusion to that section is given 3:9
– 20, where he concludes that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God.” If all are under condemnation by condemnation (opposite of righteousness)
– they are condemned because they have failed to meet the standard of God’s
righteousness, how is man ever going to be saved? How is man ever going to
achieve the perfect righteousness of God?
This is the point that is covered in Chapter 3:21 – 5:21, the
imputation of righteousness. This sets up the context for chapter 6; the basis
for the imputation is given in
Then in chapter 5 we get the implications of justifications in the
first 11 verses, that because we are justified and justification itself comes
from the Greek word DIKAIOS and what it means is that at the point of
salvation when Christ went to the cross all the sins of humanity where imputed
or credited to his account. That means what Peter says in 1 Peter
As the result of that we possess righteousness not on the basis of
ANYTHING WE DO! For Salvation, or for Sanctification! Experiential
sanctification, how you grow is never the basis for anything, it’s always every
single blessing whether it’s logistical/ life support blessing or whether it is
spiritual growth blessing, it’s always based on the fact that we possess the
righteousness of Christ. That is the issue. Because we possess the perfect
righteousness of Christ we are reconciled. This is the technical term Peace,
there is peace between us and God and then that sets the stage for Romans
chapter
Father, we do thank you that we have such clarity in
your word to help us understand not only how we are saved but how we are to
live and all the reasons you bless us. Its not based ever on who or what we are
but exclusively on who Jesus Christ is and what He did on the cross, that it is
His righteousness and not our righteousness that is the issue. Help us to
understand these things and have our thinking transformed that we may greater
appreciate your Grace. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.