For the bride of Christ, justification was received by faith in our crucified bridegroom; Jesus. It was instantaneous and complete the moment we gave our heart to Him. Our life is now about sanctification by faith in our risen bridegroom.
Our justification was the “gate” through which we entered into the narrow way of sanctification; holiness. And now we are no longer dealing with the “gate,” we’re dealing with the “way forward.” Or put another way, before we became a believer in Jesus Christ the issue was the wrath of God and justification. Now the issue is sin and holiness; we no longer have to face the guilt of sin, we have to overcome it as a power.
Our sinful past has been forgiven (atoned for) by Jesus’ sacrifice; our judicial position. Now it’s all about our spiritual condition, and that is the central focus of the Holy Spirit in our life. Justification is all about what God has done for us, sanctification is all about what He expects of us.
In Romans 6:6 Paul brings this into perspective for us as he shows us the difference between justification and sanctification; the difference between the gate and the way:
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Our “old man” means our old self, what we were before we became believers in Christ. We need to be sure that we don’t identify our old man with our “flesh” or our “sinful nature.” They are different. Our old man ceased to exist when we were justified; born again. Note that Paul never tells us to “put off” our old man; the old man no longer exists. The “body of sin” doesn’t mean “all sin,” it means that the body is the instrument of sin. The “we” means our “real self,” the one that is united to Jesus. And it is our “real self” that no longer should be serving sin.
Paul goes on to tell us in verse 11 that we are to accomplish this by reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. That word “reckon” means to “keep on” or continue not serving sin by living in and unto Jesus. And that is key to remember because sin is not dead to us, we are dead to it, and we need to keep on “reckoning” ourselves to be dead by faith. Godet put it this way… The Christian’s breaking with sin is undoubtedly gradual in its realization, but absolute and conclusive in principle.
That is what the process of sanctification is all about. We are “dead” to sin, we walked through the gate, but there is a way we need to walk. As we walk with Him in the strength and power of the Holy Spirit, we are proving that we are in reality what we “reckon” ourselves to be… dead to sin and alive to Christ. And that reckoning is based on faith, faith to believe what God has declared about us… we died with Him in His crucifixion and we live with Him in His resurrection. He died… we died. He rose… we rose. He lives… we live.
And because of His grace, our life as His bride is not one of constant battle, it’s one of constant victory. And that takes a continuous attitude and action on our part. W.H. Griffith Thomas put it this way: Keep on not allowing sin to be king in your mortal body; that is your personal responsibility. We are not to allow sin to be our master because it no longer has authority over us, we are to present ourselves to Jesus for His use and His service. It’s a deliberate choice of whom we will serve, and in choosing to serve Jesus we have the assurance that because of our position in Him we can serve Him in righteousness and holiness… He has already given them both to us.
The gate is behind us and the way is in front of us, the way of sanctification, the way of holiness, the way of becoming all that He created us to be, the way to spiritual maturity. It’s the way of preparing ourselves to meet Jesus face-to-face.
Don’t stand at the gate, be on the way… the choice is yours.
And there is nothing more important than knowing who you are and whose you are. To help you along the way I want you to have a free copy of my new book Your Life In Christ. If you don’t already have copy you can download it for free. Please feel free to pass this link along to others as this book and the others in the series are at the heart of the message Jesus has given me for His bride. I trust the book will be an encouragement to you to let the Holy Spirit reveal more of Jesus to you as He draws you ever closer.