“Adoption gives us the privilege of sons, regeneration the nature of sons.” — Stephen Charnock
• I am scheduled to preach next Saturday night and Sunday morning (March 14-15) for SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH in Jackson, MO, where Bro. Drew Dietz is pastor. • I am scheduled to preach Wednesday – Friday (March 25-27) for BEECH GROVE BAPTIST CHURCH in Bardwell, KY, where Bro. David Callison is pastor.
Our God’s the Same. He Changes Not — Don Fortner (Tune: #77 — Sun of My Soul — LM) 1. You sons of Jacob, chosen race, Our God’s the God of sov’reign grace; He will perfect what He designed; Our God can never change His mind
2. Though rocks dissolve, and hills remove, And shaken are the skies above, Though oft in Satan’s snare we’re caught, Our God’s the same. He changes not.
3. And, though His saints unfaithful prove, He loves us with unchanging love! Our comfort often ebbs and flows; But God no variation knows!
4. This sacred truth our hearts shall cheer, Till all things temp’ral disappear, And in the new creation’s plains, We praise our God Who cannot change!
“Made unto us Sanctification” 1 Corinthians 1:30
The Lord God demands that we walk before him and be perfect (Genesis 17:1; Leviticus 22:21). He cannot and will not accept less than perfection. And what he demands he performs. What he requires he gives. Christ is made of God unto us perfection in three ways. First, perfection requires perfect obedience; and Christ obeyed the law of God for us. Second, perfection requires atonement, or satisfaction; and our Lord Jesus Christ fully satisfied all the demands of God’s law by his sin-atoning death as our Substitute, redeeming us from the curse of the law. Third, perfection requires a perfect nature; and Christ formed in us in regeneration (sanctification) is that perfect nature. Thus, by righteousness, satisfaction and sanctification, God makes his elect “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12).
God’s Work
When the Spirit of God declares that Christ is made of God unto us “sanctification,” he is telling us that our sanctification is, like our righteousness and redemption, altogether the work of God. It does not, in any way or to any degree, depend upon us. It is not a progressive work that begins with God planting a “principle” of holiness in us in the new birth, which grows by our disciplined determination to be holy, until we are ripe for heaven. No! Christ is our Sanctification. Sanctification is accomplished by God the Holy Spirit forming Christ in us, causing us to be made partakers of the divine nature (Colossians 1:27; 2 Peter 1:4).
Holiness
Sanctification is ours in Christ from eternity, by virtue of our union with him (Jude 1); and it is ours in the sweet and blessed experience of grace, when, being born again by the mighty operation of God the Holy Spirit, we are given that “holiness” of nature “without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). In fact, the word translated “sanctification” is exactly the same word that is translated “holiness.” Christ is made of God unto us “Holiness.”
Perfect Nature
The believer’s new nature is perfect. It is Christ in you, that new man created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). This new nature formed in us in the new birth, John tells us, does not sin and cannot sin, because it is born of God (1 John 3:9).
The believer is a person with two natures, flesh and spirit, the old man and the new man. The old man will never surrender to the new. The flesh will never surrender to the spirit. Yet, we live not after the flesh but after the spirit (Romans 7:14-25; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:1-9). There is within every believer, so long as he lives in this world, both an old Adamic nature, that can do nothing but sin, and a new righteous nature, that which is born of God that cannot sin, that can only do righteousness. This new man is Christ in you, “who of God is made unto us Sanctification.”
“Made unto us Redemption” 1 Corinthians 1:30
The word here translated “redemption” means “complete deliverance by ransom.” It is used to declare that all God’s elect are completely delivered from sin and all its consequences by the ransom price of Christ’s sin-atoning blood poured out for us at Calvary. Always look upon God’s works of grace as broadly as your faith’s imagination will allow you. When you have taken in all you can of it, your faith’s imagination will not have begun to reach the fulness of God’s grace as it is revealed in Holy Scripture. And, of all the words used to describe God’s grace, none is so rich, full, and assuring as this word, “redemption.” — Christ is made of God unto us Redemption.
Eternally
The Lord Jesus Christ was made redemption unto his chosen in eternity, before the world was made. He is the Lamb who, verily, was foreordained and slain before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). The Lord God made Christ our Redemption before we needed redemption. We were justified in him, accepted in him, blessed in him with all spiritual blessings, and glorified in him, with him, and by him before time began (Romans 8:30; Ephesians 1:3-6). Christ was made our complete deliverance from sin before there was such a thing as sin!
At Calvary
When the Son of God bore our sins in his own body on the tree, he was punished to the full satisfaction of justice in our stead. The holy Lord God drew forth his dreadful sword and buried it in the Savior’s being. Jehovah smote Jehovah with all the fierceness of holy anger, until all anger against our sins wore itself out on him, and our sins were forever put away! When the Lord Jesus died in our place, he was made of God unto us Redemption!
New Birth
In the new birth every chosen, blood-bought sinner is effectually delivered from death in sin by the merit of Christ’s blood and by the omnipotent power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. Graciously sprinkling our hearts with the blood of Christ, God the Spirit purges our consciences of guilt (Hebrews 10:2, 22), and makes Christ Jesus unto us Redemption!
The Resurrection
Soon, when our Savior comes again “to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe,” he will cause a great change to take place. Our bodies, sown the grave in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption. These mortal bodies shall put on immortality. Mortality shall be swallowed up in life. Then, Christ shall be made of God unto us Redemption in the complete deliverance of his elect (body, soul and spirit) from all the consequences of sin!
GRACE BULLETIN
March 8, 2009
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
Web Pages http://www.donfortner.com http://www.freegraceradio.com http://www.sovereign-grace.com/gracechurch.htm
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