God’s Work of Sanctification - 1 Thess Lesson 42

God’s Work of Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

 Open your Bibles with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. As we come to the time of our service to study this precious treasure of God’s truth, please stand together with me as I read the text we will be exploring today. Let’s read verses 23-24. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”

 I don’t know about you, but I welcome the change of direction and emphasis of Paul in this letter. This is an oasis in the middle of a desert. We just spent a couple months working our way through a paragraph full of very challenging imperatives. We have been called to do one thing after another and quite frankly, I didn’t find an easy imperative in the bunch. Based on your reactions and feedback, I don’t think you found any of them to be a piece of cake either.

 We are commanded to live in peace with one another. This is easy enough until you run across one of those “one another” who likes to provoke and pick fights. It is easy enough admonish the unruly if they are willing enough to listen to us and agree with what we confront. How often is that likely to happen? We are to encourage the faint-hearted and help the weak. This has its own set of challenges. Be patient with everyone. Really? Sometimes there are a few among the “everyone” who enjoy trying our patience. Matthew taught us from verse 15 that we are to not repay evil with evil, then he applied that in a way that I couldn’t help but see him preaching to me and my relationship with my wife. I had no choice but to repent.

 I came back and told you that we are to rejoice always. I’m sure everyone here is nailing this one without fail. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. Do not quench the Spirit. We come to the end of a paragraph like this feeling as though we have been asked to do the impossible. I might as well try to climb Mt. Everest barefoot. Let’s be honest. We struggle with the imperatives of verses 12-22.

 Paul knew it was time for some relief. He brings this letter toward its conclusion with these words of hope, encouragement, blessing, and promise. After telling us to do all these things he knew we would struggle to do, he then turns to God and prays for His work in us to enable and empower us to be able to live accordingly.

 Passages like this bring us face to face with some of the paradoxes of the Christian faith. For example, salvation is free, but it is not cheap. It is given as a free gift, but it came at the price of the sacrifice of God’s own Son. Salvation is simple, but it is not easy. Salvation is simple in that it is received by faith. It is not easy because it requires that we take up our cross and follow Jesus. Another paradox is that we are called to live as Christians a life we cannot live in our own strength. The imperatives of the last paragraph were a reminder of this reality. We are commanded to do these things. We are never commanded to do things in the New Testament we are not capable of doing. But the doing of these things requires a power that must be provided from a source outside of ourselves. God commands us to do these things, but He must enable and empower us to obey.

 This is why Paul prays this prayer. He doesn’t call it a prayer, but it is. He is asking God to do something, and at the same time he is telling the Thessalonians that this is something God will do. So, understanding the incredible challenge he had just presented, Paul asks God to do the work in their lives that would empower and enable them to live the kind of life that glorifies God.

 Paul is asking God to do what he knows full well is part of the work of God in salvation. He says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely…” Without the sanctifying work of God, we cannot do what we are commanded to do. But rest assured, the God who chose us from before the foundations of the world, and who redeemed us, and has reconciled us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, is the same God who sanctifies us, giving us the supernatural resources needed for a walk that honors and glorifies Him.

 In this passage Paul tells us what God is going to do. God is going to sanctify us entirely, preserve completely without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time Paul strategically reminds us of Who is responsible for this work, and just how faithful He is who will bring this to pass. Very simple and straightforward message. What is going to happen to us, and who is going to make it happen.

First, what is going to happen to us? God is going to sanctify us entirely. God is going to preserve our spirit and soul and body complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We breathe a sigh of relief. We will have help with the challenges associated with a faithful, obedient life. God will sanctify us entirely.

Paul had already told them back in chapter 4, verse 3, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” Paul mentions sanctification three times in verses 3-7 of chapter 4. We looked extensively at the doctrine of sanctification at that time so I will only give you a brief review here. We learned back in March when we studied chapter 4 that there are two aspects of sanctification.

Sanctification: All who have been elected, regenerated, and justified have also been sanctified, and are being sanctified. Every believer is sanctified (set apart) unto God by justification and is declared to be holy and identified as a saint. This sanctification is positional and instantaneous and has to do with a believer’s standing, not his present walk or condition. We know that the believers in Corinth had all kinds of doctrinal and moral issues but Paul addresses them in verse 2 of 1 Cor. 1 by saying, “to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” See also Acts 20:32, 2 Thess. 2:13, and 1 Pet. 1:2.

Sanctification also results in an obvious transformation of the sinner into something he or she was not before. 1 Cor. 6:9-11. “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” God’s sanctifying work is not without effect, or impact, or consequences. It effects a transformation.

There is also a work of the Holy Spirit of progressive sanctification by which the state of the believer is brought closer to the likeness of Christ through obedience to the Word of God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit. The believer is able to live a life of increasing holiness in conformity to the will of God, becoming more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what Paul is asking God for in our text today. It is also described in John 17:17, 19, Romans 6:1-22, 2 Cor. 3:18. 

This work of progressive sanctification does not mean that the genuine Christian will not struggle with sin which still resides in his yet unredeemed flesh. Romans 7 describes Paul’s ongoing struggle with the flesh. However, the work of sanctification does mean we have adequate provision for victory through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Eradication of sin in this life is not possible, but the Holy Spirit does provide for victory over sin. See Gal. 5:16-25, Col. 3:9-10, 1 Peter 1:14-16, 1 John 3:5-9

  Peter confirms this reality. He writes in 1 Peter 1:2, “We are chosen 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.” In one aspect of sanctification we are set apart unto God and declared to be holy, sanctified for Him. In the other aspect of sanctification we are called to that which we are enabled to do by the Holy Spirit. We are to be holy in all our behavior. We are to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. We are to obey the commandments of our Lord and abstain from fleshly lusts that wage war against the soul. We are to be holy as God is holy. 

 The verb “sanctify” in our text means “to make holy.” The encouraging thing about this is that Paul doesn’t just ask the God of peace Himself to sanctify us, but he asked Him to sanctify us “entirely.” The Greek word translated “entirely” is used only here in the New Testament. It is a compound word, “holoteles.” (holo-tel-es). It combines “holos” which means “all, or the whole” with “telos” which means completion. The idea is of our sanctification being completely accomplished in the entirety of our being and to the end.

 If that isn’t encouraging enough, Paul goes on to say, “may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “complete” is another compound word “holokleros” (helo-klay-ros). It means whole, having all the parts, being sound, perfect, wanting nothing. The Greek scholar Zodhiates writes, “In the holokleros no grace which a Christian should possess is deficient.

 God’s sanctifying work is sufficient. God’s sanctifying work is perfect. God’s sanctifying work is accomplished completely. God’s sanctifying work preserves our spirit and soul and body. This is Paul’s way of describing our entire being. Some people want to use this verse as the basis of a debate over whether we are two part being or three part beings. We know we have a body. I think the soul and spirit are used of the immaterial part of man. This debate is over whether we are dichotomous or trichotomous beings. I don’t think it is necessary to spend a lot of time explaining this. Paul’s point is that our entire being is preserved complete and without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 I like to picture the Thessalonians sitting in their church gathering when this letter was first read to them. There would have been a great excitement over the fact that a letter had come from the beloved Apostle Paul. Word would have spread. “We got a letter from Paul. We are going to be reading it in our worship time on the next Lord’s Day.” The people would have been hanging on every word of this letter. And just like us, when the local shepherd came to that section of chapter 5 containing all these challenging imperatives, they would have been hanging their heads with a twinge of discouragement. They, like us, would have realized the difficulty of living up to those imperatives.

 How encouraging would the words of verses 23-24 have been to them. Paul had taught them of the sanctifying work of the Spirit. They knew they had been set apart. They knew God was working in them to progressively make them more like Jesus. But they knew they were still locked in a struggle with the flesh. They knew they were not perfect. They knew they would need help. Paul prays for their entire sanctification and writes these words that give great encouragement. These words give us hope. These words bring us face to face with the reality of our assurance. These words give us confidence that the work God began in us He will bring to completion. The Thessalonians knew that the very things Paul is asking God to do in these verses are the very things God is willing to do for every true child of God.

 Paul makes it clear, it won’t be fully realized until “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are not going to achieve sinless perfection in this life. The direction of our life will be marked by greater degrees of obedience and faithfulness. The perfection is reserved for that day when we are made complete, when our redemption is fully realized, when our faith becomes sight, and our struggles with this sinful flesh are behind us. This is the promise of salvation. The day is coming when we will be set free from the body of this death. Paul’s own struggle with the flesh which he described in Romans 7 caused him to cry out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” Paul’s answer in Romans 7 is the final answer. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

 Paul also puts a lot of emphasis in these two verses on who it is that is doing this great sanctifying work in us. Paul says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” God is the source of our sanctification and the force behind making it a reality. It is God who ultimately enables Christians to obey the imperatives. It is God who makes us grow in grace. We are not without obligation. We must obey. We must yield to the influence of the Holy Spirit. There is a balance between human responsibility and divine power working in the Christian. 

The verbs “sanctify” and “preserved” are in the optitave mood. This mood is not commonly used in the New Testament. This is the mood that expresses a wish or a desire. Paul is saying that this is God’s desire. This is God’s will. Paul had already stated clearly in Chapter 4, verse 3, “for this is the will of God, your sanctification…” It is God who begins the work of salvation and God causes the work of sanctification because the work God starts God brings to completion. Keeping the right perspective on God’s work in us and our responsibility in regards to the work of God, Paul wrote to the Philippians in Philippians 2:12-13, “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

By calling God the God of peace Paul is framing this in the context of our reconciliation to God through the Cross of Jesus Christ. We have peace with God because we have been reconciled to Him through Christ. Romans 5:10 says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” God is the God of peace, with whom we are at peace through the reconciliation provided through Christ. It is this God of peace who will not stop until His work is entirely finished in every one of His children.

We should also point out that it is the God of peace “Himself” who is accomplishing this work of sanctification. Paul strategically places this pronoun in the emphatic position. He clearly emphasizes the fact that this is the work of the God of peace Himself. God hasn’t delegated this work to His angels. God hasn’t left this work to chance. God hasn’t declared this to be His will and then taken His hands off of us to see if we can figure out how to make it happen. God Himself is making this come to fruition through His own direct work in our lives. Remember what we learned a few weeks ago. We don’t want to quench the Spirit because He is the very presence of God within us. God is directly involved in our sanctification.

To make sure the Thessalonians understood the unquestionable certainty of God’s sanctifying work, Paul writes these confidence building words in verse 24. “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” “Faithful” is the word “pistos” in the Greek. It means “worthy of belief, trust, or confidence.” You can know God will do this because there is no other more worthy of belief than Him. You can trust God to do what He has promised because there is no other so trustworthy as Him. You can have confidence in the sanctifying work of God in you because there is no other so deserving of such unwavering confidence. Who is more worthy of belief than God? Who is more trustworthy than God? Who is more deserving of our confidence than God? There is no other. He who promises to sanctify us entirely will bring it to pass.

Paul reminds us that the faithful God who calls us to salvation is the faithful God who will bring His sanctifying work to pass. Whenever Paul uses the word “call” he is referring to the call of God to salvation. It is the efficacious call. I imagine that as Paul wrote of the “call” of God he often reflected on his own call from God. He was on a mission, traveling from Jerusalem to Damascus, with arrest warrants for any who called themselves Christians. He was knocked to the ground, saw a great light, and heard the voice of Jesus asking, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Saul was so radically transformed by that calling that he required a name change to reflect the transformation. He got a new name, but more importantly he got a new nature.

While our conversion to Christ might not be quite that dramatic, it is nonetheless the result of God’s call. God opened our blind eyes and imparted spiritual life. God found us walking according to the course of this world, under the power of the prince of the power of the air, where we were by nature children of wrath. But because He is rich in mercy, and because of the great love with which He loved us, He made us alive together with Christ. He called us out of darkness to the Light. He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. He called us to salvation and by grace we heard the call and responded.

The same God who calls us to salvation is the God who will bring His work to completion. Paul told the Philippians in 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Never let your struggles in life cause you to doubt the faithfulness of God. God will accomplish His work to the end. Paul assures us in Romans 8 that those whom He foreknew He predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. Those whom He has predestined He has called. Those whom He has called He has justified. Those He has justified He has glorified. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? The implied answer is, “It doesn’t matter who is against us! They cannot stop what God has purposed to do.”

 Isaiah the prophet understood this truth about the faithfulness of God. He wrote in Isaiah 25:1, “O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.” Paul also stated it this way to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 1:9. “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Because of God’s sovereign and unchangeable promise, Christians are assured of salvation’s grace, past, present, and future. We know God will bring it to completion at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 This great work of salvation is the work of God from start to finish. God initiated it from before the foundation of the world. It will culminate with our glorification in eternity. We must acknowledge that it is God’s work from start to finish. Our salvation is His doing. Our sanctification is His doing. Our glorification is His doing. He who began the work will complete the work.

 At the same time, we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We are called to a life that is marked by love, obedience, joy, peace, and a life free from revenge, a life that seeks good for all people, a life in which we rejoice always, and pray without ceasing, and give thanks in everything, not quenching the Spirit, not despising prophetic utterances, examining everything carefully, holding fast to that which is good, and abstaining from every form of evil.

 It is a mistake to set aside or deny the human responsibility aspect of our walk with God. All the active voice imperative commands of Scripture constantly remind us of our duties as followers of Christ. At the same time, the Scriptures bear witness to the reality that the power to obey must come from God. And the process by which we are progressively transformed from rebellious sinners to obedient saints begins at the time of our conversion and continues until we are glorified in the presence of Christ. We must know that the God of peace Himself is going to sanctify us entirely. Our spirit and soul and body will be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls us, He also will bring it to pass.

 As we turn our attention to the Lord’s Table this morning we come to the Cross where Jesus paid for it all. He paid the penalty for our sin. He satisfied the justice of Holy God. Because His work was perfect, nothing will prevent it from its full effect, to the end. It is perfectly appropriate to recognize the work of Christ at the Cross as the work that will endure in each of us until Jesus returns and we are all perfected in glory. 

 And as we come, I want to read Paul’s important instructions to the Corinthians regarding the ordinance of the Lord’s Table. Read 1 Cor. 11:23-32.