Why We Feel Defeated In Our Sanctification

Sanctification Series - Part 8

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

- Romans 7:14-25

The Law and Our Sanctification

Sanctification Series - Part 7

“Or do you not know, brothers - for I am speaking to those who know the law - that the law is binding on a

person only as long as he lives? 2 Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives,

but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an

adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free

from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also

have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been

raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our

sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we

are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old

written code but in the new life of the Spirit. 7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means!

Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if

the law had not said, "You shall not covet." 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,

produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from

the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that

promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment,

deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous

and good. 13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in

me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment

might become sinful beyond measure.”

- Romans 7:1-13

The Physical Acts of Sanctification - Part II

Sanctification Series - Part 6

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.  22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

– Romans 6:12-23

The Physical Acts of Sanctification - Part I

Sanctification Series - Part 5

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.  13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.  14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.  15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?  17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,  18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.  22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

– Romans 6:12-23

The Heart of Our Sanctification - Part II

Sanctification Series - Part 4

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.  8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9 We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

- Romans 6:1-11

The Heart of Our Sanctification - Part I

Sanctification Series - Part 3

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?  3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.  8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  9 We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

- Romans 6:1-11

The Ground of Our Sanctification - Part II

Sanctification Series - Part 2

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.  11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

- Romans 5:1-11

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

- Romans 6:22

The Ground of Our Sanctification - Part I

Sanctification Series - Part 1

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.  11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

- Romans 5:1-11

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

- Romans 6:22