{"id":3073,"date":"2021-05-10T18:50:56","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3073"},"modified":"2021-05-10T18:50:56","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:50:56","slug":"justification-and-sanctification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/justification-and-sanctification\/","title":{"rendered":"Justification and Sanctification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Exaudi Sunday Sermon<\/strong>| <strong>Rev. Rolf Preus| May 4, 2008<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ExaudiSunday2008.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.&nbsp; I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.&nbsp; I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ezekiel 36, 25-27<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How can you make bad people into good people?&nbsp; How can a sinner become a saint?&nbsp; I suppose you could tell the bad person to start doing good.&nbsp; Do you think that will make him good?&nbsp; It won\u2019t.&nbsp; If he\u2019s bad on the inside he must be changed on the inside.&nbsp; Whatever good a bad man does is only on the outside.&nbsp; Genuine obedience to God requires a heart that fears, loves, and trusts in God above all things.&nbsp; Telling bad people to do good things is not going to change them into good people.&nbsp; They need a change of heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone needs a change of heart because everyone is by nature bad on the inside.&nbsp; The history of the world is proof of this.&nbsp; But let\u2019s consider only the proof offered by the history of God\u2019s covenant people.&nbsp; The history of the nation of Israel is a history of rebellion against God, divine punishment, repentance, restoration and then rebellion.&nbsp; God\u2019s people repeatedly broke the covenant.&nbsp; God repeatedly called them to repentance.&nbsp; He would forgive them their sins and reclaim them as his own.&nbsp; They would repent and then quickly fall into the same sins.&nbsp; The cycle was repeated again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The harshest judgment God brought upon his people was carried out by foreigners.&nbsp; Since God\u2019s people insisted on worshipping the false gods of the nations, God\u2019s justice decreed that they should be taken over by the nations.&nbsp; Not only were they taken over, they were taken away from their land to a place unfamiliar to them.&nbsp; During their captivity God sent prophets to console them with the promise of future deliverance.&nbsp; God did not leave them comfortless when they were held captive in a strange land far from home.&nbsp; He spoke by the prophets.&nbsp; He promised them a wonderful future.&nbsp; He would restore his nation.&nbsp; More than that, she would become a great kingdom made up of people from all over the world.&nbsp; We call this kingdom the Holy Christian Church.&nbsp; In our text God promised through the prophet Ezekiel that he would change his people.&nbsp; He would not leave it up to them to change themselves.&nbsp; He would change them from the inside out.&nbsp; He would change their desires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the movie, \u201cDirty Harry,\u201d Clint Eastwood starred as Inspector Harry Callahan who was on the trail of a psychopathic killer.&nbsp; After the killer had just murdered a little girl and was let off on legal technicalities, there was a dramatic confrontation between Inspector Callahan and his superiors in the San Francisco Police Department.&nbsp; He said, \u201cYou know, he\u2019s going to do it again.\u201d&nbsp; His boss replied, \u201cHow do you know that?\u201d&nbsp; To which he replied, \u201cHe likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe likes it.\u201d&nbsp; That\u2019s why he does it.&nbsp; That\u2019s not very complicated, is it?&nbsp; People do what they like to do.&nbsp; If you want to change what people do you must change what they like.&nbsp; You cannot simply give commands.&nbsp; It\u2019s true that people will respond to threats and bribes.&nbsp; But that\u2019s not true obedience.&nbsp; True obedience comes from the heart.&nbsp; The heart must be changed.&nbsp; The way to change what people do is to change what they want to do.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How does God change us from being bad into being good?&nbsp; He washes away our sins.&nbsp; He changes our heart.&nbsp; He fills us with the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are two theological terms we should understand: justification and sanctification.&nbsp; God justifies us.&nbsp; Then God sanctifies us.&nbsp; God does not justify us by sanctifying us.&nbsp; He sanctifies us by justifying us.&nbsp; Let me explain what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To justify means to reckon someone to be righteous.&nbsp; It is to say that the person is righteous.&nbsp; Now when it comes to what God says we know that God saying it makes it so.&nbsp; Isn\u2019t that right?&nbsp; God said, \u201cLet there be light,\u201d and there was light.&nbsp; Jesus said: \u201cYoung man I say to you, Arise!\u201d and the dead man became alive again.&nbsp; Jesus says of the bread and the wine in the Lord\u2019s Supper: \u201cThis is my body,\u201d \u201cThis is the New Testament in my blood.\u201d&nbsp; That\u2019s what it is.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; God speaks and it is so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God said, \u201cThen I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.\u201d&nbsp; And so it is.&nbsp; God sprinkles water over our heads.&nbsp; He baptizes us into his holy name.&nbsp; This is a washing away of sin.&nbsp; As God promised several hundred years before giving this sacrament to Christ\u2019s Church on earth, Holy Baptism cleanses us from all our filthiness and from all our idols.&nbsp; It provides us with the forgiveness of sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baptism, the gospel that we hear, the Lord\u2019s Supper, and the absolution all speak God\u2019s word of forgiveness to us.&nbsp; This forgiveness is complete in every way.&nbsp; Even as Jesus suffered for all the sins of all the sinners of all time, the forgiveness that God gives us in the gospel and sacraments of Christ is complete.&nbsp; It is perfect.&nbsp; It lacks nothing.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is justification.&nbsp; God reckons to us the righteousness of Christ.&nbsp; He credits to us the obedience of Jesus who suffered and died for us on the cross.&nbsp; In short, he forgives us all our sins.&nbsp; This means that we are righteous.&nbsp; We are just.&nbsp; God justifies us.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of ourselves we are sinners.&nbsp; But God\u2019s word says we are saints.&nbsp; Within us there is every evil inclination and sin.&nbsp; Our hearts are cold and stony.&nbsp; But God comes to us and washes away our sin.&nbsp; He forgives us our sin.&nbsp; He renders us righteous by speaking the word that says we are righteous.&nbsp; That word is almighty.&nbsp; It brings us to faith.&nbsp; It enables us to trust in God to justify us for Jesus\u2019 sake.&nbsp; The word that brings us to faith also makes us holy.&nbsp; It brings about a change in our lives.&nbsp; It breaks down the stony, unbelieving heart and replaces it with a heart of flesh.&nbsp; First God justifies us.&nbsp; He reckons us to be righteous.&nbsp; And so we are because God said so.&nbsp; Our righteousness is nothing less than the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ.&nbsp; There is nothing lacking in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This declaration of almighty God changes us on the inside.&nbsp; This is sanctification.&nbsp; Justification is perfect.&nbsp; There\u2019s nothing lacking in Jesus\u2019 righteousness and God has reckoned it to us.&nbsp; There is no sin that remains unforgiven.&nbsp; We are indeed righteous.&nbsp; But sanctification is imperfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God changes us within.&nbsp; But there remains within the old sinful nature.&nbsp; So sanctification is a process.&nbsp; God continually softens our hard hearts and enables us to respond in love to his love.&nbsp; He fills us with the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; He enables us and guides us to walk in the ways he wants us to live.&nbsp; He gives us a love for his law.&nbsp; We like doing what he wants us to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, the sinful human nature that clings to us \u2013 what the Bible calls our flesh \u2013 fights against the Holy Spirit.&nbsp; The flesh fights against the truth of God.&nbsp; He cannot be reformed.&nbsp; He can only be killed.&nbsp; He would love to claim us, but the washing of Holy Baptism drowns the flesh.&nbsp; Baptism tells the sinful flesh that he cannot rule over us because we live under grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is only when we are forgiven of our sins and declared by God to be righteous in his sight that our heart is truly changed.&nbsp; The Holy Spirit gives us the desire to live for God, to serve him, to obey him, and to hold on to his instructions as true heavenly wisdom.&nbsp; He gives us holy desires by sprinkling clean water on us and cleansing us from our sin and idolatry.&nbsp; It is in being forgiven by God that our stony hearts are taken out and replaced with hearts of flesh.&nbsp; Put into theological jargon: justification causes sanctification.&nbsp; God reckons us to be righteous for Christ\u2019s sake.&nbsp; He brings us to trust in this precious truth.&nbsp; Then and only then can we begin to live holy lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most common and the most harmful falsehood ever taught is to reverse this order and to teach instead that sanctification is what brings about justification: that we become righteous before God as a result of living the new life that God gives us to live.&nbsp; But this is a vicious teaching.&nbsp; If true, we would never be righteous before God.&nbsp; We would never be justified.&nbsp; We could not know that we stand before God as saints.&nbsp; We would have to depend on the change within us instead of the gospel promise of God.&nbsp; But as long as we live in these bodies there will be a conflict between the sinful desires of the flesh and the new and holy desires that the Holy Spirit works in us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The true source of holy living is the gospel that tells us our sins are fully and freely forgiven for Christ\u2019s sake.&nbsp; This gospel is the power of God to change our lives.&nbsp; It is the source of courage to confess the faith when facing persecution.&nbsp; It is the motivation to stand up and fight against temptations to deny the faith or to live a life that contradicts it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need to get the order right.&nbsp; This is no mere academic issue.&nbsp; Our faith depends upon it.&nbsp; First God justifies us.&nbsp; Then he sanctifies us.&nbsp; Justification is perfect.&nbsp; It is complete.&nbsp; It is flawless.&nbsp; When God reckons to us the righteousness of Jesus there is nothing that can be done to improve upon it.&nbsp; First God washes us clean of all our sins and idolatry.&nbsp; Then God sanctifies us.&nbsp; Sanctification is imperfect.&nbsp; This is because of the sinful flesh that stubbornly clings to our souls.&nbsp; Justification is complete.&nbsp; Sanctification is a lifelong process.&nbsp; God sanctifies us by directing our faith to the perfection of our justification.&nbsp; In our baptism we stand righteous.&nbsp; The gospel declares the same thing.&nbsp; Christ\u2019s body and blood are given to us to seal this to us.&nbsp; This is how God sanctifies us, renews us, changes our desires to conform to his will, fills us with the Holy Spirit, and enables us to live holy lives.&nbsp; So we treasure these precious means of grace and we live the new lives God has given us to live.&nbsp; Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exaudi Sunday Sermon| Rev. Rolf Preus| May 4, 2008 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.&nbsp; I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/justification-and-sanctification\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,8,17,4],"tags":[199,502,238],"class_list":["post-3073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ascension","category-latest-sermons","category-sermons-by-historical-lectionary","category-sermons-by-rolf-preus","tag-ascension","tag-ezekiel-36","tag-rolf-preus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3075,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3073\/revisions\/3075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}