{"id":3077,"date":"2021-05-10T18:52:45","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/?p=3077"},"modified":"2021-05-10T18:52:45","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:52:45","slug":"justification-and-sanctification-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/2021\/05\/10\/justification-and-sanctification-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Justification and Sanctification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Exaudi Sunday Sermon<\/strong>| <strong>Rev. Rolf Preus| June 1, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Christ-for-Us-6-8-14.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;<\/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; 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; Consider the history of God\u2019s covenant people.&nbsp; The history of ancient 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.&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; 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;<\/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.<\/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; What God says is so because God says it.&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;<\/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;<\/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 \u2013 to believe that he justifies 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 inner change is called 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 the old sinful nature still lies within.&nbsp; Sanctification is a process.&nbsp; God 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>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; This is a diabolical 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.\u00a0 Our faith depends upon it.\u00a0 First God justifies us.\u00a0 Then he sanctifies us.\u00a0 Justification is perfect.\u00a0 It is complete.\u00a0 It is flawless.\u00a0 When God reckons to us the righteousness of Jesus there is nothing that can be done to improve upon it.\u00a0 First God washes us clean of all our sins and idolatry.\u00a0 Then God sanctifies us.\u00a0 Sanctification is imperfect.\u00a0 This is because of the sinful flesh that stubbornly clings to our souls.\u00a0 Justification is complete.\u00a0 Sanctification is a lifelong process.\u00a0 God sanctifies us by directing our faith to the perfection of our justification.\u00a0 In our baptism we stand righteous.\u00a0 The gospel declares the same thing.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s body and blood are given to us to seal this to us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So we treasure these precious means of grace and we live the new lives God has given us to live. Amen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exaudi Sunday Sermon| Rev. Rolf Preus| June 1, 2014 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-2\/\"> 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-3077","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\/3077","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=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3079,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christforus.org\/NewSite\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}