Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

If all our holiness is merely external—putting off and putting on, doing and not doing—then we are no better than the Pharisees.

If our righteousness is not that of perfection, then we are most to be pitied.

But if we stand in the righteousness of another—the righteousness of Christ—then though we are daily growing in sanctification, we stand justified before God.

If all our holiness—our growth in sanctification—is merely external, then we change not and profit nothing. Our holiness becomes performance. We can put off and put on and yet be none the better for it. But if that holiness made evident outwardly is the very work God is doing inwardly, then it is to the glory and praise of God. It is that which conforms us to the image of Christ.

The Means of Grace

God uses external means to work inwardly in the hearts and minds of His people—making them more like Christ. His Word. Suffering. The gathering of the saints. These are not mere outward performances to maintain or suffering to endure for a promise imagined in our hearts and attributed to God; they are the means of His grace, by which He changes and conforms His own to the image of His Son.

Many are exhausted by performance that they do not recognize as mere performance. They are never content with Christ—His finished work, His perfect sacrifice, His righteousness. Salvation, for some, is a launch pad into one’s desired dreams and what they imagine God wants for them.

Many who do not sit under the faithful exposition of Scripture begin to confuse justification and sanctification. In their striving to be holy, they fail to see that in Christ they are declared holy, perfectly justified before God. They confuse sanctification—growing in holiness—with becoming more justified, or with keeping their justification.

Oh dear saint, if you are in Christ, you cannot be more justified or less justified. You either are—or you are not. Our assurance is not looking to ourselves but remembering that who Christ is and what He has done is sufficient.

We are declared righteous in Christ. We are declared holy before God because Christ has made propitiation for our sins. He took upon Himself the holy, righteous wrath of God on our behalf, and He lived the righteous life we could not. Our sins were imputed to Him on the cross, and His perfect righteousness is imputed to us as if we had lived it ourselves. We are holy. We are righteous. We are justified. We can add nothing to this, and we can take nothing away.

Sanctification, then, is the work of God in us, conforming us more and more to the image of Christ. Though we are judicially declared righteous before God because of Christ, we still dwell in these sinful bodies. Yet now, we no longer love the sin we once loved. Our desires are being renewed. If we are in Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, working in us to conform us more to His image. He employs the means of God’s grace—Scripture, suffering, fellowship with the saints, and other means—to accomplish this work.

While our justification is complete and judicial, our sanctification is ongoing. It does not add to our justification. When we sin, we repent and look to Christ, whose finished work on our behalf remains sufficient. In sanctification, we grow in holiness, hating the sins we once loved and loving the righteousness of God we once despised.

Doctrine and Division

Some have been taught that “doctrine is divisive.” Those words often come from the mouths of false teachers who despise what exposes them for what they truly are according to Scripture.

The truth is—we need sound doctrine. When we learn who God is, who we are, and the truth about justification and sanctification, there is peace, assurance, and joy—things false teachers rob from many. They must keep their followers biblically illiterate to maintain their power.

We cannot grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth if we downplay doctrine or call it divisive. Friend, desire truth. Be careful of any man who equates doctrine with division. While there are evil doctrines of false teachers, there is also sound doctrine. Not all doctrine is evil. We need good and sound doctrine whereby we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

A Final Plea

I fear for you who stumble in doctrinal deception. You are taught that doctrine is divisive by those whose own doctrines are counterfeit and truly divisive. They claim to seek unity while setting themselves as superior to those who “care too much about doctrine”.

Christ calls us to His Word and has equipped us to test every teaching. We are responsible for whom we listen to. Our experiences are not the test—His Word is. Let us not wait until we give an account and be found unfaithful. Let us test all things according to His Word.

Friend, you have a doctrinal system. You have beliefs. Can they stand the test of Scripture? A great hindrance to our growth in sanctification is our loyalty to false teachers who have beguiled us. We will either continue to follow them and perhaps prove ourselves not truly saved, or we will follow the leading of the Holy Spirit who works through the sufficient Word of God rightly exposited.

Dear saint, while we are not yet what we shall be, we may be assured that He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. He has declared us righteous in Christ, and He is working in us, making us more like Him—adding nothing to our justification—in our sanctification. While we are not yet glorified, we are perfectly justified and growing in sanctification, becoming more like Him. One day we shall put off this body of death and be forever with our Lord, glorified. Sin shall be no more.

Friend, we need sound doctrine. False teachers promise personal encounters, experiences, dreams, and the fulfillment of what your sinful heart desires—setting you against what God has truly promised. Suffering then becomes the enemy, keeping you from what you imagine God owes you. His Word becomes a tool to read into what you want to hear, or to affirm what you claim He spoke outside of Scripture.

Sound teachers are often accused of being “dead.” That is a grievous accusation, for to say they are dead is to claim they are without the Spirit—that they are not saved at all. The reality is that every beautiful means God has given to aid you in sanctification, false teachers corrupt. They turn your heart after a god who bears the name of the God of Scripture but is a counterfeit. They use His means of grace to draw you away from Him.

Learn to test everything against Scripture. Throw out that which fails the test. Hold fast to that which is good. And may you grow in the grace and knowledge of the truth.

“Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” — John 17:17 (LSB)

Grace and peace.

Soli Deo Gloria