The redemption of fallen man, through the perfect redemptive work of Jesus Christ, is not the final destination, but is only the beginning. When you become a partaker of the grace of God, you can no longer live the way, you lived before your repentance and before you became born again. Because grace without repentance doesn’t exist. The grace of God not only contains the salvation for the house of Israel and the Gentiles, but the grace of God also contains the process of sanctification, to teach the sons of God (both men and women) to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this world. Let’s look at what the Bible says about the grace of God and the process of sanctification.
Through the grace of God, you have become a new creation
By faith in Jesus Christ and through regeneration; the death of the flesh and the resurrection of the spirit, you have become a new creation (a new man). You no longer belong to the generation of fallen man, who has the corrupt nature of his father the devil and belongs to the darkness. But through regeneration in Christ, you are restored and reconciled with God. You belong to the generation of the new man, who has the holy and righteous nature of his Father God and lives in His Kingdom.
Your spirit is raised from the dead and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you have received the nature of God. Therefore, you shall live differently.
You shall no longer walk as fallen man, who is led by the flesh and walk after the lusts and desires of the flesh in ungodliness in darkness.
Instead, you shall walk as the new man, who is led by the Word and the Spirit and walks by faith after the will of God in righteousness in the Light.
When someone repents and becomes born again a total change will take place.
The person, who repents on the basis of the conviction of sin and the revelation of his or her corrupt and filthy fallen state as sinner, through the holiness of God, shall immediately lead another life.
It happens many times, when people repent on another basis than the conviction of sin and the revelation of their sinful state as fallen man, like for example if they repent on the basis of the traditions of man and because they were raised in a Christian family, or because their spouse believes, or out of fear for hell, for healing, for deliverance of demons, etc. many times a radical change doesn’t take place in their lives.
In most cases, their lives remain the same as before their repentance. The only difference is, that they go to church, read the Bible occasionally, pray, and maybe become more humanistic.
Has faith become your life or is faith an addition to your life?
Many times, faith is considered as an addition to someone’s life, instead of faith becoming the life of a person. Faith is often considered as something that you practice besides your daily life and occupations. Because of that, a true repentance and regeneration don’t happen and the person keeps walking after the flesh, just like the world.
Many people, who go to church, consider the works of the flesh not as evil. Therefore they don’t see the necessity of becoming born again and to put off the flesh (Read also: ‘The necessity of the new birth’ and ‘Put off the old man’).
You will only be able to see the necessity of regeneration and to put off the works of the flesh, when you have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and are confronted with the holiness of God that exposes the darkness in your life and your sinful state.
Not until, you have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and are confronted with your sinful state and are tired of living your life as a sinner and no longer want to live that way, only then will you be ready to give your life to Jesus Christ and lay down your flesh in Him (Read also: ‘Count the cost’).
A spiritual baby
When you become born again and become a new creation, you are a spiritual baby. Although you have been made complete in Christ and have received everything in Him to walk as a son of God, you have to spiritually mature.
And that happens through the renewing of your mind with the Word of God, so that you will get to know the will of God and be able to discern the will of God and His truth from the will of the devil and his lies (Read also: ‘The will of God versus the will of the devil’)
But that’s not all! Because when you renew your mind with the Word, you also have to put the words of God into practice, so that you become a doer of the Word and you shall walk in holiness (separated from the world unto God) and righteousness.
You shall no longer act by what the flesh and the world say, but you shall act by what the Word and the Spirit say.
The Word and the Spirit diametrically oppose the words of the world and the flesh. Therefore this shall be quite difficult at first.
But to carry your cross daily, which means that you daily have to crucify the flesh and submit to the Word and the Spirit, isn’t the easiest way, but it is the way of joy, peace, and life and leads to eternal life.
The process of sanctification
In the beginning of the process of sanctification, there shall be remainders of your old life. The Holy Spirit shall teach you in the Word and shall reveal the truth and confront you with the remainders of your old life; your flesh, then it’s up to you to remove them out of your life.
During the process of sanctification to spiritual maturity, you shall make mistakes and unconsciously do things, which are not good. The Holy Spirit and the Word shall confront you and reveal to you that it was wrong and not according to God’s will. Then all you have to do, after the conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit, is to ask forgiveness and repent and remove it out of your life. If you truly repent, you shall be forgiven by the grace of God.
However, the grace of God is not meant to rebel against the Word and the Holy Spirit and keep doing those things, which go against the will of God and consciously persevere in sin and live after your will (Read also: ‘What is sin unto death and sin not unto death?’)
If you know that something isn’t good and goes against the will of God, but you ignore the will of God and keep doing it, then you still love your flesh and don’t want to remove it from your life.
You don’t really regret and repent of what you have done and therefore you shall not remove it out of your life, but you shall keep doing it, over and over again, because you love doing it.
This proves that your love for what you do (sin) and for your flesh is greater than your love for Jesus Christ (Read also: ‘Do you love God with all your heart?’)
You can ask forgiveness over and over again out of habit or a religious ordinance, because you have been taught that way, but it doesn’t work like that.
The grace of God is not a license to persevere in sin.
If you see no harm in doing the works of the flesh and don’t consider the works of the flesh as evil and therefore keep doing them and keep walking after the flesh, it proves to whom you belong and whom you serve.
The grace of God during the proces of sanctification
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works (Titus 2:11-14)
The grace of God during the process of sanctification is the time, that God gives to lay down the old man and to put on the new man, so that the new man shall grow up in the sonship of God and walk as a mature son of God in righteousness after His will.
When your life remains unchanged, it proves that you have not repented and you are not born again in the spirit, but that you are still trapped in the sinful flesh and keep doing what the flesh commands you to do.
Because you are trapped in the sinful flesh and be led by the flesh, you shall also persevere in sin.
Since the flesh reigns as king in your life, the flesh shall continuously command you to do those things, which are conformed the world, but go against the will of God. Because of that you shall not enter the place that God has prepared for you. Instead, you shall stay camping at the cross (Read also: ‘The cross a place to die or a place to sin?‘)
Camping at the cross
Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (1 Peter 1:13-16)
Many believers stay camping at the cross and don’t live from their new holy position as a son of God, which they have received in Jesus Christ.
The process of sanctification is not part of their lives, but they keep living as the old man trapped in their flesh as slaves of sin (Read also: ‘Whose slave are you?‘).
This is mainly because of their love for the flesh and/or because the process of sanctification is hardly preached anymore in the church. Instead, sin is accepted.
And because many believers don’t read and study the Bible by themselves and believe the words of the preachers above the words of God, they stay ignorant about the truth and their holy position in Jesus Christ and they keep living as a slave to sin and death in ungodliness and the worldly lusts.
But the process of sanctification; to put off the old man and to put on the new man and to live a holy and righteous life after God’s will is necessary. Because without holiness, no one shall see the Lord (Hebrew 12:14).
By the blood of Jesus, you have been made holy and righteous
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, Who hath also given unto us His holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:7-8)
The truth is, that by the grace of God, by faith in Jesus Christ you have been saved and by His blood you have been made holy and righteous. Through regeneration in Him, you have become a son of God and you have peace with God (Read also: ‘The peace, Jesus restored between fallen man and God’)
You have received His Word and His Holy Spirit. Now it’s all about what you do with the grace of God, with all that you received from Him by faith and that you get started and do what He has commanded you to do, which is a.o. to put off the old man and to put on the new man and walk after the will of God in righteousness.
Since God is holy, and those, who are born of Him are also holy you should live a holy life. This means that you no longer walk after your own will and the lusts and desires of your flesh and the world in ungodliness, but that you walk after the Spirit after God’s will and do what the Word and the Spirit command you to do.
As a son of God, you shall no longer be led by the devil and his will, which dwell in your flesh and made you sin, but you shall be led by the Holy Spirit, who works in your spirit and makes you do the will of God and His righteous works
This means that from time to time you will struggle. But everything depends upon your love for Jesus Christ and how much time you spend on the things which are above and how much time you spend on the things on the earth.
“Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth”
The more time you spend with Jesus Christ; the Word, the better you will get to know the Father. The more you renew your mind with the Word, the more you will love the Father and His Word. You shall hate evil and the works of the flesh.
For example, if you often told lies in your former life and didn’t mind telling a white lie, then now you shall feel uncomfortable, because the Word and the Holy Spirit shall confront you with the truth.
They will show you, that lying is a characteristic from the devil, your former father, who is liar.
Lying is a work of the flesh. Lying belongs to your old carnal nature and not to your new nature. If you yield to Jesus Christ; the Word you obey Him and hate lies, just like God. You shall remove lying from your life. Because as a son of God you walk in the truth, just like Jesus Christ, the Son of God, walked in the truth of His Father.
The secret of the process of sanctification
And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified (Acts 20:32)
Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Corinthians 7:1)
By His grace, God anointed you as a son of God in Jesus Christ. He gave you all the spiritual weapons to stand against the whiles of the devil and fight against sin.
He gave you all power to resist the temptations of the devil and the lusts and desires of the flesh and live a holy live in obedience to God after His will.
Actually, the secret of the process of sanctification; the transformation of the old man to the new man, and to walk as a mature son of God, is, that when you fear God and love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you don’t focus on yourself and not give into the cry and demands of the flesh.
But you walk after the Spirit and focus on the things, which are above, where Jesus Christ is seated and represent, preach, and bring His Kingdom upon this earth.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
