Radical Cleavage with Sin

Review of Sanctification's Importance and Definition

0:02 Yesterday morning, for the sake of those who were not with us, just this word of review, I tried to direct your thinking into a broad overview of the doctrine of sanctification, first of all by giving a declaration of its importance. We saw in our study of the scriptures that this doctrine is vitally important because the doctrine, the act, the work of sanctification is central in the saving purpose of God. It is indispensable in the saving activity of God, and it is necessary for the people of God, both for their safety, their comfort, and their usefulness. Then we made an attempt to define the doctrine of sanctification using as our guideline the Westminster Standards, and I will only give you the five-power telescope definition this morning, that of the shorter catechism, what is sanctification, and the answer, sanctification is the work of God's three graces, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness.

1:26 And we saw that the key thought then, the doctrine of sanctification is that it flows out of the operations of grace. It has to do with God's work in his people to conform them to the image of his Son, which has tremendous practical implications. It is ethical. This renewal means that they die more and more unto sin and live more and more unto righteousness.

1:55 Then we concluded our study by trying to describe something of the relationship between justification and sanctification. And basically the relationship is one of the foundation to the superstructure. And any true biblical sanctification is the superstructure and it cannot be erected apart from the foundation of justification by faith. And so we looked at the similarities of these great blessings of grace and then we continued.

Three Aspects of Sanctification: Begun, Continued, Completed

2:28 And we considered their differences. Now this morning we shall begin to grapple with the doctrine of sanctification as such. And a careful study of the usages of these words sanctify, sanctification, holy, holiness, saint. A careful study, I say, of these words will reveal that there are three basic aspects of sanctification.

2:55 One of them never present without the other. All of them fuse together but a very distinct separate category in each aspect. And I am calling these three aspects, first of all, sanctification begun, the radical cleavage. Secondly, and this will be our source of consideration tomorrow morning, sanctification continued, the gradual process.

3:25 And thirdly, sanctification completed, the final crisis, and that's glorification. So there are these three stages in the sanctifying process. We might legitimately say sanctification is bounded by a crisis at its beginning, the radical cleavage with sin which comes in effectual calling. And a crisis on the other end, when a person dies and is joining those spirits of just men made perfect and then at the second coming of Christ receives a new body, there is this crisis bounded on this end.

4:06 And between the crisis of the beginning and the crisis of the conclusion, there is the process of the continuation of the sanctifying work of God. Now most of the writing on the subject of sanctification focuses on this second aspect. Sanctification continued, the gradual process. In fact, the definitions given in the Westminster Standards focus primarily upon this aspect of sanctification.

4:37 Notice how it comes out in that definition of the Shorter Catechism, we are renewed, that is process, we are enabled more and more to die unto sin. The thought of process stands central and dominant in the definition of most of the standard doctrinal works, catechisms and confessions of faith. However, there is an aspect of scriptural teaching which is often overlooked, but which scripture indicates is absolutely essential if we are to know anything of sanctification continued as a gradual process. And that is the aspect of truth that we want to grapple with this morning. Sanctification begins, begins with a radical cleavage with sin. And the process is dependent upon this cleavage. And there perhaps is nothing more pathetic than to see people making some half-hearted attempts to go on in the process of sanctification who are utterly unfurnished for the process because they are strangers to the radical cleavage which always occurs at the threshold of the genuine work of God's grace.

Biblical Basis for Radical Cleavage (Sanctification Begun)

5:57 And so, we are going to consider this morning, this subject, sanctification begun, the radical cleavage. And to think our way through the subject, this is the outline we will follow. First of all, we will look at the Biblical basis of this concept of the radical cleavage. Secondly, we will try to come to an understanding of the nature of this radical cleavage.

6:24 Thirdly, we will look at the agents which are operative in this radical cleavage. Who brings it about? And then in the fourth place, we will look at some practical implications of this doctrine. Alright then, in the first place, let us consider some of the Biblical evidence for this concept of sanctification begun, the radical cleavage.

6:49 If we are thinking scripturally, we will think of regeneration, the doctrine we heard expounded so ably last night, justification and adoption. We will think of these things as definitive, that is, decisive, conclusive, final, once for all acts of God. A man is not in the process of being regenerated, he is not in the process of being justified, or in the process of being adopted. He is regenerated by a sovereign, definitive act of God.

7:25 He is justified by a sovereign, declarative act of God. He is adopted in the same way. Whereas with sanctification, most of our thinking is oriented to the concept of process of increasing conformity to the image of Christ. But as Professor Murray, perhaps more than any other theologian, has shown in his exegetical work on this area, there is a very real sense in which the Scripture's view this aspect of sanctification in the same category of regeneration, justification and adoption.

8:04 There is an aspect of sanctification which has a once for all-ness about it, so that the people of God are called the sanctified ones. The very word saint means a sanctified one, one who has entered the sanctified world. The sanctified state. Now look at several key texts with me, which set forth the concept of the radical cleavage which is found in the beginning of sanctification.

8:36 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. Here are some people who were having some problems in the gradual process. In some of them there had been an arresting of that process. In certain areas it was obvious that the sanctifying process was not going on with the speed or with the effect that it ought to.

9:01 And yet when Paul writes to these Corinthians, he says, and I read now from the first chapter and the first two verses, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is in Corinth, even to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, holy ones, saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours. Now Paul uses a verb form which has the idea of something which has happened, the effects of which continue to this day. And for the preachers and the Greek scholars he's using a perfect passage. Something has happened to the earth and to these people. Something has been done to them in the past which has its present and abiding effects.

10:05 They are called the sanctified. Not the ones being sanctified, processed, but the ones who have been sanctified. A crisis. Something happened in the past.

10:17 First Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11. Having described the state in which many of the Corinthians had lived, in verses 9 and 10 of 1 Corinthians 6, he says in verse 11, and such were some of you past tense, but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified. You say my Bible says ye are. Well this is one reason why I am fully attached to the American Standard Version, the 1901 edition.

10:55 Because for all intents and purposes I am convinced it is the most helpful, accurate, standard translation of the scriptures. I study in it. I preach from it. Most of the people in our church have it.

11:05 And you forgive me if I stick with it here because it is far more accurate and it is rendering many places of the sense of the original. And here is the place. Ye have been washed. Ye have been sanctified.

11:19 Not you ought to be or you are being. He says ye have been. And he uses the same verb form. A perfect passage.

11:27 Something happened and the effects of that continue until this day. Well in Acts 20, 32 you have a similar thought. Acts 20 and verse 32. The Apostle speaking to the Ephesian elders says I now commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all them that are among those who are being sanctified but among those who are sanctified.

12:06 They are described as a people in whom there has been this sanctifying work. You have a parallel to this in Acts 26 and verse 18. Now when you come to passages like 1 Thessalonians 4, 7 and 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 you have the use here not of the verb but of the noun. And he says looking now at 1 Corinthians 4 1 Thessalonians 4, 7 For God hath called you not unto uncleanness or in uncleanness but in sanctification.

12:43 He says the realm into which you are brought by the effectual call of God is the sanctified realm. And the same thought is paralleled in 2 Thessalonians 2, 13 God be thanked that he hath chosen you from the beginning unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he called you by our gospel. When the gospel has come and there has been the effectual call of God he says you have been brought into the sanctified state. Therefore the people of God are described as saints sanctified ones holy ones and even though there is yet much more to be done in the process of sanctification and in the future final crisis of glorification there is a real sense in which every true child of God has been sanctified. There has been the beginning of sanctification in this radical cleavage with the realm of sin. Now having seen the Biblical basis for this idea that there is an aspect of sanctification which is definitive once for all part of that radical cleavage which meets us on the threshold of the Christian life

The Nature of Radical Cleavage: Death to Sin

14:10 consider with me in the second place what is the character or the nature of sanctification begun. The character or nature of this radical cleavage. What happens that warrants the Apostle Paul to write to the Corinthians and say to them ye have been sanctified. With all the areas in the process where they need help and he is going to deal with those things in the book so he is not ignorant of the problems of the outworking of the process none the less he says ye have been sanctified.

14:45 What is the nature then of that sanctification which is true of every believer in which the work is begun. The key passage to answer that question is Romans chapter 6 and this will be the seed bed out of which most of our thoughts and comments will grow this morning. Romans chapter 6 this whole passage Romans 6 through Romans 7 verse 6 is a unit and time would not permit us to go through and make any kind of a detailed opening up of the entire range of thought but I hope that we can catch the main thrust of the apostles teaching in the very cursory brief study we will make of this portion this morning. This is a passage you remember that is set in the context of the free and gracious justifying work of God. In chapter 5 the apostle has been saying God's dealings with mankind are in terms of Adam or in terms of his dear son and where sin abounds grace does superabound whatever sin has produced grace is more mighty to overcome and it overcomes

16:11 not by the efforts of the sinner but by the free act of God's justification through Jesus Christ. Well then someone draws the conclusion and Paul mentions it at the beginning of chapter 6 what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? If a three foot high pile of sin is covered by God's grace then a six foot high pile will be covered by more grace so the more we sin the more it manifests God's grace why not continue in sin that grace may superabound?

16:48 If no matter how high the mountain of sin is grace is higher then let's raise the mountain of sin as high as we can that grace may be displayed with all the more fullness. That's the warrant for the accusation or the implication. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

17:10 Now how does Paul answer it? God forbid we who died till we any longer live therein or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death we were buried therefore with him through baptism into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father so we also might walk in newness of life or if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin for he that hath died is justified released from sin but if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death no more hath dominion over him for the death that he died he died under sin once but the life that he liveth he liveth unto God even so reckoned

18:40 this comes as a command Professor Murray has demonstrated I believe that this should be not a command but just an indicative statement and the verb ending is identical and context determines whether you ought to translate it a command or just a statement and I believe this should be even so he are reckoning yourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus now let's try to grapple with Paul's understanding or the Holy Spirit opening up of the truth through the understanding of Paul of this vital issue what is the character or nature of sanctification begun or the radical cleavage and the most succinct answer is that which is given in verse 2 of this passage which I've just read we who died to sin what is the nature of that radical cleavage with sin which occurs at the beginning which meets us on the threshold of the Christian life it is nothing less than a death to sin Paul in answering the objection well if where sin abounds grace does much more abound why let's continue

20:07 in sin to display more fully the greatness of grace he says no this cannot be for the very relationship which brings you into the possession of the free gift of justification brings the believer into a position where he is dead sin he died this is not an exhortation you ought to die this is not something that is for an advanced person who can understand all the intricacies of deep teaching on sanctification he's writing to Rome many mighty not many noble are called he's writing to the rank and file of the people of God at Rome and he says if we are sanctification has made us dead the nature begun or the radical cleavage is nothing less than death shout this thought and follow the Apostle's argument notice with me what he says

21:34 about our relationship to sin united to Christ he says in verse 7 that by nature we were in bondage sin by nature is one of bondage to its power verse 14 for sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace until a man comes into the sphere of the operations of grace sin has dominion over him look at verse 16 know ye not that to whom ye present yourselves servants unto obedience his servants or slaves ye are whom ye obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but thanks be to God that whereas ye piling up of this constant imagery he says we were in bondage to sin sin had dominion over us we were its slaves and then in verse 19 he says this was not just a positional thing it was a very practical thing verse 19 he says that we were in bondage verse 19 he says I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity he said you weren't sin servants in name only you were sin servants

23:03 in fact and in reality you presented your members your hands to do the bidding of the dictates of sin your mind of thoughts your affections of sin to feed sinful attitudes your ears to receive sinful sounds your feet walked in sinful paths faculties and appetites were given over to sin he said you were sin slaves in a most practical and in a most obvious way this is what they were in bondage to sin had dominion over them they were its slaves they rendered it practical service and then he goes on to say in verse 20 for when ye were the slaves of sin ye were free in regard to righteousness just as a slave recognizes no will but the will of his master he said you were free men in regard to the reign of righteousness God seated upon his throne issuing his holy law demanding perfect and perpetual obedience you couldn't have cared less in regard to the reign of righteousness God could say thou shalt not God could say thou shalt not that didn't bother you when you were sin slaves you were its exclusive slaves and then he goes on to say

24:32 in this condition you were liable to its end which is death verse 21 what fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death now that's the picture of every single Roman Christian before the operations of grace sin has practical we are utterly free with respect to the reign of righteousness we recognize no claim of it over us and in that condition we are liable to death so then the person who is alive to live he gives his mind to sin his energies his affection you have a beautiful commentary I should say a tragic commentary of this in Ephesians 2 where Paul says you have he made alive who were dead in sin and what does it mean to be dead in trespasses in sin it means to be alive in this world to be dead

25:59 in sin means that I am alive the world the world the world of what is right and wrong and good and beautiful he says ye walked according to the course of this world the world and the engine of move say if you are here this morning by the course of this world that's an evidence of your death in the realm of sin according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh among the children of disobedience you were the dukes of the death he says in so doing you fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath the picture of all men by nature the person who is alive the man he is no longer he gets up in the morning and he smells the bacon cooking in the kitchen and his mouth begins to water and all the juices begin to secrete in his tummy and he's very hungry so he goes out and he satisfies

27:29 his appetite and then as he puts on his hat his coat and starts to go out into the driveway to go to work he sees his shiny new car there and he stops and pauses and looks at it and stands there and feels a real warm glow and on his way up the ladder of promotion he's finally can drive his GTO he hops in his GTO and he goes off to work and there meets him his very attractive young secretary and he says hello to her and makes a flirtatious remark and then he goes on in and looks at the morning report of how business is doing you see here's a man who's very much alive the realm of his existence is bacon and eggs and shiny cars and pretty secretaries of his existence he goes out that afternoon to play a little basketball at the gymnasium and he has a cardiac arrest and by the time the emergency squad gets there he's dead we could carry him back into that kitchen where he was that morning and have the wipes put on the bacon have the aroma filtered through the room and out into the place where he was shaving earlier there's no response what's happened he's died take him out in front of his shiny car and see if there's any twitch of the eyelids no response his pretty secretary walked by

28:57 no response the wall street journal at his feet no response what's happened he's died and to die means that you're no longer active in and responsive to the dominion of sin you who were the selectable subject you are no longer in the realm where grace is true right you are no longer dead in sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ the Lord now in the very same passage look what happens when that transpires in the life of a person verse 2 he died to sin verse 6 that our old crucified verse 7 crucified released from sin verse 14 sin shall not have dominion over you he doesn't say sin ought not this is a statement of fact sin shall not

30:27 have dominion over you if you're in the realm of grace verse 18 he who were the servants of sin he says in verse 18 you have been made from sin and have been made the slaves of righteousness verse 22 but now being made free from sin and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life do you see the concept of radical cleavage here in Romans 6 from a state in which you were the slaves of righteousness and of God under the dominion of sin no longer dominion over you where you were free with regard to righteousness you didn't recognize its claims only the claims of the master called sin now you are the slaves of righteousness where you were liable to death and I say on the basis of this passage which is the pivotal passage which I have just read nothing short of a life servitude bondage

31:55 the concept of the word of God and not one of these statements in Romans 6 which I have just read died to sin verse 2 old man has been crucified verse 6 we have been released verse 7 sin shall not have dominion verse 14 you have been made the slaves of God verse 22 not one of these is an exhortation not once is he saying you ought to be dead you ought to be released you ought to become servants they are all statements of fact you have been there is not one exhortation it is all in the realm of the statement of fact therefore we are say sleeves that yes you can do yes just 3 12 13 14 13 12 13 14 17 18 19 20 28 22 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 27 28 27

33:20 partakers of God's free grace, it is in union with Christ that we have been thus blessed. And if in union with Christ, then it is in union with His death, burial, and resurrection. If we've been united with Christ, we've been united with Him in His death. And what did the death of Christ mean? For in that He died, He died to sin once for all, Romans 6, 10.

33:45 Now, hence, if we died with Him, we also died to sin once for all. And we who died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein? Romans 6, 2. It is this concept of having died to sin that expresses more eloquently than any other in Scripture the definitive cleavage with sin which takes place when in the work of God's grace a person is united to Christ.

34:15 Just as the expression, dead in trespasses and sins, intimates our helpless enslavement in the service of sin, so death to sin expresses our emancipation from this servitude. The person who has died to sin no longer lives and acts in the sphere and realm of sin. In the moral and spiritual realm, there is a translation as real and decisive as in the realm of sin. It is a translation of the physical death of an individual. Those who still live in the realm of sin and whose life is constituted by sin, they say, with reference to the person translated from that state, he passed away, though he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. The transformation is so real they feel we've lost one who was one of our fellow citizens in the dominion of sin. We've lost him. Peter brings out this

35:16 concept. I think it's strange that he walked not with them to the same except the riot, speaking evil of you. They don't understand it. They've lost one of their buddies, and they can understand it. The person who has died to sin no longer lives there. It's no longer the world of his thought, his affection, his will, his life, and his action. His wellsprings are now in the kingdom which is totally antithetical, that is totally against that kingdom of sin, the kingdom of God and of righteousness. Now, listen to this last paragraph. I believe it's prophetically eloquent. We are too ready to give heed to what we think to be the hard-nosed facts of Christian profession. We see so many who profess to be justified, in whom there's no evidence of the radical cleavage, and we have erased the clear line of demarcation which Scripture defines. As a result, we've lost our vision of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Our ethic has lost its place in our care, and our faith has been left out to the world for too long. We've become

36:18 conformed to this world. We know not the power of death to sin in the death of Christ, and we're not able to bear the rigor of the liberty of redemptive emancipation. We die to sin. The glory of Christ's accomplishment and the guarantee of the Christian ethic or the Christian sanctification are bound up with that doctrine. If we live in sin, we have not died to it. We have not died to sin because of our faith, because of our faith, because of our love for Christ. We have not died to sin because we have lived in sin. We have not died to sin because of our faith, because of our faith. We have not died to sin because And if we have not died to it, we are not Christ's. If we live in sin, we've not died to sin. Any more than if someone says, well, I pronounced that fellow dead. And he still salivates when he smells the bacon.

37:03 He still ogles at his GTO. He still casts his lustful glances at his secretary. You tell me that man's dead? No, no.

37:13 If he's still alive to the fear of bacon and GTOs and pretty secretaries, he's very much alive.

37:22 The person says that they are united to Christ's virtue of that union and sticks himself to the dominion of sin. The members, the mind, the heart, the affection by the prince of the power of the air. He's fooling himself.

37:53 When so eloquently stated in volume three, and I shall never forget when sitting at my study desk two weeks ago and I read it for the first time, it just came like a thunderbolt from heaven. Any man in whom the death of Christ, for sin has not become his death, to sin shall die in his.

38:18 You got it? Central in the Apostle Paul. But we find it in Peter, and I will only read these passages and not attempt to exegete them. I think they will be clear as you parallel them with what we've already considered.

38:54 But just to show that this is not a thought exclusive to the Apostle Paul. First Peter chapter two for a moment.

39:03 Speaking of our Lord, it says, verse twenty-two of chapter two of first Peter, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judged it righteously. Now follow closely. Who his own self bare in his body a tree, that we under righteous, by whose stripes he were healed. A healing he did never know until the right. I can't believe it. Which with sin is experienced.

40:02 All the pronounced healing by virtue of the cross that leads young people and adults wedded to their pride and to their self-sufficiency, to their worldly ambition and their worldly standards, to their carnal aims and hopes. Say this is the terrible healing of which Jeremiah speaks when he says they have healed slightly the hurt of the daughter of my people, saying peace, peace, when there is. And then this thought stands central in the thinking of the Apostle John. And again, I will only mention the reference in the interest of time.

40:40 First John chapter three, verses six to nine. We heard some of this last night where John says, by virtue of the act of the divine forgetting, he that is born of God does not commit sin. That is, he does not make a practice of sin. He does not have his existence in the realm of sin.

41:02 Why? He says he cannot because he has been born of God. In other words, operative in his regeneration, which have forever and have placed him in the sphere of righteousness. And he said, don't let anyone deceive you with any other talk.

41:25 He that does still practice sin is of a devil. He shows that he's still in that Ephesians 2, 1 to 3 realm, where he is alive to sin and therefore spiritually dead. But if he's spiritually alive, he is dead. So much then for the nature of this cleavage.

Agents of Radical Cleavage: The Triune God

41:44 It is basically.

41:47 Now, having considered the evidence for this concept of the radical cleavage, sanctification begun, having looked at the nature or character of it, death. Now consider with me in the third place this morning, what are the agency or means by which this change is brought about? To state it briefly and then we'll break it down in detail. We may say, that the saving activity of the Triune God present at the beginning of Salvation is that which secures this radical cleavage and this decisive breach with sin.

42:27 It is not to be measured by the sincerity of the decision which the sinner makes. Often when I've tried to convey this concept in other terms, people have come and said, Oh, Brother Martin, I can't fight that. That's so obvious in the Bible. But, but, and whenever anyone says, I agree with you, but, I know that everything follows the but.

42:47 It's going to be a slow cancellation of everything they said they agreed with.

42:54 They say, but,

43:00 the gospel presented was very defective. Sentence was not emphasized. The Lordship of Christ was not preached. The law was not preached.

43:08 Therefore, since there was such a minimum of knowledge, the decision was lacking in terms of understanding. Therefore, you can't expect this radical cleavage. A defective gospel, they say, must produce, a defective product. Ah, but I say, listen, if God has a defective gospel, it will be a work that makes the receiver of that work get by the understanding or the sincerity of the sinner's decision.

43:47 No, no,

43:51 not to be measured in terms of our effort in our cooperation with God's work of grace. This aspect of sanctification is one in which we are totally passive. Now, don't you leave and go away from the conference until tomorrow, because I want to show you in the process we are totally active. But in this crisis of radical breach, sanctification begun, we are the ones acted upon by the triune God.

44:18 And now let's break that down and look first of all at the activity of the Father in this radical cleavage. The activity of the Son, and then the activity of the Son. The activity of the Father in vocation or calling. The activity of the Spirit in regeneration, and the activity of the Son in identification.

44:39 And I give you those words not to appear clever, but I've labored to try to give you some pegs upon which to hang these concepts. What does the Father do to secure this radical breach with sin? He effectually calls us. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9.

44:57 God is faithful by whom ye were called unto or into the fellowship of his Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. The Father is the one who effectually calls us. Now, Son. He calls us into a life of participation, actively and dynamically, with the power offered up in his Son.

45:36 And so we must view calling as nothing less than a vital participation in and experience of the virtue which resides in Christ as a Savior. Now, was he manifested as a Savior to save us from sin? Matthew 1.21.

45:53 Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Well, if I've been called into fellowship with him by the Father, it is obvious then that I have been called out of the realm and dominion of sin. For the very purpose for which he was manifested was to save a people from sin. This is what he died for, as we read in 1 Peter 2.

46:17 So whenever one is called into fellowship in Christ, he experiences the radical. As one of God's servants has said, it is by calling that we are united to Christ. And it is this union Christ which binds the people to those powers by which they are sanctified. There is the activity of the Spirit in producing this radical cleavage in regeneration.

46:47 Because we had the dissertation last night, the exposition of this doctrine, I'll only need to underscore several thoughts. The Fall left us devoid of any internal principle or power to move us in the direction of holiness and sanctification. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Romans 8, 7 and 8.

47:08 The carnal mind, enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Well, there we are. No indecision to good, speaking, by virtue of our training and the enlightenment of conscience, we may choose some good things in terms of moral uprightness, and social decency, but in terms of goodness, acts from a right motive, love to God and submission to God, acts that are done with a right end in view, the glory of God, there is none that doeth good by nature. But we are possessed with every inclination to evil, to sin and unclean.

47:50 I love, too, when I'm speaking to children, to get across this idea. I just say to them, now, you children, how many of you had to learn how to handle a knife and a fork? They all raised their hands. How many of you had to learn how to tie your shoes?

48:05 How many of you had to learn your ABCs? They all raised their hands. I asked them all these different things they've had to learn. Then I asked this question.

48:11 How many of you had to go to school, or sit down and take three lessons from somebody, on how to lie? And the kids always sheepishly look at one another, and nobody's raising their hands. I say, how many of you had to take lessons on how to say no to your mom and to your dad? How many of you had to take a lesson on how to fight with your brothers and sisters?

48:33 I say, ah, but some of you are pretty good liars. Some of you are pretty good knowers. Some of you are pretty good fighters. Now, how come you learn those things so well?

48:46 Because you've got your own built-in teacher, who from within, out of the heart, can see all of these things. Now, there we are in that condition. It's not as though we're in the dominion of sin, as those who have been forcibly brought into it against our will, longing for emancipation. No, no.

49:08 Satan, we drink iniquity like water. As Paul says in Romans 6, we gladly present instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. When sin said, give me your ears for gossip, we said, gladly. When sin said, give me tongue for violence, we said, gladly.

49:25 When sin said, give me your feet to go in paths of uncleanness, we said, gladly. Oh, we had a few misgivings, and a few twinges of conscience, but it was worth it. Give me your heart to see in bitterness. Give me your mind to be filled with lust and pride, we said, gladly.

49:44 Sure, here it is. The business of obedience, other than light, mirrors regeneration. It is called, in Titus 3, 5, the washing of regeneration. It is this washing which produces this radical cleavage.

50:13 It is called that in regeneration we are given, to quote John Owen, the supernatural principle of grace, into the soul, the mind, the will, and the affection, and enabling us to the life of holiness and obedience. How does this radical cleavage come about? It suddenly dives. There is the work of the Father in vocation.

50:51 He calls him into fellowship with his Son, translates him out of the kingdom of darkness into the Son of his love. There is the work of the Spirit in regenerating him, giving him this new, spiritual, supernatural, vital principle of grace, infused into the soul, the mind, the will, and the affections, disposing him and enabling him to the life of holiness and obedience. Again, as Owen says, the Spirit enters into him, into no soul as his habitation, but at the same instant, he dethrones sin, spoils it of its dominion, and takes the rule of the soul into the hand of his own grace. He does in regeneration. So that is why John can say, he that is born of God carries the life of obedience, so that if he does sin, he is out of his native element, and he is restless until he is living consistently with this new principle of grace. So then there is the activity of the Father in calling, the activity of the Spirit in regeneration,

52:16 and then we come to what is perhaps one of the purest gospel mysteries. That is something that was hid in ages past, but now revealed, but something that transcends the powers of the mind to grasp. And I confess that I've staggered in my own spirit as I've tried to grapple with it until I feel I've come up to that veil, where all one can do is lay his mind aside and just worship, and say, Oh God, I cannot penetrate the mystery, but by faith I can grasp it, and by your Spirit's power can enjoy the benefits of it. It's the activity of the Son in identification.

The Mystery of Union with Christ in Death and Resurrection

52:57 That's the whole teaching of Romans chapter 6. And let's go back to it for just a moment to pick up the thread of thought. He states in verse 2, We died to sin. Straight on this, you Romans, because this is the very thing that was illustrated in your baptism.

53:22 And this is not a Baptist or a passage that one must read through Baptist-colored glasses to see baptism. Professor Murray, a militant Phaedo-Baptist, in the sense that he at least wrote a book defending that position, makes no qualms about saying that there is a reference here to water baptism. And so do most of the ableist exegetes. Notice Paul's argument.

53:46 He says, Shall we continue in sin to grace me about? God forbid. We died to sin. He says, Now you should know this.

53:53 Are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? He said, Your baptism symbolized union with Christ. You were removed. You were baptized.

54:07 You were a demonstration of these great facts. You went down with Him. You emerged. You stepped over the threshold of Christ.

54:22 Not only were you declaring that by virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, you have a basis of forgiveness, but you were declaring your life as He rose to newness of life. So now you have experienced newness of life. And then from that point on, Paul talks about their death to sin in terms of Christ's death to sin. Notice.

54:51 We were buried, therefore, with Him into death, so we might walk. If we become united with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Our old man was crucified with Him. Verse 8.

55:08 If we die with Christ, bringing us into that gospel mystery of union with Jesus Christ, that the activity of the Son of God in this radical cleavage is that of identification. So join to Him, and He to open to Him. It happens to us. So this brings three very basic questions to our minds, and I want to attempt to wrestle with them.

55:42 Question 1. What is the relationship of the death and resurrection of Christ to the sanctifying process to this radical cleavage? The answer is that when Jesus Christ took His people into union with Himself, in eternity, He sees Him once. We were chosen in Him.

56:07 That union was not severed when He came to earth in the fullness of time. No, no. And in those pivotal acts by which He secured the salvation of His people, which were what? Death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, He did not sever this relationship with His people.

56:26 No. As they were chosen in Him, and conceived in the mind of God as united to Him before they had any being, in eternity, so they were conceived of as in Him when He died, in Him when He was buried, in Him when He was raised, the death, the death, so that when anyone is brought by the effectual call of the Father and the regenerative work of the Spirit to embrace the Lord Jesus in the virtue of His death, always in such a way that that individual experiences the severing power of that death from the realm and the dominion of sin. That's the thought of 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15. Notice here in this passage. For we must judge, the apostle says, if one died, then one died for all, that they who live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.

57:32 Death for them was there in 2 Corinthians 5, 19 and 20. I, through the law, died to the law that I might live unto Christ. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live with Christ.

57:52 And in the flesh I live by the faith of God, the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. What's the relationship of Christ's death and resurrection to this radical cleavage? Some would say it's simply a relationship of foundation. The basis upon which I'm sanctified is that of justification rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ.

58:14 So they would make the relationship between Christ's death and resurrection and our sanctification indirect and indirect. The foundation is justification. That foundation is constructed of the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, the only basic relationship between the death and resurrection of Christ and the sanctification of believers is indirect and supportive.

58:33 That doesn't do justice to this teaching. Paul says the relationship is not indirect and supportive, but it is directive. There is a power and the power in virtue is the power in virtue and the power in virtue is the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue and the power in virtue there is no doubt because of the sovereign and the prop experimenting being of flesh that God is God in such a way that, the prophet has said, Christ is the only that is not subject to the Professor Murray, it is by virtue of our having died with Christ and being raised with Him that the decisive breach with sin has been wrought. The reason for this is that Christ in His death and resurrection broke the power of sin. Hebrews 2, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death. The reason is that Christ in His death and resurrection broke the power of sin, triumphed over the God of this world, executed judgment on the world and its ruler,

60:01 and by that victory delivered all those united to Him in His death and resurrection. So intimate is the union between Christ and His people that they were partakers with Him in His triumphant achievements. As the death and resurrection of Christ are central in the whole process of redemptive accomplishment, so they are central. They are central in that by which sanctification is wrought in the very hearts and lives of His people.

60:32 Third question, when did believers die and rise with Christ? You say, how could I die and rise with Him before I had any being? Well, since the terms speak of the actual people who have experienced this death to sin, it would seem that we must locate it at the point of their effectual calling. He says to the Romans, you died to sin.

60:50 This was illustrated in your baptism. So when did we die and rise with Christ? In time when we were effectually called? Well, we read, and that seems to contradict that, because He says, our death to sin is inseparably joined to His.

61:04 We were buried with Him. Well, when was He buried? 2,000 years ago. At the time He wrote to the Roman Christians, probably some, what, 20 years since He died.

61:15 But He says, when He died 20 years ago, you died with Him. When He rose, you rose with Him. Well, when did we die with Christ then? When He died or when we are effectually called?

61:24 Both are true. Both are true. And the basis of, any personally of the liberating power of the death and resurrection of Christ that makes me dead to sin is based upon the once for all fact of His death and resurrection.

61:45 As one has said, believers died with Christ and rose with Him in virtue of this mysterious relationship constituted from eternal ages. And this is a necessary fact of the Christian faith. It is no stumbling block, but, but an integral part of the mystery of the relationship of Christ to His church. Nobody can say He died and rose with Christ in the once for all death and resurrection of Christ 2,000 years ago unless there has been the effectual call of the Father which has actually produced in Him His death to sin and His emergence to newness of life.

62:25 It's parallel to the atonement. When were the sins of believers taken care of? When were the sins of the elect of God atoned for in the once for all act of Christ's atonement? He gave Himself up to God for us and yet until believers repent and believe the gospel, they are under wrath, they are under condemnation.

62:47 So that what is true in the objective provision is true in the subjective application. Jesus Christ secured the release of all of His people when He died upon that cross. He secured not only their forgiveness, but the radical grief from the dominion and rule, when the spirit regenerates to a call of the Father. Then they come to experience in their lives that which was procured in His death and they are always effectually called in such a way as to make real in them that which was purchased and secured for them.

63:33 And He never procured a salvation that would bring deliverance from condemnation for sin without sin. Without deliverance from the power and dominion of sin. And anyone who says they've got that kind of salvation has got a salvation for which they better have another Savior other than our blessed Lord. For He died not only for us, but we died in Him.

Practical Implications: God's Exclusive Work and Repentance/Faith

63:59 Now, I know that this has been heavy, perhaps it's gone over the heads of some and I can only say that I just have done my best to try to bring it simply and clearly and the Spirit of God must bring the illumination. May I close this morning with some practical implications and applications of this truth. The first is this. It should be very obvious that this work of the radical cleavage, sanctification begun, is totally and exclusively the work of God.

64:32 No man calls himself, no man regenerates himself, no man brings to himself the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection. No. Colossians 1.13.

64:44 It's a beautiful statement of that which should be clear to all of us this morning where he says in this text, Who hath delivered us out of the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. This then should produce in the heart of every child of God who knows experimentally this death of sin. You knew the time when you were dead in sin, very much alive to sin, цу I am sorry, will smile asización, very much alive to sin. Most wrong you are.

65:18 You were over the touching of your friendship from先天 because you weren't like him. Now you're as you were and you are able to surrounded yourself from all evils, and the problems, alliquial problems, all dead ones, noises, a panic, emotions, pain, punishments, usvoice, everything, we kadın weτz verbatim we fascinating you numb and crippled tonight objective количество and capacity throughout the world, ontcca and grace. It should cause you to sing from the heart, blessing and glory and honor be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and forever. And for you who are strangers to grace, and I have no foolish delusions that we are all here in the state of grace, may this cause you to see that something more is needed than some little resolution, that you're going to be done with some little external aspects of sin, and that you're going to live for God and for Christ. My friend, you're a troop of the devil and a slave of sin in bondage to the God of this world, nothing less than the putting forth of the arm of omnipotence, and yet he is might to save. Jesus sits upon the throne as a willing and an able Savior. That's the first implication which I trust

66:40 will be recognized. The second is this, that the first conscious acting of the person delivered from sin will be recognized. The second is this, that the first conscious acting of the person delivered from the dominion of sin, the first thing he's conscious of is what I'm calling the formal divorce from his sin in repentance and faith. For what is repentance?

67:00 But the sinner saying from the heart, the mind, the affections, I choose to be done with that realm in which I moved and lived and had my peace. I was the slurred slave of sin. I now divorce myself from sin's mastery. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I gave my members as instruments of uncleanness. I made my someplace right, thereby sharing with the Radical child a good relationship with one another. I refused to do so any longer so they should be members and instruments of righteousness. Uh-huh!

67:21 Very good. Now I've got the first conscious realization of the person upon whom the triune God has worked to produce the Radical cleavage. It is his affirmation of that work in the conscious acts of repentance by which he turns from sin and submits to the government of God. And the faith by which he acknowledges his only hope of ис Giving you as sacraments God in the Cyrus Romans of the book of Proverbs, are, true faith to you and your 该, the good of God, praise and railway through your worship.

67:40 acts of repentance by which he turns from sin and submits to the government of God and of faith by which he acknowledges that his only hope of forgiveness and of cleansing and of power to be what God would have him to be is stored up in Jesus Christ the Lord. I ask you this morning, do you know anything of that true biblical repentance so beautifully defined in the Shorter Catechism? That work of God's grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after the new obedience. The radical cleavage always comes to light in the sinner's consciousness when he repents and then when he believes in what his saving faith, it is. It is as one has so eloquently stated, self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work as he is so fully and freely offered to us in the gospel.

Practical Implications: Knowing Sin's Dominion is Broken

68:56 Then where that divorce has been genuine and the result of God's effectual work in the heart, it will always express itself in practical, demonstrable, biblical holiness and sanctification. He says, as you presented your members servants to unrighteousness, your servitude to sin was not theoretical or positional, it was actual and practical. So now, he says, present your members instruments of righteousness unto God in the awareness that sin shall have dominion over you. That's the last implication I would draw. It is necessary for the Christian to know that sin's dominion has been broken. For sin is like a deposition. And the fellowship of a'll be lost and when sin is not cooked or put back into safe place the word is a new person who has come back to life again. Quote, Quote, Quote, his pocket a copy of the proclamation and stick it in the face of the would-be master

70:21 and say, you have no claims over me. Here's the declaration. Go your way. So the child of God must know, and it must become real and must become a point of conscious faith and a focus of his relationship to God. Sin's lordship has been broken. Then when allurements come, I may face that which would take me back into bondage and say, no, by virtue of Christ's death and resurrection, I've been severed from that realm. You have no dominion over me and refuse to give ourselves to its servitude. Notice in Romans 6 that every exhortation to holiness begins in verse 12. After he states clearly the fact of the radical cleavage, then it only dead-ends, as he's saying. Now, he says in the light of this, don't present

71:15 your members instruments of unrighteousness. It's necessary for the Christian to know that sin's dominion has been broken in order that he might get on with the process of sanctification. I would close where I began this morning by saying nothing, perhaps nothing, is more pathetic than the feeble, half-hearted attempts of half-converted people to do something in the realm of the process of sanctification, keeping up an outward form of religion. It's necessary to have an outward form of reading the Bible from time to time, because you know that Christians are supposed to, and if you're to salve your conscience, you've got to read a little bit. But when you've read enough just to make conscience be still, that's all you're concerned about. You don't come back to the book. Why? Because there's

72:05 no real hunger for holiness. There's no real hunger for God. But you've got to read enough to pacify the conscience. You've got to go to enough meetings to make you feel that, well, maybe my profession is valid. Nothing more pathetic than to see people involved in some of the aspects of sanctification. Sanctification continues. We'll never have had the root of the matter in them. They're the ones who, when they've reached the standard of what Christians are supposed to be, they level off and they stay there for twenty years. No pressing on in holiness. No pressing on in the knowledge of God. No holy dissatisfaction with their present state. No forgetting the things that are behind. Pressing on to the things that are before. None of this. They've joined the cult of contentment. What's their problem? I would say that in most cases, they're 내일. They're still here. They've never experienced it before. This is the problem that they've

73:04 never experienced sanctification begun. Radical cleavage. Radical cleavage. And it's only upon that basis of sanctification begun in the radical cleavage that sanctification continued in the gradual process, can be experienced. And only then is there grounds to believe that sanctification completed in the final crisis will be lost. Turn to Romans 6.22, as the last text says, and I like to quote here, which makes sense, but it's also kind of difficult to read this. So the Bible says, you've got to believe in God. And the Bible says, and the Bible says, John Riesing was closing for 35 minutes. I'll just be closing for 5 this morning.

Conclusion: All Three Aspects in Romans 6:22

73:35 But will you notice how these thoughts are all brought together beautifully in Romans 6, 22.

73:43 Romans 6 and verse 22. But now being made free from sin, radical cleavage, sanctification begun, sin's dominion broken by virtue of your union with Christ. Notice, and become servants to God. That's what's already happened to you.

74:06 Ye are having, there's a present tense verb there, ye are having your fruit under sanctification. That's the process. And the end, eternal life, the final Christ. There it is, all in one text.

74:21 And you dare not wrench any of these ones from the other. The only way to have our fruit under sanctification is to know that we've been made free from sin and become servants. Then and only then can there be fruit unto holiness. Then and only then is there.

74:39 Then and only then is there valid ground to believe. We shall know the full enjoyment of all that's bound up in the word, the end, eternal life.

Prayer for Understanding and Experience

74:49 May God grant that he shall give us understanding and experience of sanctification begun, the radical. O Lord our God, we stand this morning amazed at those provisions which have been stored up for the elect of God in Jesus. We thank you for the truth. We thank you for the truth of our union with him.

75:24 That when he went to the cross, we were in him. When he rose, we were in him. Those of us who are your children now experience the very power of that death and resurrection. That like as he was raised from the dead by your glory, even so we are now walking in that newness of life.

75:46 You have quickened us together with him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, blessed Father.

75:53 Come, we pray, and do that work of radical cleavage in the hearts of fellows and girls and men and women in this place who are simply dabbling with some external contact with a few Christian duties, but who know nothing of being delivered from the dominion of sin. Oh, God, do your work. And then help us as your people. We may face that usurper when sin would seek to come and reclaim any faster, but we pray that you would give us, we pray, in that instant, the remembrance based upon the truth of your word that we died to sin and that we will not present our members to that to which we died. Seal this word to our hearts. Continue to be with us through this day. We plead for the glory of your dear Son, in whose name we pray.