Sanctification: The Importance of the Subject

Introduction

I. The Obligations of Obedience

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:34-40)

A. Duty to Man (Heb. 13:20; Eph. 2:14; Lk. 10:6; Matt. 5:9; Rom. 12:18; 14:17-19; Jam. 4:1; 3:18)

B. Duty to God (1 Pet. 1:16; Matt. 5:48)

II. The Source of Obedience

“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14)

A. God's Grace

B. God's Gospel (1 Cor. 1:30; 1:2; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:25-27; WLC)

“Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputes the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification His Spirit infuses grace, and enables to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one does equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection.”

Conclusion (Hebrews 7:2-3; Col. 2:8-10)