Gospel Centered Sanctification

Good morning. Im excited to be here at chapel to share with you today. Like any good Christian I bring you nothing new; only old truths repeated and stolen from those much smarter than myself. Today Ive entitled this message Gospel Centered Living. You could probably add a subtitle, too. Gospel Centered sanctification. Just a quick reminder, sanctification is the life long process of becoming more like Christ. Our aim then, is to see how the Gospel (all that Jesus has done and is for us) informs how we grow in our Christlikeness. My text is one short verse in two Corinthians five, verse twenty-one. This is not intended to be exhaustive, but instead I intend to share several practical applications of this text for you. Lets open our Bibles and look at it.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV)

The most important goal of today is to point you to Christ and His finished work. In fact, Paul is doing the same thing here in chapter 5. Starting in verse 14 he is explaining his ministry motivations. Christ has died for him, and because of that the love God is now the controlling influence in his life . Furthermore, because Paul is trusting in Christ, he is no longer to live according to the flesh, he is a new creation (v.17). All of this (look at verse 18) is through the reconciling work of Christ. Jesus has accomplished it all for Paul (and believers). As a result, we are also called to be reconciled to God through the finished work of Christ (v. 20). Its following this call that Paul gives one of his simplest explanations of the gospel. Lets walk through it piece by piece.

For our sake. God, out of his own good pleasure and kindness has deemed to save sinners. You needed help. There was nothing particularly attractive in you. There was nothing that was especially desirable. It was because of Gods mercy that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). At the cross, says Gerhard Forde, God stormed the last bastion of the self, the last presumption that you were going to do something for him.

He made him to be sin. There are two different persons acting in this verse. Look up to verse 20. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. There are our two persons. God the Father, and God the Son (Christ). God the Father looked on Jesus as the fullness of all our sin. He wasnt actually sinful. We know that Hebrews 4:15 says For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. You might say that the Father is counting Jesus as sinful, though He was without sin. And thats what the next part says, right? Who knew no sin. Jesus is the one who was counted as sinful, though He was perfectly righteous.

Why? Why would God count Jesus as sin? Look at that last part So that we might become the righteousness of God. This is important. Look where your righteousness comes from. It comes from God. God the Son. Dont miss this. Many Christians get the first part. They know that Jesus has been made sin on their behalf. They know that their sins are forgiven. But then what? Am I simply put back into a state like Adam in the

garden, somehow neutral and needing to earn my good standing? The answer is an important: NO. In the same way that Jesus is counted as sinful, but was not actually a sinner, you are now (Christian) counted as righteous though you were not actually righteous. You have all of Jesus perfect merits. You get his resume. You get His perfect life, and it is counted as if you had actually did it! Amazing. This is what Martin Luther and others called the great exchange. Jesus takes our badness, we get his goodness. You might call it double imputation. Feel free to word drop that one if youd like.

When you get this, you start to realize what it means to rest in Christ. Now that I have all of Christs righteousness there is nothing more that I can do or add to my salvation. How much do I need to read my Bible? Zero. Jesus was the perfect Bible reader on my behalf. How much do I need to serve and love others? Zero. Jesus has already done that perfectly on my behalf. How good do I have to be? Brace yourself not at all. All of your goodness is in Jesus. Do you really think that you can add to what Jesus has done? It would be like having Jesus perfect resume in front of you, and pulling out your Crayola crayon to write over it I didnt swear today. Now dont hear me incorrectly, those good things are important, and believers will do them. Believers are known by their fruit (Matt. 7:16-20). What Im saying is they dont add to your salvation. They dont make God love you more or less. They dont make you extra spiritual. You already are fully spiritual because you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. You are already seen as perfectly righteous. You already have the promise that you will be perfectly like Christ at your glorification. Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in

you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Just as you are sure that Christ was raised up and justified before the Lord, so you also can be sure that you, being found in him, will be raised up and justified. You are seen as if you actually were Christ, all the time; before, in the midst of, and after your worst sins as a believer. God can see you in no other way because of what Christ has done for you. One theologian says it this way, God can no sooner stop loving believers as He can stop loving Christ. Another says, Though the saints in heaven are more joyous and peaceful than we are, we are no less loved or secure than they are. Do you hear that? Being in Christ means that you can rest from trying to earn your status with God and realize that it has been fully attained for you in Christ. God will not be angry with you, the demands of the law are now gone, and God is only working for your good and His glory. Grace sounds too good to be true, and thats why were so tempted to add our obedience to it.

But what about sin you might ask? Wont believers take advantage of this and go and sin abundantly? No! Gods love is the controlling influence in the Christians life. Thats what is so crazy and risky about the Gospel. It is free grace and yet it is powerful grace. When Martin Luthers understudy Philip Melanchthon was trying to understand grace he wrote to Luther, I woke this morning wondering if I trust Christ enough. Luther received such letters from Melanchthon regularly. He had a tendency, to wonder about the state of his inner faith, and whether it was enough to save. Finally, in an effort to pull out all the stops and pull Melanchthon out of himself, Luther wrote back and said, Melanchthon! Go sin bravely! Then go to the cross and bravely confess it! The whole

gospel is outside of us! Luther wasnt saying that sin was good, instead he was helping Melanchthon see that his salvation is outside of himself; entirely in Jesus. As you truly understand grace more and more, your life is transformed more and more to be like Christ. What you dont need is more rules, you need more grace. Its Gods grace, according to Titus that trains us to be more obedient. Titus 2:11-14: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live selfcontrolled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. As you see Gods love for you more and more, you are increasingly motivated to be obedient. In a similar way; knowing that your parents will never disown you and that they "have an unconditional love for you motivates you to be more obedient. This is why back in two Corinthians five fourteen Paul says that the love of God controls him. The more you are able to see Gods love for you in His abundant free grace, the more you will find yourself desiring to obey. Not to add to your salvation, but because you simply want to! Spurgeon says, When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, [I couldnt believe I could ever have] rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good.

We dont live like that though. Have you ever had a day that was noticeably more sinful than another? As that day went on, did you ever feel like it was probable; maybe even likely that bad things should happen to you because you had been in a Big sin that day? Christian, where is your righteousness? Is it in you and your day to day performance, or is it in Christ? The gospel changes everything about how you live your day to day life. As a Christian you no longer live under a performance driven fear of acceptance. The acceptance is already yours in Christ. That is why Jesus said, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30).

You might be starting to catch my main idea by now. More laws and rules will not help you in your Christian walk. Not a chance. All the doing has been done. Your job is to look to Christ and all he has done for you. As you behold Christ and who you already are in Him, you will see yourself change. If you focus on personal change, you will make very little long term process. Let me give you a fun illustration.

Imagine there are two believers. Lets make it personal, Charlie and Cornelius. Charlie and Cornelius get the Gospel. Now both of them want to make it to the town of glorification (thats where they end up perfectly like Jesus). Along the way they need to become more and more sanctified (becoming like Christ). So here is our picture of Charlie and Cornelius. Now Charlie and Cornelius have their cart of sanctification and all that they will do in the process of becoming like Christ. These are good things like loving others, sharing the gospel, being patient, honoring parents, and so on. They also have

their horse, Gospel. Charlie, being so excited about becoming Christ-like and wanting to make it to the town of glorification grabs his cart and gets off running. And boy does he look good early on. He is leading the way in personal growth; he is loving others, hes trying really hard to be nice, and encouraging. He seems to be the more spiritual of the two. Cornelius, on the other hand, takes his time to focus on Gospel and hook up his cart of sanctification to Gospel. As Cornelius hops on, Gospel will now pull him and all of his sanctification to the end. Cornelius will work to keep Gospel in front of him, and invariably all the things he has to do like loving others, being nice, honoring parents comes right along. Charlie, on the other hand, starts to slow down. You see, hes got his sanctification in front of him. He keeps looking at all the things he has to do. Soon loving others becomes a burden. Honoring parents is a lot of work. Charlie becomes frustrated as he continues to examine all that he needs to do. He also becomes disheartened and wonders if hes really doing enough. There always seems to be more. Soon enough, Cornelius passes him by and continues on the way. He is able to rest in the work of Gospel and give all his thanks to Gospel who is doing the work. Though progress is slow, he is thankful that his hope is outside of himself and he can trust that Gospel will get him to glorification (Gospel does this trip all the time, he never fails).

I might ask you: Which one are you? Did you get in by grace but now are trying to push your own cart, or are you resting in the work of the Gospel? If you want to grow and you look towards your growth, you wont. Oh you might have a camp experience and like Charlie get to pushing your cart real fast early on. Someone told you that what

you need to do is serve in this way or do that. You might even look real spiritual for a while. But eventually your energy will run out. Loving people, being kind, serving; all of those things become a burden, like the cart. You get sick of being nice to that person who annoys you. We often make the mistake of trying to do more and more without remembering that in Christ, its all been done. You see, all of your doings are actually a symptom of something bigger; that is, how well you get the gospel. If you are lacking in an area of sanctification, its not because you need more programs or practice or need to try harder. What it shows is that you have missed how the Gospel informs that part of your life. To work on the external symptoms is to miss the true issue, understanding all that Christ has already done for you. Alistair Begg rightly reminds us that any command to do without a Gospel reminder of who you are in Christ, is simply another form of externalism. If you are not loving others well, its because you dont get the fullness of the Gospel. If youre not praying a lot, its because you dont get the fullness of the Gospel. If you dont like to read your Bible, its because you dont get the fullness of the Gospel! Instead, look to all that you already are in Christ, and all that you have in Him and watch yourself change. How you ask? Let me give you a few practical examples of how the Gospel changes all areas of life. 1. You have a person in your life who is annoying. They rub you the wrong way, theyre always around you. Maybe its a brother or sister, maybe its someone you would never pick to be a friend of yours on your own, maybe its your parents, maybe its even me! Shouldnt I just try really hard to be nice? No, not at first. If your desire is simply to be nice for nice sake,

youve missed the point. As you look to the Gospel, you find out that God was patient with you, the worst of sinners. You killed Jesus with your sin. 2 Peter 3:8-9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. The Lord was patient with you. He didnt condemn you in your sin, which you deserved but brought you to repentance. Thats radical patience and as you dwell on that, that annoying person just doesnt seem quite as bad compared to how you treated God. You will want to be patient, not to earn Gods acceptance, but because you already have received it. On the other side of this, youre free to fail at loving others, too. You see, no matter how much you want to be Jesus to someone else, you wont. We already have a Jesus and He did it all. You will at some point disappoint or fail in some way. Thats the truth of the Christian life. Knowing that Christ is all of your righteousness frees you up to try, and fail. When you do fail, you can continue to look to Christ for your only righteousness. For the first time you can attempt to love and care for people in a radical way, and when you fail not sink into depression or frustration. Free to try, free to fail!

2. You try out for a particular team, play etc and you dont make the team or get the role you thought you should. You are worried about what people might think of you now that you have failed. Maybe its just that you did poorly on a test. What will everyone think? All of our self-

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righteousness should leave us at the cross. Its really hard to think youre a good person when you realize Gods son had to be crucified on your behalf. Even more, because you know all of your righteousness is found in Jesus (its outside of yourself), you no longer have to be defensive or worry about how impressive you are. You can be free to admit youre weak and failing. That is one of the most freeing things. You dont have to seek to identify yourself by anything other than Jesus. Listen to Tullian Tchividjian: Because Jesus was strong for me, I am free to be weak; Because Jesus won for me, I am free to lose; Because Jesus was Someone, I am free to be no one; Because Jesus was extraordinary, I am free to be ordinary; Because Jesus succeeded for me, I am free to fail. Along with that, you have all the acceptance you could ever need. No longer will do you have to desire or strive after the approval of others. You are already fully loved by the King. Tchividjian again says, Because of the gospel, we have nothing to prove or protect. We can stop pretending. We can take off our masks and be real. The gospel frees us from trying to impress people, appease people, measure up for people, or prove ourselves to people. The gospel frees us from the burden of trying to control what other people think about us. It frees us from the miserable, unquenchable pursuit to make something of ourselves by using others. 3. Person xyz comes in here and tells you that if you arent involved in their ministry then youre not really doing enough, and you need to do more. Most likely, someone who tells you to participate in something, has a great

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ministry to take part in. But remember believer, where is your righteousness? Its not in your doing. You are free to get involved, and youre also free to say no. Free to say no. Isnt that good news? In the Gospel you are free to say no to things because your righteousness is not found in how much you do, but how much has been done for you!

4. Last, I have a question: How do I keep the gospel in front of me daily? Preach the Gospel to yourself, and listen to others who point you to Jesusnot about what you need to do, but what has already been done! Remind yourself of who you are in Christ.

Finally, even Calvin would want to remind us that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. May you find all of your acceptance and standing in what Christ has already done for you by trusting in Him alone. As Jesus said on the cross in John 19:30, It is finished.

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