Washed by Grace

From Gospel Translations

The biblical necessity of holy living does not nullify grace. Rather, it is based squarely on the pardon of grace and demonstrates the power of grace.

In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Grace is not only the pardon that passes over our badness; it is also the power that produces our goodness. If God says that it’s necessary for grace to do that, it is not a nullifying of grace when we agree with Him. Quite the contrary, actually.

The Bible’s command of holy living does not contradict justification by faith alone. All the sins of God’s people, past, present, and future, are forgiven because of the once-for-all death of Christ. This justification on the basis of Christ’s death for us is the foundation of sanctification — not the other way around. The only sin we can fight against successfully is a forgiven sin. Without a once-for-all justification through Christ, the only thing that our striving for holiness produces is despair or self-righteousness.

The work of God in justification does not make the work of God in sanctification optional. The Bible doesn’t say that forgiveness makes holiness optional; rather, forgiveness makes holiness possible. The God who justifies also sanctifies. The faith that justifies also satisfies — it satisfies the human heart in God and frees it from the deceptive satisfactions of sin. This is why justification and the process of sanctification always go together — they both come from the same faith. Perfection comes at the end of life when we die or when Christ returns, but the pursuit of holy living begins with the first mustard seed of faith. That’s the nature of saving faith. It finds satisfaction in Christ and so is weaned away from the satisfactions of sin.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, Paul says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” Notice three things here: the commandments, the prayer, and the promise.

THE COMMANDMENTS. Paul has just finished giving a string of commandments in verses 14–22. The string ends with verse 22: “Abstain from every form of evil.” So we know that God uses commandments and incentives in the way He sanctifies us. He does not say, “I am the one who sanctifies you, so I have nothing to tell you to do.” The way He sanctifies is not merely subconscious. He deals with our minds and our motives.

THE PRAYER. In verse 23, Paul shifts from exhorting or commanding us to be holy to asking God to make us holy: “May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So not only does God use commands and incentives in the way He makes us holy, He also uses the prayers of His people. He not only deals with your mind and motives in the way He makes you holy; He deals with the minds and motives of others so that they pray for you.

THE PROMISE. After commanding us to pursue holy living in verses 14–22 and praying that God would sanctify us in verse 23, Paul says the decisive thing in verse 24 — “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”

It is distorted human reasoning that says: “Well, He is commanding us to abstain from evil, so it must be up to us to get holy,” or “Well, he is praying for God to sanctify me, so it depends on Paul’s prayer, which God may or may not answer.” All that is wrong thinking, and it’s not what the text says. Right thinking moves on to verse 24 and says: God’s faithfulness combined with God’s call proves He will do it! “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” What’s the “it”? The “it” is what Paul has been commanding and what he’s been praying for, namely, sanctification. God will do it.

Will we trust Him not only for the grace to forgive our sins, but also for the grace to make headway in overcoming our sins? Consider this question for a moment as we continue to look at this concept.

If you are looking at verse 23 carefully, you may have the question I had: When Paul prays that God will sanctify us and keep us blameless “at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,” does he mean that God will change us in the twinkling of an eye when Jesus comes, or does he mean that He will work in us now so that we will be holy when Jesus comes? Are verses 23 and 24 a prayer and a promise for what God will do all at once only when Jesus comes? Or are they a prayer and a promise for what God will do now in the lives of believers to prepare them for that day in holiness?

These verses are a prayer and a promise that God will do what needs to be done now. I assert this because sanctification usually refers to the process of becoming holy now, and because the parallel in 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13 shows that this is what Paul means: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness [what Paul prays for in 5:23] before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ [same phrase as in 5:23] with all His saints.”

Paul is praying that God will do something to make us immediately increase and abound in love. And the goal of this progressive work in us now is that when the end comes we might be established before God in holiness, because love is the essence of human holiness.

First Thessalonians 5:23–24 really does teach that God is the one who sanctifies now. He does it through commandments and incentives that appeal to our minds and our motives. He does it through prayer. But however He does it, however slowly it comes, and however imperfect we feel, the main thing is that God does it.

But why is it that the faithfulness of God commits Him to sanctify us? The key is the connection between the other parts of our salvation and God’s work of sanctification. You can see this clearly in 5:24. Paul says, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” It’s as if Paul said, “He called you! Don’t you see? He called you! And if He called you, then He will sanctify you. That’s what His faithfulness means. Don’t you get it?”

And you scratch your head and say, “Why does the fact that He called us mean that He has to sanctify us?” And Paul says, “It’s because His purpose in calling you was that you might become holy. Holiness is the invincible purpose of God in your call. He would be unfaithful to His purpose if He just called and didn’t sanctify. That’s what I said back in 1 Thessalonians 4:7, ‘For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.’”

Every successive step of your salvation is rooted in the certainty of all the steps that have gone before. Your sanctification is rooted in your call and guaranteed by it. Your call is rooted in the death of Christ for sinners. The death of Christ is rooted in predestination, and predestination is rooted in election. Once you feel yourself caught up in this great, objective, gracious, God-wrought salvation, you know yourself loved with an omnipotent, everlasting, electing, predestining, atoning, calling, sanctifying, saving love. And you sing, “God is faithful. He will do it!”

But not only that, the aim of God in your election was your holiness. Ephesians 1:4: “[God] chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him” (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13). Your holiness is as sure as your election.

Not only that, the aim of God in your predestination was your holiness. Romans 8:29a: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Becoming more like Jesus is as certain as God’s purpose of predestination.

Not only that, the aim of God in the death of His Son was your holiness. Ephesians 5:25b–26a: “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her” (rsv). Your becoming holy is as sure as God’s invincible purpose in the death of His Son.

In choosing you, in predestining you, in dying for you, and in calling you, His purpose was your holiness. And so we can say with Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:24 not only, “He who called you is faithful, who also will do it,” but also, “He who chose you is faithful, who also will do it. He who predestined you is faithful, who also will do it. He who sent His Son to die for you is faithful, who also will do it.” For what purpose ultimately? “To the praise of the glory of His grace” (Eph. 1:6).