Thank you Mark and Diane for leading us again. You know there's hardly any sweeter words to my ear than open your Bibles and turn to Romans 6. I like that a lot. We are continuing in our doctrinal studies this morning. We're going to talk about the doctrine of sanctification. So we will have a message and then we'll have a time of discussion and then some fellowship time. So as we work through the message, write down your questions or thoughts or things you'd like to share. Different scriptures.

We're having our third message in this series on doctrinal discussions and we are considering this morning the doctrine of sanctification. In our last two studies we laid the foundations of the doctrine of sin and justification and then the doctrine of regeneration. And I'd like to just briefly review those two studies because I believe that they are crucial for our understanding of sanctification.

In our study of the doctrine of sin, you'll remember that we determined that the scriptures speak of two aspects of sin. The first is indicated by the plural sins and the second by the singular sin with the definite article. We defined these two uses with the plural indicating our own personal acts of sin and the singular with the definite article indicating the principle of sin in us, what the Bible calls indwelling sin. This distinction is vital in my opinion to understanding the various scriptures and what they speak to, and it's closely related to the doctrines of justification and regeneration.

For example, in the book of Romans we see in chapters 1, 18 through 320 Paul highlight the condemnation of all men, that all men are guilty before a holy God and deserving of judgment. We get to verse 21 of chapter 3 through the end of chapter 4, Paul discusses the doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Jesus alone. This is a discussion of how a man is made right with God and addresses his guilt and condemnation as a result of his sins.

When we get to chapter 5, Paul begins to shift gears in his discussion; he begins to show the contrast between the man in Adam and the man in Christ. At the beginning of chapter 5 you'll notice he says those who have been justified by faith, so everything forward from this is for those who have been justified. And in verse 12 he starts this contrast between Adam and Christ; he discusses the reality of a law or a principle in every man born in Adam. This is where Paul shifts to the use of the singular sin with the definite article and this persists in every usage throughout Romans chapters 5 through 8. Paul is here teaching us about the sin principle or indwelling sin that is in every man, and in Adam this sin dominates and controls man; every man is a slave to indwelling sin.

The doctrine Paul is discussing here is regeneration. And when we think about why it is that I am guilty before God, what separates me from God, why I deserve judgment, the scriptures tell me this is a result of my sins, my personal acts of sin. And when the Bible talks about the death of Christ in my place, it is for my sins; the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ, the payment he made in my place is for my sins. This is justification; this is a positional truth. Jesus took my place, he paid the debt I owed, and through faith in his one-time death that satisfies the wrath of God for my personal sins, I am made right, brought back into a right relationship with God; I am justified solely because of what Jesus accomplished on my behalf.

This is the doctrine of imputation, my sins imputed to him on the cross, God's righteousness imputed to me through faith. But this does not deal with the sin that dwells in me. This justification is purely positional in Christ; there's no actual change in me dealing with the root problem of the sin that lives in my members that dominates and controls me. Justification in relation to my sins does not deal with the controlling power of sin in me, and justification does nothing to produce the outward fruit of righteousness in my life. It is positional, it's legal, it's relating to my position before God dealing with my guilt and what separated me from him.

It's important that we understand when the scriptures are talking about sins and justification and the perfect sacrifice of Christ on my behalf, and when the scriptures are talking about the sin that dwells in me and the doctrine of regeneration, the new birth, the new creation, where God actually changes me in my relationship to that indwelling sin through my death with Christ. Justification is a wonderful and profound truth, but it is not the totality of our salvation. Our life in Christ is not merely positional in nature, but in regeneration there's an actual work of God done in me in order to deal with the power of indwelling sin, and this death, burial, and resurrection to new life with Christ is the basis for my new life, the basis for walking in the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ's life lived in and through me as I walk by faith.

We saw in our last study that in regeneration, as Mark read this morning in Romans 6.6, that God crucified our old man in Adam, that we were buried with Christ, that we were raised to newness of life with Jesus, and in this our relationship to sin and law and death were radically changed. We died. This is the key to Romans 6; this is the key to the doctrine of regeneration. We died. We were crucified with Christ, that old man in Adam. We died to sin, to the power of indwelling sin, so that the body controlled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. This was an actual change in us that radically transforms who we are, moving us from being in Adam under law, sin, and death, to being in Christ under grace, righteousness, and life.

And it is this aspect of God's salvation work in us that is the basis, the reason why we can live a new life outwardly, a new walk or way of life. And in addition, God has imparted to us new life, divine life, as the Holy Spirit has come to permanently indwell and empower us as we walk by faith. In regeneration, we have been released from the controlling power of indwelling sin, we have been given a new heart and a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us. These truths are why we must live outwardly as new men, because on the inside, in our spirit, in the essence of who we are, we indeed are new men.

Let's look at Romans 6, a text Mark read this morning; we'll read those verses again in Romans 12, 1 to 2. Romans 6, 1, listen to the promises in these verses; there's no imperatives until you get to verse 11, there's no command. These are just indicative truths, truth statements, and I believe he gives us at least seven true things in the first ten verses that are true of you if you believe Jesus, so watch for those.

He says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized," and that word just means placed into, it's nothing to do with water there, "we were placed into Christ Jesus; we were placed into his death; we were united with him in his death," that's what it means. "Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be 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 with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And let's look at that Romans 12 again also, Romans 12, 1 and 2. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.” Now when Paul says, "by the mercies of God," he's talking about what we just read in Romans 6 and all of those first eight chapters and all these tremendous doctrines. "By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

I've given you five points on your outline this morning for our message. First, defining sanctification. Second, regeneration as a foundation. Third, lacking nothing. Fourth, God's means to holiness. And fifth, believing is the battle. 

I'd like to begin this morning to be sure we are clear in our understanding by defining this doctrine of sanctification. Quite often confusion comes in our understanding of various doctrines because of baggage that we have in our thinking because of false or erroneous teaching. Biblical terms can become loaded with meaning because of things we may have come to believe that just are not true biblically. 

One example concerning our present subject would be the teaching that I'm sure you have heard, that it is necessary for you as a believer in Jesus Christ to be continually putting off the old man and putting on the new man. This is something I've heard all of my Christian life and is often taught and believed by Christians, and they are fighting to put off the old man or to die to themselves, this kind of idea, but the scriptures that pertain to this clearly teach that because of God's work of regeneration, your death, burial, and resurrection with Christ, that you have put off the old man, that you have put on the new man, that you have died. 

The old man is dead. This is clear in passages like Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, where Paul uses the aorist tense in order to indicate a one-time event accomplished in the past. In your death with Christ, when the old man was crucified, buried, and you were raised to new life with Jesus, you have put off the old man. It is done. So this teaching that you need to be putting off the old man undermines the crucial truth for your understanding of the Christian life that you have put off the old man, that that is no longer who you are. 

And in so many ways, Christians are out there trying to do something that they could never do in the first place, by the way, and that God has already accomplished. There are many things like this relating to sanctification and our understanding of it, and teaching that is not biblically accurate can undermine the vital truths that we must know and believe in order to experience fruit and holiness outwardly in our lives, the very thing we all desire, and the very thing that God intended in saving you.

When we think about the doctrine of sanctification, we may have been taught or come to believe that this is a process in our lives defined in the following way. I am a sinner. I'm saved by grace, but still a sinner. Just the same. Perhaps you've heard this framed as the two natures view. I have this new nature that's been added to me in Christ, but I also have this old nature who I am, a sinner. And what happens is I sin, and when I sin, my relationship with God is somehow injured or called into question, and I need to be quick to repent of this sin, confess it before God in order to come back into a right relationship with Him. 

God is working in me. He's fixing what's lacking in me to repair my brokenness, right? And in this work, over the course of my Christian life, He's giving me what I need to be more like Jesus if I'll just learn to do the things that feed my new nature and quit doing the things that feed my old nature, the good dog bad dog analogy that I've heard so often. And this is the way good Baptists often think about the Christian life. 

And so sanctification is this process of life whereby God is continuing a work in me to fix what is wrong on the inside, and with my striving to pray more and read my Bible more and serve more in the church and repent more and keep a short sin list; and He's going to conform me to the likeness of Christ. To compound the confusion about sanctification, there are many in the church today that teach that the moral law is still binding on the believer, that yes, we are justified by grace through faith, but we are sanctified by works, by law-keeping. The Ten Commandments are a necessary part for my holy living. 

So they say the moral law is a rule of life for the believer, that we need the law in the Christian life to show us how wicked and sinful we are and to drive us back into the fold of God's grace. I know you have heard these things and maybe have or do believe these things, but these teachings, this definition and understanding of sanctification is not biblical. 

And listen to me now because I want to be clear, because all of this baggage that goes with this word sanctification, a good biblical word and truth, makes it very difficult for us to understand the why and the how we live a new life in Christ. That is the truth of our regeneration, our death, burial, and resurrection to new life, and the impartation of the divine nature through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Jesus' life in us. 

You see, the Bible teaches that we are sanctified. The word means set apart. It speaks of God setting apart something or someone for his purposes, for his use, and when we believe Jesus, in one very real sense, maybe the main meaning of this word in the scriptures, this doctrine, we are sanctified. We are set apart permanently for God's use as his child, holy, in this way. Hebrews 10.10 says, "by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." 

The word sanctified here is the perfect tense, which means that there was a one-time event in the past accomplished that has continuing effects. We are sanctified, we are set apart, we are made holy in Christ. When we think of sanctification, we think of life from the point of justification to the point of glorification, this life we live in time, and this is true. And we think of a process whereby God is conforming us to the likeness of Christ as we walk in the Spirit. As we walk by faith, we see God producing the fruit of righteousness out through us, and this is good, and it's true.

But perhaps, especially because of all the misunderstandings that we just talked about and the wrong ways we think about this subject and our relationship with God and how it works out in our lives, perhaps it's better for us to talk about and emphasize the fruit of the Spirit, emphasize Christ's life in us. An outward living in consistency with who we actually are inwardly at each and every moment of our lives as we walk by faith and believe God, and emphasize the truth that we are sanctified, that we are holy, we are righteous, and therefore this is how we must live.

I look forward to our discussion time today in regard to these things. So as far as defining biblical sanctification, I believe Romans 12:1 and 2, this passage we read before, is the most clarifying passage, and I want to look closely at that text with you. Romans 12:1, Paul says, "I beseech you, I implore you, I beg you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God." 

According to all of these great truths that he's just written up to this point, now coming to this application section, "by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

Paul implores the believers to present their bodies a living sacrifice to God by the mercies of God, these doctrines, these truths of our salvation and regeneration, the Holy Spirit indwelling us. By the truth, present your bodies in service to God, and then he says this, "it is your reasonable service." This is the word logikasa; you hear logic in there, right? When you think of holy living, do you think of it as something reasonable for your daily life? Is it something you expect? Is it logical that you live a holy life today? Paul says it is logical, reasonable, that you live this kind of holy life because it is consistent with who you are.

Now verse 2 is the key to defining the doctrine of sanctification, and we need to focus in on two words, conformed and transformed. The word conformed, he says, refers to the act of an individual assuming an outward expression, that just means how we live, right? That does not come from within him, nor is it representative of his inner heart life. The prefix preposition soon adds to the meaning of the verb the idea of assuming an expression that is patterned after some definite thing. 

The verb is present imperative with the negative which construction forbids the continuance of an action already going on. So Paul is writing to believers and he's saying, "Stop assuming an outward expression which is patterned after this world," an expression which does not come from nor is it representative of what you are in your inner being as a regenerated child of God. Now we could say that another way; it's spiritual insanity for you to sin. It's not consistent with who you are; it's not logical.

Now the word transformed—so don't be conformed by this outward force and pressure of the world and live in a way that's not consistent with who you are. Rather, be being transformed, present tense, this is an ongoing thing in our lives. The word is metamorphome, which speaks of the act of a person changing his outward expression from that which he has to a different one, an expression which comes from and is representative of his inner being. This is sanctification, my friends. Changing the outward living, the way you live now, into consistency with who you are inwardly because of salvation, because of regeneration. 

That word is used in the transfiguration where Jesus, on the mount, pulled back his flesh, as it were, right, and showed the essence of who he was. That's the idea. Who we really are should be manifest outwardly by how we live. So biblical sanctification is defined as the outward conforming to the inward reality of who we are; therefore it is vital that we understand who we are, right? If Paul says, "live according to who you are," and you say, "Well, I'm a vile, wretched sinner," then how should you live? If he says, as he does in Ephesians 4, we have three chapters of tremendous doctrine in the book of Ephesians, in chapter 4 he says, "walk worthy of your calling." Those words mean equal weight. Walk in a way that is equal, that is congruous with who you are. 

If you're a vile, wretched sinner, then what should you expect? Therefore it's vital that we understand who we are as a result of God's work in us according to his word. What does God say about who you are? And it's vital that we understand that this work is complete at the moment of faith. Our brothers and sisters, listen, we lack nothing inwardly for consistent holy living. 

And sanctification, in the way we usually think of it, is simply living out who we are, living in consistency with the reality of who we are inwardly. But if you do not understand who you are because of regeneration, if you do not understand the actual change that happened in us by God's saving work, the change in relationship that got affected by our death to law and sin and the flesh, if you think you have two natures or that you're still a sinner or you need the law to produce holiness in your life, then these lies will absolutely undermine living outwardly in consistency with who we are inwardly. 

This is why in Romans 6 Paul says, "first we must know." We must know the truths of God's Word concerning who we are in Christ. And if you believe him, if you believe Jesus, then you are in him. I've heard Christians say for years, "You talk about these things," and they'll say, "Well, yeah, but that's in Christ." Where are you? You can't be in Adam and in Christ. That's not possible. You are in Christ. So what's true of Christ is true of you. You are in Christ. We must know the truths of God's Word concerning who we are in him. You are sanctified, you are set apart permanently for his use, you are in him, and my friends, he is in you. 

And this brings us from the definition of sanctification, from regeneration as the basis, from the truth that we are complete, lacking nothing for outward holy living, to God's means for this holiness. What is God's means for me to live a holy life? This is a salient question. If I come to know, if I know and understand the truths that we've been discussing, if I reject those teachings that so pervade the church but undermine what God says in his Word is true about us as believers, if I know the truth, then my question is this: how does God prescribe for these inward truths to become an outward reality in presenting my members as weapons of righteousness? Romans 6.12. 

First of all, the power is not mine. The ability is not mine. The resource is not myself. It is the very life of God in me. The very power that raised Jesus from the dead, Ephesians 1.19, works in you. It is God who is able. Let's look at Ephesians 3.14-21. Paul explains this, I think, as clearly here as anywhere. Romans 6 is the why in regeneration and all these truths about who we are in Christ. Ephesians 3 approximates the how, I think, let's begin at verse 16, Ephesians 3.16. 

Paul's praying for the believers; he says that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, an endless account, my friends, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man. This is how it works. The Holy Spirit imparts strength to my inner man, and guess what? My inner man witnesses with the Spirit. We're in agreement that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church. So it is vital that I know that I am no longer who I was in Adam; that I am in Christ, that I died, the old man was crucified; I am no longer a slave to sin, living under the law, in the flesh, in the fear of death. I have been born again, made new, regenerated, and I am complete on the inside in my spirit. I must know this, and the Holy Spirit is living in me, and the Holy Spirit is imparting strength to my inner man. Jesus lives in me, and he lives his life out through me. I'm like a branch abiding in the vine, right? Without him, I can do nothing. It is God who is able to accomplish this work of producing fruit, holiness, outwardly in my living.

I must know these truths, but the means, God's means and prescription for this to work out, to see a life of consistency outwardly with who I am inwardly, is faith. It's faith. It's not law. The Scriptures are so clear on this. Paul says we're no longer under the law; we died to the law; we do not live by the letter but by the Spirit. He calls the Ten Commandments the moral law, ministry of death and condemnation. He says the law only brings wrath. The law is not the means. It's not a means to holiness; it's a means to showing us our sin and leading us to a Savior, which if you've been justified by faith has already happened. 

Our brothers and sisters, the battle—it’s not a let go and let God kind of thing, right? I mean, there's a battle. But what is the battle? The battle is believing. The battle is one of the mind, to reject my feelings, my emotions, my wisdom, the wisdom of the world, things I have been taught, things I have believed, whatever lie it is that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. That's why in Romans 6 Paul says you must know, know the truth, what God says is true. All these things we've been discussing, and then you must reckon, verse 11, logizomai, count up the facts. Reckon them to be so; believe them. 

My brothers and sisters, this is why the Scriptures say over and over that the just shall live by faith. We live, we walk by faith. Believing is the battle. When do you sin? When you forget. When you forget who you are. When you choose not to believe God. When you choose not to depend on Him.

Let's look at Galatians 2. This is a familiar passage, verse 19, but so instructive. Look closely at these words of Paul, Galatians 2.19, “For I through the law died to the law.” Why? Why was it necessary that we die to the law? “In order that we might live to God.” Right? I died to the law in order that I might live to God. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live, in the flesh I live.” How? “by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness”—holy living, he's talking about how he walks, he's talking about how he lives—“if holy, righteous living comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. I live by faith. I choose to believe what God says is true about me and to depend on Him by His grace and power to produce the fruit of righteousness through me. 

For if righteousness comes through the law, through my works, through my effort, Christ died in vain. The Bible speaks of sanctification as something that is accomplished. We are sanctified. Remember Hebrews 10.10: "We've been set apart for God's use, and this continues forever." 

In Hebrews 10.14, he says this: "For by one offering He has perfected forever." This word perfected is in the perfect tense as well, meaning in this context of Christ's sacrifice being superior to the Old Testament sacrifices, it means that Jesus’ one-time death was sufficient, effective, complete for all our sins, past, present, and future. "For by one offering He has perfected forever." 

But then it says this: "Those who are being sanctified." Now here we have the word sanctified in the present tense. "Those who are being sanctified." In John 17, Jesus prays this for believers: “Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.” In 1 Thessalonians 5.23, Paul writes this: “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.” May God sanctify you completely. 

The word sanctify here is interesting; it's what is called the optative. But the optative mood speaks of a fervent desire or wish. So Paul's prayer here in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, his fervent desire and wish for the believers is that they would be sanctified completely. So we see that the biblical authors speak of sanctification as an accomplished fact and that we have been set apart permanently for the purposes of God. 

And they also speak of an ongoing sanctification. We are being sanctified. And this is where we want to really understand this. And I'm not sure that we really have grasped the why, why we can live a new life in the doctrines of regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But even more so, I fear we don't understand God's means for this to be a growing reality in our lives for His purposes and glory. 

That means his faith—believing. I don't think on the whole that the Bible is teaching us that we are growing incrementally, that we are getting better and better. And certainly want to get entirely away from the idea that we are somehow insecure in our relationship with God, that we are in and out of His favor because of our performance. Or that we lack something in God's provision for holy living. Peter tells us that God has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 

As believers in Jesus Christ, from the moment we turn to Jesus in faith alone and are justified, sanctified, regenerated, our relationship with God is secure forever. We come into a right relationship with Him. We have a clear conscience before God because of what Jesus did. So that is not the issue here. The issue is living out who we are. 

And that living out who we are is not a process in the sense of incremental growth; reaching the next stage and the next stage and becoming more like Jesus. Rather, listen now, everybody wake up, rather from the moment we believe and are born again, we have all resources necessary to live outwardly in righteousness. And that never changes. Our old man died; we are dead to sin, law, in the flesh, and released from the bondage of fear of death. Jesus lives in us; the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers us. God has told us the truth about who we are and how it is He produces Christ's life through us and that by faith, by knowing and believing the Word of God. 

And that is why we have these wonderful familiar scriptures: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be being transformed by the renewing of your mind. What is that? Going back to God's Word, renewing your mind, knowing Him through His Word that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” 

I say then, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." Walk in the Spirit. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. "If we live in the Spirit, we do, let us also walk in the Spirit." Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. For pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, the truth of God's Word. 

Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. God wants you to bear much fruit, so what does he do? So you will be my disciples. Right? What do disciples do? They bear fruit for the glory of God. 

As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen.

The point is this: From the time you are saved, regenerated, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you are fully equipped in every way; you are holy; you are righteous. The striving, the agonizing, the effort applied is in knowing the Word of God and renewing your mind with it, believing what God says is true, letting the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, knowing, and then the battle is believing, reckoning, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, choosing to believe what God says rather than what I feel or what man says. 

The battle of the Christian life is believing God and his Word. This is the command of the new covenant, to believe Jesus and love one another. So when we choose to believe God, when we choose to abide in Christ, when we choose to walk in the Spirit, what happens? We see the fruit of the Spirit manifest out through our members. And that is available at any and every moment of this life. 

It's not an incremental growing, this sort of process idea in and out of God's favor. Now hopefully there is growth for sure, but what is the growth? The growth should be understood as learning more and more to know and believe Jesus, to trust Him, to abide in Him, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord. 

My prayer for you and for myself is that we would understand more and more who we are and what we have in Christ, that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we would learn more and more to believe Him, to trust Him, so that by His grace and power we might see our outward living coming into consistency with the inward reality of who we are today, this moment. And each moment as we learn what it means to abide.

But you lack nothing, my friends. You lack nothing to live wholly today, and that should be your expectation. It's God's expectation. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You for Your grace, Your mercy for Jesus. Thank You for our salvation. Thank You for bringing us back into a right relationship with You, dealing with our sins through the one-time, all-sufficient death of Christ on the cross. And thank You for dealing with also the sin that dwells in us through our death with Jesus on the cross, our burial with Him, our resurrection to newness of life. Thank You that You've come to make Your home in us, that the Holy Spirit imparts strength to our inner man, that Jesus lives His life out through us as we abide in Him. And thank You that these things are complete, never changing. Help us to learn, to know You through Your Word.