Counseling: Progressive Sanctification Flashcards
Difference between Justification and Sanctification
Justification
- Declared Righteous
- Legal Standing
- Entirely God’s Work
Sanctification
- Internal Change
- Continuous in this life
- We cooperate
What is sanctification?
Sanctification- Becoming in practice what God has declared us in truth.
Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin
and like Christ in our actual lives.
What is the cure of ‘Soulish turmoil”?
Imputed righteousness through faith in Christ
Rom 5:1-2
- Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.
Soulish turmoil
When people don’t have peace with God. they experience restlessness
Adam and Eve felt ashamed and feared God. They ran and hid, and tried to cover their shame with fig leaves
In the same way, we try and cover our shame and guilt by human means, but it does not last because we are still ‘naked and ashamed’ in God’s eyes. We can’t hide from God.
How can we be sure that God accepted the works of righteousness of Jesus?
Because he raised him from the dead.
What is the value of Trials?
Trials are situations in our life that God uses to reveal the content or sin in our hearts. To bring it to our attention, so that we may repent, so that we may change internally
How does worship fit into sanctification
We become like that which we worship.
What is the biblical definition of healthy?
Return to our original design, the image of Christ
What does Ephesians 6:11-13 tell us about the context that we live in
Ephesians 6:11-13
11 Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. 13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.
As Christian, we are not at peace, but at war.
If we are justified before God, then why do we have to obey god’s word? What is the purpose of sanctification?
So we may prosper
Deut 6
1 Now these are the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord your God instructed me to teach you so that you may carry them out in the land where you are headed 2 and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you—you, your children, and your grandchildren—all your lives, to prolong your days. 3 Pay attention, Israel, and be careful to do this so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in number—as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to you, you will have a land flowing with milk and honey.
How do we know we have sinned?
because we see the character and nature of God, in his word, and we see that we are not living up to that.
Why do we call Jesus the “living” word?
Because He is the exact imprint of the nature and character of God
When God gave Moses the ten commandments, what was He really giving Moses?
He was giving Moses an imprint of His character and nature. He was giving Moses himself, because God is his word.
How is Sanctification rooted in the nature of God?
John 17:17
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
God IS his word, they are one and the same. God’s word is His character and Nature, and we are sanctified and transformed by it.
Is sanctification an event or a process?
It is a process. In the same way, we grew in sin when we were still sinners, we grow in righteousness by going from one degree of glory to another, like a baby growing into an adult
one degree at a time
2 Corinthians 3:8
8 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Like babes growing into maturity
Paul uses the imagery of “babes in Christ” that grow into maturity
Grow in righteousness, like we grew in sin
Christian’s task is to grow more and more in sanctification, just as they previously grew more and more in sin: “Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification” (Rom. 6:19; the words “just as . . . so now” [Gk. hōsper . . . houtōs] indicate that Paul wants them to do this in the same way: “just as” they previously yielded to more and more sin, “in just the same way” they are now to yield themselves to more and more righteousness for sanctification).
Do we have a role to play in sanctification or is it all God’s responsibility?
Yes, we are to work out our salvation, by being “doers” of the word, laying aside sin, and persuing holiness and rightousness, but we need to stay aware that the ability and desire to do so comes from God, and that we can’t do any of this without being rooted in Christ. It is Jesus that makes us free to do His will.
Philippians 2
12 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence, 13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God. 14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world
The author of Hebrews tells his readers to “lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely” (Heb. 12:1), and to “strive for
. . . the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). James
encourages his hearers, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22), and
Peter tells his readers, “Be holy yourselves in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15).
What normally happens when people face difficulties and trials?
They say:
“God make this stop”
“God, if you really love me you wont do this”
“A loving and kind God wouldn’t have allowed this to happen”
We don’t realize that the trial is not for our destruction, but to reveal the hidden attitude of our hearts, so that we may repent, so that the passions that will ultimately destroy us can be removed
What is the difference between how we define good and how God defines it.
We define good in terms of how it can benefit us
God defines good in terms of how it can conform us to the image of Christ
Why do we see depression as something that is bad or evil?
Because we think that our ultimate goal is to be happy and that any deviation from that is somehow wrong, immoral and abnormal
It is however a normal response to a world broken by sin
The entire book of Lamentations is Jeremiah lamenting over the situation that he is in because he has a “correct” view of it. His response was appropriate
Job asks God “why was I ever born?”
The prophet Isaia asks God to take his life, after his battle with the priests of Baal
How does society view the pursuit of Holiness?
That it is for “fanatics”
But in reality, it is what is “normal”
Holiness is to the soul, what health is to the body”
If Satan cannot make us do anything, then how is it that Satan tempts us?
Satan cannot make us do anything, “For stronger is He that is within me, than He who is within the world”
Satan lures and entices us through our own desires, which means that it is not God, or even Satan that is the source of our troubles, but our own desires.
Through sanctification, we are stripped of our passions and desires so that Satan cannot tempt us
James 1
12 Happy is the one who endures testing because when he has proven to be genuine, he will receive the crown of life that God promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. 15 Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death.
Putting Off and Putting On
Ephesians 4
7 So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn about Christ like this, 21 if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus. 22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. 25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor because we are members of one another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. 27 Do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. 29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, that it would give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice. 32 Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
