well, WSBI has begun! incarnate as WaSaBI, the first week: last week, was well attended and was quite encouraging.the topic was Sanctification, and much to our collective amazement, it seems the picture the Bible paints is one of positional sanctification. this means that Sanctification (in essence, becoming more like Jesus), is something that has been done: in God's eyes we are sanctified, as well as being justified (declared right).
so it's not just that because we have been justified, we are now acceptable to God, and therefore over time we will become more like Jesus, or more sanctified - rather, our identity as Christians is now one of being positionally sanctified, as it says in 1Peter2:9,
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
as for style, it was a bit more MYCesque, more group work, whereas i was thinking more along the lines of a talk, followed by some small group stuff. but the presenter did an admirable job.
so the 2nd one kicks off in a fortnight, with the hopefully juicy topic of sin. John Macarthur (not Mark Driscoll as i previously believed) said that, 'If I had one hour to tell somebody the
gospel, I'd spend 55 minutes on sin, five minutes on everything else.'
will keep you posted...
4 comments:
Re: "santification" - I think the Bible acknowledges BOTH holiness as a status and a process, ie. "definitive" and "progressive" sanctifiation.
It is true that most of the references to "holiness" are about being made holy in Christ, but we are still called to be holy (eg. Heb 12:14, 1 Pet 1:15-16). I think you can include all the "vivification" (put on) + "mortification" (put off/to death) language in this category as well.
In essence, the sanctified people of God are called to become "what we already are".
right on bruvva.
although that's true, that we are at once sanctified and justified, and sanctification is ongoing, we talk about the ongoing, more than the 'at once' aspect.
the eye-opener for me was the emphasis the bible actually puts on the 'at once' end of it all, and that is what should encourage us to keep on.
I completely agree (cf. Matthias Medias book on "Holiness").
We've just got to be careful not to swing the pendulum the other way.
Here's a thought I just stumbled across in a comment on another blog minutes after reading this one:
...sin can only be known as already forgiven. We cannot know ourselves as sinners apart from Christ. Which is why, as Van Deusen Hunsinger puts it: "Therefore, knowledge of oneself as a sinner cannot possibly perpetuate debilitating shame (in the sense of low self-worth) but finally only gratitude."
Post a Comment