Sola Gratia #5 - Sanctified by Grace (Dr. Kurt Bjorklund)

Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund continues the Sola Gratia series focusing on the doctrine of grace. He explores the concept of sanctification, examining how spiritual growth occurs through teaching, relationships, spiritual disciplines, and pivotal circumstances, while emphasizing that our transformation is ultimately God's work of grace rather than our own efforts.

Message Transcript - https://www.orchardhillchurch.com/blog-post/2025/3/31/sola-gratia-5-sanctified-by-grace

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Transcript

Good morning. It's great to be together around Pittsburgh, online. And as we are making our way through the series that we've called sola gradia, which is a Latin phrase born out of the reformation that means by grace alone, We have come to a day where we're going to jump around to some different passages and consider kind of a big theme, but I want to start just by thinking about how our phrases take on meaning in life. So sola gratia, Latin phrase, born out of a time, and all of a sudden became, something that that it meant more than what it first appeared to to people because here we are talking about it years and years later. So if you're from Pittsburgh, there are some phrases that have become probably, known to you that maybe aren't known to everybody.

So if I were to say raise the jolly Roger, what, what am I talking about? Pirates. Pirates victory. Right. So it doesn't get said often enough but but that phrase actually came about some twenty four years ago when Bob Walk first started on the broadcast team and he said we need a signature phrase for what we say when the Pirates win because all the great announcing teams have a signature phrase for their their team's victory and they decided that they would raise that flag with a little pirate on it every day above PNC Park when the Pirates won, so that people driving downtown the next day would be able to go, oh, the pirates won.

So if you haven't seen the flag for a while, now you know why again. But hence was born the phrase, raise the jolly Roger. Now again, if you're from here and somebody says to you, hey, would you grab a buggy for us? You know that they're referring to a shopping cart. That's right.

Now if you're not from here and somebody says get a buggy, you say, I have no idea what you're talking about. Or if you were to say something like, I'm going to run the sweeper and red up the house. You have a group of people who say, I know what you're talking about. And if somebody says, the standard is the standard, it means absolutely nothing. Okay, I I digress a little bit.

Now sola gratia is a phrase that means our salvation, our standing with God, is God's work of grace, and it is nothing to do with what we've brought to the table. And today we're going to talk about an issue called sanctification. And I'm going to do this just a little differently than how I normally teach on weekends. If you've been here, hopefully what you've seen is if we're not working consecutively through books of the Bible or passages of Scripture, Even if we pick different topics, I try to pick a Scripture and say we're going to root our thoughts in that Scripture rather than a host of Scriptures, not that we won't support it, but to teach one text. And the reason for that is when you choose a bunch of texts, at least my experience is I always sit on the other side of that and say, well, why didn't you choose five other things?

This is still kind of your selection rather than this is the logical conclusion of all of these. But having said that, today I'm going to be in three different texts about sanctification because, I didn't see one that perfectly captured what I think is the overall teaching of the Bible on this. And so this is a word that's used some 22 times depending on the exact version and, form of the word. And let me just show you one of the places where this word is used, and then I'm going to show you three different passages that I think point to the overall teaching of the Bible on this subject. Here's what we read.

This is first Thessalonians five verse twenty two twenty three or twenty three twenty four says, may God himself, the God of peace sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. So here's the word sanctify, sanctification, and it means to be set apart, to be made holy. It comes from the same word group as holiness in the Bible, and so this is the idea of saying there's something that happens in the life of somebody who comes to faith in Jesus Christ, that they continue to be made holy and set apart to God over the course of their lifetime.

In other words, it isn't just something that that you have an event and you live unchanged, but there is a transition, a way that God works over time in your life. And so now I want to look at three passages that help us maybe understand this. The first is in Romans chapter eight verse twenty nine and thirty. And if you're familiar with the book of Romans or maybe just probably the best known verse in Romans, Romans eight says, and we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose. And people often cite that, and then the very next verse says this, for those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he justified, and those he justified, he glorified. And these are some of the the words or the concepts that we've been looking at over these weeks where we've said we're looking at what has classically been called the doctrine of salvation. So we've talked about regeneration, about the idea of being justified, about what conversion looks like, this idea of being called. And here, you have a little definition of sanctification because it says, the ones that He predestined to be conformed to His image. And so this is what it means to be sanctified, to be conformed to the image of God And within the context of, of the flow of these different thoughts, even though he says it right up front, there you have the the logical sense of saying there's a sense of predestination, or God foreknowing and calling people.

Then there's this idea of regeneration, and there's conversion, and and there's justification, there's sanctification, and then glorification. God works in all of those ways. Now, some of you might be saying woah, predestination. I don't wanna talk about that. I and I'm not gonna talk about it today either.

I'm just gonna point you backwards. So in 2016, we did a series here called what does God have against Christians, and in the first message of that series, I spent a whole week talking about that, so I'm gonna punt that and just say if you wanna wanna learn about that, you can go back there. It's all still online. So what is it then to be sanctified? Well, Wayne Grudem in his systematic theology gives a chart, a picture, because sometimes pictures help us think about it.

Here's here's the picture that he gives. So he says that when you're a non Christian, so meaning in essence that you've not come to a point of believing that Jesus Christ is the one who died for your sins, that you're a sinner, you need a savior, then you're a non Christian. He says slaves to sin, then you come to conversion, which is what we've been talking about, where I understand that I'm sinful, that I need a savior, and I put my trust in Jesus Christ. And then you start kind of this growing in a Christian life, and he calls it growing in holiness. And notice how it's a squiggly line, but overall it moves up and to the right.

So his point is this, and that is it isn't a straight line, but it's something that that that there are highs and lows and you go up and down, but the overall movement is toward being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And then when you die, when somebody dies, you are perfected in holiness and everything changes. So so so this gives kind of a visual idea of this. But this does raise a question. If conversion is where you come to faith in Jesus Christ and at death you're perfected and it's secure the moment that you come to faith in Jesus Christ, why worry about it?

What difference does it make? But that question, I think, misses something because growth in holiness or in being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is really a beautiful thing that if you're a follower of Jesus or even if you're not a follower of Jesus at this point, is an invitation to something that is so much better than not following. Have you ever known somebody who was beyond kinda where you are spiritually, and they were able to see things with a spiritual perspective, to have a joy, to have a certainty, to have a winsomeness about them, that you just said, I I wish that I could be more like that. That that's somebody who's who's gone before you. And if it's true that that that God has invited us into this relationship with him, then why wouldn't we want to know more and more about who God is and be more conformed to his image?

And GK Chesterton once put it like this, he said, let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair. Because sometimes what happens is we say, what do I need to believe in order to be saved? And then I want to debate things. But but what he's saying is is your your walk with God should be more like a love affair, affair where you just want more and more and more of who God is in your life. So that's Romans eight.

Now let's look for a moment at Philippians chapter two. And you heard this read earlier. And Philippians two verses twelve and thirteen address another challenge when it comes to sanctification, our being conformed to the image of God. And that is, is it us or is it God? Is it you or is it God who does the work?

So listen to these verses once again. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. So when you hear that, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, my guess is that that doesn't sound very encouraging because you're saying, well, what does that mean, that I need to work out my salvation with fear and trembling? It sounds like it's saying that that it's somehow up to me and that I have a reason to be afraid that I I won't continue.

Certainly, this word in the original language means to achieve, to conquer, to produce, and it's a command, meaning this is something that God is saying here, I want you to, to not just take your salvation as something that is passed and for granted, but as something that you continue to progress at over the course of your life. But then it says very clearly, for it is God, verse 13, who is at work in you to fulfill basically this calling in your life. And so in the Bible, what you have is you have God being the one who is the primary worker, but it doesn't erase the sense that you and I say there's something here that God is calling me to participate in and to work in. It's all God's work in terms of our salvation, but he says I want you to work it out. I want you to take the implications, work it through your life over and over and over again so that you become more and more like me.

And yet, I'm the one doing the work. K? I know. A little nonsensical, but I think that is what that teaches. So how does God do this?

A few years ago, a pastor named Andy Stanley taught on this. And he said that he had observed over the years that there are five primary ways that God grows people. He said this isn't a research survey, this is just his observation talking to people over a long period of time. And because he's a pastor, they all start with p. So here's here's what he said.

He said the the first is when people get exposed to practical teaching, there often is a spike in their growth. Usually when people talk about what has been most instrumental in my life, there will be a time when they'll point back to and say, there was this time that that that the teaching just really aligned and it started to make sense and things started to click that hadn't clicked before for me, and all of a sudden I saw God in a different way. And then he said the second thing is pivotal relationships, that there will often be a person, somebody else who invited them to a group, somebody who invited them to church. They'll say, I met this guy, I met this girl, I had this roommate, I had this coworker, and somebody helped them have their eyes open so that they began to see. And then he says, not only is it practical teaching and pivotal relationships, but there are private disciplines.

When we start to say, I will do some of the things that help me to grow or I'm just taking this in off of somebody else, but I'm actually personally engaging with the scripture and prayer and worship. And then he says the fourth thing that he hears over and over again is personal ministry, where people start to say, it was when I went on that mission trip and I didn't feel equipped. It was when I started to serve and I, and I got involved in the kids ministry or the student ministry and all of a sudden I was answering questions and pointing people to Jesus in ways that I didn't fully understand. Or it was when I started to give because money had always been so important to me that I had never felt like I could, could give it away. And when I started to give, I started to sense a growth in my relationship.

And then he said the last thing was pivotal circumstances. And he said, if you listen to people's stories, so often you'll hear that God grew them most in some of their hardest moments. The things that they wouldn't have chosen, but God used in their lives to reshape them, to reshape their priorities. Sometimes it's just a big thing like a move, but sometimes it's a really hard thing that happens, and all of a sudden they they were a fork in the road. Will I trust and follow Christ or will I not?

Now, having said that, we could probably add four or five other things or have three things or or something like that. And this is why I say I don't love this kind of teaching overall because why these five and not something else? But all five of these have precedent in Scripture. In Acts chapter two, we see this idea that the disciples devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. They they they said we need to be taught.

We want to hear what the Word says. There's a precedent to saying putting ourselves in a place where there's good teaching. It's why we have so many studies and seasonal studies and things around the church is is a way to say not just what you get on Sunday and Saturday, but but what's available throughout the week. In the relational realm in the New Testament, there are all of these one anothers that say, here's what you should do with one another, and they encourage a sense of, of not an individual faith, but of people journeying together. The disciplines are are commanded in first Timothy four where it says train yourself for godliness.

Not just for physical discipline because that's worth something, but but train yourself for godliness. Circumstances shape us. In James chapter one, we're told count it all joy my brothers, my sisters, whenever you fall into various trials because these are what are perfecting or maturing your faith. And Ephesians four talks about engagement in ministry. It says that the part of what happens in the church isn't that that ministry is done by the staff or the professionals, but that it's done so that there's an equipping for the work of ministry for everybody.

In other words, all of these ideas have a kind of a precedent in Scripture, and God uses them to grow us into kind of a Christ likeness over time. But then the question is, so so so then what is our part, so to speak? Is it just to put ourselves in that environment just to say, well, I'll be attuned to those things so that when and if they happen, I can respond. And and that's not bad, but I think it's a little bit like this. If I wanted to be a great musician, I would have to do more than just simply go and sit in a band room where some people were good musicians.

But like simply saying get in the environment probably doesn't address the core of what it is to grow ultimately, even though God uses those things. And that leads us to what I'm going to say is just our last passage to consider today, and this is in first Peter chapter one. We're gonna look at verses 13 through 16. And here's what we read in verse 13. It says, therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

If you remember, if you ever were exposed to the old King James, it says this, it says, with the loins or gird the loins of your mind here. And it's a, it's an image that's in the original language because the people of that day, when they would run, would have these robes. And what they would do is they would lift their robes, tuck them in a belt so that they could run without tripping. And so, the image here is rightly to be alert, but, but, but it's been smoothed out by modern translators to just simply say, let us interpret this for you. It means be alert.

It's a correct translation. But the the richness of the image is to say, take caution so that you are ready to pursue, and it talks about the hope. Then it uses another analogy. It says, be sober, which is obviously an illusion to don't be in a stupor from, from drinking too much. And again, it has this idea of saying pay close attention to what it is that you are doing, so that your mind basically can be fixed on the hope.

And the reason that this to me feels like it speaks to this idea of sanctification is because our minds can become so focused on the present that we don't actually see what God is doing, and we lose heart, and we say I'm going to go another direction rather than continuing to pursue what God has called me to. Let me try to make the analogy this way. If you were ever to get in a car with your kids or somebody else's kids, hopefully with their parents' permission, and, and drive to Disney, okay? From Pittsburgh to Disney, if you go to the one in Florida, it's about twenty hours or so. That is a brutal car ride for anybody, but especially for young children who've never been to Disney and don't get it.

Because when they get in that car, they feel like you are trapping me in this car right now. I do not like this car. I do not want to get in the car, and I don't care how much you tell me that Disney is this great thing that's up ahead. And so what happens is your kid's in the car for a little while, and you stop at at a rest stop somewhere or a, you know, play land at one of the fast food places, and they get in the play land, and they're having a blast in the play land. And what happens is, when you say it's time to get back in the car, they say, I don't want to get in the car.

I want us to play at the play land. You're gonna make me get in the car. I don't wanna get in the car. I wanna play. This is awesome.

The Playland's awesome. When Disney's waiting and they're satisfied with the Playland, Setting our minds, attending our minds, directing our minds to the hope, and notice how it's the hope of what God is going to do in us, is what gives us the power to say, now in the present, I can choose some things that are displeasing to me because personally, because it is aligning me with the hope that is coming. And that is where you start to get the power to say, this is how I continue up into the right even when there's twists and turns. Now, in verse 14, we get another concept. In this one, we read this.

It says, as obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. And this word, do not be conformed, is used only here and in Romans twelve:two. Both times it's in the passive voice in the original language, and all that simply means is that if you don't take some evasive action, you will naturally be conformed in Romans 12 to the world, the culture. Here it's to our, what the NIV says are our evil desires. And what that means is that our natural tendency will not be toward sanctification, but it will be toward the culture or toward what's inside of us.

And therefore, what we need to do ultimately is direct our attention not just toward the hope that is to be, but to be resistant to our natural desires. Now, I I want to just go down kind of a little hole here for a moment. Hang with me. So so it says evil desires in the New International Version. Good translation, I love the New International Version.

In and it simply means desire. It can have the connotation of evil bad desires like lust, but if you read the ESV, the English Standard Version, the New American Standard Version, many other translations, it doesn't have the word evil, it just says desires. And the reason for that is because they're trying to say apathenia is actually a neutral word. And what the NIV has done here is they've basically said, well these must be evil desires. And there is truth to the fact that it is our evil desires that we are conformed to that keep us from Jesus Christ and from becoming what God wants us to become.

But I think it misses an important point, and this is why I'm going down this hole here a little bit. And that is sometimes it is our good passions, our good desires that can keep us from the things of Jesus Christ just as much as it is our evil desires. And what that means is that is that is that to not be conformed isn't just simply saying, I'm choosing all kinds of good things because it can be your work, it can be your resources, it can be your looks, it can be your family, it can be your education, it can be all kinds of things that you say this is what, this is what my life is about. And when you make your life about that it ceases to be about being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And what you are allowing to happen is you're allowing your mind to not be set on the hope and to be conformed to your passions rather than transformed into what God wants you to be.

And it can happen not just from quote unquote evil desires, although it does happen from that, but from our good desires as well. And then he says that you used to basically do when you lived in ignorance, and according to one Lexicon, Abbott and Smith, it says that this word can mean willfully ignorant. In other words, that we just kind of let ourselves say, ah, this is where I'm headed right now. And maybe a way to think about this is that if we're not intentional, we can find ourselves taking in culture, listening to our own desires to such an extent that that we aren't transformed on the things that matter most, and we start to think thoughts that keep us from saying, I really wanna be conformed to Jesus Christ. May maybe a way to just think about this is, have you ever death scrolled on social media or on YouTube or something like this?

Unless you're dead, you probably have, even though it's kinda funny that it's called death scrolling. But but you know how this works. You you start down a path something legitimate, and an hour or two later, you come up for air, and you say, how did I end up down here? So so I I found myself doing this, recently. And I started on a legitimate question about something I wanted to do around my house, and the next thing you know I was watching videos on how to overseed my lawn, and I was convinced that I needed to overseed my lawn, I needed to buy all kinds of new products.

There are all these things I needed to do because I had desk scrolled. Now, nothing wrong with with scrolling and looking and saying, how can I make my lawn better? But but here's what nobody says after two, three hours of death scrolling. Wow, do I feel like my soul is full of good things. Do I feel content and satisfied in who God made me to be and in and in what God is doing in my life?

No. When you death scroll, you compare, you you take in thoughts of culture, and and your passions are stirred in a way that makes you say, what I need right now is to overseed my lawn. Now again, overseeding your lawn, fine thing. I'm not at all picking on that, and I'm not even picking on desk scrolling, but I'm saying beyond that, it is it is the unintentional use of our time. Because when we're death scrolling or just living our lives according to our passions, what we're not doing is saying how am I feeding my soul on the things that are eternal?

We're not having friendships that, that are deepening us. We're not having loving conversations with our family members. All we're doing is responding with our passions that we've embraced in willful ignorance that, that, that are part of us, that that are driving us, rather than saying, how am I conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? And so we need to direct our minds toward future hope. We need to direct our affections toward the things of God.

And then, the last verse here, last two verses, verse fifteen and sixteen, uses this word holiness again. Verse 15, but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, be holy because I am holy. And this calls back to Leviticus and the holiness code, and for some people you hear that and you might say, well, the holiness code doesn't really help me, and yet here it is picked up in the New Testament. And he's saying just as God was concerned about having a distinct people in the Old Testament that involves some some certain holiness code, behaviors, in the New Testament, he says, I want people who are distinct, who are set apart, who are living today in a way that says, I am devoted to the very things of God, not just to my own ends. John Piper, in talking about this idea of sin, once defined sin this way.

He said, what is sin? Said, it's the glory of God not honored. It's the holiness of God not reverenced. It's the greatness of God not admired. It's the power of God not praised.

It's the truth of God not sought. It's the wisdom of God not esteemed. It's the beauty of God not treasured. It's the goodness of God not savored. It's the faithfulness of God not trusted.

It's the commands of God not obeyed. It's the justice of God not respected, the wrath of God not feared, the grace of God not cherished, the presence of God not prized, and the person of God not loved. That is sin. So many times, the way people think about sin is they say there are these rules, these standards, and I need to not break the rules so that I somehow am, am okay with God. And certainly, there are commands and rules.

Obedience is part of being sanctified, but it is more than that. It's about saying, I am honoring the person of God. I am set apart to the things of God. That is, that is what I am about in my life. See, the call, the invitation is not simply to say, punch a ticket to heaven and try to avoid some really bad sins so that somehow you can cannot have, like, negative consequences.

It is to say, let your your whole life be wholly devoted to something that is beautiful and good and right, and it is the very things of God. I I was trying to think about just a way again to to make this, concrete, and this is the best that that I came up with. Have you ever had a drink from a solo cup? You know what I'm talking about, those red solo cups. They come in different colors.

I I think there's a song about this, if I'm not mistaken, an old country song. Yeah, I can tell those of you who know the song. It celebrates the solo cup, and how when you have a solo cup, you're having a party, life is good, and whether you have beverages that would qualify for that, or you're just drinking iced tea from your solo cup, What happens when you have a Solo cup is is you have it, you go out to the to the barbecue, to the fire, to the beach, and you fill it with something, and and you're just enjoying the Solo cup. Maybe you even put your name on it with a Sharpie at some point, because you want everyone to know it's your Solo Cup. But here's what I can almost guarantee you, nobody here has done with a Solo Cup.

And that is, nobody has kept a Solo Cup for very long. What you do instead is you might wash it out like one day because you don't have enough Solo cups, but if you try to wash it out and keep it for more than a day or two, what happens is it cracks. It gets a little more disgusting than it than another cup. And so you take the solo cup and you throw it away. You say, that was good.

The solo cup was nice for its purpose, but it no longer serves its purpose, and you get rid of it. And the song says it's biodegradable in seventeen years. I don't know about that, but but but if that's true, maybe we should use fewer solo cups. But think about that as compared to a glass or a mug that somebody in your family had, and it was cherished, it was used by your great grandfather or mother, and it was passed on to their kids and on to your parents, and now you have it and you keep that. You wouldn't think about taking that outside to the barbecue where it might get stepped on or broken.

You you keep that in a cabinet and you say this is of value, this is of worth, this is something to be cherished. And the idea of being set apart, being holy, is that you are cherished unto the things of God, and and it's not saying there isn't a value and a beauty in the things that are common, but it's saying it's saying you have this invitation to say I'm being conformed to the image of God and here's what this this means just in terms of how we live our lives. If you are here today and you are kind of saying, well that's a nice high minded idea, This shows up in how you live your life, in the outburst of anger, in the way that you handle temptation, in the way that you look with greed or envy, at other things that other people have. Because all of those things take us from the joyful, beautiful response to being set apart to God, and make us so that we're present minded, being driven by our desires and saying I don't have any distinction from the world. But when we say God has called me to be distinct, to be beautiful in a sense, to be like his son, then we say, how can I have my mind set toward those things?

A. W. Tozer once put it like this, he said, we can be certain of this, and that is that every person is as holy and as full of the spirit as they want to be. They may not be as holy and as full of the spirit as they wish they were, but they are certainly as full as holy and as full of the spirit as they want to be. And what he means when he says that is is we often choose whether or not we want to respond to God and follow his ways, or if we say I want to go my own path.

And the invitation today is to say will you let God conform your image to his image in every area of your life? That's being sanctified and set apart, and it is part of God's process at work when he calls us by grace because those he predestined and foreknew, he called to be conformed to his image. So that they would have that sense of being on the path to glorification. Now, I don't know how you come here today, but we come from a lot of different places. I guess that some of us are here and, and you hear me talking like this and you say, well this sounds a lot like there are things I need to do to earn my way with God.

I want you to hear what this whole series has been about, maybe not as much today, but this whole series has been about. And that is, it is God's work from start to finish. And because it is, our our response is simply, if if we're pre that conversion line, is to say I've sinned, I've come short of God's glory, I need a savior. Jesus, would you be my savior? You can call on him today, but if you're in that section, somewhere between converted and dead, you still have choices to make.

And what would be most honoring for you to do today to say, God, I wanna be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? That would be saying, I'm setting my mind on the things of God. I'm not being conformed to my passions, but I'm being holy, set apart for God. What would that look like for you? God, we ask today that you would help us to embrace this invitation, this journey to holiness, that we would appreciate the call and know that it is for our good and your glory that you invite us not just to say, I've punched a ticket for some future eternity, but I am living and growing and becoming who you want me to be.

And I pray that would be a joy. And it would also change the way that we live in the world around us so that there's a distinction and a beauty. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

This transcript was auto-generated, please excuse any errors.