Southwood Presbyterian Church

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

Monday, September 12, 2011

Below is an excerpt from Walter Marshall’s book, “The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification” It is a great reminder that today and everyday all we bring to God is our sin and Jesus. What hope and comfort it is to know that Christ was and is the Redeemer and I am the one who is redeemed!

‘Despair of purging the flesh, or natural man of its sinful lusts and inclinations, and of practicing holiness, by your willing and resolving to do the best that lies in your own power, and trusting on the grace of God and Christ, to help you in such resolutions and endeavors; rather resolve to trust on Christ, to work in you to will and do, by his own power, according to his own good pleasure. – They that are convinced of their own sin and misery, do commonly first think to tame the flesh, and to subdue and root out its lusts, and to make their corrupt nature to be better natured, and inclined to holiness, by their struggling and wrestling with it: And, if they can but bring their hearts to a full purpose and resolution to do the best that lies in them, they hope, that, by such a resolution, they shall be able to achieve great enterprises, in the conquest of their lusts, and the performance of the most difficult duties. – It is the great work of some zealous divines, in their preaching and writings, to stir up people to this resolution, wherein they place the chiefest turning point from sin to godliness. And they think, that this is not contrary to the life of faith, because they trust on the grace of God, through Christ, to help them in all such resolutions and endeavors. – Thus they endeavor to reform their old state, and to be made perfect in the flesh, instead of putting it off, and   walking according to the new state in Christ. They trust on low carnal things for holiness, and upon the acts of their own will, their purposes, resolutions, and endeavors, instead of Christ: and they trust on Christ to help them in this carnal way: whereas true faith would teach them, that they are nothing and that they do but labor in vain. They may as well wash the Blakmore white, as purge the flesh, or natural man, from its evil lusts, and make it pure and holy. It is desperately wicked, past all cure. It will unavoidably lust against the Spirit of God, even in the best saints on earth (Gal.5: 17). Its mind is enmity to the law of God; and neither is, nor can be subject to it (Rom. 8:7). They that would cure it, and make it holy, by their own resolutions and endeavors, do act quite contrary to the design of Christ’s death; for, he died, not that the flesh, or old natural man, might be made holy; but that it might be crucified, and destroyed out of us (Rom. 6:6); and that we might live to God, not to ourselves, or by any natural power of our own resolutions and endeavors, but by Christ living in us, and by His Spirit bringing forth the fruits of righteousness in us (Gal. 2:20) and 5:24,25). Therefore, we must be content to leave the natural man, vile and wicked, as we found it, until it be utterly abolished by death; though we must not allow its wickedness, but rather groan to be delivered from the body of this death, thanking God that there is deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Our way to mortify sinful affections and lusts, must be, not by purging them out of the flesh, but by putting off the flesh itself, and getting above into Christ by faith, and walk in that new nature that is by him. Thus ‘the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath’ (Prov. 15:24). Our willing, resolving, and endeavoring, must be, to do the best, not that lies in ourselves, or in our own power, but that Christ, and the power of His Spirit, shall be pleased to work in us: for, in us (that is, in our flesh) there dwells no good thing (Rom. 7:18). We have great ground to trust in God and Christ for help in such resolutions and endeavors after holiness, as in things that are agreeable to the design of Christ in our redemption, and to the way of acting and living by faith. It is likely, that Peter sincerely resolved to die with Christ, rather than to deny Him, and to do all that he could, by his own power, for that end; but Christ made him quickly to see the weakness and vanity of such resolutions. And we see, by experience, what many resolutions made in sickness, and other dangers, mostly come to. It is not enough for us to trust on Christ to help us to act and endeavor so far only as creatures; for so the worst of men are helped: He is the JEHOVAH in whom we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). And it is likely the Pharisee would trust on God, to help him in duty, as he would thank God for the performance of duty (Luke 18:11). And this is all the faith that many make us of in order to a holy practice. – But we must trust on Christ to enable us above the strength of our own natural power, by virtue of the new nature which we have in Christ, and by His Spirit dwelling and working in us; or else our best endeavors will be altogether sinful, and mere hypocrisy, notwithstanding all the help for which we trust upon Him. We must also take heed of depending for holiness upon any resolution to walk in Christ, or any written covenants, or any holiness, that we have already received; for, we must know, that the virtue of these things continues no longer than we continue walking in Christ and Christ in us. They must be kept up by the continual presence of Christ in us; as light is maintained by the presence of the sun, and cannot subsist without it.’