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Date Posted: 07:23:08 02/10/17 Fri
Author: c
Subject: The Common Made Holy (excerpts from the book)

The Common Made Holy (excerpts from the book) by Neil T. Anderson and Robert L. Saucy


p 16

Whoever sows a thought, reaps an action
Whoever sows an action, reaps a habit
Whoever sows a habit, reaps a lifestyle
Whoever sows a lifestyle, reaps a destiny

p 21

Every child of God begins his or her spiritual pilgrimage as a babe in Christ. It is one thing to "be" in Christ, and yet another to become all that He has created us to be.

p 48

Justification and sanctification are distinct concepts-the former more related to the guilt of sin, and the latter to its pollution. But they are vitally related. When we are joined to Christ through faith, we are clothed in His righteousness thereby stand justified before God. In Christ's righteousness we stand in a right relationship to God in relation to His righteous law. As we saw in our discussion about past-tense sanctification, we are also positionally sanctified. We are accepted into God's presence as clean and pure in Christ's holiness. And at the same moment we became justified and sanctified positionally, the Spirit of God came into our lives and began the process of transforming our character through progressive sanctification, or Christian growth.

p 59

Growth in the Christian life is totally dependent upon God's graceful presence in our lives, therefore, to grow, we must be rightly related to Him.

p 66-67

The person under sin cannot provide his own righteousness by which he might be justified. Forgiveness of sin and a positive righteousness in Christ are God's gracious gift to which the sinner can add nothing, and nothing more is needed. All that is "required" on the part of sinful man is to receive the free gift of eternal life, gratefully accept God's forgiveness and believe that we are fully justified before God by virtue of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

p 69

We as Christians do not need to live under any sense of condemnation, nor do we need to ask other people to intercede before God on our behalf. Although there is a place for possessing a proper fear of God's chastisement if we persist in sin, the greatest motivation to living a holy life should not be the threat of hurt. Rather, we should be compelled to draw near to Him out of love-a love borne out of gratitude for what He has done for us. We can run to Him knowing that He is our sanctuary.

p 74

Jesus taught that the sum of our sanctification is love of God and our neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40). But we cannot love unless we recognize and receive God's love for us. "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19), and "Christ's love compels us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).

p 85

Too many Christians are trying to show that the Bible is true by the way they live. It will never work for them. We believe what God says is true and live accordingly by faith, and then it works out in our experience.

We are saved by faith, and we walk or live by faith. We have been sanctified by faith, and we are being sanctified by faith alone. We are neither saved nor sanctified by how we behave, but by how we believe.

p 94

Thus the real Christian, in the depth of his heart, has a nature that is oriented toward God. Although he can still sin, this sin is related to a more surface level of his being, which can still act contrary to the real person of the heart. But these surface actions are temporary and do not change the real nature of the heart and thus the person's identity.

p 98

Every believer's nature has positive propensities; this is true of the most defeated Christian. He may still have remnants of his old desires, but they are not dominant anymore. His heart has been changed so that his deepest desire is now toward God and His way. The new prevailing disposition is a love for God and.....His Son, His people, and His righteous ways.

p 106

Growth in holiness means increasingly putting off the sinful desires and their actions by the increasingly daily realization of our newness and the truth that we really are in Christ.

p 107

We need to renew our minds to the truth that a change has taken place in us and then live accordingly by faith, with the confidence that it will work out in our experience.

p 118

Sanctification is nothing less than God living in us to perfect His nature in us. The fact that God is love makes love the focus of our Christian life. Knowledge of God and union with Him through Christ means a life of love.

p 122

Once we have fallen in love with God and all that is true and good, we will naturally (or better, supernaturally) fall in love with all others created in the image of God....The love of God compels us to do so....The nature of godly love corresponds with dying to the old self and becoming the new self.

p. 139

In the process of sanctification, we are yoked together with Christ, and we must pull together under His direction and by His power. It is inappropriate to speak of synergism- that is, God does part and man does part. God's work is always initiatory and primary, and our work is dependent upon Him. Even then, Scripture clearly shows the necessity of our work.

p 140 (John Murray writes:)

All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God's working in us.

p 147

God is the primary agent of our sanctification because He gave us a new heart so that we would turn toward Him. When we do, we become an agent in our own sanctification, and our heart is conformed to the image of God.

p. 151

It takes time to renew our minds and replace the lies we have believed with the truth of God's Word. Yet that should not discourage us, for we have all the resources we need to make that happen. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), and He will guide us into all truth (John 16:13). Also, because we are one with God, "we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16).

p 160

Much of progressive sanctification is a struggle to choose between external influences coupled with internal mental strongholds raised up against the knowledge of God, and the internal presence of God coupled with the external help of the body of Christ. Wholeness and true mental health comes when we choose the truth, appropriate it by faith, and walk by the Spirit.

p 167

Repentance, then, literally means a change of mind, but in the Scripture this means more than just a change of intellectual thought. It is a change of disposition or attitude. Thus repentance implies a change that affects the whole person.

p 168

Repentance is the first step in renewing our minds. Without repentance, the effects of the old self are still in our minds. Progressive sanctification is then stalled because we are still believing the lies of the world while at the same time professing to believe the truth.....satan cannot do anything about our position in Christ, but if he can get us to believe that it isn't for real, we will live as though it isn't.

p 200

Whatever we meditate on in our minds goes into our hearts and affects our actions.

p 201

Similarly, when we continually think upon God's truth, it enters into the depth of our hearts. Whatever is borne into the depth of our being will come out in our words and actions.

Luke 6:45: The good man brings out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

p 209

When we realize that God is always present and at work in our lives, life becomes different. We have the power we need to live, no matter what the circumstances. We're not talking about a power that merely makes us happy, but rather gives us an inward joy that becomes our strength. Meditating on the truth prepares us for all of life's circumstances, according to Proverbs 6:20-22

p 210

Meditation is basically thinking on the Word of God, going over its truth in our minds repeatedly so that God's truth finally reaches our hearts, affecting our emotions and will.

p 217

Finally, we can stop the process of growth at stage four by failing to come back to the Word of God. One of the great dangers of successfully bearing fruit or experiencing victory is that we might decide to rest on our laurels. We are tempted to think that we have arrived. That's why Paul's encouragement in Philippians 3:12-14 is so helpful:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

p 220

We can actually "will" ourselves out of certain moods as David did when he was depressed, Psalms 13:5,6: I have trusted in Thy lovingkindness; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me....The rejoicing might not happen immediately, but David anticipated that rejoicing would come, even if it weren't until sometime in the future. But he did make the choice to sing as he recalled God's goodness to him. You can do the same. When you feel down, start singing or playing a musical instrument....You can even change your feelings by simply changing your posture....When we read what Scripture has to say about our emotional life, we find that it seems to command us to feel a certain way.

p 225

You have a better chance of becoming a mature man if you act like one.

These behavioral research findings tell us that our actions not only reflect the thoughts and emotions of our hearts, they also shape our hearts.

p 229

The truth that actions affect our beliefs and thoughts is also shown in Matthew 6:20,21....As we learned earlier, it's in the heart that thought and action are inseparably tied together. You cannot affect one without having an effect on the other. Not only does a thought lead to action, but the action also strengthens the thought behind it.

p 230

Proverbs 4:23-27 tells us that guarding the heart involves practical action. The issues of life come from the heart, but apparently the actions of the mouth, eyes, and walk can affect the heart.

p 232

Our actions may add new dimensions to our understanding of God and His work or simply strengthen the understanding we already have.

p 252

As Christians, we are free from the law and yet obligated to keep the commandments of the "law of Christ." Christ's fulfillment of the law has brought a new kind of obedience for the person who is "in Him." Lawkeeping is the result of a relationship with Christ, and not the means to gain such a relationship.

p 258

One of the greatest temptations that we face is to stop being dependent upon God and relying on our own intellect and resources. As long as we think we can live the Christian life by ourselves, we will fail miserably.

p 269

To abide in Christ means to consider all of these blessings, meditate on them, and appropriate them to our lives through faith. Abiding in Christ, then, is the equivalent of letting His words abide in us. (John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you...). And as we think about abiding in Christ's words, we must remember that He Himself is the Word incarnate. Abiding in Christ's words doesn't simply mean that we consider propositional truths about Jesus. Rather it means we let His truths help us to more fully come to know and treasure Him as our personal Truth and Life.

Obeying Christ's Commands

When Jesus said He abided in His Father, He was saying that He lived in total obedience to Him. Likewise, for us to abide in Christ means that we live in obedience to our Lord's commands.

p 270

Living in union with Christ, which is essential for growth in holiness, involves both our constant receiving of supernatural life from the vine and a determination to follow Christ in our daily walk. Jesus' illustration of the vine and the branches makes this absolutely clear.....The relationship is reciprocal, but the action of the branch is totally dependent on the life from the vine.

p 271

Conforming to the image of God is a long, steady process of internal change as we abide in Christ. People do not simply change overnight, nor can they be forced to do so. Abiding in Christ is being yoked to the gentle Jesus (Matthew 11:29).

p 278

Walking by the Spirit, then, requires that we be sensitive to sin in our lives. We need to walk in the light so our sins can become exposed-not only our wrong actions, but also our selfish desires and all fleshly thoughts.

p 279

To be "filled with the Spirit," then, means to let the Spirit Who lives in us manifest Himself so that His presence fills us and controls all of our thoughts and actions.

p 280

For a person to set his mind on something means more than simply thinking a certain way; it means to make something an absorbing interest that involves our mind, affections, and purposes. It means to have our total existence bent toward something. If we want to grow in the Spirit, then we must continually have our minds set on "the things of the Spirit," or, as the Jerusalem Bible say, "spiritual things." That's what Paul was talking about when he said we are to set our minds "on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:2).

p 281

Being filled with the Spirit is also the same as being filled with God's Word. The command "be filled with the Spirit" in Ephesians 5:18 is parallel to Paul's command in Colossians 3;16, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly"

p 284

Philippians 2:12,13 is another place in Scripture where we see the connection between our activity in faith and God's abiding power: "Continue to work out your salvation...for it is God Who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." Even though it is God Who moves us to will and to act, we are called to work out that which He does in us.

Faith calls for Total Dependence

It is by faith that we live and grow in holiness. To make sure you know exactly what that means, there are two important principles you must remember. First, exercising our faith is not the same as exercising our willpower. Living the Christian life and growing in holiness is not accomplished by resolving to conquer the sinful tendencies of the flesh or by the performance of rigid disciplines. The purpose of the spiritual disciplines-prayer, studying God's Word, fellowship, loving acts of service, and so on-is to stimulate us to go to Christ for the strength to become holy. They are of no use-in fact, they can be hindrances-if they are done with the thought of overcoming sin by our own power.

p 296

The Biblical concept of true humanity as co-humanity and God's goal to restore this through salvation and sanctification declares that personal spiritual growth is designed to take place not in isolation, but in the close fellowship with a community that is growing together to become one "mature man" of God.

p 299

Relationships and Knowledge

Finally, the knowledge of spiritual matters is not gained alone. Rather, it is gained through interactions with other believers.

p 300

Spiritual growth, then, is more than personal; it is communal. God conveys Himself to each of us not only through our personal relations with Him and our practice of the spiritual disciplines, but also through other believers as we fellowship with them.

p 305

Fellowship Provides Strength

There is a strengthening of faith when it is shared in common with others. It is too difficult to stand alone and be bombarded with the lies of the world. Sharing mutual beliefs and values with one another in close fellowship provides the strength that we need individually.

p 306

Fellowship Provides Accountability

The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to "encourage one another daily...so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness" (3:13). As Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes, sin is much more dangerous to our growth when it can get us alone:

p 315-316

As Scripture says, we are born again as babies, alive designed to grow (see 1 Peter 2:2). We grow as we appropriate more and more of Christ's life by the power of the Spirit. And as we grow, the reality of what we did totally in principle-namely crucify the flesh and its old self-centered influence-becomes increasingly more real in our experience.

As believers, we no longer live "in the flesh." Sin's reign over us through the passions and desires of the flesh has been broken. We have decisively said no to the old god-playing existence of the flesh and yes to Christ and the Spirit. The flesh is no longer the dominant controlling characteristic of our lives. There is a new "I" that, at its core, is God-oriented. But all of this is in the process of growing. The new "I" has not yet been perfected in faith to continually walk by the Spirit. The characteristics of the old man are still present, albeit no longer representing our true identity. We live in a situation of the "already/not yet." The new creation to which we belong has been inaugurated by the work Christ did at His first coming. But the old man has not yet been judged and removed and the perfection of the new man made complete.

In a very real sense the reality of the "already/not yet" of God's salvation belongs to the believer personally in this life as well as to the broader history of salvation. Only with the final glorification will the new man be perfected. In the meantime the flesh, with its sinful passions and desires, is present to tempt us to indulge in self-centered attitudes and actions. That's why we are exhorted to "walk by the Spirit, and we will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16)

p 318-319

Simply stated, the flesh is the constant propensity to avoid living life through the cross or gaining true life through giving up our self-centeredness.

Scripture clearly show that we are vulnerable to the sinful desires of the traitor within-the flesh...But because we are no longer dominated by the flesh, we do not have to succumb to its desires.

Correctly Responding to the flesh

The believer's response to the flesh must begin with the recognition that the power to resist the self-centered life cannot come from self. It must come from a power beyond ourselves. ...Victory is available solely through the power of the Spirit....It is only as we live in union with Christ by the power of the Spirit that we can overcome the temptations of the flesh.

Living by the Spirit requires us to believe all that we have and are is in Christ and in the reality of the supernatural power resident in us. But it also take obedient action.

The Spirit is the power by which the evil desires of the flesh can be resisted, but we have to participate with Him. We are to be actively and continually putting to death practices that we know are sinful (in Romans 8:13, Paul wrote in the present tense to imply continuous action).

p 321-322

As Christians, we need to bury the deeds of the flesh and take a good look at Jesus when we are tempted to dig them up. Nothing else will satisfy like Jesus: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6).....We are not to think of or do anything that would aim at or tend to the gratification of the flesh's sinful desires.....If we try to avoid thinking wrong thoughts, however, we will usually end up defeated. Instead, we have to think right thoughts. We are to overcome the lie by choosing the truth. Just renouncing the lie will not help us.

p 324

He was showing that the danger of worldliness in our lives is not simply a matter of doing certain things and avoiding others. Rather, he was talking about the attitude we have in life. Is God included in all that we do? If not, it is "from the world."

p 326

When we placed our faith in Christ, we in a very real sense became overcomers. We have overcome the evil spirit of the world "because the One Who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world" (1 John 4:4)

p 327

The world hates the cross because it reveals the ultimate error of the world's attitude that man is adequate and capable of finding life on his own terms. But the believer loves the cross...Through the cross he became a radically new creature that no longer belongs to the world or lives according to it. He has a new identity, which has absolutely nothing to do with the world.

p 328

Our new identity is not only separate from the world, it also has new propensities, new desires, new passions, new values. The faith in the One Who overcame the world never forgets the cross and the new identity that is made possible through His work-an identity completely antithetical to the values and characteristics of the world's system.

p 329

Humility is confidence properly placed in Christ. We are to put no confidence in the flesh (Philippians 3:3)

p 345

This, of course, does not necessarily mean that all sinful thoughts originate within us. If it's true that satan can plant thoughts in our minds, then their original source is alien. But when those thoughts issue in sin, they become ours. They become our own fleshly thoughts, which we've allowed to turn into a desire that issues a sinful act. As believers in Christ, we are indwelt by the Spirit of God and freed from the bondage of sin, and we must make the responsible choice to serve our Lord rather than give in to the temptations to sin.

p 355

We can stand against the power of satan only by the power of the One Who has overcome him- namely, Christ. Thus, abiding in Christ and walking by the Spirit are required for victory in spiritual warfare against the demonic enemy.

p 356

Spiritual warfare rests on immediate communion with God for fresh power.

And we are led by the Unconquerable One, Who has already won the decisive battle.

p 364

Admit what you did, apologize, ask for forgiveness, forgive or do whatever Scripture requires you to do, and most important of all, be honest with God and the people around you. A mistake is never a failure unless you fail to learn from it. Someone once said that to stumble and fall is not failure. Even if you stumble and fall again, that is not failure. Failure comes when you say you were pushed.

p 367

The suffering we face as we grow from sin toward holiness is inevitable. Yet we can take comfort in knowing that one of the great themes in Scripture is glory through suffering. Jesus walked the path of suffering to glory, and so did His disciples.

Sanctification involves warfare, and warfare always means that we will suffer. Suffering, for the believer, is always related to the cosmic struggle between God and satan.

p 368

Finally, suffering can come simply from our human frailty as part of a fallen world

p 369

Sometimes it takes great suffering to get our attention. "Small trials often make us beside ourselves, but great trials bring us again back to ourselves."

That suffering is necessary for building character is one of the clearest truths of both life and Scripture.

p 370

When we put to death the old self, we'll feel pain. The old self does not die easily, and there is no painless way to die to ourselves.

p 374

Nowhere in Scripture are we ever promised that God will keep us from all suffering or remove it quickly when it comes. Rather, He promises to provide grace that enables us to faithfully endure in it.

p 375

It's important to recognize that we are to express joy or experience blessedness in trials- not because of the suffering itself, but because of the outcomes usually associated with suffering.

p 376

For us to know joy in our suffering, we must have an appreciation and even gratitude for what God is doing.

The right attitude in suffering, then, is to focus on the hope that is before us.

p 377

Some people think that hope is wishful thinking. In actuality, it is the present assurance of some future good.

It is the suffering itself that helps us to cultivate a perspective of hope, which is so very useful in the midst of suffering.

p 381

If we are serious about our walk with God, He will test us to determine if we love Him or His blessings. He may purposely cloud our future so we will learn to walk by faith instead of by sight or feelings.

p 386-387

Another reason God allows times of darkness in our lives is to bring us to the end of our resources so that we may discover His.

Proven character comes from persevering through the tribulations of life.

Generally our times of testing will be followed by a time of reward or blessing. Yet we should be grateful for our trials not because of what we might receive in the end, but because they help to strengthen our character. In fact, possibly the greatest sign of spiritual maturity is the ability to postpone rewards.

p387

Suffering is the crucible in which faith and confidence in God is developed

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