Carnal Christian Error

Pastor Martin opens a new section on sanctification by considering it in three lights. He first relates sanctification to the human problem of sin, using the illustration of a drunk driver who needs both a lawyer and a physician to show that sin creates both legal and personal problems — justification and adoption address the legal, sanctification the personal. He then traces sanctification as central to the divine plan of salvation in its initial design, actual procurement, powerful application, prolonged interval, and final consummation. He closes by pressing the personal necessity of holiness from Hebrews 12:14, warning against two fatal errors: a salvation that makes sanctification optional, and a sanctification sought apart from union with Christ.

Pastor Martin zooms in on Colossians 3:9-10 as a second great witness to definitive sanctification, working through the letter's larger framework of the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and union with Christ. He examines the vivid imagery (undressing and dressing), the profound analogy (old man and new man as the totality of humanity in Adam or in Christ), and the decisive tenses (a once-for-all 'having put off' and 'having put on'). He draws three conclusions: every believer has put off the old man and put on the new, every believer as new man must still deal with remaining sin, and every believer must fight sin from the conviction that he is a new man — illustrated by Augustine's famous 'it is no longer I.'

Pastor Martin completes his exposition of definitive sanctification by working through Romans 8:5-9 and Galatians 5:16-24. Romans 8 draws an extended contrast between those after the flesh and those after the Spirit, concluding that if the Spirit dwells in us He does so as the liberator from the realm of the flesh and if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his. Galatians 5 adds that those who are of Christ Jesus have once-for-all crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts. He draws four final conclusions: a radical breach with sin is on the threshold of all true Christian experience, this breach is rooted in Christ's death and resurrection, its virtue becomes ours by union with Christ, and it must condition all our future dealings with sin.