Remaining Sin

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 moves to the second peak of sanctification — progressive sanctification — and covers four headings: the fact established (continuous mortification, growth, renewal, transformation, and pruning), the necessity explained (inescapable reality of remaining sin, undeniable imperfection of existing graces, and the unchangeable revelation of God's purpose), the essence asserted (mortification and conformation — negative and positive held in tandem), and the goal described (total eradication of all sin and complete conformity to the image of Christ). He closes by urging believers to hold the perfection of justification and the irreversibility of adoption clearly while pressing on in sanctification.