Union with Christ

Pastor Martin expounds the third and final experiential privilege of adoption — the pledge of God's paternal provision — built on Philippians 4:19 ('my God shall supply every need of yours'). He examines the substance of the pledge, the fourfold pattern of its fulfillment (God's true estimation of our worth, sensitive awareness of our condition, perfect knowledge of our real need, and proven provision for our greatest need in giving his Son), and the three house rules under which it is fulfilled: commitment to the priorities of the household, asking of the head of the household, and harmonious relationships with the other members.

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.

Using the illustration of a wide-angle lens on a three-peaked mountain, Pastor Martin surveys the biblical doctrine of sanctification in its three great dimensions. Peak one — definitive sanctification — is the radical, once-for-all cleavage with the dominion of sin (1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:11; Acts 20:32; Romans 6). Peak two — progressive sanctification — is the continuous process of mortifying sin and being conformed to Christ (Romans 6:22, 8:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18, 7:1; 1 John 3:3). Peak three — climactic sanctification — is the final deliverance from all sin at death and in the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; Philippians 3:20-21; Hebrews 12:23). He closes by insisting that no biblical salvation exists without all three dimensions, and no sanctification occurs outside union with Christ received by repentance and faith.

Pastor Martin zooms in on Romans 6 as the watershed passage for definitive sanctification. He shows that verse 2 — 'we who are such as have died to sin' — contains the distilled essence of the chapter and answers the devil's logic drawn from the doctrine of justification. He unfolds Paul's extended analogy of sin and righteousness as two slave-masters, illustrates the change of ownership with a parable of a gracious sovereign slaying a rebellious slave to reclaim him, and shows how our union with Christ in his death and resurrection is both the power and pattern of liberation. He closes by insisting there is no such creature as a justified, adopted sinner who has not died to 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 turns to Ephesians 4:17-24 as a third key passage on definitive sanctification. After establishing both the larger and immediate context, he defends the indicative translation of verses 22-24 (ye have put off... and have put on...) against imperative renderings, then shows the same vivid imagery, profound analogy, and decisive tenses he exposited in Colossians 3. He draws four conclusions: the saving instruction of Christ always results in definitive sanctification, definitive sanctification forms the basis and reference point for progressive sanctification, definitive sanctification places us in a position to become what we were originally created to be, and this work is an exercise of gracious omnipotence.

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.

Pastor Martin completes the fourfold pattern of sanctification by setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the supreme pattern for the believer. He establishes from both the self-consciousness of Christ (Matthew 10, Matthew 20, John 13) and the explicit teaching of the apostles (1 Peter 2, 1 John 2, Philippians 2) that Christ is the example believers must imitate, then explains why: in Christ the image of God is perfectly revealed in the concreteness of our human situation. He gives extended examples of Christ's holiness, love, and obedience to the Father, warns against the idolatry of inventing a Christ in our own image, and pleads that no one can be like Christ until they are first in Christ by repentance and faith.

Pastor Martin moves from the second to the third peak of the mountain of sanctification — climactic sanctification or final glorification. He unfolds the essence (the actual realization of perfect conformity to the image of Christ in both inner and outer man, Romans 8:29, Philippians 3:20-21), the order (for those who die before the consummation, the spirit perfected at death and the body raised at Christ's coming; for those alive at his return, both perfected instantaneously), and the certainty of this great hope, grounded in the commitment of the entire Triune God — the Father's purpose and execution begun, the Son's sacrifice, intercession, and triumphant mediatorial reign, and the Spirit's irreversible pledge as the down payment of completed redemption.

Returning after illness and a trip to New Zealand, Pastor Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, focusing on verses 25-26: 'For he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.' After tracing Paul's argument that the bodily resurrection of Christ is the pledge and pattern of the believer's resurrection, he draws two pivotal assertions from the text: Christ is presently reigning as the King of grace (not merely a coming King), and the primary concern of His kingship is the salvation of His people. He closes with four consequences of denying Christ's present reign, and a caution against over-realized forms that would impose His kingship by carnal weapons.

After a digression of several Lord's Days, Pastor Martin returns to the Here We Stand series with a lengthy review of the ground covered — the book we believe and obey, the God we worship and confess, and the salvation we receive and proclaim, including Christ in the mystery of His person and the majesty of His offices. He then transitions to the next major division: the cardinal blessings of salvation — calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. Using the analogy of a multi-course banquet, he argues these are not synonyms for 'saved' but distinct courses of one gospel feast. He closes with two framing truths — the orbit of these blessings (union with Christ, outside of which there is not a crumb) and the order of these blessings (those that bring us into union, those that are present fruits, those that are future benefits).

Pastor Martin opens the study of the cardinal blessings by establishing the importance of the biblical doctrine of calling. He traces three lines of thought: first, calling's strategic place in the plan of redemption as the nexus link in the golden chain of Romans 8:29-30 that joins eternal foreknowledge and predestination to justification and final glorification; second, its dominant place in the pursuit of Christian maturation as Paul prays the Ephesians would know the hope of their calling and exhorts them to walk worthy of it; and third, its central place as a distinct designation of the people of God — they are 'the called ones.' He illustrates the golden chain with the cables of the George Washington Bridge anchored in the Jersey and Manhattan palisades, and closes appealing to both saints and strangers to give themselves to close, careful thought over this doctrine.

Moving from the exceptional universal call to the normal New Testament usage, Pastor Martin examines the effectual call of God under two heads: its author and its results. From 1 Corinthians 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, and Romans 8:28-30 he shows that calling is God's activity exclusively and the Father's activity particularly — not God plus the sinner, not loving sovereignty plus moral suasion, but the same raw material of grace and the same hand of loving sovereignty that forged election and predestination. He then lays out the three results of this call: it effects vital fellowship and union with Christ, it always issues in holiness (the called are constituted saints and brought from darkness to light), and it always culminates in glorification. He closes by answering the common objection: calling is God's work, but believing and repenting remain the sinner's responsibility.

Pastor Martin completes the survey of New Testament analogies for regeneration by examining two more dominant figures beyond the new birth: the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:10, Galatians 6:15) and the new life or spiritual resurrection (Ephesians 2:5, Colossians 2:13). He then draws together the three analogies — new birth, new creation, and new life — and shows they teach three common denominators. First, the exclusiveness of the divine agency (no one cooperates in their own birth, creation, or resurrection from the dead). Second, the efficacy of the divine power (God has no stillborn children; new creation always results in transformation; resurrection imparts real life). Third, the graciousness of the divine motive (but God, rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith He loved us). He closes by directing awakened sinners to seek the Lord on the promises of Isaiah 55.

Pastor Martin opens up the biblical concept of imputation - the charging or reckoning of one's account to another - as the very fabric of the doctrine of sin and salvation. He traces the word's general usage in Leviticus, 2 Samuel, Psalm 32, Romans 4, and Philemon, then sets out the three great imputations: Adam's sin imputed to the race, the sins of God's people imputed to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ imputed to believers. The basis of all three is federal headship and covenant union.

Pastor Martin opens a new section on adoption, arguing that adoption is an even higher blessing than justification — as a judge's son rescuing a criminal only illustrates justification, but the judge adopting the pardoned criminal as his own heir pictures adoption. He then traces adoption's centrality through four spheres: God's eternal purpose (Ephesians 1), Christ's temporal activity (Galatians 4), the initial application of salvation (John 1, Galatians 3-4), and the final application of salvation (Romans 8, 1 John 3, Revelation 21). He closes by rebuking the notion of universal fatherhood and urging believers to enjoy this pinnacle privilege.

Pastor Martin distinguishes the legal and experiential dimensions of adoption with a vivid illustration of adoptive parents waiting to receive their child, then expounds three legal privileges of adoption: an inviolable sonship grounded in the work of Christ for us (John 1:11-13), a shared heirship as co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17), and a conferred brotherhood in which the risen Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren (Hebrews 2:10-17). He urges believers to meditate on these privileges until they become felt realities and warns the unconverted of their alien, wrath-bearing position.

Pastor Martin expounds the simile of Psalm 1:3 -- 'he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.' He carefully explains the Eastern agricultural background of the image, then develops the spiritual parallel: what roots near water are to a tree, constant meditation on the Word of God is to the child of God. He shows from Revelation 22, John 15, and other passages that spiritual life flows from Christ through the mediation of Scripture. The sermon covers the three blessings: fruit in season, unfading foliage as evidence of continuous life, and spiritual prosperity in all one does.