Lutherna View of Church and State

LESSON FIVE

2007-2008

SANCTIFICATION

I. Life under the cross – Introduction (p. 135)

A. 2Co 4:10.

B. Mt 16:

1. Provides framework in which we can understand the centrality of the cross.

2. Shows the direct connection between the cross of Christ and the place of suffering in the Christian’s life.

3. v.24

4. Hard for us to face question of how God could possibly be at work in life’s dark days.

5. v.11.

a. Warning against mindset looking for dramatic earthly evidence for spiritual reality.

b. Peter fell into this: v.22.

II. The Grand Paradox (p. 136)

A. Rev 2:10.

1. Crown sounds good; death doesn’t.

2. Only route to the crown-through the cross!

B. No way around the cross.

1. Mt 16:24. (again)

2. Cross.

a. Not only the unique way in which God saved the world.

b. Also stands as the continuing model for Christian life.

c. No way around it: Mt 16:25.

C. Life lost and found: Mt 16:26.

1. Life lost in suffering is counterfeit.

2. Life found is the real thing.

III. The Real Me (p. 137)

A. Baptism:

1. A death and resurrection.

2. Baptized into Christ: His death and life now ours.

3. Baptism plants the cross squarely into our lives.

B. Christ

1. Actually living out His life through us, the members of His Body.

2. Gal 2:20.

IV. Identity Crisis (p. 137)

A. Our sinful nature is very much alive.

B. Ro 7:19.

1. Endless seesaw.

2. We think we should be on top of things with the power He supplies.

3. Creates a problem of identification.

C. Paul’s solution.

1. Two forces are at work in us.

2. My salvation.

a. Does not depend on which force wins out in any given situation.

b. Depends on the rescue already accomplished by God through Jesus Christ.

3. Ro 8:1.

D. Key to my identity crisis: The new me is unseen, hidden in Christ.

V. The Hidden Life (p. 138)

A. People ask where God is:

1. Looking for evidence of reality of God with range of their feelings and senses.

2. God does not make Himself known that way.

3. God hides under lowly outward forms the better to reveal Himself to us.

4. Mystery, to be sure - but reality, nevertheless.

B. Christian life also hidden.

1. All we can see and sense is our sin and guilt.

2. Whole picture includes a death and resurrection.

a. Christ’s surely.

b. Also ours, through baptism.

c. Col 2:10-13.

3. All God sees is the new man in Christ.

a. Perfect, whole and complete - Reality, but a hidden reality.

b. Col 3:3,4.

c. This calls for faith.

d. Our real identity hidden under a weak, sinful nature.

C. Tinkering with our life style.

1. Useless.

2. Autopsies.

a. Do not give life.

b. Only discover the cause of death.

3. He works death and resurrection - daily return to baptism.

VI. A Partnership in Suffering (p. 140)

A. Only way we grow as Christians is through death.

1. The death of our sinful nature.

2. No way around the cross for our sanctification.

3. Mt 16:24 (again).

a. Not to be feared.

b. Is a partnership with Jesus

c. But, still it is a partnership in suffering.

B. We are prone to ignore the reality of suffering in the Christian life.

1. We hide it, deny it, refuse to talk about it.

2. We seem shocked to discover that God expects us to suffer.

3. Does not correspond with our “mental picture” of God - an idol.

4. Also have to smash the idol of comfort and ease.

C. The Real God.

1. Plans to work in our lives through suffering.

2. We can’t separate Jesus and His cross - a “package deal”.

3. Php 3:10,11.

4. Ro 8:17.

D. We live in enemy-occupied territory.

1. Eph 6:12.

2. Christ battles Satan and his cohorts.

3. As members of His Kingdom, we draw fire.

4. Jn 16:33.

VII. Demolition and Reconstruction (p. 142)

A. 1Pe 2:5.

B. Ongoing process; case of already and not yet.

C. Saints and sinners.

D. Col 2:10 (again).

E. Php 2:13.

F. God often uses suffering to demolish our sinful nature in building us up in Christ.

G. 2Co 4:10,11,16.

H. 1Co 1:23.

I. 1Jn 3:2.

J. C.S. Lewis:

“You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.” (Mere Christianity) (Senkbeil, p.144).