Featured Scripture:
1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.
Before we unpack this Scripture, let me communicate some of the major concerns that Paul is addressing to the Body of Christ in Corinth. In chapter 5, he is addressing moral disorders within the community of Saints as opposed to the sinners outside the Church community. The worst is that of incest which required ex-communication if those guilty remained unrepentant.
The next offense was taking fellow Believers before unsaved Gentile courts over matters that should be settled within the Body of Christ by those who were wise in the precepts of the Kingdom of God. And just before verse 11, Paul begins listings some of the immoral acts of unrighteousness that forfeit souls from inheriting the Kingdom of God.
The sub-title of this Scripture reading communicates to us today, the need for each of us to constantly war against “Moral Laxity” within our living and walking in God. We should never forget that we all were at one time unsaved and enemies of a Holy and Righteous God.
Now that our souls have been redeemed and redirected toward sanctification, we must never boast, or become arrogant in us obtaining spiritual blessings positionally, while yet conditionally, willfully sinning without practicing teshuva when convicted by the Holy Spirit of God.
https://www.paulkipnes.com/6-steps-of-teshuvah/
Radical Goodness of a Restored Soul
One of the blessings of redemption is our ability for discerning the conviction of the Holy Spirit within our hearts when we fail morally. Our mindset is to always honor while fearing God as the God who is the enforcer of Divine Justice in His created order.
All matters of personal, national, and international unrighteousness are a direct violation of God’s Divine Justice. Moral failure communicates the soul’s actual failure and defect in being able to be in right standing with a Holy God.
A moral failure communicates a transgression that if left unattended can leave one’s soul in peril in this life and the eternal life to come. Misguided souls act unjustly towards others with the motive to injure or to do harm to another’s soul.
The unrighteous, those who willfully violate what God has said, from God’s position, it is a breach of divine justice, a legal infraction against His universal moral law which calls for divine retribution for disrespecting true justice. These are the ones that the Holy Scriptures say will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Spiritually redeemed souls who are being restored in this life will receive their opportunity and reward for inheritance by divine lot which apportions the possessions of the Father for their gift of inheritances.
Ephesians 1:11
also, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
The radical goodness of our spiritual restored soul-care is that each of us within the Body of Christ must not be deceived, thus becoming led astray from the correct path which leads to immorality in God’s very presence.
The term deceives is the Greek word [planao’], which is to cause to wander. It is the root English term for “planet” which implies a wandering body. Spiritually, the term always conveys the sin of an individual roaming.
How do we as believers roam away from the correct path of righteousness?
Though we are redeemed by God, within us there still is our inclination or disposition toward sinfulness. Next, there is the very corruption of sin’s ungodly impact upon the earth, and then there is the role of Satan as the god of this world. [see Ephesians 5:1-17, 6:10-12].
1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.
And some of you use to be like this. But you were washed. This washing refers to an entire washing-the complete removal of sin and its debt.
For the sinner is unclean, defiled as it were by the filth of their sins. Whoever obtains remission of sins has their sin put, so to speak, out of God’s [the Judge] eyes. This means that the soul is cleansed from them in the sight of God.
Remission is represented as, obtained by undergoing baptism; hence, those who have gone down into the baptismal bath are said to have washed or to have washed away their sins. [Titus 3:5; Eph. 5:26]
You were sanctified, to make holy, to treat as holy, set apart as holy, purify, to consecrate, to dedicate]. A restored soul is purified internally by the miracle of reformation of that soul. [John 17:17,19]
There are 3 aspects of Sanctification
- Positional at salvation based upon a soul encountering the wisdom of God in His Holy Word. [1 Thessalonians 5: 23- Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Progressive daily salvation communicates our need to work out our salvation by going to the very source of our salvation-the Living Word of God-wherein we renew our hearts and minds, coming into His presence with spirit and reverence. Philippians 2:21
- Ultimate salvation in glory imbued with the Holy Spirit. Revelation 22:11, Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and let the one who is filthy, still, be filthy; and let the righteous one, still practice righteousness; and let the holy one, still keep himself holy. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
You were justified, to show or make righteous, defend the cause of, plead for the righteousness of, to acquit, justify.
The believer is made righteous/justified by the Lord, cleared all charges [punishment] related to their sins. Moreover, they are justified by God’s grace each time they receive/obey faithfully.
in the Name, defines a name, authority, cause, character, reputation. A name is inseparable from the person to whom it belongs, an example: is something of His essence. Therefore, in the case of God, it is especially sacred/hollowed.
Praying in the name of Christ means to pray as directed (authorized) by Him, bringing revelation that flows out of being in His presence.
Praying in the name of Jesus is never intended to be used as a religious formula, just to end prayer or to just get what we want.
Self-Denial
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship reveals the child of God’s most important daily practice, dying to the self-life. He states that “when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” The miracle of Christlike spiritual formation rests on this reality of the death to self-life and cannot proceed except as the very foundation which has been firmly lain and sustained in Christ alone.
This pathway of self-denial for a faithful follower of Christ communicates the inner transformation of the heart of the believer, empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit of God and the Living Word. In union with Christ, the inner aspects of our ruined soul life are exposed to us before a loving God.
The goodness that spiritual regeneration purposes for those who are in Christ are not to enhance but to completely replace our revealed ruined life through spiritual rebirth in every aspect of our human nature. This includes our thoughts, feelings, choices, our bodies, our social context, and our hearts. Jesus’ words are resonating in our very serious times, “you shall know them by their fruits.”
It is my prayer that those who are in Christ in this current age are walking in the fruit of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of your humanity. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law.
Closing Sentiments
Now those who belong to Christ have been crucified the flesh with its passion and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Amen. Galatians 5:22-26
