Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
MECHANICS OF SANCTIFICATION
The miraculous result of obedience
Brace yourself! This is more of a teaching blog than an entertaining one. It may not be an easy read because there is more here than a normal, well adjusted person would generally want to know but it will be worth it. It is the detail which makes me a boring person that brings the Bible alive for me. But if you happen to like what you read, there’s more to be found here.
[NOTE: Important words analysed below are identified with Hebrew/Greek transliterations into English and Strong’s Numbers so that whoever wants to can check them out — it is strongly recommended that you do. I use the Blue Letter Bible (https://www.blueletterbible.org/ )]
Tenses of Salvation
A reoccurring question among the Saints is, “Can Salvation be lost?” The answer is, “No, yes, no.” There is another post on this site in which evidence is offered that Salvation has three tenses, or stages. The sequence being; Justification, Sanctification, Glorification.
A recap
The next three paragraphs can be skipped if they are already familiar to you.
Justification
Guilty but not having to pay the penalty for the Sinful Nature. It is an action completed by Christ on the Cross — the Greek rules of grammatical syntax stipulate it can’t be undone, we had nothing to do with it, can claim no credit for it, don’t own it so can’t give it up, The Father and the Son will not allow it to be stolen. There are Actions (verbs) by both Christ and ourselves. The Actions of Christ are active verbs (He did/does them), the Action (only one) of the Mortals is passive (we accept the free Gift to be declared Righteous by God). If we try to earn the Gift, we abuse the Hospitality of both the Father and the Son, and it will not be given because the implication is that mortals can redeem themselves.
Action by Christ has active voice (He did it). Action by Saint has passive voice (We accept it being done to/for us) We can claim no credit.
As far as we are concerned, the aorist tense means it has already been completed and can’t be changed.
Sanctification
The period between Justification and Glorification where the Saint has been set aside for the exclusive use of God as a New Creation. It is during this time the Holy Spirit works on you. The analogy is the Sons of Jacob being delivered from Egypt. Israel had been removed from Egypt but Egypt had to be removed from Israel. This is a process of metamorphism. It is like a butterfly chrysalis. It happens from the inside out. (Religion is from the outside in — never works.) God loves you so much The Holy Spirit will accept you as you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay as you are. This is where He does His Job. The process is present tense, meaning that it continues non stop. The Holy Spirit acts in active voice (He does it). The Saint is required to act sometimes in passive voice (receive what God has given freely), and sometimes in active voice (be obedient).
It is during the Sanctification that rewards (crowns) are won and lost by doing Works preordained by God. Justification has occurred so these works have nothing to do with being saved. The rewards are the Crowns that the Saints cast at the Feet of the Throne of Majesty in Revelation 4 & 5. This will go on through eternity. If you are disobedient and lose your rewards (or do not gain them) you will regret the lack of each Crown you won’t have to cast.
Our works will be subjected to fire. The jewels, gold and diamonds (Works decreed by God) will survive. The wood, hey and stubble (works decided by mortals) will not.
Glorification
After mortal death, the Saints will spend eternity with God. The Grammar is identical to the Justification implying that the Father already sees the Saints as being Righteous. Justified and Glorified are book-ends. [Even more evidence of Eternal Security.] There are those who use apparently plausible arguments, based on the English translations, to claim that Salvation can be lost. The Grammar of the three tenses of Salvation mentioned above show that Justification and Glorification are God’s job. The Sanctification is the place where the Saints must cooperate with the Holy Spirit. That’s where losses can occur. Hence the answer given above, “No, yes, no.”
Now the technical bit.
It concerns the Hebrew word, “Shamar.”
In Deuteronomy 6:4–5 Yehovah gives the Command, “Hear (shamar, H8085), O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Hear: shamar (H8085) has shades of meaning. When God speaks it means, “You will Stop! You will pay attention! You will obey!” There is no argument.
[NOTE: a better English word in this case is the archaic, “hearken/harken” meaning to give respectful attention; to regard; to give heed to what is uttered; to observe or obey. NOT just hear a noise.]
But when the word is used with mortals?
In Gentile versions of the Bible, Exodus 24:7 is translated, ‘Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient (shamar, H8085).”’
However, in the better Hebrew versions the last sentence is translated, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and will hear (shamar, H8085).”(https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9885) The Hebrew interpretation for this is that, when you obey God’s Command He will give you the revelation why it should be done. The sequence of the two verbs, H6213 — ʿāśâ, “do,” and H8085 — shamar, “hear,” should be self evident. In case it isn’t, the doing happened before the hearing.
This is the opposite to the Western logic, “Explain to me why I should do it. It makes no sense to me so I won’t.”
What are the practical implications?
Joy
“The joy of the Lord is my strength.” The Hebrew translated “joy” is the noun form of the verb, “rejoice.” You decide to rejoice, regardless of circumstances, and the Holy Spirit will give you the revelation (and strength) to rejoice — even through tears. (Or am I the only one that has happened to?)
Repentance
Rather than say in your heart that you can’t obey God. Or vow to try really hard, this time. Decide that you will and call upon the Holy Spirit. Trust in the Lord for supernatural power to be given and you passively receive it (He is the active One). Then stop trying and stop resisting — forget the word, “coincidence.”.
As for myself, a work in progress:-
• Formerly I thought sin a pleasant thing, but now I have changed my mind about it;
• Formerly I thought the world an attractive place, but now I know better;
• Formerly I regarded it a miserable business to be a Christian, but now I think differently.
• Once I thought certain things delightful, now I think them vile;
• Once I thought other things utterly worthless, now I think them most precious.
That is a change of mind, and that is repentance. No life can be truly changed apart from such a change of mind.
Marriage
Erotic “love” never enters the equation of a Biblical marriage — which were arranged. [‘Eros’ does not appear in the NT or LXX.] The Hebrew word means “devotion.” Husbands are commanded to be devoted to wives and wives to be devoted to husbands. By the Shamar Principle mentioned above, if each did so they would be given the Blessing of the Divine Revelation. Of course, both wives and husbands have abused this by following Satan’s Rules — not HaShem’s. Imagine what our Society would be like if each of the marriage partners tried to out-bless each other?
Obedience for a command that doesn’t make sense
Israel could not cross the flooded Jordan until the first Priest put his foot in the torrent of water. Then the water was held back until a few million people crossed.
When Israel was fleeing Pharaoh, the Lord led Moses into an apparent death trap. It was not until Moses held up his staff that the sea began to part.
Love your neighbour
When you decide to love your unlovable neighbour, the Holy Spirit will give you the Revelation of reasons to love him.
Obedience to the Holy Spirit brings pleasant surprises. There are a number of scholarly definitions of “faith.” I like the one from the streets, “Doing it scared.”
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
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