Lordship Sanctification,
Biblical Or Not?
The
term Lordship sanctification has
a variety of faces that are subtle to
the untrained e
ye
of the Bible. Simply... it is presented
as a doctrine that says the true
believer will make
Christ Lord of every area of their life
as a prerequisite for
sanctification and therefore,
will not have to battle with sin
thereafter. According to this view,
those who battle with sin have not
properly yielded to Christ's Lordship
and are not yet saved or sanctified. Those who teach
this often reject the notion that there
is such a thing as a
carnal Christian.
This doctrine was introduced
to the church at Galatia and was
welcomed (Galatians
1:6,7).
However, the trained eye to the Bible
knows that this teaching is contrary to
the message of every epistle in the New
Testament. If the true believer is one
who has no struggle with sin, why did
the apostles spend so much effort and
time in warning believers not to sin?
The apostle Paul refutes this false
doctrine when he wrote his epistles in
which he corrects his readers about
their various sins and errors. He did
not tell them that they were lost and
needed to be saved. He said plainly in
all his epistles that they were in
Christ (a term for salvation).
Lordship sanctification is man's efforts
and/or imagination to make Christ Lord.
This is impossible. Jesus is already
Lord... always was and always will be
(Philippians
2:11). Sanctification can never be
realized by our effort to improve
ourselves and impress God.
Sanctification is the very act of the
indwelling Holy Spirit illuminating the
yielded believer to know the Word of
God, thus, enabling the believer to obey
the Lord Jesus Christ (John
3:18). Sanctification is
not what we make of Christ... it is what
Christ makes of us (Philippians
1:6).
The Christian experience is not about
putting Christ first place in life
(Lordship sanctification)... It is Christ
putting us in our place... a state of
righteousness,,, and understanding the
sufficiency of God's amazing grace (2
Corinthians. 12:9). Amen!
Sincerely, Dr. Arthur Belanger
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