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Sanctification
Part 2 - Mark 11 What Sanctification is Not (Not by the Law)[1]
This spring we’re talking about SANCTIFICATION = how God works to change you, a sinner, and make you more holy in your heart and in your actions.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 35: What is sanctification?
Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Last Sunday we started talking about sanctification by saying what sanctification is NOT. Some people make the mistake and think because God has saved you and forgiven you that you can live however you want to live now - God doesn’t care and he’ll just keep forgiving you. That’s a mistake. If you believe in Jesus God does forgive you AND he also starts to change you. God changing you is what we call sanctification. Today we’re going to look at another story in the NT and see another BIG mistake people make about sanctification.
Let’s READ the story of the Canaanite woman’s faith in Mark 7.
This woman has a little girl who is demon-possessed and hears Jesus is in town and she rushes to him. She is a Syro-Phoenician, which means she’s as a Gentile, not a Jew, but she knows about Jesus. So she finds him and begs him for his help.
And what does Jesus do at first when she asks for help?
He ignores her over and over. But she won’t go away. She won’t stop begging Jesus to help her. So finally Jesus speaks to her.
And when Jesus speaks to her - does he sound nice or mean?
Jesus insults her. He calls her a dog!
And this seems strange because Jesus has been healing lots of people, he’s cast out demons, he’s healed people who didn’t even ask for help, he’s healed little children. So why won’t he help this woman who’s begging for help for her little girl who’s being tortured by a demon and instead insult her?
Jesus’insult is the KEY! Jesus says, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”That insult is actually a little parable, it’s a little riddle Jesus tells the woman to test her if she has real faith.
Think about it: When your parents make dinner do they invite the dogs to the table? Or, have you ever seen a dog jump on a table and ruin the family dinner?
So Jesus’insult is a challenge to this Gentile Canaanite woman: “You’re not a Jew so why should you get a seat at God’s table? Why do you think you have fellowship with me? Why should I worry about you and what you need?”
What could this Canaanite woman say back to Jesus? And, what does she say?
She could say, “Whatever…”and walk away not caring.
OR, she could insult Jesus right back, “I’m not a dog, you’re a dog and get out of my town!”
Instead, she keeps begging for help!
She is perfectly fine with Jesus insulting her!! Because it’s really the insult of the gospel. This Gentile woman gets the gospel even better than the disciples do at this point.
The disciples think they have fellowship with God and that they a seat in heaven at God’s table because they’re Jews and because they have the Law, they have the 10 commandments. They think following the Law makes them good with God.
This Gentile woman gets that she is NOT deserving of anything good from God; that no one deserves anything good from God because no one is good enough, no one is holy enough to have a seat at God’s table. The Gentile woman gets that she doesn’t need to be a Jew to get God - she believes she needs to get Jesus to get God.
That’s Jesus’point with the parable. Just because you’re a Jew and just because you have the Law that doesn’t make you holy.
If you’re a Jew you get the privilege of hearing the gospel of grace first BUT you’re not saved just because you hear the gospel first, you’re not saved just because you’re a Jew - you have to BELIEVE in this gospel about Jesus.
The woman doesn’t know exactly how Jesus is going to save his people but she believes he is the Savior and she believes she is already one of his people because she believes in him. And as a sign that Jesus agrees with her he heals the woman’s daughter.
[Application] Here’s what this means for us. The mistake some people make is thinking the Law of God can change us and make us more holy. It can’t. God’s rules don’t actually change you. That doesn’t mean the Law is bad. The Law shows us what is good and what is bad and the Law shows us how much bad we do BUT the Law doesn’t have the power to actually change us.
It’s like when your parent tells you, “Don’t hit your sister. Don’t hit your brother.”And you immediately you want to hit them. Or a sign says, “Keep off grass.”And you immediately want to step on the grass!
It’s like the marshmallow test - these teachers put a marshmallow in front of a little child and said, “Don’t eat this marshmallow and if you don’t I’ll come back in a while and give you another marshmallow as a reward.”All these kids try to follow the rule, they try not to look at the marshmallow, or they try to just smell it, or they try to just nibble a bit and of course they can’t resist and they all end up breaking the rule and eating the marshmallow even though there’s a reward if they don’t. One kid puts it in his mouth and then spits it out and slaps his head and then eats it. One girl just starts eating the marshmallow as the teacher is explaining to her, don’t eat the marshmallow.
[FCF Nomism] Most Reformed theologians say the law is merely the standard of sanctification, defining the obedience that God requires. But other Reformed theologians take this a step further and teach that the law is a means of grace. “Although it is the Spirit who provides the empowerment to obey, the law is one of the means that God uses to restrain our corruption, mortify the flesh, and progressively make us more holy. The threats, the curses of the Law are there to goad us on and help us along the Christian life.”
Critique: This is not legalism (justification by the law) but nomism (sanctification by the law) (Gal. 3:1-3; Col. 2:20-23). We talked about the issue of different religions with justification trying to justify themselves on the basis of keeping their own laws and standards - that’s a problem of legalism. But it’s not just a problem of legalism; it’s also rightly understood as a problem with nomism.
Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, all the religions of the world all have these ideas that if you do these things, don’t touch or handle certain things that would defile you, if you treat your body harshly, rigorous in self control, rigorous in discipline, and fight against the flesh and fight against sin then you will somehow overcome it. Paul says that seems to have the appearance of wisdom, seems like a good thing to do but they don’t actually restrain sin at all.
The point of the Law was not some means of grace that would restrain sin and cause the people of God to become more holy. Again, that doesn’t mean the Law is bad. The Law shows us we’re not good enough for God, and we never will be by just trying to follow the rules. And all of you struggle with thinking, “I’ve got to be good enough so God will love me and take me to heaven”- but just trying to keep God’s commandments will never make you a holier Christian.
Sanctification is NOT by the Law! The Law had not changed Jesus’disciples. The Law had not changed this Canaanite woman. It was faith in Jesus.
She’ll take the insult of the parable, the scraps of Jesus’time and words, because she believes with all her heart the gospel of grace that is so bold as to say you’re a sinner in need of a Savior - she believes his grace and mercy is sufficient for someone as undeserving as her. So she boldly confesses her confidence that the grace Jesus has to give is more than sufficient to meet the needs of faithful Israel and spill over to meet the needs of the Gentiles who believe too.
[Communion] Did you know the Lord’s Supper, aka Communion, is the meal that that celebrates that the church is in covenant fellowship with God. But Jesus does not summon the church to earn a seat at the table in the kingdom of heaven by obedience to the demands and laws of the New Covenant. We get a seat at the table in heaven because Jesus through his obedient life and his sacrificial death has earned salvation for us and secured a seat at his eternal table of glory.