Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8-9; John 16:8-11; Luke 15:18-24
Beginning in this chapter we want to study, to investigate, the Spirit’s work on and in the believers.
The first work that the Spirit has done with us is to sanctify us. The Spirit sanctifies the God-chosen people before they repent and believe (1 Pet. 1:2). Not many Christians realize this.
The Bible also reveals that sanctification is after justification. First, God justified us by our believing in Christ. Then God continues to work on us by sanctifying us. The book of Romans speaks of this aspect of sanctification. The first section of the book of Romans, from 1:18 through 3:20, is on God’s condemnation. The second section, from 3:21 through 5:11, is on God’s justification. Then the third section, from 5:12 through 8:13, is on sanctification. This is the crucial section of the book of Romans. Romans 5 is “in Adam,” Romans 6 is “in Christ,” Romans 7 is “in the flesh,” and Romans 8 is “in the Spirit.” Romans 6:19 and 22 refer to the sanctification that takes place after our justification.
But we also need to see that God sanctifies His chosen people even before they repent and believe. First Peter 1:2 says, “Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” This is a crucial verse in the New Testament. This verse reveals that there is another step of the Spirit’s sanctification before our repentance.
Peter begins with God’s choosing, God’s selection, in eternity. God knew us in eternity. Before we were born, before we were created, before Adam was created, and even before the universe was created, God foreknew us. According to God’s foreknowledge, He chose us. He was like a person coming to a supermarket, looking around at all the items and choosing the ones that he liked. He chose each one of us in this way. It would be good to circle the word chosen in our Bible. How wonderful it is that we have been chosen according to our Father’s foreknowledge!
This verse goes on to say that we were chosen in the sanctification of the Spirit. The phrase in the sanctification of the Spirit functions as an adverb to modify the verb chosen. According to the grammar, this is one thing. If I say, “I speak with my mouth,” this is one thing. With my mouth modifies the verb speak. God did not choose and sanctify us, but He chose us in the sanctification of the Spirit. This is also one thing and one action. We were chosen in eternity past, but we were sanctified in time. But 1 Peter 1:2 links eternity with time. In God there is no time element. God chose us, and He did it in the sanctification of the Spirit. God’s choosing and the Spirit’s sanctification are one action.
Then 1 Peter 1:2 says that God’s choosing us in the sanctification of the Spirit was “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Obedience in the New Testament implies two things. First, our obedience to God implies our repentance. Then it implies our faith. We were away from God. We were His enemies. Then the Spirit came to work on us, and this was unto something. Unto here means “resulting in.” So the Spirit’s sanctification results in our repentance and faith. These two things added together are our obedience. Sanctification of the Spirit is unto the obedience of repentance and believing. The real obedience to God is to repent to God and believe into the Lord Jesus.
Following our obedience, we experience the “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The sprinkling of the blood of Christ comes upon us not before our repentance but after our faith. God’s choosing is first, and this is in the Spirit’s sanctification. This results in obedience, consisting of repentance and faith. Then we are ready to receive God’s redemption, and the first step of God’s redemption is for Him to sprinkle us with His blood. Without the sprinkling, the washing, of the blood there is no way for God to save us.
Obedience is on our side, but choosing in sanctification is on God’s side. God chose us in eternity, but the working out of the sentence in 1 Peter 1:2 is not finished yet. We were chosen in eternity in the sanctification of the Spirit in time, and this sanctification issues in our repentance and faith, which is our obedience. He was ready from eternity to redeem us, but we were not ready. Then we received His Spirit’s sanctification, and that resulted in our repentance and faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Now we are ready to receive God’s salvation. The first thing in His salvation is to sprinkle us with the blood of the second of the Trinity. So we get washed, forgiven, justified, and reconciled to God. Thus, we can see that before our repentance and faith there was the sanctification by the Spirit. First Peter 1:2 shows that the sprinkling of the blood follows the sanctification of the Spirit.
I hope this brief fellowship shows us the way to study the Word. Even a small preposition in the Bible needs our study. First Peter 1:2 does not say that God chose us through but in the sanctification of the Spirit. God’s choosing could not be practiced without the Spirit’s sanctifying. It is the sanctifying of the Spirit that carries out God’s choosing.
Now we need to consider what the Spirit did when He sanctified us. The sanctifying of the Spirit before our repentance is recorded in the Bible in a very detailed way. But the Bible is like a big jigsaw puzzle. It does not give us every part of the picture in a gathered way, but the pieces are scattered throughout it. We have to learn how to put the pieces together to see a complete picture.
Luke 15:8-9 says, “What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost.” This portion of the Word gives us a picture of the Spirit’s sanctifying work. We need to notice the words seek and finds. The woman, signifying the Spirit, seeks the lost silver coin carefully until she finds it.
In Luke 15 the Lord gave us three parables: the parable of a good shepherd finding the lost sheep, the parable of a fine woman seeking for her lost treasure, and the parable of a loving father expecting his prodigal son to come back. When we get into the significance of this chapter, we can realize that this surely refers to the Triune God. The Father is waiting lovingly to receive the sinners back to Himself, but how could they come back? First, the Son is the good Shepherd taking care of the lost sinners, and then the Spirit is working.
We saved sinners were God’s chosen people. The coin, before being lost, was the treasure of the woman. The woman signifies the Spirit. The Spirit who is working on us and in us is not like a tiger or even a man. The Spirit works like a sister, a woman. The sisters are finer and sweeter than the brothers. They were born that way. Thank the Lord that the Spirit is the Woman, the Lord is the Shepherd, and God is the Father. The Father with the Shepherd and the Woman work together in love to save fallen sinners. This is detailed in the divine revelation.
The Spirit as a woman came to the lost sinners. They are God’s chosen people. They were once in God’s hand as His treasure, His coins. Even before we were lost, we were treasures in the Lord’s hand. Then one day we became lost. But in eternity God predestinated us to bring us back to Himself. The first blessing that God rendered to us in eternity past was His choosing us unto sanctification. Ephesians 1:4 says, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy...” He has chosen us to be holy. This is unto sanctification. Our being made holy began when the Spirit as the woman came to seek us, to bring us back to God unto His holiness.
In time the Spirit as the woman came to seek us, not just to find us. She came to seek carefully for the lost coin. I like the word carefully. Who does this careful work? The sanctifying Spirit of God. The Spirit is almighty, all-capable, and omnipotent, but she (I use the female pronoun here) needs to seek carefully. This is because we were very complicated before we were saved. It was not easy for the Spirit to find us. So the woman, the Spirit, came to seek for us carefully by lighting a lamp. The lamp here signifies the word of God (Psa. 119:105, 130). One day when we heard the gospel, some of the words in the Bible began to shine in us. In my youth I got to know John 3:16, but for many years that did not work on me. One day, however, the seeking Spirit caused this verse to shine within me. The word of God is a lamp used by the Spirit to illuminate and expose the sinner’s position and condition that he may repent.
The Spirit as a woman lit a lamp, and then she swept the house. To sweep the house is to search and cleanse the sinner’s inward parts. The Spirit who sought us lit the word and swept within us, in our inner being, until she found us. To find is to get. Thus, the Spirit is a woman coming to seek us by lighting the word and sweeping within us, in our inner being, until she gets us. The word began to shine within us while the Spirit was sweeping to clear away all the dirt from within us. She did this until she got us. This is the sanctifying of the Spirit. When we were in the world, among a heap of sinners, the Spirit came to seek us, to visit us, to seek us out carefully by lighting God’s word of life. At the same time, she was sweeping within us to clear away all the dirt within us. Then we started to repent.
Another portion of the Word that shows the sanctifying Spirit is John 16:8-11. These verses say, “When He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Luke 15:8-9 plus John 16:8-11 are on the sanctifying Spirit. This sanctifying of the Spirit includes the Spirit’s seeking us and convicting us. Her seeking was for her convicting. The Spirit came to us to sanctify us unto God, to separate us unto God, first by seeking us carefully and second by convicting us prevailingly. The Spirit convicts us concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. These three items are big subjects in the New Testament.
First, the Spirit convicts the world concerning sin in Adam because they do not believe into Christ (John 16:9). Romans 5:12 says that sin entered into the world, into the people of the earth, through Adam. Adam was a big entry for sin to come in to all his descendants. We need to repent of the sin in Adam and believe into Christ. The sin that came into us from Adam causes us not to believe into Christ. To be born in Adam and not believe into Christ makes us sinners. We are companions of sin. We belong to sin. Sin is our kingdom, our realm, our field. We were in sin, in Adam, in our not believing into Christ. The Spirit convicts us that we are in Adam and will not believe into Christ. This is the first aspect of His convicting.
Then the Spirit convicts us concerning righteousness in Christ in His resurrection (John 16:10). Sin is in Adam. Righteousness is in Christ. Without Christ there is no righteousness. On the whole earth, in the whole universe, righteousness is in Christ, and He is God’s righteousness given to us as our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). This is altogether in His resurrection. Romans 4:25 says that Christ was resurrected for our justification, for our righteousness. If Christ only died on the cross and still remained in the tomb, there would be no righteousness, and we could never be made righteous. Justification, to make Christ our righteousness, is through His resurrection.
We need to remember that Luke 15 was the Lord’s parable, and John 16 was the Lord’s teaching. Both came out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, the One who is wisdom. Only Christ could have given us the parable in Luke 15, and only He could have given us the teaching in John 16. The parable in Luke 15 has the details. The teaching in John 16 has the crucial major points—sin, righteousness, and judgment. As we have seen, sin is in Adam, causing us not to believe. Not believing into Christ is the real sin before God. Then righteousness is in Christ. He died for our sins, and He was buried. Then He rose up for us to have Him as our righteousness, for us to be justified by God with Him as our righteousness.
The Spirit also convicts the world concerning judgment with Satan unto eternal perdition (v. 11). Between God and man there are three crucial things—sin, righteousness, and judgment. As we have seen, sin came from Adam, and righteousness is of Christ. Surely judgment is for the evil one, Satan (Matt. 25:41). In this whole universe Adam, Christ, and Satan are the three biggest roles. We were born in Adam, in sin. If we believe into Christ, we receive Him as our righteousness. If not, we will go with Satan to share his judgment in the lake of fire. While the Spirit is seeking us out, He convicts us concerning this sin, concerning this righteousness, and concerning this judgment.
We need to learn these things because we are going out to contact people. We can read Luke 15:8 to the ones for whom we are caring to show them the Spirit’s seeking. Then we can read John 16:8-11 to them to show them the Spirit’s convicting. I believe that every contact would be happy to hear this. This shows that in order to be effective in our contact with people, we must study the Bible. We can present some verses from the Bible to them with the proper definition. Then we will gain them. We should learn how to preach these things so that the seeking Spirit can light our words to make them shine. Then others will be convicted and repent.
In Luke 15 there are the Spirit’s seeking and the Spirit’s stirring up to lead us to God the Father. The third parable in Luke 15 is concerning a father receiving his son. Verses 18 through 21 tell us what happened when the prodigal son decided to return: “I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. And he rose up and came to his own father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
The prodigal son suddenly said that he would rise up and go to his father. As sons, we rose up and came to our Father because we were stirred up by the seeking and convicting Spirit. For the son to say, “Father, I have sinned,” was for him to make a confession following his repentance. When he said that he would be like one of his father’s hired servants, this meant that he wanted to work for his father to gain his father’s favor. Once a fallen sinner has repented, he thinks of working for God or of serving God to obtain His favor, not knowing that this thought is against God’s love and grace and is an insult to His heart and intent.
The father’s response to his son is seen in verses 22 through 24: “The father said to his slaves, Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry, because this son of mine was dead and lives again; he was lost and has been found. And they began to be merry.” The son came back as a poor, pitiful prodigal, but the father gave him three things: a robe, a ring, and sandals. The father clothed his son with the best robe to cover him. This robe signifies Christ as our righteousness for our justification (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Isa. 61:10; Zech. 3:4). The ring signifies the sealing Spirit as the God-given seal upon the accepted believer (Eph. 1:13). If someone is wearing a gold ring, he must have a lot of money. The ring on the son’s finger was a mark that he had become rich. The sandals signify the power of God’s salvation to separate the believers from the dirty earth.
Now he was no longer a poor prodigal, but a rich young man. He was now qualified to enter the father’s house, but he needed something to eat. He had been eating the carob pods that the hogs were eating (Luke 15:16), and he had walked quite a distance to his father’s house without eating anything. He was clothed with a robe, marked with a ring, and separated from the earth with a pair of shoes, but his stomach surely was crying out for food. So the father told his slaves to kill the fattened calf for his son’s enjoyment (v. 23). This signifies the rich Christ (Eph. 3:8), killed on the cross for the believers’ enjoyment. After we are justified by God with Christ, we receive Christ as our satisfaction, as our supply, as the fattened calf.
Thus, Christ here is first a robe and then the fattened calf. In resurrection He has become our food, our life supply. This is the result of the seeking and convicting of the Spirit. The seeking and convicting of the Spirit issue in our obedience, in our repentance and faith. Eventually, we receive Christ outwardly as our righteousness and inwardly as our life and life supply. This is the sanctification of the Spirit, the first step of God’s salvation.
