We continue to ponder the implications of the New Covenant in Christ’s Blood.  At the last supper with his disciples, Jesus instituted the New Covenant in his Blood.  The workings of that covenant are based on Christ’s blood “let-out” (forgiveness) and blood received or blood “let-in” (the new life of Christ within us).

This article offers consideration of the guidance of the Holy Spirit in matters of sanctification as being one aspect of blood “let-in”.  It examines Christ’s temptation in the wilderness (Luke 4:2-4) in order to understand the central role of the Holy Spirit in dealing with sin and temptation.

It’s application addresses:

• the necessity of relying on the Word and the Holy Spirit as our sanctification and the sinfulness of resisting sin in our own strength,
• Christ, who is both our example and our ability, as the source of our faith,
• the way in which flesh acts as a hinderance to sanctification.

We have been considering the “New Covenant” and by reference to the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah and we find that participants in the New Covenant are:

1. forgiven and cleansed from their sin  ~  Ezek 36:25 &  Jer 31:24b
2. possessed and lead of a new heart and spirit ~  Ezek 36:26  &  Jer 31:32b wherein they are no longer stony hearted and insensitive, needing to be led by the hand
3. taught of God   ~  Ezek 36:37 & Jer 31:34a because the law is now written on their hearts and
4. a people belonging to God and whose god is exclusively God  ~  Ezek 36:28b  & Jer 31:33c

Because the New Covenant is a promise in Christ’s Blood (Luke 22:20, 1 Cor 11:25), we came to ponder Christ’s Blood in terms of blood “let-out” (as a sacrificial offering for our sin) and as blood “let-in” (as our participation in the essence of Christ’s life).  The previous article suggested that Christ’s blood “let-out” addresses the New Covenant’s promise of forgiveness and cleansing from sin (Ezek 36:25 & Jer 31:24b).

It remains to consider what might be the impact of blood “let-in” and how blood “let-in” relates to the New Covenant’s three other promises of; i)  being led by the Holy Spirit, ii)  a new heart with God’s law written on it, and iii)  being part of a people belonging to God.  In this article we trace one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s guidance under the New Covenant by examining His guidance in Christ’s life at the time of Jesus temptation in the wilderness.

The Devil’s temptation of Jesus Christ

The gospel of Luke provides us an account of Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for 40 days during which He was tempted by the devil.  That in itself tells us that Jesus lived as one who followed the Holy Spirit, but there is further insight to be gleaned from this event.  Luke gives detailed explanation of three temptations which occurred at the end of that 40 days (Luke 4:1-13).  For the moment we are interested in the first of these temptations:

“And he ate nothing during those days.  And when they were ended, he was hungry.  The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” (Luke 4:2b-4)

Since the days of Christ’s fasting had ended, the devil’s temptation at this point is not for Jesus to eat bread.  The fast was over, Jesus was at liberty to eat if He so chose.  The devil’s ruse is more subtle than an appeal to Christ’s flesh.  The devil was tempting Jesus to act so as to use his own divine power to change stones into bread.  It was a temptation akin to the one that he had used in Eden.  Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation to be gods (Gen 3:15). Perhaps an appeal to Christ’s divinity would lead him to exceed His humanity and make inappropriate use of His divine power.  Matthew’s record of Jesus’ response to the temptation tells us what was at stake: “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).

This first temptation was an invitation for Jesus to violate obedience to the Father by acting independently and in his own strength.  More than that, it was a temptation to exceed the role which had been appointed to Him by the Father.

We read of Christ’s appointed role in Isaiah when he writes of Messiah as the Suffering Servant:

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”  (Is 42:1)

“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations”  (Is 42:6)

“Thus saith Jehovah, In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages”  (Isa 49:8 ~ ASV)

It was Christ’s assigned task not only to be entirely obedient to the Father but also to be entirely dependent upon Him.  Isaiah records that Messiah was upheld (Is 42:1), kept (Is 42:6) and preserved (Is 49:8) by the Father.  So reliant was Jesus on the Father that He could do nothing of Himself (John 5:30, 5:19 & 8:28).

So here is a conundrum.  If this first incident was a temptation for Jesus to act in His own strength (be it either His divine power or human ability) would He not be succumbing to that temptation if He had used His own strength to resist it?  It was not enough that Jesus escape the temptation.  The means by which He escaped it also mattered. This was indeed a cunningly devised temptation.

If Jesus relied neither on His own human strength nor on His divine ability to resist the temptation, how did He resist it?  The Father’s words in the verse from Isaiah (Is 49:8) alerts us to Christ’s means: “I have put my Spirit upon him”.

The sanctifying Holy Spirit

The writers of Hebrews tell us that the Holy Spirit was the means by which Jesus resisted temptation and presented Himself to the Father at Calvary without sin (Heb 9:14).  The apostle Paul gives testimony to the same thing, saying: great is the mystery of godliness in that Jesus, God in the flesh, was justified by the Spirit (1 Tim 3:16).

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”  (1 Tim 3:16 ~ KJV)

This verse is thought to have been a doxology or hymn sung by the early church.  The International Standard Version (ISV) has sought to capture the sung sense of the verse as a rhyme:

“By common confession, the secret of our godly worship is great:
    In flesh was he revealed to sight, 
         kept righteous by the Spirit's might, 
    adored by angels singing. 
         To nations was he manifest, 
    believing souls found peace and rest, 
         our Lord in heaven reigning!”  (1Tim 3:16 ~ ISV)

Where the traditional rendering says that Jesus was: “justified in the Spirit”, the ISV offers that He was: “kept righteous by the Spirit's might” 

Christ’s sanctification was for our sakes

The apostle Peter commended the Christians of his day, saying that they had “purified their souls by obeying the truth through the Holy Spirit” (1 Peter 1:22).  Their obedience was not of themselves and their own strength.  It was an obedience wrought by the power of truth as revealed to them by the Holy Spirit.  On the eve of His crucifixion, Jesus testified in a similar way.  He had sanctified Himself so that we might sanctify ourselves in the same way that He had done:

“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”  (John 17:19)

Jesus sanctified Himself by means of reliance on the guidance and truth given to Him by the Holy Spirit, just as we are supposed to do.  It is through the Spirit that we are supposed to mortify the deeds of the flesh (Rom 8:13).  This is one way in which the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, He opens the truth of Christ to us and the truth of Christ sets us so free as to be “free indeed” (John 8:36).

Jesus’ handling of this first temptation reminds us that He is not only our example, He is our ability also.  Evangelical preaching, when it gets beyond the promise of forgiveness in Christ tends to terminate on the truth of Christ’s righteousness as being imputed to us (2 Cor 5:21).  It delights first, to rejoice in Christ’s atoning work as the means by which the Father’s judicial satisfaction has been obtained for us.  Next it expounds the truth of the free gift of Christ’s righteousness to the believer.

“For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  (2 Cor 5:21)

But Christ’s ministry meant more than a forensic imputation of His righteousness. Christ’s death and resurrection meant the advent of the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 2:33 & Eph 1:13).

“Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”  (Acts 2:33)

Jesus is made unto us both righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor 1:30). Having walked the earth in total reliance on the Holy Spirit, He is both our example and our ability.  The life of Christ is a life lived in the Holy Spirit and so when we receive of His life via His Blood “let-in” we are receiving, in Him, the ability to walk in unison with the Spirit, to the pleasing of God the Father.

In short, the life of Christ as He lived it when in His humanity amongst us, was the perfect fulfilment of the New Covenant promise of being lead by and enabled by the Holy Spirit.

As to Christ’s sonship

It is worth noting that Jesus did more than resist the devils’ temptation. He actually answered the devil’s challenge.  The devil questioned whether Jesus was the Son of God.  In so far as Jesus dealt with the devil’s temptation by being both obedient to the Father and reliant on the Father’s impartation of the Holy Spirit to Him, Jesus gave clear indication of being the Son of God, the promised Messiah who is the Suffering Servant (Is 42:1).

Application

What use can be made of this Holy Spirit lead approach to sanctification?

FIRST  -  The New Testament places great emphasis on the believer keeping control over the desires of their flesh.  This often leads us to suppose that mortification of the flesh is the key to our sanctification.  Furthermore, we often think that overcoming temptation and sin habits calls for firm resolve and a strong will on our part.  And yet Jesus said that we are to be sanctified through knowledge of the truth in the same way that He was sanctified; which was a sanctification primarily attributable to the input of the Holy Spirit, not that of His own strength and determination.

Answer this question:  If through the strength of your self-determination you defeat sin and temptation, who gets the glory for your victory?  Surely it is yourself!  Yet scripture tells us that we are to be to the praise of God’s glorious grace (Eph 1:6, 1:12 & 1:14), not to the praise of our self-effort.

Or again:  If through the strength of your self-determination you defeat sin and temptation, what part is played by faith and trust in God?  Surely there is no faith required by such achievement!  Yet scripture tells us that whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Rom 14:23, Heb 11:6, Ps 78:32).  Could it be that self-reliant success in defeating sin, is a perverse grooming of God’s wrath toward us?

Here then is the first application:  Let us learn what Paul calls “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5 & 16:26) which is an obedience which looks only to the truth of the finished work of Christ at Calvary and believes Scripture when it tells us that we are new creations in Him (2 Cor 5:17), sanctified by faith in Christ (Acts 26:18) and cleansed by the impact of the word of God (Eph 5:26, John 17:17). At the risk of seeming to disparage the power of sin, let us never look to our own effectiveness or our own performance.  Rather let us be resolved to look only to Jesus who Himself overcame temptation by the Spirit and the Word.

SECOND  -  When Jesus speaks of a “knowledge of truth” which sanctifies, He is not speaking of a head knowledge or a mere intellectual appreciation concerning a reasoned matter.  Indeed, He is speaking of a truth which has been ministered by the Holy Spirit to our spirits.  As such it is a supernatural appreciation, an appreciation which is both spirit and truth (John 4:23-24).  It is a spirit of truth which cannot be received by worldly means (John 14:17) because it is based not on what we know, but on who Christ is; the Angel of the LORD who revealed Himself to Moses at the burning bush.  Christ is by nature a self-revealing God.  The truth which sanctifies is the revelation of the thorough enormity of the Covenant of Grace in Him.

Hence sanctifying truth is a truth which is acquired by grace and applied by faith and which draws its strength from relationship with Christ. It is a truth which takes seriously, humbly and thankfully the realization that Jesus really is the author and the perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2).

THIRD  - Which brings us to our final consideration; that of the flesh.  If it be true that self-mortification does not achieve a sanctification which is pleasing to God, why are there so many scriptures which tell us to deny our flesh? The Christian does not subdue his flesh in order to be holy.  To do so is to behave as though God is unfaithful to His Word or lacking the means to achieve His purposes of glorifying Himself in us.  The Christian subdues his flesh i) in recognition of what he has become because of Christ, and ii)  in order to preserve the experience of Christ’s love for him, to hear more clearly from the Holy Spirit who ministers the truth of Christ to us. As Paul says:

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”  (Gal 5:16-18)