Put on Christ in Sanctification

I. THE AUDIENCE OF THE ADMONITION

A. Paul’s Inclusion (Romans 13:11-13)

1. “Now is our salvation nearer” (Romans 13:11)
2. “Nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11)
3. “Let us therefore” (Romans 13:12)
4. “Let us put on” (Romans 13:12)
5. “Let us walk” (Romans 13:13)

B. Paul’s Address

1. “It is high time to awake out of sleep”—you understood (Romans 13:11)
2. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14)

II. THE DUALITY OF OUR RELATIONSHIP (see Galatians 5:25)

A. Our Position in Christ – “have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27)

1. “We have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:11).
2. We “are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; Acts 26:18; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 2:11; Hebrews 10:10, 14; Jude 1:1).
3. We have been “made righteous” (Romans 5:19) or “have attained to righteousness” (Romans 9:30). We have been “made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We have “the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).
4. We are crucified (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24) and dead with Christ (Romans 6:8; Colossians 3:3).

B. Our Practice for Christ – “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14)

1. Our sanctification is God’s will (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4). In fact, a man must purge himself from some things in order to be “sanctified, and meet for the master’s use” (2 Timothy 2:21).
2. Though we are righteous in the sight of God Almighty, we are to yield our “members as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13; see also Romans 6:19). We are to “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). We are to “follow after righteousness” (1 Timothy 6:11; see also 2 Timothy 2:22). We are to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:12).
3. We must die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31) and reckon ourselves “dead indeed unto sin (Romans 6:11).
4. Note: One of the greatest ongoing difficulties that exists in the life of the believer is the difficulty of making one’s practice match one’s position.

III. THE DUALITY OF OUR FELLOWSHIP

A. Separation unto the Lord – “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ”

1. We must “awake out of sleep” recognizing that “our salvation” is “nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11).
2. We are to “put on the armour of light” (Romans 13:12).
3. We must put “on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14).
4. We must yield ourselves unto God (Romans 6:13, 16, 19).
5. We must set our “affection on things above” (Colossians 3:2).
6. We are to “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16).

B. Separation from the World – “make not provision for the flesh”

1. We are to “cast off the works of darkness” (Romans 13:12).
2. We are to “walk honestly” (Romans 13:13).
3. We are to make no “provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14).
4. We are not to “fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

IV. THE PURPOSE OF OUR SANCTIFICATION

A. Old Testament Precedence

1. The variations of the word sanctified dealt with preparations for usefulness to God.
2. Altars, sacrifices, vessels, gates, days, garments, tabernacles or houses (i.e., sanctuary), among other things, were sanctified to be fit for fellowship or usefulness for the Lord.

B. New Testament Implementation

1. Positionally, we are sanctified through the blood of Christ and everything necessary to equip us to be useful to the Master is complete.
2. Practically, we must separate ourselves unto the Lord and from the world in order to be vessels “sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).