Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
012420
Faith alone in Christ alone.
We have the principle of positional truth or being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ which results in fantastic blessings because of the marvelous graciousness from our Lord and Savior; 1Co 2:9.
Fruit from the branch is a metaphor or a symbol for the Church-age believer who produces divine good not human good.
We need to define a few important doctrinal views concerning our position in Christ and our unity with one another.
Sanctification is a technical, theological term for the status quo of the Royal Family of God, observed in three phases of the Pre-designed Plan of God.
- Positional Sanctification. Positional Sanctification refers to every believer who receives the imputed righteousness of God by means of one word; Faith; Gen 15:6.
”Faith alone in Christ alone” was the same means of salvation that God offered to the Gentiles years before the Jews were even created.
- Experiential Sanctification. Every believer has the unique opportunity to grow spiritually and attain a progressive righteousness during his lifetime.
- Ultimate Sanctification. Every believer will receive a resurrection body in eternity and rewards for the winners.
“sanctification” = to be set apart to God for a special purpose. We, the royal family of God, are set apart from the moment of salvation to the eternal state.
When you hear me mention “positional truth,” I want you to focus in on the word positional as it relates to our place, or our home, our status, or really our standing before God.
This is not a pun or a paronomasia, But a statement of declaration that I put together for all of us to learn and be able to teach others.
Sanctification means to be set apart as Holy, and in positional sanctification, God sees us as being positionally perfect and holy because of what He has done for us.
EPH 5:27 He died just for you and me that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
COL 1:21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, {engaged} in evil deeds,
COL 1:22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
Because of positional sanctification and the grace provision of the filling of the Spirit, it is possible for the believer to produce divine good = the only good that God accepts.
“First Set of Works or Deeds” — judged and evaluated for believers who will either receive divine blessings or lose what the Lord had provided just for them; 1Co 3:11-15; 2CO 5:10.
2CO 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Good is the Greek adjective agathos which refers to divine good or the production of the fruit of the Spirit in the life of a believer.
Bad is the Greek adjective phaulos which refers to evil and human good as stated in Isa 64, the righteousness from phaulos is disgusting to God; Isa 64:6.
The Second set of works that will be judged and evaluated is for unbelievers whose good deeds are less than perfect and are not good enough to get them to heaven on their own; Joh 5:28-29; Rev 20:11-15.
JOH 5:28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice,
JOH 5:29 and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
- Dead branches represent dead works or production skills minus spiritual skills and therefore God classifies these principles as “Dead Works.”
There are times when we automatically produce good deeds with the production skills that have been developed in the Old Sin Nature and not the spiritual skills that have been graciously given to us from God for the purpose of producing the fruit of the Spirit.
The production skills try to accomplish God’s plan with man’s power, whereas the spiritual skills will enable us to produce Divine Good from the skills of the Lord to us.
- Live branches representing divine good, with spiritual skills as the basis for production skills.
Spiritual skills, like Eph 5:18; Gal 5:16; Heb 4:12; Act 1:8, must come before the production skills.
The branch who is “in Christ” but does not bear fruit represents the believer who does please God experientially because of the lack of use in their spiritual skills.
Dead works do not bear fruit and are punishable by divine discipline in one of three phrases, (1) Warning; (2) Intensive; (3) Dying.
- The law of volitional responsibility, which produces a tremendous amount of self-induced misery.
- Divine discipline.
We begin with a natural principle concerning pruning because it has a great application to “spiritual pruning” which is necessary for properly redistributing the “energy” for production.
The branch that bears fruit must be pruned occasionally so that the spiritual skills will increase and maximize and go through suffering for blessing.
Principle: Just as God provides divine discipline and punitive action for the one who bears no fruit, He also provides suffering for blessing for the fruit bearer.