Living Life in Light of Jesus Return: A Benediction for

Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to 1

Thessalonians chapter 5. Were going to be looking at verses 23 and
24 together. You may want to look back at verse 22 because it will
help you understand what Paul is doing in this passage. If we were
to devote ourselves to verse 23 alone, you would find hidden in that
little verse two very significant theological controversies that have
occupied the attention of Christian theologians over the course of
many centuries in the history of Christianity. In verse 23 you will see
the phrase, may God sanctify you completely, or entirely and from
that has arisen a doctrine called entire sanctification which was a
part of the holiness movement, for instance, in the 19th century, a
teaching that has often been called Christian Perfectionism or The
Higher Life Movement or The Victorious Christian Life Movement
movement that teaches that Christians can attain a time in this life
in which they no longer sin, in which they cease to consciously sin.
It's been very controversial in the church and this is one of the
passages that proponents of that particular view go to and so there's
a theological controversy hidden in that phrase.

There's another theological controversy hidden in verse 23. If you

look at the phrase, may your soul and spirit and body, which is in
the next clause of 1 Thessalonians 5:23, that has raised the question
of trichotomy. Are we, as human beings, made up of body, soul, and
spirit three parts; are we tri-part type beings? Or are we, as the
Scripture usually uses the language body and soul, bi-part type
beings, dichotomous beings? So there's been a significant debate
between dichotomy and trichotomy in the history of Christianity and
trichotomy has often been associated with certain pernicious kinds of
teaching, in fact, sometimes combined with the teaching of Christian
Perfectionism. But that's not where we're going in this passage
today.

I think what Paul is doing here is actually very clear from the context.
What's the last thing that he said to us in verse 22? Abstain from
every form of evil. Now that's a fairly clear, comprehensive,
demanding imperative. It's almost like he pulls up close to us and
says, Don't ever sin! And the response to that, from a
tenderhearted, sensitive conscious Christian, must be to be
discouraged, because we know that even when we love the Lord
Jesus Christ and we believe the Word of God and we're growing in
grace we don't abstain from every form of evil; we do continue to sin.
And so we could be discouraged by those imperatives that Paul has
just rolled out and summed up with that grand, inclusive,
comprehensive demand that we abstain from every form of evil. So
now, Paul is going to give us some sweet encouragement in a
prayer, in a blessing, in a benediction that he is going to pronounce.
That's what we're going to read today in verses 23 and 24. Before
we do, let's pray and ask for His help and blessing.

Heavenly Father, we ask that You would use Your Word because it is
Your Word and by Your Spirit open our eyes to understand the words
which He inspired so that we might love what You love, aspire to
Your purposes in us, and find encouragement for the living of the
Christian life, all the while firmly understanding that our salvation
rests on You and Your grace alone, for You are faithful. We ask this
in Jesus name, amen.

This is the Word of God. Hear it in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5,

beginning in verse 23:

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and
may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will
surely do it.

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Paul's purpose in this prayer, in this blessing, in this benediction that

he's pronouncing over the Thessalonians and over you and me, is to
encourage us in the Christian life. To hear an exhortation like,
Abstain from all evil, might drive you to despair. In fact, the more
serious you are about sin, the more aware you are of your own sin,
the more concerned you are to grow in grace, to be like Christ, to
see God's purposes worked out in you, the more susceptible you
might be to being discouraged by that kind of an exhortation,
Abstain from all evil. And so Paul, knowing that, wants to
encourage the Thessalonians. He's just told them that he wants
them to engage actively in living the Christian life. He wants them to
respond affirmatively to these commands, these imperatives that he
has given, but he doesn't want them to be discouraged. You know,
there are many who say we shouldn't preach holiness to Christians
because it might discourage them. And it's interesting that Paul
never ever, never ever is afraid to call us to holiness, but what he
always does is he comes alongside with the encouragement of God
and His grace and His purpose for us. That's what he does in this
passage. He calls us to holiness and then he gives us all the
encouragements that we need that come from God and from His
grace. I want to look at five of those encouragements that he gives to
you out of this short passage.

SANCTIFICATION IS THE WORK OF GOD IN YOU

And here's the first one. The first thing that Paul teaches us is that
your sanctification is the work of God in you. Look at what he says in
verse 23. May the God of peace Himself sanctify you. Did you
catch that? May the God of peace Himself sanctify you. He's
praying that God would work to make you holy. He's blessing you
with this blessing the God, who is the God of peace, is going to
sanctify you. He doesn't say, May God aid you as you sanctify
yourself. He doesn't say, Lord, would You help them as they try as
best as they can to make themselves holy. He says to you, May the
God of peace sanctify you entirely. Sanctification is God's work in
you. Now Paul's of course said that there are things that we must do
in the Christian life but it's so important for us to understand that God
is far more engaged in our sanctification than we are. We say from
time to time that our God is so kind and loving and good that He is
more ready to forgive you than you are to ask for forgiveness. So you
know, sometimes you dread that He's going to be severe with you.
He's more ready to forgive you than you are to ask forgiveness.

And you know what else? He's also more interested in your
sanctification than you are. Even if youre an earnest Christian, a
serious Christian, a Bible-believing, Bible-studying Christian who
wants to grow in grace, God is more interested in your sanctification
than you are. In fact, the entire being of God, the triune fellowship of
the Trinity, is purposed, is focused on your holiness. Were told
in Ephesians 2:10 that we were created in Christ Jesus for good
works. Were told in 1 Thessalonians and elsewhere that God's
purpose for us is sanctification; that His will is our sanctification.
In Ephesians 1:4 we're told that He chose us with a view to making
us holy. He is deeply concerned for and at work in our sanctification.
And so what do we draw from that? Some people would say, Well
since God is at work with us in our sanctification then we don't need
to worry about it; there's nothing we need to do. That's not the logic
that Paul uses, ever. The point is, if God is so committed to this in
our lives, we ought to be as well. But don't miss his encouragement.
His point is this however committed we are to growing in grace,
God is even more committed to our growing in grace and He will not
let up, He will not tire, He will not falter, He will not fail in pursing your
growing in grace and in Christ-likeness. He is that committed to it.
And Paul wants to remind the Thessalonians, even after he's given
them these commands, these charges, these imperatives, these
directions, these challenges to live the Christian life, to abstain from
very kind of evil, he wants to say, It's God who is at work in you to
make you godly.

THE GOD OF TOTAL WELLBEING AND BLESSING IS AT WORK

IN YOU

There's a second encouragement though and you see it as well in

verse 23 and it's in what Paul calls God the God of peace
Himself. The God of peace Himself. Paul is reminding us that the
God who is at work in you is the God of total wellbeing and blessing.
Peace, you know, is a very rich Old Testament word that means
more than just a cessation of hostility. Peace doesn't just mean
youre not at war with somebody. It stands for - we especially hear it
when someone uses that Old Testament word, shalom. It stands for
total wellbeing, complete satisfaction, unmitigated happiness and
blessing. And the apostle Paul is pausing to remind you that the God
who is at work in you for your sanctification is the God of total
blessing, total wellbeing, complete satisfaction.

Why? Why is that so important? Because Satan continually plays

this trick upon us. He says, If you want to be happy, youre going to
have to throw happiness overboard. If you really want happiness in
this world, you've got to chuck holiness over the side because that
holiness is a drag on your happiness, whereas, in fact, happiness
and holiness are inextricably connected. You cannot have one
without the other. And because God is concerned for your total
wellbeing, He is concerned for your holiness. And so the apostle
Paul in this passage is saying that your total wellbeing, your
happiness, your satisfaction is inextricably connected with your
sanctification and that's why the God of total wellbeing is irreversibly
committed to your sanctification because He wants your total
wellbeing and happiness and satisfaction and you cannot have that
apart from sanctification. And so the apostle Paul is encouraging us
that the God who is at work in us is the God of total wellbeing. It's
from Him that that wellbeing comes. And it is in Him that we find our
ultimate satisfaction. Were not made to be satisfied in anything less
than Him. Isn't that one of the things that is so much a part of all of
our growth in the Christian life when we realize that nothing can
satisfy instead of Him or apart from Him or more than Him? And so
the apostle Paul just reminds us it's the God of total wellbeing who is
at work in us for our growth in holiness and sanctification.
GODS WORK IN YOU BEGINS NOW

AND IN THE END RESULTS IN COMPLETE PERFECTION

There's a third encouragement though and again you see it in verse

23. Two phrases May the God of peace Himself sanctify you
completely and May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept
blameless. Notice how he emphasizes the completeness of the task
that God is at work in us to perform. May He sanctify you
completelyMay your whole spirit and soul and body be blameless.
That's why that language is used. He wants to show how complete
this work of God is going to be at the coming of Christ. Now there
are two things we need to see here. Paul is telling us that it is God's
purpose to make you completely perfect in the end and to begin that
now. It is God's purpose to make you completely perfect in the end
and to begin that now. Well never be completely perfect in the now,
we will in the end, but He will begin that process now and complete it
in the end. One of the reasons it's so clear that Paul is not just
thinking about what God is going to do in the end is he's praying this
prayer now. And if you look back at 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 11 and
following, which we've already studied, he clearly wants the
Thessalonians to make progress in holiness now. So he wouldn't be
praying this prayer if he didn't want us to make progress now. But the
perfection, the completion, will not come to the end.

But that, in and of itself, is a huge encouragement. Maybe you have

experienced encouragement from other Christians who say things to
you like, I do admire the way you selflessly care for other people. It's
a clear sign of the Gospel at work in you. Or, I so admire how you
love the Word of God and you seek to study it and memorize it and
teach it and live according to it. That's clearly an evidence of grace at
work in you. I've even talked in this series that we're doing in1
Thessalonians about how we ought to encourage one another when
we see evidences of graces in one another. But you know what often
happens? Even the very mature Christian, when a brother or sister in
Christ comes and gives you that kind of encouragement, sometimes
youre thinking, even while theyre encouraging you, Yeah, you don't
know that I did not even want to get out of bed this morning because
I'm so downcast. You don't know about this besetting sin in my life
that I have been fighting against for thirteen years and I cannot beat
it. And so though you truly appreciate the very, very real and sincere
encouragement that youre receiving from that brother or sister in
Christ, at the same time, you may well in your heart of hearts be
thinking, Boy, I'm really glad that you don't know what I'm really like.

And here's the apostle Paul saying that there is coming a day when
you will never feel like that again because God will have taken all of
that away and there will be a morning when the sun rises that will be
the last time that youll ever experience that again because His
purpose is to completely eradicate that from your experience and to
entirely sanctify you at the coming of Jesus Christ. My friends, if that
won't get you going, I don't know what will, and without it, I wouldn't
want to go on. If I didn't know that those things in me were not going
to be eradicated, I could not go on. I'm so thankful for the
forgiveness of my sins, but if I thought that I was going to be forgiven
and have to eternally deal with those profound disappointments in
myself, I couldn't stand it. And He is going to eradicate it.

IT IS GODS PURPOSE TO KEEP YOU UNTIL THE END

And then fourth, Paul gives us this encouragement. Look again at

verse 23. You thought I skipped over a word; I did it deliberately.
May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept. You thought I'd
skipped over that. I was saving it until this point. May your whole
spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul is saying that it's not only God's purpose to make
you completely perfect in the end, but that it is God's purpose to
keep you until the end, to hold you and not to allow you to be
snatched from the palm of His hand to the end. The older I grow in
Christ, the more meaningful that is to me because I've seen people
that I know very well and love who have made a profession in Christ
and who have fallen away from that profession and they have
stumbled and they give no evidence of loving the Lord anymore or
wanting to walk with Him. And it reminds us how precious it is that
the Lord is upholding us.

At Together for the Gospel back in April of this year, John Piper got
ready to stand up and preach from that glorious benediction in Jude
and he stood up and he said these words. I am amazed when I
wake up in the morning that I am still a Christian. And I realize the
fact that I awake in the morning and am still a Christian is entirely
due to the preserving grace of God. God has preserved me. And
how much power does it take for Him to preserve us? Well just take
a look at that word at the end of Jude. That's how much power it
takes. We should never ever fail to be thankful that the Lord upholds
us and preserves us. He has indeed been our dwelling place in all
generations. He is our refuge. He is the one who prevents our foot
from slipping. He upholds us. And Paul is saying, Christian, don't
ever presume upon your perseverance. You did not create your
perseverance; God has, in His kindness, caused you to persevere. It
is He and He alone who can keep you til the end.
I do want to say this, though if youre here today and you've
stumbled and you've fallen and you feel far from God, today is the
day of salvation, today is the day where you can reach out your
empty hand in faith and beg to God, Lord, help my unbelief. I
believe. And do not despair that He will not hear and answer. There
will be no one on the last day who will stand before our Lord and say,
Lord, I wanted to be forgiven, but You wouldn't do it. There will be
no one who says, Lord, I wanted to be forgiven, but you didn't
forgive me. There will only be those who never asked for
forgiveness, who never asked for forgiveness, who never cried out
for mercy, and then it will be too late. Today is the day of salvation. If
you feel that you've stumbled and fallen and you feel that there's no
hope for you, cry out in the day of your need, the day of your
distress, and He will answer.

GOD HAS PROMISED AND GOD IS FAITHFUL

One last thing, Paul gives as an encouragement to us, and you see
this finally in verse 24. He who calls you is faithful and He will surely
do it. It's almost like Paul is saying, Now, as my culminating
thought, I want you to understand why you should be encouraged by
what I've just said, by what I've just prayed. I want you to be
encouraged not because I prayed it now thered be some
encouragement in that, wouldn't there? The apostle Paul personally
prayed for me that I would be encouraged by these things there's
some encouragement in that, but Paul doesn't say, Be encouraged,
Thessalonians, be encouraged, Jacksonians, because I've prayed
this prayer and pronounced this benediction over you. He says, Be
encouraged because of this because God is faithful. Now that's
why we sang 602. Look at the very first line of hymn 602. O God,
my faithful God. He says, This is why you should be encouraged
because God has promised and God is faithful. We may be
confidence of these things not because of Paul's prayer but because
of God's promise and faithfulness. His promises are yea and amen in
Christ and He will do them.

Because of that, we will be able to sing, when we turn to number 677

in just a few moments, in that final stanza, Then we shall be what
we should be why? Because He who has called us, He who has
promised, is faithful. What Paul is saying is that the whole of the
Christian life hangs upon God's grace, upon God's promise, upon
God's power, upon God's faithfulness, therefore, be encouraged,
therefore, live with boldness, therefore live with assurance. And if
you are in the dread fight today and you feel like you are losing, hear
your pastor say to you, the fact that youre in that fight and you feel
like youre losing is certain testimony to me that God is doing these
five things in your life right now. You know what worries your pastor?
What worries your pastor is if youre not in that fight. If youre not in
the fight against sin, if youre not in the fight for sanctification, that
worries me; please come talk to me. But if youre in that fight and you
feel like youre losing, I know that He's at work in you. I know that
He's at work. He is faithful.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, grant that we would not only rest on Your

faithfulness but that we would strive against our sin and for new life
with all our might not because You have accepted us because we're
really trying hard, but because You've accepted us in the life, death,
and resurrection of Your beloved Son and therefore we want to serve
You with everything that is in us because we know that one day
everything that is in us will be for You and we want to have a taste of
that right now, as much of it as we can get by Your grace, by Your
Spirit. So grant, O God, that we would use Your means of grace but
that we would look to You and look to Jesus who is the author and
perfector of our faith. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Now would you take your hymnals and turn with me to number 677
and let's sing praise to God for His work of sanctification.

How will we ever be in that place where we want to be? How will we
ever be what we should be? By what God provides. Grace, mercy,
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.