The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Questioning God’s Greatest Commandment

But I would insist that one's view of sanctification reflects one's doctrine of salvation. Why? Because justification and sanctification are inseparable. Sanctification is a reflection and the necessary fruit of justification. As one Puritan wrote: "Justification qualifies us for heaven and sanctification prepares us for heaven." Sanctification is the conforming of a sinner to that which God has judicially declared him to be. And what is it that God declares of a sinner in justification? It is NOT that the sinner is "love" but "righteous", i.e., the sinner is deemed "holy"; without sin.

This is easily seen in numerous passages of Scripture, e.g., in Eph. 1:4, "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:" Paul was not inspired to write, "that we should be love..." (cf. Lk 1:74,75; Rom 8:29,30; Eph 5:27; Phil 2:15; Col 1:22, 3:12; 1Thess 4:7; 2Tim 2:19; Titus 2:11,12; Jam 1:27; 2Pet 3:14; et al).

In summary, it is God's purpose in salvation that all the elect be not only declared righteous/holy, but that they should be made holy.

Perhaps I should have been a little more instructive in my suggestion to consult a concordance in regard to "holiness" vs. "love"? What I wasn't suggesting is to simply compare the number of times each word appeared in Scripture. But rather, to search a concordance to see HOW each word is used in Scripture, i.e., the CONTEXT where those words appear, specifically in regard to the nature of God. Let me illustrate with just a few of the myriad occurrences where God's main attribute appear:

• Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden. (Gen 3) Why were our first parents cursed and cast out of the Garden? Was it because God is love? or because God is holy?
• Did God bring the flood upon the earth because He was "love"? or because He was holy? [I cannot imagine that Noah unfurled a banner on the back of the ark that read, "Smile! God loves you."]
• Was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed because God is love? or because He is holy?
• When Moses was in Horeb and upon the mountain, what did the voice out of the burning bush exclaim to him (Ex 3:1ff)? What the voice did not say was, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is loving ground." It was "holy" ground. And why was it holy? Because it is where God had appeared in a theophony.
• The entire sacrificial system of the OT including the articles used in it conveyed not that God was "love", but to the contrary, it vividly proclaimed God was "holy". And, it was absolutely necessary that the people of Israel perform the rituals and sacrifices not because they lacked "love", but because they were "unclean", i.e., they were not holy.
• When Isaiah was given a vision of God (Isa 6:1-3), what is it that the seraphim cried out? Of a truth, they did not cry, "Love, love love is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His love." No, no and again no... they cried out, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory."
• What name is given to the coming Messiah (Jer 23:6)? It was not "The LORD our love", but rather "The LORD our Righteousness" [to be righteous is to be holy; without sin].
• The prophet Habakkuk wrote (Hab 1:13a), "Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil,". He did not write, "Thou that are of loving eyes..."
• The inspired writer of Hebrews tells us (Heb 12:14, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:". He did not write that "without love no man shall see the Lord."
• Does God judge men and condemn them to an everlasting hell because He is "love"? or because He is "holy"? [As an aside, I once was given the responsibility as a judge for theological presentations given at an annual gathering of home schooled students. One of the most disappointing presentations was given by a young girl whose premise was, Because God is love there is a hell; an untenable proposition if there ever was one.]

My apology for forgetting to respond to your question. I shall briefly do so now.

I must disagree with your conclusion that Paul rejoiced (gave thanks to God) because of some alleged ability to separate his mind from his sinful nature. Why? because the text says no such thing. Paul does not speak of an "ability" but rather of the "reality" of the war which exists within him consequent to his regeneration, i.e., the war between the old nature (remaining in part) and and his Spirit-wrought new nature. In fact, he laments that the things he should do and desire to do he did not. And the things he knew he should not do and desired not to do, that he did. His new nature gave him a renewed knowledge (3:10), i.e., a true understanding of God and His revealed will; Scripture vs. what he previously held to be true as an unregenerate Pharisee (Rom 7:7-12).

Secondly, his giving thanks was due to his being delivered from his former life; a life as a blind bondservant to sin, his old nature. This is shown in the very next chapter, Rom 8:1-14.