(Our two-part study with Psalm 10 is available here)

Our study looks further into the process of judgement that God brings upon the elect in this age (1Pet 4:17).

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God

We are blessed to admit and see that the way that seems right to anyone in their flesh leads to death (Pro 14:12 , Isa 42:19 , Joh 9:41). Regardless of that innate blindness within us because of sin in our members (1Joh 1:8 , Rom 7:23), we know now that by the grace and faith of Christ, all men will eventually be saved, each man in his order (Eph 2:8 , 1Cor 15:23).

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Christ also went through this sanctification process in His sinful flesh (Joh 17:17 , Luk 2:52) having never sinned (Rom 8:3 , 1Joh 4:17), and was perfected on the third day (Luk 13:32) so that we could have a high priest who can comfort and deliver us through this wilderness of sinful flesh with absolute certainty as God has promised (Joh 18:9).

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Luk 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Luk 13:32  And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected.

Joh 18:9  That the saying might be fulfilled, which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.

In this 2-part study, we look at how becoming a mature son does not conclude that all of a sudden we don’t have to continue to grow and examine ourselves as to whether were in the faith or not (2Cor 13:5), but rather as we mature in the Lord we realize that we must live and die unto the Lord daily until our last breath, overcoming and enduring until the end, even narrowly but certainly escaping through our Lord (Rom 14:8 , Mat 24:13 , Mat 7:14).

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Christ is our hope and vision who increases as we decrease through this life long process of maturing through judgement (Col 1:24), which judgement he is the author and finisher of (Col 1:27 , Heb 12:2).

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

It is God’s words that are being sanctified within us (Joh 17:17) that act as a light that quicken us in this sinful world and enable us to know how to walk and talk circumspectly (Joh 6:63 , Eph 5:14-17) as we see through the glass darkly yet more and more clearly (1Cor 13:12), and understand how narrow is the path that leads to life as we go from glory to glory in our Lord (2Cor 3:18).

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Eph 5:14  Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
Eph 5:15  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Eph 5:16  Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Eph 5:17  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Few there be that find this life of Christ in this age, but God has devised a means to redeem all of His creation (Mat 22:14 , 2Sam 14:14) starting with the elect who are shown the mercy through judgement to be able to stay the course and endure until the end, living and dying daily unto the Lord as God’s words are sanctified within us through judgement so that “the man of the earth may no more oppress” (Psa 10:18).

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

2Sa 14:14  For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

Psa 10:18  To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

(Our two-part study with Psalm 10 is available here)