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Church and Sanctification

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Brothers, 

I read this today and it reminded me of my own fight against indwelling sin. 
It was raging today! How are you doing?

This little section from Paul Tripp's book reminded me again today that pastors need the church more than the folks in the pew. We are to watch our life and doctrine. 

I'm so thankful for fellow elders here. I pray that you have brothers around you to encourage you. 


Garrett 
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The Church Is Essential
If you take God's change agenda seriously, making his sanctifying work your spiritual life work, then you will be thankful for the gift of the church. 

There is no such thing as a vibrant, ever-maturing, and ministry-oriented Christian life without the ministry of the local church. For the believer, the church exists because the lifelong process of progressive sanctification exists. I am persuaded that, for many Christians, their lack of understanding of the centrality of the work of sanctification to their Christian life has led them to be rather comfortable with a casual relationship to the life and ministry of their local church.

The ministry of the church is an important tool in the hands of the Redeemer to continue to advance the saving work he has begun in us. If you recognize in yourself the presence and power of remaining sin, and if you humbly acknowledge that you need to grow in Christlikeness, then you are confessing your need to take advantage of everything that the church offers you. The apostle Paul clearly captures for us the essential sanctifying ministry of the body of Christ.

  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:11–16)

Think of how every ministry of the body of Christ contributes to the death and life process of your spiritual growth. We can't comprehensively explore everything that's in this passage, but Paul points out "sanctification needs," which are in the life of every believer, that are addressed by the ministry of the church.

We all need to continue to grow in our knowledge and understanding of the things of God; we all need to mature in Christlikeness; and we all need to grow in our ability to recognize and defend ourselves against Satan's deceitful schemes. We all need the public teaching and preaching of the church, not only to mature us in our understanding of the truths of the gospel, but also to increase our ability to apply those truths to our daily lives.

Paul David Tripp, Do You Believe?: 12 Historic Doctrines to Change Your Everyday Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 364–365.

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