The Basis of a Productive Prayer Life
Notes
Transcript
The provision of prayer is made possible solely through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.
Specifically, the provision of prayer is made possible through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross as well as His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father.
The Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father provided salvation for the entire human race.
Only those who have been declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ appropriate this so great salvation.
Often in the New Testament, when the word “death” is used for Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, the word contains the figure of speech called “heterosis of number,” which means that the singular form of a word is put for the plural form of the word.
The New Testament writers use this figure many times when referring to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross indicating that when they are speaking of this death, they are referring to both His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.
This is indicated by the fact that the first Adam died first spiritually as a result of his disobedience in the Garden of Eden and then physically.
Therefore, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ had to die spiritually first and then physically to negate the fall of Adam and to reconcile the first Adam and his progeny, i.e. the human race to a holy God.
His spiritual death was “unique” in that He suffered spiritual death as a “sinless” human being whereas every member of the human race suffers spiritual death the moment they are born into the world.
Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (NASB95)
When the Lord Jesus Christ cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He was experiencing spiritual death meaning that in His human nature he was separated from His Father.
The physical death of our Lord is recorded in the Gospels (Matthew 27:47-50; Mark 15:22-40; Luke 23:33-49; John 19:16-30).
The “blood of Christ” redeemed sinful humanity.
Ephesians 1:7 In whom (the Beloved) we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. (NASB95)
The blood of Christ does not refer to the literal blood of Christ but is part of a representative analogy between the physical death of the animal sacrifice in the Mosaic Law and the spiritual and physical deaths of Christ.
The Father accepted Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths as a substitute for the entire human race because He was impeccable.
If He was not sinless and perfect, the Father could not accept His spiritual and physical death as the solution to the human race’s problem with being enslaved to the sin nature and the devil.
He could not accept these deaths as the solution to the human race’s problem with being condemned by a holy God for not keeping His law perfectly if He was not impeccable.
The term “impeccability” refers to the fact that Christ could not sin or in other words, there was never any possibility or potential of our Lord ever sinning whereas, the term “peccability” denotes that our Lord could have sinned meaning that there was a potential for Him sinning.
1 John 3:5, “And you know that He appeared in order to take sins; and in Him there is no sin.”
One of the results of our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross is that He redeemed the entire human race out from the slave market of sin.
Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (ESV)
Ephesians 1:7 In whom (the Beloved) we have the redemption through His blood (Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths), the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. (NASB95)
Another thing that our Lord’s spiritual and physical deaths on the cross accomplished is that they reconciled sinners to a holy God.
Romans 5:10 For if, while we were enemies (spiritual death), we were reconciled to God by the (spiritual) death of His Son, much more now being reconciled, we shall be delivered by His life. (NASB95)
Propitiation is the Godward side of salvation whereby the voluntary substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths of Jesus Christ satisfied the righteous demands of a holy God that the sins of the entire world-past, present and future be judged.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God (the Father), but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (NASB95)
Now, not only is it through the merits of Jesus Christ’s impeccable person and work on the cross that the justified sinner has been given the privilege to boldly approach the throne of God in prayer but also it is through the merits of their union and identification with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father that they can do so.
To pray in His name is equivalent to praying in union with Christ and thus, to pray in His name is, essentially, to pray from the vantage point of the believer’s new and exalted position in Christ.
The believer occupies this position because of Christ’s so great salvation.
John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (NASB95)
The church age believer is to pray from his position in Christ and his identification with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father and not from planet earth.
The believer must appropriate, by faith, the teaching of the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God of his new position in Christ, which he benefits from the moment he exercises faith alone in Christ alone.
Understanding this principle is essential for our spiritual growth and vital in leading a productive and joyful prayer life.
The church age believer’s “sanctification” is directly related to the baptism of the Spirit, which is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of conversion in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Perfective.
Sanctification deals with conforming the believer to the holiness of God and reproducing it in the believer.
The moment the believer was declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit caused the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical death, His burial, resurrection and session.
It also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The baptism of the Spirit results in positional sanctification and the potential to experience sanctification in time and the guarantee of perfective sanctification at the resurrection of the church.
By positional, I mean that God views the believer as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ since at the moment of conversion, the Holy Spirit placed the believer in union with Christ, identifying him with Christ’s crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), His death (Romans 6:2, 7-8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3), His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:10-11; Colossians 2:12; 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).
“Positional sanctification” is the believer’s “entrance” into the plan of God for the church age resulting in eternal security as well as two categories of positional truth (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Ephesians 5:26-27; Hebrews 2:11; 10:10; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Romans 6:3, 8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13).
“Retroactive” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His death and burial (Romans 6:3-11; Colossians 2:12) or in other words, when Christ died God considers the believer to have died with Him.
“Current” positional truth is the church age believer’s identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session (See Ephesians 2:4-6; Colossians 3:1-4) or in other words, when Christ was raised and seated at the right hand of the Father, the Father considers the believer to have been raised and seated with Christ as well.
“Positional sanctification”: (1) What God has done for the church age believer. (2) His viewpoint of the church age believer. (3) Sets up the potential to experience sanctification in time. (4) Provides the believer with the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body.
“Experiential sanctification” is the function of the church age believer’s spiritual life in time through obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God (John 17:17; Romans 6:19, 22; 2 Timothy 2:21; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, 7; 1 Timothy 2:15).
“Perfective sanctification” is the perfection of the church age believer’s spiritual life at the rapture, i.e. resurrection of the church, which is the completion of the plan of God for the church age believer (1 Corinthians 15:53-54; Galatians 6:8; 1 Peter 5:10; John 6:40).
It is the guarantee of a resurrection body and will be experienced by every believer regardless of their response in time to what God has done for them at salvation.
All three stages of sanctification refer to the process of conforming the believer into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the Father’s plan from eternity past (Romans 8:28-30).