“We have noticed several times already the importance of the shape of the New Testament’s teaching on sanctification and our devotion to God. No matter which apostle’s writings we examine, the same pattern is present with an identical undergirding structure.
Exhortations to be holy are always derived from an exposition of what God has done and provided for us in Christ and through the gift of the Spirit. Indicatives are always the foundation for imperatives even if they appear in the reverse order.
God never throws us back to rely upon ourselves and our own resources. He encourages us rather to grow up as Christians by digging down ever more deeply into the riches of His grace in Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is the rich and fertile soil in which Christian holiness puts down strong roots, grows tall and bears the fruit of the Spirit.
Thus the New Testament always links two things together in an important piece of spiritual logic. The new situation creates the new lifestyle:
God has been or done this–therefore you should be or do that.
Or:
Be this, or become that–because this is who God is and what He has done.”
–Sinclair Ferguson, Devoted To God: Blueprints For Sanctification (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), 93.
