What’s been taken out of the white-flour gospel? It says nothing whatsoever about becoming a new person in Christ.

The nourishment that God put in has been taken out, and the result is that many Christians have missed out on the substance that will build up their spiritual lives. To be a Christian is to be in Jesus Christ. When you are “in Christ,” it is not just that your past is forgiven and your future secure. It is that you become a new person in Christ. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Here’s the issue: Many Christians have never really understood what it is to be a new person in Christ. The Bible expresses this in different ways.

• “You must be born again” (John 3:7).
• “He saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
• “[God] made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:5).

We have been examining our new identity in Christ and seeking to put back into our understanding of the gospel what has too often been taken out. “Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

New life, new power, new identity. That’s the whole grain of the gospel!

In what ways do you sense that the true substance of the gospel has been missing from your life?

Perhaps you have made the switch from white bread to whole-grain bread. You were told that white flour has most of the goodness taken out of it, so you began baking your own bread, and it is fantastic.

Some of us have got used to a white-flour gospel—a gospel that has much of the goodness taken out of it. Although we can live on it, we lack the substance of what God originally gave us.

The white-flour gospel goes something like this: God has done certain things, and if you choose to believe them, you will be saved. So, when someone says, “I believe that Jesus died and rose,” and they say a prayer, they are told, “You are forgiven, and you have eternal life.”

The person says, “That’s great. Now all I have to do is figure out how to live the rest of life. I am forgiven for the past. I am secure for the future. But I am essentially in the same position now.”

Many Christians live with this sense that the gospel addresses the past and the future, but there is a disconnect with the real issues of life. All of us have issues. The deep wounds of your life. Your ongoing struggles with sin. Your feelings of insignificance and wondering if your life really matters.

Your faith becomes like a spiritual insurance policy—something that you are glad you have, that you would not be without, but that is not a great deal of use in the practicalities of your life. That’s the white-flour gospel.

Does your faith sometimes feel like a spiritual insurance policy that doesn’t address the real issues of your life?

The fourth dimension of your holiness is that you are sent to the world. When Jesus says, “I consecrate [that is, sanctify] myself,” He is not talking about a gradual growth in holiness. He is the Holy One. He fulfilled everything that the Father called Him to do, so Jesus is talking about giving Himself to a special calling—in this case, the cross.

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we have the story of how Jesus wrestled over the agony of the cross. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” But in the end, He gave Himself to it. “Not as I will, but as you will” (Mat. 26:39).

This is John’s Gethsemane: Jesus says, “I consecrate myself” (John 17:19). He is saying, “I give myself to the work that the Father has given me to do.”

Jesus calls us to do the same thing. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). When Christ sees a secondary school in need, what does He do? He sends you. When Christ sees the business world in chaos, what does He do? He sends you. When Christ sees someone who is cold and hungry, what does He do? He sends you.

He doesn’t send all of us to every place, but He does send each of us to some place. He does not make us all responsible for every need, but He does make us all responsible for some need. As He gives Himself to His work, He is praying that we will give ourselves to our work.

You are sent. That’s why it is so critical that you should be who you are.

What has Christ sent you to do? Are you ready to follow Christ’s example and consecrate yourself to that calling?

The third dimension of your holiness is that you are called. You may have heard the phrase that we are called to be “in the world but not of it.” That’s a good summary, and it comes directly from John 17.

Notice the words of Jesus: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world” (17:6). At the same time, He says, “The world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (17:14).

Yet Jesus also says that the disciples “are in the world” (17:11). In fact, He specifically says, “I do not ask that you take them out of the world” (17:15). It isn’t easy to be in the world when we are not of it, yet that is our calling from God.

Suppose a friend has a spare ticket for a big match between intense rivals. The problem is that you would be sitting among your team’s rivals. Your friend says, “Just keep a low profile. You will be fine.”

The game is a strange experience. When the section you are sitting in cheers, you are holding your head in your hands. When they are racked with despair, you are overwhelmed with joy, trying not to be too obvious.

That is precisely our position. We gather in church and talk about holiness, and it’s like cheering among the home team. But tomorrow, you find yourself in a crowd who are cheering for the opposite thing.

When the final whistle blows, the losing team will leave the field with their heads hanging. That’s not where it’s going to end with you. You are in the world, but you are not of the world. You have been given to Christ. You will be covered with His glory. You will share in His triumph.

How does knowing that you will share in Christ’s triumph help you endure the times you find yourself among a “rival team”?

That is a staggering statement. You share in Jesus’ glory! This is the second dimension of your holiness.

Donald Grey Barnhouse was a church minister in Philadelphia. He conducted many weddings, but he never took money for doing them. This is what he says:

For many years it has been my custom whenever I married anybody, that when the bridegroom hands me an envelope, I go and say to the bride, “Here is my wedding present to you. If he has been very generous to the preacher, you’ve got a good sum.” Now look again at what Jesus says to the Father: “The glory that you have given me I have given to them” (17:22). We get the glory that the Father gave to the Son. How much is that? “The glory that you have given me.”

Here is the amazing thing about being a Christian. It is not just that we will see the glory of Jesus, but we will share the glory of Jesus. His glory will be revealed to us, but His glory will also be revealed in us. When we see Him, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2).

Notice that Jesus speaks of it as something that has already happened. “I have given” them the glory. The apostle John says, “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared” (1 John 3:2). Paul says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). You are like a tree in winter. It looks bare now, but its full glory is still to be seen.

Christ has given you the glory that the Father gave to Him. Be who you are!

What hope do you find in knowing that Jesus has already given you His glory and that one day it will be seen in full?

In making you holy, God has put you in an entirely new position in relation to Christ and to the world. Four things are true of you in Christ: You are given, glorified, called, and sent.

The first dimension of your holiness is that you are given. You are the gift of the Father to the Son. You are His, so be who you are.

It is natural for us to think about Jesus being the Father’s gift to us, but did you ever stop to think about the fact that you are the Father’s gift to Jesus? That is exactly what we find here. “Yours they were, and you gave them to me” (17:6). “I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me” (17:9).

Think about a wedding. The pastor asks, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” The father of the bride says, “I do.” Then he takes her hand and places it into the hand of the bridegroom. She is “given” to her husband.

The Church is the bride of Christ. The Father has called you and has drawn you to faith, and He gives you to His Son Jesus Christ. It is significant that the Father’s gift to the Son is not the world. Remember, it was Satan who showed Christ the kingdoms of the world and all their splendour and said, “All these I will give you” (Mat. 4:9).

Jesus turned His back on the offer. You are worth more than all the world to Jesus. You are given to Him by the Father.

Reflect on the fact that you are a gift Jesus valued more than all the world.

Here, Paul is talking about something that has already happened. “You were sanctified.” In this case, it is not an ongoing process. It is a completed act.

The word holy, or holiness, is used in two ways in the Bible. The original Hebrew word could mean two things: “set apart” or “brightness.”

The first meaning describes a position, in which something was set apart for a special purpose. In the Old Testament, you could have a table or a chair that was “holy.” It was set apart for a special purpose. When we read, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8), it means keep this day different and set apart from all other days.

The second meaning describes a process of gradual inward change in a person, by which the character of God is reflected with increasing brightness. That’s what Paul is praying for when he says, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely” (1 Thes. 5:23).

This is why we might hesitate when asked if we are holy or sanctified. If they are asking if our life is a true reflection of the radiant brightness of the glory of God, the answer is no. Only a small part of His love is seen in us, and it is mingled with many other things. We are in the process of becoming holy.

If the question is, “Have you been set apart for a special purpose?” the answer is yes. In Christ, we are set apart as God’s people, for God’s purpose. That is what Paul is talking about when he says Christ is our holiness. You have been placed in a new position, and you are set apart by God for a new purpose.

How do the two meanings of holiness help you better understand God’s work of sanctification in your life?

We have seen that in Christ you are clean, and in Christ you are free. Now we come to the third dimension of who we are in Jesus Christ: Christ is our holiness. Another word for holiness is sanctification. These words mean the same thing, and it is worth knowing them both.

Now this is an area where it is easy to become confused, so it is important to think clearly. If someone asks you, “Are you justified, forgiven, and reconciled to God?” you will say, “Yes.” If they ask, “Are you redeemed?” you will say, “Yes.” This is something that has happened. It has been accomplished.

But if they ask, “Are you holy?” or “Are you sanctified?” we may hesitate. We normally think about holiness or sanctification as an ongoing process. Justification is the once-and-for-all event in which we are brought into a right relationship with God. Sanctification is the ongoing process of growth by which we are made increasingly like Christ, and it is never complete in this life.

We think that maybe it would be true of us just a little bit in twenty-five years, but right now it sounds like something that we are not! If you are married and you ask your spouse, “Do you think I am holy?” the response may be, “You cannot be serious!”

So, holiness sounds like something that we are not, and something we cannot really imagine ourselves being. It feels as if anything about us that was holy would be just a little false.

While it seems natural for us to say, “I have been justified,” we do not feel that we could ever come to the place of saying, “I have been sanctified.”

How would you describe the difference between justification and sanctification to someone else?