Owen or Grudem?

For some time, I have wondered if American Evangelicalism has it all “jacked up” when it comes to discipleship. I’ll confess, I don’t know how to articulate my thoughts very well on this subject. I hope to do some posts over the next month or so, hopefully to help me at least articulate some of my hang-ups with the typical discipleship game plans that churches tend to use.

A good friend, and fellow Black Sheep Coffee-Pastor, Mark Donaldson, is going through somewhat of the same struggle. He is posting his thoughts over at his blog http://www.offroadpastor.blogspot.com/. I encourage you to check his thoughts out on the subject.

I’ll start by sharing the story of how my thoughts first developed on this subject.
It all started when I was reading Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Grudem’s book is great. Mr. Film is currently taking the adult Sunday School class through it at Central Valley Community Church. It was about 3 years ago when I read the following definition for “sanctification” from Grudem’s book.

“Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.” P 746

The thing that stuck with me was “work of God and man”? This is was the beginning of my struggle with trying to wrestle with helping people grow up in the Lord, or making disciples, or killing the “old man”. About a year later, we preached through the book of Galatians at CVCC. When I read Paul’s words in chapter 3 verse 3 “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”my cute sin-killing accountability program fell apart. I know there is the context of the Law, in Galatians, yet this verse still shook me. Ever since I could remember, I was trying to kill sin in my life through obedience to the Law. Not through obedience to Christ by faith.

Now I come to the title of this post, “Owen or Grudem?” As I was preparing for my sermon on II Corinthians 2, I was reading “The Holy Spirit, His Gifts and Power” by John Owen. I came across the following definition for sanctification:

“Sanctification is an immediate work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believer, purifying their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing in them the image of God and thereby enabling them, from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience to God, according to the tenor of the new covenant, by virture of the life and death of Jesus Christ. Or more briefly, it is the universal renovation of our natures by the Holy Spirit, into the image of God, through Jesus Christ.” P 257

For those of us who get paid to help Christians kill sin in their life, or grow in holiness, or become a better disciple, which definition is more helpful? I am becoming persuaded that Owen has it right. Notice he never mentions man in his definition. Mark at his blog, asked the question “What are we missing?” when it comes to churches that are miles wide, and inches deep. I am not sure we are missing anything. My question is, What are we adding?