2002-01-01
Hi There Dear Ones,
I had to send my message to you later this morning, because it was Pete’s day to sing the early service followed by the resumption of the adult Sunday school class that I teach on the book of Hebrews. I’m back at my computer now, anxious to obey the Lord’s urging for me to talk with you about sanctification. Thanks to the wonderful teachings in the two-year Precepts Ministries course I gave on the book of Romans, some great citations that help us to better understand what it is and how it impacts our lives were brought to my attention. The subject of my last two messages was justification, the process by which we were deemed acceptable to God because of our faith. That was accomplished in our past, but God isn’t through working with us. We are his children, who in His sight need to be prepared (perfected) to be made ready to inherit the Kingdom as joint-heirs with Christ. At present, we are going through the process of sanctification at God’s hand. In other words, with all the love a responsible Parent has for His children, God is polishing our rough edges, so that the light of Christ can shine brilliantly from us! That is sanctification.
Until I read RO 7: 22-25, I didn’t really think about the conflict that is going on at present between my inner spiritual self and my outer fleshly self. The former is needing to be nurtured, while the latter is in the process of dying. “My inner being delights in the law of God. But I see a different law at work in my body-a law that fights against the law of which my mind approves. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then is my condition: on my own I can serve God’s law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.” How blessed we are that God loves us enough to put Jesus Christ on the job of rescuing us from this conflict between body and spirit seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day! From a human perspective, our Lord has taken on a huge undertaking with God-sized implications for our eternal life with Him.
I Peter 1: 2 reminds us of the purpose for this process. “You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by His Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by His blood.” We learn about our place in the process in HE 2: 11, “[Jesus Christ] purifies people from their sins, and both He and those who are made pure all have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them His family.” The opportunity to go through the process of sanctification and eventually share in God’s glory at its completion is made available to us as explained in HE 10: 10. “Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering He made of His own body once and for all.” HE 10: 4 elaborates further on that. “With one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are purified from sin.”
Going through sanctification is no walk in the park. There’s hard work to be done. I like to think of it as a refiner’s fire. The OT prophet, Malachi, spoke of it in MAL 3: 1-3. “The Lord Almighty answers, ‘I will send my messenger to prepare the way for Me. Then, the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to His temple. The Messenger you long to see will come and proclaim My covenant.’ But who will be able to endure the day when He comes? Who will be able to survive when He appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal.” Sanctification is carried out in many ways: by our circumstances, through answers or lack thereof to prayer, by the Holy Spirit teaching us to understand God’s will through the Scriptures, by the impact of membership in our church congregations on us, and any other way that the Lord communicates His will to us. Because the Lord has given us our free will, we must choose to act to conform to His will when He conveys it to us. Without our response to His supreme sovereignty in this process, sanctification can not go forward. Paul spoke about this refiner’s fire in 1 COR 3: 13-15. “And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work, the fire will test it and show its real quality. If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burnt up, then he will lose it; but he himself will be saved as if he had escaped through the fire.”
Since all who believe are going through this process of sanctification, I, for one, am very relieved that we have been placed in congregations of faith so that we can encourage, aid, and lift up each other through the tough places that are a part it. I can’t imagine going through making the difficult adjustments God asks us to make to better conform to Christ alone. I don’t think God ever meant for us to be Christian “Lone Rangers.” Friends, God is working to “transform us by the renewal of our minds.” [See RO 12: 2]. Our loving Abba knows we must do the hard work of making these adjustments, so that we will be ready to take our rightful places as citizens of heaven and enjoy all the privileges of being joint-heirs to the Kingdom with the Son.
Please join with me in this prayer which is based on 1 THESS 5: 23 & RO 5: 2-4:
PRAYER: O Lord, You give us peace. Make us holy in every way and keep our whole beings- spirits, souls, and bodies- free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to appreciate our tribulations so as to learn endurance, build personal character, and share in the hope of the resurrection. Your loving guidance is a blessing in our lives. Thank You for Your own patience and consistency in giving it to us. We dedicate ourselves to worshipping You, worship You so richly deserve. In Christ’s name, amen.
Feel encouraged and blessed today. No matter how tough your own situation is, your loving Lord is on the job working with you, preparing you for the greatest reward possible. Have faith in the greatness of the love He has for you. It is consistent and eternal. Peter and I send you our love too.
Standing in Awe of His Grace,
Lynn