It’s More Than a Word

Today we’re paying a return visit to Elsie Montgomery who, as I’ve said before, is one of the most faithful devotional writers I’ve encountered here.  The topic I chose from the many great articles I skimmed is a topic that is covered here by other writers, but there are different interpretations out there as to how sanctification takes place in the life of the believer. Since C201 is a “devotional potpourri” I decided to add Elsie’s voice to the many other articles here dealing with righteousness, holiness and sanctification.  Click the title below to read at her blog, Practical Faith.

Sanctification is more than a lofty theological word…

Today’s devotional reading tells of three errors concerning the doctrine of sanctification. Boring? Not at all when I explored the meaning of this term and studied the biblical definition.

One of my dictionaries says that sanctification means “the state of proper functioning” or to set a person or thing apart for the use intended by its designer. If I made a pen, I’ve set it apart to write. In the theological sense, God designed me for His purposes, and He set me apart to live accordingly.

Another dictionary links sanctification to active trust and obedience, citing 2 Corinthians 7:1 which tells me to perfect holiness out of reverence for God, and be diligent to be what He has called me to be. (See 2 Peter 1:10)

However, neither the devotional or the dictionaries bring out an even more amazing truth. While no one can set themselves apart for God and no one can keep themselves in that place apart from the presence and work of Jesus Christ, yet because Christ lives in me, I am already sanctified . . .

“God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” (1 Corinthians 1:28–31, italics mine)

God has already set me apart, declared me holy. The issue is learning how to act like it, to behave according to what I already am! This is something like enlisting in the armed forces. When a person ‘signs up’ they become a soldier, but it takes months of training before they act like it. In the case of Christians, we are set apart by God right from the start, then spend the rest of our lives learning how to behave as a sanctified person.

This is God’s grace, yet is often a struggle. Paul describes the struggle and the grace . . .

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:14–25)

Those three errors in the devotional include

• mixing works and grace in a human effort to become sanctified,
• becoming sinless by a ‘second work of grace’ which is totally contrary to Scripture (see 1 John 1:8), and
• trying to separate oneself from sin using rules.

All three errors happen to those who do not realize or accept that in Christ Jesus, Christians are already sanctified. Again, we just need to learn how to act like what we already are.

Perhaps this doctrine is too outrageous. Perhaps it is dismissed because we tend to evaluate ourselves by our performance rather than by what God says. Perhaps we humans want to contribute to our holiness so add works and rules to what is needed for spiritual growth. Whatever the reasons, none of those errors bring us closer to what God intends. He wants me to trust and obey Him — and He supplies everything I need to do that. A walk of faith with obedience does not make me more ‘set apart’ for God; it simply declares that I already am!

 

Jesus, just as Your kingdom is already here but not yet, so also is my sanctification. You are it! You live in me and You are my perfect holiness right now. In You, I am all that the Father intended. The process of shedding the stuff that is not like You is a challenge, often painful, and yet You are the One who bursts forth in my life. I can no more make it happen than a caterpillar can will itself into a butterfly. All I can do is trust and obey, and You do the wonderful work. What a glory. What a future hope! Thank You!

Was Jesus the Recipient of Grace?

A conversation joined in progress…

“…she never brings anything to a potluck dinner, they just show up. He never comes to a church work day. They don’t attend Bible studies or prayer meetings.”

“But what’s that to you?”

“I think we’d all like to know if they’re all in.”

“Why do you need to know that?”

“Because it would be nice to have a conversation with them that wasn’t superficial; that wasn’t just all about the weather and the school their kids go to. It would be nice to know where they stand.”

“Why don’t you just ask them? Say, ‘So what’s God been doing in your life lately?’ Or, ‘What’s God been teaching you lately?”

“You can’t just start a conversation cold like that.”

“Maybe not at the grocery store, or with a relative stranger, but this is church, you sit in the row behind them every single week.”

“It would be awkward.”

“So here’s a question for you: Was Jesus ever the recipient of grace?”

“Wait. What?”

“Was Jesus ever the recipient of grace?”

“That’s just wrong.”

“Did Jesus ever experience grace?”

“Grace is for sinners. Jesus was without sin.”

“Are you a sinner?”

“I was a sinner; but now I’ve passed from death into life.”

“Have you ever sinned since? Maybe even this week?”

“Yes. Absolutely. So have you.”

“Does the grace of God meet you in that place?”

“Yes. But that’s different; second Corinthians 5:21 says, ‘God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’  He had no sin, or some translations say he knew no sin.”

“You just happen to know that verse?”

“It was on a Christian radio on Friday while I was driving to work.”

“And you memorized the reference?”

“My sister’s birthday is 5/21 so that helped.  So when did Jesus experience the grace of God?”

“What is grace?”

“Grace is unmerited favor with God.”

“So the answer is, ‘At his baptism.’  A voice from heaven, the voice of God, says, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.'”¹

“And…”

“He experienced the favor of God even though he hadn’t done anything yet. This was the outset² of his public ministry.  He hadn’t taught anything, he hadn’t called disciples, he hadn’t healed anyone. It was unmerited in the sense that he hadn’t commenced his spiritual work.”

“But he had been alive for 30 years at that point. He always had the favor of God. Luke 2:52 says, ‘Jesus grew…in favor with God and man,’ so this was something he had earned over time.”

“But the people at the Jordan River didn’t know all that. To them, he was simply one of many being baptized for the forgiveness of sin and then God says he is ‘well pleased’ with him. We tend to think of that as more of an end-of-life pronouncement from God, as in ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ ³ In other words, he has already been made a recipient of the favor of God.”

“But that has nothing to do with works, he was well-pleasing to God because of who he was, not according to anything he did. It’s the same with us, like that verse that says, ‘Not by works of righteousness that we have done…but because of his mercy.’⁴ There’s nothing that we do that ultimately earns us the grace of God. It’s who we are not what we do.”

“Exactly. So maybe it wasn’t grace in the sense of being freed from punishment because Jesus was, as you said, without sin. But it was a favor with God that preceded everything he was about to do over the next three years.”

“Okay. You could think of that way I suppose, but how did we get on this topic again?”

“The family that sits the row in front of you at church…”

“…Oh…yeah…”

“Could it be the grace of God is working and operative in their lives in ways you just don’t realize?”

“…Hmm…Maybe we need to get to know them a little better…”

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¹ Matthew 3:17

²Harmonization of the Life of Jesus

³Matthew 25:23

⁴ Titus 3:5

The Rich Young Ruler: An Alternate Ending

Today, the scripture passage in question is not in green, because it’s been slightly amended. We have to be careful about writing ‘speculative’ scripture, because the stories we have are complete and perfect in and of themselves, but I found this in the archives at Thinking Out Loud, and thought I would share it here.

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I’m really enjoying the book He Loves Me by Wayne Jacobsen, which I’m reading slowly, devotionally, a couple of chapters per day. Last night I read Wayne’s treatment of the story of the rich, young CEO found in Mark 10.

We tend to treat this young man as having two options: (1) Sell everything as instructed, which he was asked to do; or (2) Walk away, which he did. Wayne suggests a third possibility. Here’s how your Bible might look if verse 22 is switched for verse 22B

17 As He was starting out, a man came running to Him and knelt down asking, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get to heaven?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good!
19 “But as for your question — you know the commandments: don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, respect your father and mother.”
20 “Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve never once broken a single one of those.”
21 Jesus felt genuine love for this man as He looked at him. “You lack only thing; go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor — and you will have treasure in heaven — and come, follow Me.
22B The man looked Jesus in the eye and said, “I can’t do that.” To which Jesus answered, “Good. Then stop doing all the other silly things you’re trying to do to earn God’s favour. Stop striving. Stop pretending. Stop trying to earn that which you can never earn.”

At that, the man could have walked away with the justification he was seeking. Wayne explains on page 77:

“The man understood the lesson, but missed the point. Jesus wasn’t trying to be mean… He raised the bar beyond the man’s ability to get over it precisely because Jesus wanted him to stop trying. The gift he offered the man was to be free of the incredible burden of having to earn God’s love by his own efforts. He was caught in his own doing and Jesus was trying to free him.”

Personal observation: Jesus gives the “follow me” invitation used in the calling of the disciples. As events unfolded at Jerusalem, The Twelve were soon going to be short one man. Debate continues whether the apostles should have chosen Matthias, or whether Paul was the designated 12th apostle. I wonder if the rich young CEO could have actually had the option to be one of Jesus’ 12 disciples — and turned it down! If so, it was that young man’s great loss!

Tempted by Good

From Empty Promises: The Truth About You, Your Desires and the Lies You’re Believing by Pete Wilson (Thomas Nelson).

I think I get more questions about Jesus’ teaching in Luke 14 than probably any other text in the Bible:

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple.  (vv. 25-26)

What? Hate your mother and father?  Hate your wife? Your children? What was Jesus talking about?

Well clearly he’s not calling us to actually hate our families.  Just a few chapters before this text, when he was asked what the most important law was, he’s quoted as saying, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Lk. 10:27)

Later he told his disciples, “This is my command: Love each other.” (Jn 15:17)

So what’s going on here?

First, you need to know that Jesus was using hyperbole. He was using exaggeration to make or reinforce a point — something we do all the time.

The other day my son wanted to go to a basketball game, and I told him we couldn’t go, he said, “But Dad, everybody is going to be there.” Did he literally mean the world’s population of 6.9 billion people would be at that game? No he was exaggerating to make his point and I understood exactly what he meant.

I believe Jesus was doing the same thing when he told his followers to hate their families. He was using hyperbole to say, “All other relationships and activities should pale in comparison to following me.”

In other words, “Don’t take what is good and make it ultimate.”

And isn’t that what often happens with religion?  We take traditions and preferences, which are good and lovely things, and we make them ultimate things. We give them idol status.

After an extended amount of time reflecting on this passage, I once wrote this in my journal: “Pete, your greatest temptation in life will be to chase after not what is ridiculously evil, but what is deceptively good.

While I may not know you personally, I believe this is probably your greatest temptation as well.

You see, Jesus never said you can’t have religious preferences.

There’s nothing wrong with preferring traditional music over contemporary music (or vice versa).

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to go to church in a gym or even under a bridge instead of in a building with a steeple.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take Communion weekly instead of quarterly.

There’s nothing wrong with having a heart for social justice, Scripture memory, or being part of a comunity group.

Jesus just said, don’t allow those preferences and traditions to become rules that you force other people to obey if they want to follow him. Don’t take good tings and make them ultimate things.

Another way to say this is: Be careful not to worship a good thing as a god thing, for that is an idolatry thing that will become a destructive thing.

Why? Simply because no religious tradition or preference can purify the sinner’s heart or give eternal life. No law or rule can ever lead to an explosion of love and joy in the human heart. What the Law could not do, God did through his own Son, Jesus. But religion tends to take the focus off what Christ did and put it on our own efforts instead. It tends to make us focus on what’s in the blank of

Jesus + ______

rather than on the cross.

~Pete Wilson; Empty Promises pp. 118-120

Pete Wilson is the author of  Plan B (Thomas Nelson) and pastor of Cross Point Church in Nashville, TN.  He blogs regularly at Without Wax and is on my top five list of people I’d like to be seated next to on an airplane.

Lying to Ourselves

In the process of verifying one of the E. Stanley Jones quotes that appeared here yesterday, I came across a Tumblr blog by sabrinacate, but I couldn’t actually locate the proper link for attribution. (If anyone can locate this exact article, I’ll add the link.)  This post was too good not to include here…

Lies We Tell Ourselves About God

Why lie to ourselves.

—God does not know or see what I’m doing:

• Psalm 73:11 “They say, ‘How does God know? And is there knowledge with the Most High?’”
• God always knows. Why do we tell ourselves He doesn’t. Even if we may not tell ourselves that, we act like we believe that sometimes.

—God sees things the way I do:

• I Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’”
• Just because we like something or do something does not mean that God approves of it.

—God is appeased by my giving

• I Samuel 15 “Saul was commanded by God to destroy the Amalekites and to leave nothing left. Saul disobeyed God. He spared Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, lambs, and all that was good.”
• It’s not ok to not do things the way God says. We need to live in a way that honors Him during the week, not just when we are at church.
• He doesn’t need you singing praises to Him, if you wont live by Him!

—God doesn’t believe in me

• Job 4:18 “He puts not trust even in His servants’ And against His angels He charges error”
• God believed in Job’s faith. He can certainly believe in ours as well. God does everything with us in mind. He believes we can choose holiness.
• Having a place prepared in Heaven, already for us, shows how much God believes in us. He wants us and believes that we can be righteous.

Our Common Lies

—God only helps those who help themselves

• 8 out of 10 people believe this is found in the Bible.
• We value work, as humans, and we assume that God thinks like us, which He doesn’t.
• If this statement were so, we would not be Christians. It says we are helpless and hopeless in the Bible.
• Paul said there is not one who is righteous.
• God makes up the whole gap with Jesus’ sacrifice.
• Everyday our attitude should be “Thank you, Lord, for your gift.”
• Luke 18 “The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector”
• God helps those who know they need help, like the tax collector in the parable.

—God’s love much be earned

• This idea is not from God.
• Galatians 3
• There’s nothing you can do to get God to love you more or less. It also never says in the Bible why God chose to love the Israelites or the apostles or us. So why would we think there had to be something they did to deserve it?

—God understands that’s just the way I am. After all, He made me this way.

• “Oh, I know I shouldn’t do that, but …”
• God did not make you to sin!!
• God understands that’s just they way I am, but that’s why He sent His son Jesus! SO THAT WE CAN CHANGE!
• This is just our way of making excuses and justifying the things we do.

We create distortions of reality when we lie to ourselves.

• If we tell ourself that someone hates us, we’ll relate that way to them.
• If we do this with God, that always brings pain and suffering.

“When we say we begin with God, we begin with our idea of God, and our idea of God is not God. Instead, we ought to begin with God’s idea of God, and God’s idea of God is Christ” -E. Stanley Jones

Tim Chester: Communities of Performance versus Communities of Grace

Tucked away in the November, 2008 archives of Timothy Chester’s blog is a fascinating distinction between two types of Christian community. He writes:

In performance-oriented churches people pretend to be okay because their standing within the church depends on it. A ‘sorted’ person is seen as the standard or the norm, and anyone who is struggling is seen as sub-standard or sub-Christian. In this kind of environment to acknowledge that you’re struggling with sin is difficult and distressing.But this is the opposite of grace. Grace acknowledges that we are all sinners, we are all messed up people, all struggling, all doubting at a functional level. But grace also affirms that in Christ we all belong, all make the grade, all are welcome, all are Christians (there are no lesser Christians).

Imagine such a church for a moment:

• Here is Andrew: he sometimes uses po rn because he struggles to find refuge in God.
• Here’s Pauline: she sometimes has panic attacks because she struggles to believe in the care of her heavenly Father.
• Here’s Abdul: he sometimes looses his temper because he struggles to believe that God is in control.
• Here’s Georgina: she sometimes has bouts of depression because she struggles to believe God’s grace.

Communities of Performance	Communities of Grace
*the leaders appear sorted	*the leaders are vulnerable
*the community appears respectable	*the community is messy
*meetings must be a polished performance	*meetings are just one part of community life
*identity is found in ministry	*identity is found in Christ
*failure is devastating	*failure is disappointing, but not devastating
*actions are driven by duty	*actions are driven by joy
*conflict is suppressed or ignored	*conflict is addressed in the open
*the focus is on orthodoxy and behaviour (allowing people to think they’re sorted)	*the focus is on the affections of the heart (with a strong view of sin and grace)

When they [Abdul, Paulina, Georgina and Andrew]  come together they accept one another and celebrate God’s grace towards each other. They rejoice that they are all children of God through the work of Christ. And they remind one another of the truths each of them needs to keep going and to change. It’s a community of grace, a community of hope, a community of change.

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In a later post, Chester noted that communities of performance impede mission; that is to say they prevent real ministry from taking place:

Communities of Performance	Communities of Grace
*talk about grace, but communicate legalism	*people can see grace in action
*unbelievers can’t imagine themselves as Christians	*unbelievers feel like they can belong
*don’t attract broken people	*attract broken people
*the world is seen as threatening and ‘other’	*people are loved as fellow-sinners in need of grace
*conversion is superficial (people are called to respectable behaviour)	*conversion is radical (people are called to transformed affections)
*people are secretly hurting	*people are open about their problems
*people see faith and repentance as actions that took place at conversion	*people see faith and repentance as daily activities
*the gospel is for unbelievers	*the gospel is for both unbelievers and believers