All in Sanctification
When I first believed and professed Jesus as my savior, I thought I was sanctified, but what I really had become was a believer. I had gained general admission into salvation, heaven, but there was so much more that awaited. I was still moving easily back and forth into the secular world that I was seeking to transition out of... I was a double citizen; I had citizenship in the world and claimed another in heaven. I gained forgiveness in one world for the sins I committed in the other...
Do we believe that Jesus will return to claim us, His Church, as His bride? Do we believe that it is possible for us to be sanctified, and prepared for His arrival? Well fellow believers, He will most certainly come, and in that moment of glorious coming we will have been readied by God, through our faith, and made righteous by His hand, for Christ. We will be prepared by God’s Holy Spirit to meet Him, and dressed as one who is pure for that moment. Yes, and the constant struggle against sin will have finally come to an end.
Do you believe in the Word of God, and hold it up as the one truth by which you can orient your life, and find your way into eternity with God? This is our key to sanctification and to all the promises for which we long. In the Word of God we find our way towards becoming one with Jesus Christ, and God Himself... do you approach your reading of the Bible, God’s Holy Word, with this understanding?
Do we give thanks for our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we take our own sanctification by the Holy Spirit as more than a distant hope, but as a present truth? Do we find ourselves filled with the glory of Jesus Christ, and allow him full reign as he abides within us? There was a time when I accepted Jesus as fact, but didn’t want the close relationship that He offered; I wanted to follow Him but not to walk too closely, not to accept the changes that walking hand in hand with Him meant. Is Jesus your speaking friend, or your best friend and confidant? Are you sanctified or just aquatinted?
Are you living out your life claiming to be a Christian while continuing to live under the control of your own will; skirting God’s? How is it that we can be satisfied in this? How is it that we can taste His will, experience a touch of sanctity, holiness, and joy, then retreat back into our own humanity? This is the struggle of faith... the denial of the comfort we find in our own flesh, nature, and will, that we might accept God’s.
Are you sanctified, Holy, and doing the work of the Lord, or just working hard at religious things? Are you serving the church you attend, and other institutions around you, because they do holy things, and yet you yourself have not been sanctified? To do Holy work for God we must first sanctify ourselves, otherwise the works we do are just good deeds in the eyes of men. Who do you serve, and in what capacity?
Do you stand at the foot of the hill and listen to Jesus teach? Do you watch Him enter Jerusalem and celebrate the fact that you know Him? Are you in the upper room and marvel at His foot washing and the words surrounding the bread and the wine? Well all of these things are amazing and wonderful but in each case you are a bystander, yet when you are filled with the Holy Spirit then suddenly the life of Jesus moves from before your eyes to a place deep within you. You cease being a watcher, a marginally practicing Christian, and become one with Christ.
Am I prepared to walk in the desert? Can I tolerate the loneliness that will test me there? When there is nothing left but myself and God, will I find I am prepared for death and to join Him? Will I accept sanctification in Christ just as His apostles did? These are questions to consider regarding our being alone and the sanctity that results from it.