A “CSI” Approach to Sanctification
Warning, this is a bit "graphic". But sin is sin and we need to see it for what it is--DEATH!
Here is a very important consideration in our wrestling with sin. "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 7:24 We must first understand that all sin is merely symptomatic of the real disease. The foundational disease is separation from God. Man was designed to live in continual, constant, dependent relationship with the Triune God. This was the only conceivable union and connection with Eternal Life which is God, upon which all normal function of humanity depends. The fall severed that relationship, and just as God promised, "you shall surely die". Consider that sin in its myraid manifestations is the decaying of a cadaver in which life no longer exists. What humanity now calls life is nothing more than an animated death. Life cannot be restored by aspirin! Taming the flesh by the flesh is like embalming the cadaver with a more palatable embalming fluid. The cadaver is still dead but may for a time smells a bit better, but in the end, its nose is going to fall off and the stench will be horrible. Witness the many "christian leaders" that supposedly "fall into sin" to great scandal. My comment is that they were merely embalmed in what ever self help system they were teaching but eventually their nose fell off and people saw the worms that had been inside all along!
99% of most contemporary views of sanctification are Galatianism--"are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh". God did not save us so we could help ourselves. That is Catholicism. It teaches that Christ died to make our works meritorious. It is fascinating to me that most protestant thinking, has become a form of that lie. In Philippians 3:2, Paul warns us to beware of the mutilation (NKJV). His point is that legalism, circumcision in the flesh, mutilates the body of Christ, which is all of grace, and only grows through the operation of the Holy Spirit, and is to have NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH. Flesh is the only level upon which legalism operates.
The Biblical method of sanctification is a growing passionate relationship with the Heavenly Father, the restoration of the Life Giving and Life Sustaining Relationship. Sanctification is no different in its operation than our Justification. Both have exactly the same Focus--our Lord Jesus Christ. Both are dependent on the exact same Holy Spirit to mediate grace to the desired end. Both have exactly the same goal--"no man comes to the Father but by Me." The distinction is that our Justification is signed, sealed, and delivered by the finished work of Our Lord Jesus. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit, the Down Payment of that finished work, that increases our faith in that original finished work, our Justification, and that causes us to grow into a more intimate love relationship with our Redeemer/Creator and in so doing have complete boldness in our Father's Presence. And the Spirit’s working is assured by the continual Intercession of our Eternal High Priest. The Spirit is “outworking” the finished work of the Son through the Son’s Eternal presentation of His perfect work and Person before the Father for us!! You see, Biblical Sanctification attacks the cancerous disease--separation from our Glorious Triune God. Only as that relationship grows is the Life in us strengthened, (we become separated unto God) for it is God Who works in us to do His will.
Infants drool and slobber and fall down all the time. It's cute for a while. But if 20 year olds are still drooling ,slobbering, and falling down all the time, it is not pretty! But it is normal growth through proper nourishment and parental love and care that keeps them from killing themselves and that enables infants to grow. Feasting on the Lord Jesus is the nourishment that grows us out of drooling, slobbering, falling down all the time! Remember John 6:53-57? "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." Verse 35 tells how we are to feed on Him--"He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." Coming and believing, the operations of grace in our soul, nourishes us to growth. Satan wants us to look at the drool and the slobbers, to cry because of the skinned knee. But we are to get back up and look at the Father in the face of Jesus(II Cor 4:6) as we toddle toward Him, and we do that by believing in Him Whom He has sent. (Jn 6:29)
That is why I stress the book of Hebrews. It unveils our Lovely Jesus in such a glorious way. I am praying that our eyes will become riveted so much upon Him that we can't help but feast on Him continually. I have said before, "the only cure for addiction is a Greater Addiction." Jesus must become your addiction! Just cry out to Him--"Dear Jesus, I don't just want to know stuff about you, I Want To KNOW YOU!" He loves to answer that prayer.
Warning, this is a bit "graphic". But sin is sin and we need to see it for what it is--DEATH!
Here is a very important consideration in our wrestling with sin. "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 7:24 We must first understand that all sin is merely symptomatic of the real disease. The foundational disease is separation from God. Man was designed to live in continual, constant, dependent relationship with the Triune God. This was the only conceivable union and connection with Eternal Life which is God, upon which all normal function of humanity depends. The fall severed that relationship, and just as God promised, "you shall surely die". Consider that sin in its myraid manifestations is the decaying of a cadaver in which life no longer exists. What humanity now calls life is nothing more than an animated death. Life cannot be restored by aspirin! Taming the flesh by the flesh is like embalming the cadaver with a more palatable embalming fluid. The cadaver is still dead but may for a time smells a bit better, but in the end, its nose is going to fall off and the stench will be horrible. Witness the many "christian leaders" that supposedly "fall into sin" to great scandal. My comment is that they were merely embalmed in what ever self help system they were teaching but eventually their nose fell off and people saw the worms that had been inside all along!
99% of most contemporary views of sanctification are Galatianism--"are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh". God did not save us so we could help ourselves. That is Catholicism. It teaches that Christ died to make our works meritorious. It is fascinating to me that most protestant thinking, has become a form of that lie. In Philippians 3:2, Paul warns us to beware of the mutilation (NKJV). His point is that legalism, circumcision in the flesh, mutilates the body of Christ, which is all of grace, and only grows through the operation of the Holy Spirit, and is to have NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH. Flesh is the only level upon which legalism operates.
The Biblical method of sanctification is a growing passionate relationship with the Heavenly Father, the restoration of the Life Giving and Life Sustaining Relationship. Sanctification is no different in its operation than our Justification. Both have exactly the same Focus--our Lord Jesus Christ. Both are dependent on the exact same Holy Spirit to mediate grace to the desired end. Both have exactly the same goal--"no man comes to the Father but by Me." The distinction is that our Justification is signed, sealed, and delivered by the finished work of Our Lord Jesus. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit, the Down Payment of that finished work, that increases our faith in that original finished work, our Justification, and that causes us to grow into a more intimate love relationship with our Redeemer/Creator and in so doing have complete boldness in our Father's Presence. And the Spirit’s working is assured by the continual Intercession of our Eternal High Priest. The Spirit is “outworking” the finished work of the Son through the Son’s Eternal presentation of His perfect work and Person before the Father for us!! You see, Biblical Sanctification attacks the cancerous disease--separation from our Glorious Triune God. Only as that relationship grows is the Life in us strengthened, (we become separated unto God) for it is God Who works in us to do His will.
Infants drool and slobber and fall down all the time. It's cute for a while. But if 20 year olds are still drooling ,slobbering, and falling down all the time, it is not pretty! But it is normal growth through proper nourishment and parental love and care that keeps them from killing themselves and that enables infants to grow. Feasting on the Lord Jesus is the nourishment that grows us out of drooling, slobbering, falling down all the time! Remember John 6:53-57? "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. As the Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me." Verse 35 tells how we are to feed on Him--"He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." Coming and believing, the operations of grace in our soul, nourishes us to growth. Satan wants us to look at the drool and the slobbers, to cry because of the skinned knee. But we are to get back up and look at the Father in the face of Jesus(II Cor 4:6) as we toddle toward Him, and we do that by believing in Him Whom He has sent. (Jn 6:29)
That is why I stress the book of Hebrews. It unveils our Lovely Jesus in such a glorious way. I am praying that our eyes will become riveted so much upon Him that we can't help but feast on Him continually. I have said before, "the only cure for addiction is a Greater Addiction." Jesus must become your addiction! Just cry out to Him--"Dear Jesus, I don't just want to know stuff about you, I Want To KNOW YOU!" He loves to answer that prayer.
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