Hope for the Weak: Sanctification

Post by
Michelle Dowell, Contributor

God will continue and finish the good work in each one of us that he started, the Bible says (Phil. 1:6). When a person sees a personal area of weakness that continues to be that way, it can be disheartening to that person.

It may be a desire for more patience, less worry, or some other godly trait. Even though there might be some growth over time, there's that trap of comparison to others and a concept of perfection.

But the good news is that it's not our power alone that can help us grow. God is working in this world, in our hearts at times. If we believe in the sovereignty of God, it's not hard to believe that God has power to help each one of us grow over time (sanctification), and he says he will. Sanctification is the term for this, one word that means a sentence full of words.

If we are truly Christian, he promises to help us. The good work won't be complete until he returns, but we will be growing over time--possibly a step back here and there, but overall in the end farther than where we started.

If we are truly Christian, God's love for us and our love and gratitude to him makes us want to grow and be less weak. Our faith sometimes shows us our weakness more clearly: We care more deeply and therefore see more deeply.

It also means that it's a process. Wherever we go, there are ads selling us things that we hope will make us truly happy or solve some problem permanently. Whether or not that's the case for the product, this is not the case for our lives. There's no quick fix or total perfection gained at any point. But we don't need to be perfect to be loved, to be told "well done."

Love as Doctrinal

Love is based on knowledge of the one loved. The irony of a lot of worship music is that it speaks very rarely of facts on which love could be based. It frequently separates love from doctrine.

C.S. Lewis Quote on Devotional Reading

"For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand."

—C.S. Lewis

Doctrine

I was listening to a Desiring God radio program and heard something interesting.  There is a Christian Company in Australia that did massive surveys of people who called themselves Evangelical Christians and found that there was little if any difference statistically between these ‘Evangelical Christians’ and the non Christian world.  This might cause one to despair as Christians are support to be transformed from one degree of righteousness to another by the Holy Spirit.  But, they tried another survey.  This time they only sampled Christians who claimed to be Evangelical Christians and who were interested in doctrine.  Walla!  A radically different pattern of lifestyle was found than the rest of the world!  Surprising?  No.

Consider the reformers. Is it an accident that the reformers such as Calvin, Zwingli, and Luther were heavily interested in doctrine and spent much of their lives in danger because of their passion for doctrinal issues. Is it an accident that these me caused nations to be divided even at the cost of war over these issues.  Is it a surprise that they were willing to die for doctrine? If doctrine truly causes a radically different lifestyle than the reformers who sought change because of doctrines radically dangerous lifestyle makes sense!  Of course there were many people who sought theological revolution for personal profit, but I am talking about those who were interested in doctrine, they were different than the world, German Dukes seeking new power by reformation were worldly and not surprisingly cared little about doctrine.  Should it really be such a surprise that reformers were willing to kill for doctrine!  Consider Numbers 25:

While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor."

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

And the LORD said to Moses, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.

Here Phinehas is praised for his passion for the Lords will even in killing adulterers!  How much more great of a sin is it to teach and spread Hearsay about God’s nature!  Doctrine is not about stuffy intellectual knowledge it is about passion!  Passion for God, Passion for truth, passion for justice, passion for Gods commandments, Passion for revivals, Passion for the supremacy of Gods word in all things and for the joy of all peoples, Passion to face death, and passion to kill! (note: I recommend that you strive for all of these passions, by digging deeply into the scriptures through highly skilled theologians (the people interested in doctrine!) except the last one,  I really don’t suggest you do the last one, Please avoid the last one at all costs!)

William Wilberforce Quote

William Wilberforce:
"The fatal habit of considering Christian morals as distinct from
Christian doctrines insensibly gained strength. Thus the peculiar
doctrines of Christianity went more and more out of sight, and as
might naturally have been expected, the moral system itself also
began to wither and decay, being robbed of that which should have
supplied it with life and nutriment."

Answering the Question: "If all our actions are to some degree sinful then why should we even try for righteousness?"

A response I have made to a good question about what I wrote. Basically the point in question is if all our actions are to some degree sinful then why should we even try for righteousness and why shouldn't we be hopeless. The answer to this is the doctrine of Justification by faith alone apart from works of the law.

Well the reason is that there are degrees of success and failure. The Calvinist, well at least anyone who actually knows some theology, will say that even man's best actions are flawed.

Take for example John Calvin's prayer: "We are poor sinners conceived and born in iniquity. Prone to do evil, incapable of any good. And in our depravity we transgress Gods holy commandments without end or ceasing."

You would be quite wrong in thinking that Calvin would feel a need to lay down and give up. He cannot keep the law for one second! That's the point: he has to put his faith in Christ he has nothing in his credit to show to God. Love is the only correct response to such a free gift from God. Thus the Christian life will be one of loving God and brokenhearted humility that God chose me while I had no good actions no not one to my credit. But, the point is that we have Christ's righteousness in our account, no sin credited to our name.

Romans 3:10-12:

As it is written, "None is righteous, no, not one;
No one understands;
No one seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

We have nothing to give to God and nothing to commend ourselves to him. Because of his gracious gift to us while we had absolutely nothing to merit it our hearts turn in love to him. The question you ask though is why we shouldn't give up since all our actions are flawed. Well God calls us to the task of following his commands and if he calls us to an impossible task because we love him we should do it. The Calvinists sees degrees of success and failure. Sincere heartfelt prayers are truly pleasing to God despite their falseness. As Jesus puts it: "if you love me you will do what I command." Doing what he commands of course has no effect on our salvation, because we have Christ's righteousness in us and no sin to our account. God in the bible is often written about as looking upon his servants with favor. This does not negate in the least the fact of the fact all these men's actions are fallen. Calvinism is often misunderstood because people will say that if we are saved by faith alone why not go on sinning? We reply, no we shall not go on sinning that Grace may abound. (Paul had to deal with this one, in Romans 6 maybe that is a good place to look for your answer.) Basically a life where one rests in the comfort of "I believe in God and am thus saved" and has no sign of works in their lives is suspect. See my entry on June 2 because that is what that entry is about. Basically for the Calvinist our great depravity is not to be something to discourage our effort, but it is always used to magnify the intensity of God's glory.