OCTOBER 28, 2023 WOMEN’S CONFERENCE;   CONFERENCE THEME: DEEPER

Sanctification: The key to becoming mature in your faith

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GO DEEPER?
There is so much division within our culture today. And in the midst of that division I see a desire for community.  I read polls that indicate that even Christians feel lonely in their churches.  Is it community that the church needs?  Is that the best that the body of Christ has to offer?  And is it community that will best represent God to the unsaved world?

COMMUNITY OR UNITY?

Merriam webster dictionary tells us that a community is a group of : people who live in a particular area, or a group of people who are considered as a unit because of their shared interests or background: We Christians have a shared  interest in Jesus Christ and his kingdom. So community is great! But community can never be anything but shallow because it is based on shared external qualities. There is nothing supernatural in community.  Community is the world’s solution to a spiritual problem.  So, is there something deeper, better, and more permanent than community? Something that reaches even beyond the walls of my church to believers around the world?

YES! The Bible tells us that in Christ we have something infinitely deeper:

The Bible says that we can have not just com-unity but true unity. Unity is the quality or state of not being multiple : oneness; condition of harmony : accord ; the quality or state of being made one : unification   Community is many bonding together into one clump but still composed of many; unity is many becoming one. It’s the difference between a bowling team and a marriage.

Ephesians 3: 1-6 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The Bible never speaks about or encourages community within the body of Christ. The Bible teaches, enables, and commands unity.  In fact, the Bible quite explicitly describes this unity In I Corinthians 12 which is also the chapter on the gifts of the spirit.

This all sounds great, but, come on! If we can achieve active community relationships in the church that would be amazing enough!  Can’t we just start with community and work our way up? Unity sounds impossible! How do we pull this off?

God has provided the means, but it is up to us to take hold of it.  We know that we are new creations in Jesus Christ.  At the moment I trusted Jesus as my Savior an actual “new me” was created.  That “new me” is in unity with God.  The “new me” answers to and responds to the Holy Spirit. The “old me” answers to and responds to the desires of my flesh and the fleshly life.   I must train myself to deny the “old me” and respond to the Holy Spirit through the “new me.”

WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT WILL BLOCK MY PROGRESS?

Before we talk about how to experience this unity, let’s talk about what stops us from experiencing unity with Christ and with our fellow believers? Well, the most obvious culprits, of course, is our flesh.  But there is another culprit that we don’t often think about or associate with lack of intimacy and that is fear.

Charles Clough in lesson 16 of his Bible Framework, in the context of the fall of Adam says this about love:

On page 60 : Evil has a draining effect on [the quality of love]…. love is like a glass that is filled up and spills over, but it can’t spill over until it’s full. The problem with love is that in order to be free to love (that includes loving both God and man) I first have to be secure..

All our lives we’ve been taught to think that the opposite of love is hatred, but isn’t it striking that when John deals with love he says the opposite of love is not hatred, it’s something else, kind of unanticipated, he says the opposite of love is fear. “Perfect love casts out fear,” and why do you suppose it’s love fear instead of love/hatred?.

What does that mean? If you fear, security is on your mind, your security, self-security. As long as self-security is on your mind and uppermost, you aren’t really free to love someone because in loving someone else you’re vulnerable, and now all of a sudden if you’re not secure in yourself you’re going to have a hard time loving someone else.We find whole generations and cultures that tend to be heartless and don’t demonstrate love. You find a whole generation of fearful people, busy and scurrying about trying to assure their own security, and after we get secure, then we’ll be free to love. But evil makes everyone insecure, because when our conscience is violated by sin it knows that it has to answer to Him, and if I have a problem with Him, and I have to answer to Him, that really doesn’t make me too secure at the most basic level of my life.

…… …If I have peace with God at that fundamental level in my soul, then I have a platform in which I can start loving. If I don’t have that security [with God then] I’ve got a problem that has to be settled first; that’s why we have the gospel, you can’t get the fruit of the gospel until you believe it, until that basic issue[of security] is settled.

Because of our sinful flesh, which above all is only concerned with self, even when we are saved, we don’t automatically live with absolute trust in God.  Trusting Him in every area of our lives is the most difficult thing to do. Can we trust Him with our vulnerabilities?  Can we trust Him with our physical, emotional, and spiritual weaknesses and needs?  Can we trust Him to protect us as we are transparent and vulnerable with fellow believers? If we can’t trust God with our innermost insecurities and needs, how can we possibly trust our fellow Christians? Without trusting that God himself will safeguard us in ALL things, how can we grow closer or become more intimate with God no less each other? Even though we have the very spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in us, we often become judgmental when a fellow believer shares spiritual challenges and vulnerabilities, and for the same reason, we are too afraid to share with other believers.

How can I become a transparent Christian who can share the burdens of my fellow believers in a Christ-like way?

Biblically, our ability to entrust ourselves to others and our ability to act in trust concerning others is dependent upon our trusting that in God we are completely secure.  As Charles Clough says, only when we know we are completely secure can we love.  Only when we experience God’s love can we freely pour out God’s love. Only then can we open ourselves up to others and only then can we receive deep thoughts and feelings from others in godly love.

Complete security in God means that man can treat us with unrighteousness and we remain at peace.  We no longer need to worry about what man does or says–even within the body of Christ.  When we practice this trust in God, we find it is a place of absolute peace and rest. There is no fear, no strife, no self-defense in this place. If our anger or angst against another believer is centered on self-protection or perceived injury to self, then this is a good indicator that it is from our flesh and not from God.

These doubts about our security in God are left over from our old pagan fleshly way of thinking. As Charles Clough says: The pagan mind of flesh wants ever so desperately to know and control all things so as to avoid having to trust God. Old habits die hard. This explains why one of the most often repeated commands in the Bible is the exhortation to not fear or be anxious for anything. We can only have the mind of Christ through unity with him.

Oswald chambers says this about achieving intimacy with Christ: (Jan 7)

When once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely, we never need sympathy, we can pour out all the time without being pathetic. The saint who is intimate with Jesus will never leave impressions of himself, but only the impression that Jesus is having unhindered way, because the last abyss of his nature has been satisfied by Jesus. The only impression left by such a life is that of the strong calm sanity that Our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.

All our fear goes away when we are in unity with him.I think I trust God but how can I tell?

Do you have a heart of gratitude towards God?

This is very important.  A grateful heart is very important to the Lord. The verse that stands out most to me in regard to giving thanks is Ephesians 5:20 “always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.” 

This verse is doubly emphatic: ALWAYS give thanks for EVERYTHING.  To me, this requires a faith and meekness of heart that can only be produced by the power of the Holy Spirit through obedience.  Elizabeth Elliott defines suffering as “anything we must do that we don’t want to do.”  This covers everything from dishes to death.   How can I give thanks for something I don’t like or something I don’t want to do or something painful that I must go through?  Romans 8 is a basis for this gratitude. Thank you, Lord, for this suffering because you have promised to work all things together for the good of those who love you and are called in accordance with your purpose.  This thankfulness requires humbling oneself and not second-guessing God. I have heard God’s wisdom described this way: “The wisdom of God tells us that God will bring the best possible results, by the best possible means, for the most people for the longest period of time.”  If we truly believe in the absolute love, grace, mercy, and infinite wisdom of God then we will truly thank him all the time for everything because we know it will produce glory for God and growth for us. So, in meekness cultivate a grateful heart.

HOW DOES UNITY WITH CHRIST PRODUCE UNITY WITHIN THE BODY?

Unity has always existed in the godhead.  Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, that unity is now available to us.  We are included in that marvelous oneness with the godhead. If we are in unity with the Father and Son through the Holy Spirit then it follows naturally that we will be in unity with each other, without fear. This unity, as Jesus said, is what will make the world sit up and take notice. It is the lived-out affects of the gospel.

John 17:22-23 ²² The glory which You have given Me I also have given to them, so that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected ^[g]in unity, so that the world may ^[h]know that You sent Me, and You loved them, just as You loved Me. ²

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF UNITY WITH CHRIST

Unity with Christ GotQUestions:

Unity spurs the believer on to glorify Christ. Ephesians 4:15–16 states, “Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” Nothing captures unity quite like the picture of Christ being the head and believers being parts of a single body.

Another picture of our unity with Christ is found in Jesus’ command to “remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” (John 15:4). And Peter pictured us as joined to Christ in God’s ultimate building project. Jesus is the Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6–7), and “you come to him, the living Stone . . . you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:4–5). Unity with Christ is essential for the success of a believer’s service to God.

Our savior is our example. Everything He said, everything He did, everywhere He went was in direct obedience to the Father. Jesus himself says this in John 5:19:

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

And again in John 14 : 9-10 Jesus says: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Jesus was in continual unbroken unity with the Father until that moment that God turned his face away when Jesus paid for our sin!

HOW DO WE ATTAIN UNITY WITH CHRIST?

The process is salvation or redemption, the tool or fuel is grace.  Grace is that marvelous gift that gives us unmerited and uninterrupted favor with God regardless of our performance.  This is freedom from the law, which as part of its covenant had blessings for compliance and curses for non-compliance. Grace removes us from the performance related contingencies of the old covenant. Salvation is a process that starts at the moment of faith. It has three phases, or three tenses. 

1.  (past tense) Justification/Sanctification: which is a one-time moment in history when you trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.  Andy Woods calls this subtracting and adding. The penalty for sin is subtracted from us and Christ’s righteousness is added to us and it all happens the moment we believe. At that moment we are set aside, or sanctified, to God legally.
2. (present tense) Experiential Sanctification : we will talk about this in a minute.
3. (Future tense) Glorification: this is when our redemption or salvation is made complete, and it occurs when we either die or are raptured. In this phase we are separated from sin forever. Our sinful flesh is destroyed, we are given new bodies without sin. We will be completely and totally righteous and holy not just judicially and experientially but in every way.

Phase two, or experiential sanctification, is the painful present tense we live in. It is the “grow up” stage of our salvation. Just like in the world, we either decide to grow up into maturity or decide that we are satisfied to remain in our immature state. We are made righteous in a nanosecond, and we have positional unity with God, but will we allow ourselves to be brought into experiential unity with the Lord and his body?  It is not automatic like justification or glorification. And we may go as far as we decide to in the process.  Sanctification is obedience to God’s calling on our lives.  Here’s what Oswald chambers says about this:

Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26).

Charles Clough says this about sanctification: In the end, God’s Kingdom will triumph (“his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven”) What is the believer’s role in history while the struggle goes on? The answer is found in the truth of sanctification.

We have a choice. We must sign up of our own volition. The Christian can go his or her whole life and never enter into this process.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BECOME SANCTIFIED?

As believers we will never be judged for our sin.  But that is not the end of the process! In our earthly walk becoming sanctified means allowing God to set apart more and more of our lives to Him for His glory as we become more and more conformed into the image of Jesus Christ and experience more and more unity of Spirit with the Lord and the body of Christ.

Is my justification dependent upon my sanctification? Or in other words is my salvation dependent upon my performance?

NO. LOUIS SPERRY CHAFER tells us there is no relationship between the two. He says:  As positional sanctification is absolutely disassociated from the daily life, so (experiential) sanctification is absolutely disassociated from the position in Christ. In other words, our position of being free from sin and covered in Christ’s righteousness is not dependent on our performance, and our experiential sanctification is not associated with our positional sanctification.This must be so because if my justification or salvation from the penalty of sin depended on my performance then it would be dependent on works and not on the finished work of Christ alone.

Let’s use the analogy of marriage to explore this idea of experiential sanctification.   The moment we are legally married, we are also positionally sanctified to each other.  Legally, we are “set apart” to each other.  But this is just the beginning of the process.  IF we begin laying ourselves down to each other out of love and for the purpose of building each other up, we will start to be experientially sanctified, or set apart more and more to each other.  We will become more and more one flesh, one mind and one spirit.  Just as in sanctification in the Christian life, this process continues until death.  Just as with spiritual sanctification, this process is not automatic but rather is voluntary, and as in the Christian walk, many married people never enter into this intentional process but rather drift through married life under the principle of community rather than unity never availing themselves of the power available to them through the Holy Spirit and the new life to truly become one flesh. However, even if we never enter into this process of experiential sanctification in marriage, it does not nullify our positional or legal sanctification or set apartness.  We may live our whole married life without giving a thought to the other person, yet it does not affect our legal position of being married. So it is with the sanctification process in our life with Christ, who is our bridegroom.

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE SANCTIFICATION PROCESS?

Sanctification is the process by which we obtain the “mind of Christ.”  Obedience is the foundation of that process.

Charles Clough says this speaking of Israel:

 The main aim which Yahweh had for his vassal nation was the development of loyalty to His commands, loyalty in every area of life (Deut  6:5)….This aim of increasing loyalty is not directed inherently at sin although it obviously entails the separation of good and evil.   (loyalty is expressed in obedience—our flesh rebels against obedience—we must learn obedience) Before the fall man was required to learn obedience to God. Obedience was the crux of the test given to Adam and Eve…Being a responsible creature made in God’s image, man could not acquire obedience by instinct: he had to learn it by experience. This principle is clear from the biblical statement that even Christ, the God-man, in His sinless humanity had to learn obedience (Heb 5:8). Learning obedience by historical experience, then, does not inherently involve (the idea of not) sin(ning).  

In other words, obedience is not something we receive as a gift. It must be acquired through practice and this is true whether we have a sin nature or not.  Adam and Eve before they sinned were expected to practice moment by moment loyalty to the Lord expressed through obedience by not eating from the tree.  That tree would have been there tempting them every moment of every day to disobey God.  Jesus himself had to learn obedience through suffering. He could have at any time circumvented or prevented suffering for himself, but had he done so he would have been rebelling against the Father by disobeying what God was commanding him to do.

Hebrews 5 say: During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸ Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered…

We, as new creations in Christ Jesus, must continually learn obedience through moment-by-moment self-denial and submission to the Holy Spirit.  Sanctification is the process of becoming one with the Lord. One in mind, one in spirit, one in calling, one in action through loyal obedience. It is the process of identifying with Him in His death.

HOW DOES SANCTIFICATION PRODUCE UNITY OR INTIMACY WITH GOD?

We are going to look at a scripture passage that will shine light on this questions. On your handouts you will see John 15: 1-8

1-8 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes^[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

WHAT do we glean from these verses concerning intimacy or oneness?

1. (1) We are clean because of what Jesus did. So, we are now able to experience unity with Him. He commands: “Remain in me.” To remain somewhere we must first be there, so, it follows that at the moment of salvation we are in Him. The command to “remain” indicates that it is a choice.
2. (2) The Sanctification process hurts; Cutting away the flesh is always going to be painful. This process of cutting away our sinful flesh is necessary to set the new creation free to live the life we are intended to live in Christ Jesus
3. (4-5) All the Christian life juices or fuel come from Jesus Christ; We only produce good fruit IF we remain in and receive our life juices from Christ.  We will be continually tempted to go our own way rather than submitting to the Holy Spirit.  Then come the “Ifs”.  IF we remain in him, as He is in us we will bear much fruit (moment by moment). We have a choice of whether to remain in him, but notice that He is in us. Quenching the spirit will take us out of sync or oneness with God but the Holy Spirit never leaves us.
4. (6) IF and for as long as we go our own way we are good for nothing in God’s kingdom.
5. (7-8) IF we remain in him, we will have an intimate relationship with the Father and with Jesus and we will be showing the world we are dedicated students of Jesus Christ.

Verses 9-17

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹² My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. ¹⁷ This is my command: Love each other.

What is the takeaway from this part of the passage?

1. (9) Jesus loves us the same way the father loves him; That is amazing!!!  BUT WE must remain in his love.  This is in the imperative, a command. There is a choice here: submit and obey or go our own way.  The Greek word translated remain or abide means to “remain as one, not to become another or different”.   In other words, to stay in unity or oneness is an IMPERATIVE: The BLB tells us that it is a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding. In the same way that, Jesus’ phrase “repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15) is not at all an “invitation“, but an absolute command requiring full obedience on the part of all hearers.
2. (10-13) The condition for our ability to fulfill this command to remain requires obedience to Christ’s commands in the same way that He obeyed his father’s commands.  And what is Jesus command to us? To love each other in the same way as He has loved us.  There is no greater love than laying down your life for a friend. This doesn’t mean that our physical death is required to show love for a friend. What is required is obedience to the Lord without any regard for our own well being. It requires fearless transparency and continual self-denial which is the death of the flesh.
3. (14-17) We go from being servants to being friends if we do what he commands. What an amazing statement that we are friends of God.   We are in good company.  Abraham was called a friend of God.   It is said of Moses that God spoke with him face to face as a man speaks with a friend.  What those two men shared was the experience of believing, trusting, and obeying. Here is what Oswald chambers says of intimacy with the Lord: The last One with whom we get intimate is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One Who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come — “I have called you friends.” Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. (oneness-the very definition of unity) The whole discipline of life is to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His word, but do we know Him?
4. (17) What does he command that we must obey to be his friend? Love each other. This is impossible except when the Lord pours it through us as we are in oneness or unity with Him through the Holy Spirit.

So, intimacy with the Lord comes as we lay down our lives, and submit to his commands in loving, trusting, self-denying obedience without fear in the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Christian life is to be lived by Grace.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says :

⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.

Remember that our salvation has three phases or tenses: Justification (one time at the moment of faith), glorification (in a moment at either death or rapture) and sanctification (the period of time between justification and glorification).  ALL three tenses are accomplished by God’s grace. Not just our immediate acceptance or trust in Jesus for our salvation, but our everyday experience in sanctification is accomplished by God’s grace, not our own efforts to “become sanctified.” It requires our agreement and cooperation, but not our efforts.

I Peter 3:14-15,17-18

¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this (the destruction of this world and all in it), make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

Peter repeats what the Lord said: make every effort to be in oneness, or unity, with the Lord, not to allow ourselves to be carried away—REMAIN in his love.  Make every effort to maintain the state of being in Him, to grow in grace.

WHAT IS THE COST OF SANCTIFICATION?

Feb 8 Oswald chambers says this: When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself…” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.

In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? Am I willing to have no friends, no father, no brother, and no self-interest— simply to be ready for death? That is the condition required for sanctification. No wonder Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us falter. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ on this point. We say, “But this is so strict. Surely He does not require that of me.” Our Lord is strict, and He does require that of us.

Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply “me”? Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all that I think of myself? Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God? Once I am, He will immediately sanctify me completely, and my life will be free from being determined and persistent toward anything except God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

When I pray, “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me— it is Himself in me (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).

Do you see how sanctification strips us down to our most essential self?  All our wants, all our pretense all our self-glorification all our self-protection is gone, and we are spiritually naked before the Lord?

HOW DO I BECOME SANCTIFIED?

First, Am I Willing?

Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.

All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.

(JULY 23)

The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you…” (Colossians 1:27). It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification— imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His Word?

. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal. Consequently, I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness— “…kept by the power of God…” (1 Peter 1:5).

Ok, I am willing but how do I become sanctified? 

Let’s start with what sanctification isn’t.

Oswald Chambers says this:

The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God.

 And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.

Sanctification is not to imitate “holy” behavior. We must stop being imitators of Christlike actions and become one with Him, thereby having His mind and having our words and deeds be expression of the Holy Spirit, not the expression of our flesh after passing it through our “holiness” processor. Sanctification, because it is purely relational, depends on ever deepening knowledge of God.

HOW WILL I KNOW THAT I AM BECOMING SANCTIFIED?

As we are set aside more and more of ourselves to the Lord we will see the fruits of our oneness with God by unity in the body of Christ.  The test of our oneness with the Lord is found in how we conduct ourselves within the Body of Christ. Let’s see what scriptures tell us :

Phil 2: 5-11

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any (1) common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being (2)like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Paul first deals with our starting position. These three “ifs” are our positional check list.  What is my spiritual location? If I am united with Christ I will answer yes to every IF.  Nothing that comes after these verses will have any weight or any heavenly affect unless we are in this spiritual location.  We must first evaluate ourselves in light of these “ifs”.  If I am uncertain, then I must ask the Lord and by consent of my will I must, in obedience, place myself there. This is moment by moment, not one and done.

He then goes on to ask:  Have you experienced that oneness with Christ? In that oneness have you received or experienced any encouragement from Christ? Have you received comfort from his love, have you experienced koinonia/fellowship/intimacy of spirit with and from him? Tenderness or compassion from him?  Then have that same oneness of spirit with your fellow believers so they can receive from Christ through you that which you are receiving from Christ.

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Do nothing with the goal of putting yourself forward, or presenting yourself as the star, based on vain, groundless grandiose ideas about yourself but rather in recognizing your own moral littleness consider others to be superior to you in every way, to be above you in rank, authority, and power, to have more prominence than you do. Don’t fix your eyes, thoughts, and attention on yourself but instead fix your thoughts and attention continually on the best interest of others. Intentionally considering others as better than yourself changes the way you look at your fellow believers.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

How do we do this with each other? BY ONENESS WITH CHRIST. One mind, one heart, one spirit, one LORD! Here is the mind of Christ described:

⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

Jesus Christ did not consider his power and authority as the CREATOR to be something he should use to promote himself or take care of his needs.  Instead, he laid his equality with God and His authority as Creator aside willingly and made himself nothing. He became the servant of his creation by taking on the form of man and placing himself under the authority of men even to death. This only can only happen when we are in oneness with Christ in every way just as Jesus was in perfect oneness with the Father. Unity to such an extent that in a way as natural as breathing, I do not take into consideration my own standing, my own rights or even my own authority but humble myself to the very lowest servanthood, not just in action, but in mindset towards my fellow believers.

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

If we do this, the Lord Jesus Christ will be exalted, and we will not be seen and we will bring him glory. When God is doing the work, the vessel is not noticed.  Our hearts towards each other is where the rubber meets the road. Humility and meekness were the hallmarks of Jesus’ life on earth.

After telling us we must have a meek spirit before God Watchman Nee, in his book “Spiritual Authority” goes on to define how this mind of Christ operates in our relationships:

“A meek spirit is not any less important towards man. A meek spirit is a spirit which is like a lamb, a spirit of the cross. “Who being reviled did not revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten” (1 Pet. 2:23); this is a meek spirit. A meek spirit is willing to be wronged. Even though one is protected by the law and able to take revenge, he would by no means use his fleshly arm to redress himself. This spirit, though suffering pain and damage, causes no harm to others. Whoever has such a spirit conducts himself in righteousness but does not demand righteousness from others. He is filled with love, grace, and kindness; therefore, he is able to melt those who are surrounding him.”

Do you get this? A meek spirit is willing to be wronged. It is willing to be insulted, yelled at, treated unfairly, treated unlovingly. Willing! Even if I have the “right” to defense, either legal or moral, I will not use those means, I will not use those arms of flesh to address any wrongs done to me.  This includes within the body of Christ.

Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Oneness with Christ means that I must demand of myself that my actions are wholly righteous but have no expectation of righteous treatment by others, even in response to my righteous actions towards them.  This is how our Lord operated. Not outward conformity but with the peace and contentment that comes from oneness of spirit in obedience to the Father without fear knowing that the Lord’s love will protect us from destruction. This is the description of a chill Christian. You can’t ruffle someone who is in oneness with Jesus Christ. This is the kind of person people like to be around. Those united with Christ and having his spirit as described here are the ones who are in themselves a gospel light in the darkness that draws in those who are being convicted by the Holy Spirit.  “BY THIS THEY WILL KNOW YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES….”.

WHAT WILL WE THEN SAY….

Well, I, like Paul, must say:

Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

We must make conscious moment by moment choices, asking the Lord for the strength we need, committing ourselves to allowing the Lord to spiritually bring us to that place of oneness with the Him and hence with our fellow Christians. We must press on, repenting when we fall but never letting the flesh, the world or the devil cause us to become discouraged.

In closing let me give you two more Oswald Chambers quotes:

October 23: There is only one thing god wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender…l.How will we have the type of love that “is kind…is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil”? (I cor 13:4-5) The only way is by allowing nothing of the old life to remain, and by having only simple, perfect trust in God—such a trust that we no longer want God’s blessing, but only want God Himself.

(October-12):

Getting into God’s Stride: The true test of a person’s spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life, but what he does during the ordinary times when there is nothing tremendous or exciting happening. …It is painful work to get in step with God and to keep pace with Him— it means getting your second wind spiritually. In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself.

It is difficult to get into stride with God, because as soon as we start walking with Him we find that His pace has surpassed us before we have even taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus— “He will not fail nor be discouraged…” (Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His own individual standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father. And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere that surrounds us, not through intellectual reasoning. It is God’s Spirit that changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and then things begin to be possible which before were impossible. Getting into God’s stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give up because the pain is intense right now— get on with it, and before long you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

So, let us work at getting into stride with Jesus Christ through total surrender to Him allowing Him to bring us to the spiritual place of oneness with Him and therefore with our fellow believers, continually encouraging and lifting each other up daily.