Category: Faith

Being Set Apart: Sanctification

Our recent exploration of the variety of views that Christians hold regarding eternal security found that the topic of sanctification arose in many of those discussions. The Christian is led to wonder, when evaluating the different views, whether sanctification is a one time event, a lifelong process, or simultaneously both. I’m going to move on with this post into a series on the variety of Christian views on this topic. We’ll start today by defining the idea before branching out to see how it is viewed in different theological systems.

In its broadest meaning, sanctification is the process by which a person (or another object of the process) is brought into relationship with or attains the likeness of the holy. In the case of a Christian, our goal is to become more Christ-like while in the case of an object– an altar, a sacrifice –the process makes the object appropriate for the presence of God. Sanctification has three aspects that help us to divide our study and comparison.

  1. Sanctification is Positional: The first aspect of sanctification indicates that, as believers who have placed their full faith in Christ and His redeeming work, we are set apart by God and named as saints. It will be important to note theologically the differences between justification and sanctification.
    2. Justification Sanctification
    Legal standing Internal condition
    Once for all time Continuous through life
    Entirely God’s work We cooperate
    Perfect in this life Not perfect in this life
    The same in all Christians Greater in some than in others

    *Grudem, Systematic Theology

  2. Sanctification is Experiential: The second aspect begins with the first; being set apart as holy, our lives are increasingly transformed as we shed our old ways and take on the new of image of our savior. Sanctification viewed as a process finds the Christian gradually ( and not without possible setbacks ) becoming further and further set apart from others in the world who have not trusted Christ.
  3. Sanctification is the Ultimate Condition: This future aspect of sanctification points to the day in which the Christian will be the beneficiary of the final transformation into the full likeness of Christ.

One of the most important components of our exploration of the variety of ideas about sanctification is the extent of human cooperation with the work of God in the process. It is important to ask first if any cooperative action of human and divine threatens the ultimate security of the believer, that is, is failure to attain a specific level of holiness a possible condition by which salvation may be lost. To lean to one side is to add an impediment to the Christian’s assurance as we worry and fret over what infractions might cause the ultimate loss. On the other hand, to lean the other way and to place the entire process on God’s shoulders is to invite a passivity on the part of the Christian with regard to the steady improvement in their state of holiness.

We conclude our introduction with the words of St. Paul:

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.  (Romans 6:11-14)

Holiness

Human holiness, the ability to enjoy the communion of Immanuel, begins with the Lord’s sacrifice. Before that, our only hope lie in the perfect adherence to the law in our hopefully acceptable sacrifices. Hebrews 10 speaks to this moment of change:

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, becasue by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. (Heb 10:11-18)

Holiness is a ‘now but not yet’ topic. Men and women are declared Holy by the blood of Jesus Christ and the righteousness we gain as a result of His sacrifice. But we are also going to grow in our holiness throughout the rest of time here in the world. It is a progressive process interrupted by our stumbles and steps backward but it is our calling. We progress in our holiness to stand as perfected as our Master desires us to be when we appear before Him.

The trouble we have, of course, is that the process of holiness doesn’t fit well with our current culture (anymore than it has fit with any culture throughout the history of humankind.) Today, we want things instantly and effortlessly and certainly without pain or struggle; Holiness often calls us to endure both. We cry out in prayer for God to remove obstacles, pain, stress, and suffering of any kind when it is these things that contribute to our holiness. They change us as people to seek closer communion with God and the purity that it requires.

Many of us have taken the first step. Shouldn’t this be the year that we commit fully to second and third and ….

The Year of Immanuel

The name Immanuel is familiar to almost all Christians, though it appears infrequently in the Bible. We first encounter the name in Isaiah 7:14, most recently heard as a part of the Advent readings:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isa 7:14)

Here we are generally provided with an explanatory note that the name given is actually a combination of words, important ideas, that spell out God is With Us. The fact that the young women will name her child so is either an expression of faith in the face of adversity or a prayer for mercy and help (God Be With Us). Of the coming of our savior satisfies this sign as Jesus becomes one of us and is with us. Is this ideal just a sentiment of is it a theological fact that remains true today?  Theologically, God is with us as believers in the Holy Spirit but in a greater sense, God the Father is present with us intimately every moment of every day. Our response to this promise and its reality to large numbers of people is often quite different.

Many times we are guilty of living as though the Father was distant in heaven, tabulating our behavior from afar, listening to our prayers but not present. We do not consider His immediacy when we sin and we fail to acknowledge his presence surrounding those we do not minister too. Would we bypass the homeless man sprawled out on the sidewalk if the Father appeared as a specter, beckoning us to polish the imago dei for a fellow person? Would we casually continue our bigotry, divisive theological wars, oppression of gifted women, et. al. if we sensed that truly God was with us?

God with us is a profound theological truth that has many implications for our lives and ministry in our current day. It is our call to make it clear to the world at large that not only is God alongside and around us, but as Christian believers, He is in us! We live without condemnation for our past sins and we are empowered to turn from our daily temptation. We can walk into any situation as the Spirit leads without fear — God Is With Us. Why then, don’t we live this truth out in such a meaningful way that we change the world radically so that it nearly shimmers with kingdom values?

God with us has implications for our personal piety as well. Often we see the walls around us as come kind of shield between the God who is with us but not near us. If we truly sensed the presence of God, how would our pursuit of personal holiness be affected? Would we take sin more seriously? Would our devotion to personal and constant worship increase? Would we know in the depths our hearts that God is Truly With Us?

This can be our year of Immanuel, a year of radical change in ministry and a monumental transformation in holiness. I, for one, will be aligning my ministry with the burdens that God has placed on my heart. My pursuit of holiness will be an increased priority. God is With Me is going to be the most profound theological truth that I will pursue this year.

Join me.

Eternal Security: The Wesleyan View

To understand Wesley and the doctrines and theology that bear his name, one must keep in mind that in all things, John Wesley is a practical theologian. That is, he is concerned not with theology and the lofty scholastic ruminations that it often devolves into but rather, theology as it affects you and I in our daily life as followers of Christ. His order of salvation does not have the immediacy of the Calvinist perspective; it is a justification in which Christ’s righteousness is immediately imputed to the believer giving them a forensic status as ‘forgiven’ followed by a lifetime of sanctification, a full salvation measured by perfection of love and obedience. Faith, teaches Wesley, is not the cause of salvation but the condition of receiving it. Our faith does not save us, but we are saved only by Christ, in whom we have faith. (Wynkoop, Wesleyan-Arminian Theology)

To adhere to Wesleyan Christianity is to devote oneself to a life of obedience and ever increasing love for God and fellow man. To be sure, there will be moments in which both love and obedience falter, but the Spirit provides the impetus and strength to restore both and continue along the path of holiness. This continuance of the process of sanctification is rooted in continued faith in Christ. It is at those moments where one turns from the faith in Christ, that the believer is in danger of losing his or her salvation. It is important to note the logical connection between the conditional nature of the Wesleyan receipt of justification (when a human agent responds to God’s prevenient grace and accepts the gift of salvation) and its conditional security. If this same human agent should turn from this grace and reject the gift in favor of returning to their unregenerate life, the salvation status is lost. Wesley believed, given his high view of a merciful, grace-giving God, that people who found themselves in this state could remedy the situation by a return to repentance and belief.

In Wesley’s piece, ‘A Call to Backsliders’ he looks to the warning passages of Heb 6:4-6, 1 Tim 1:19-20, and 2 Pet 2:20 – 22 and sees that even these dire warnings could be repaired. They must return to the saving faith that they once held and produce the repentance of their sins to be restored. Does Wesley ever see a permanent loss of salvation? Certainly; men will turn away from Christ without any further desire to be restored. Apostasy is a very real possibility for the Wesleyan. Though humankind may fall from grace, we never fall beyond grace. The Spirit will not abandon the believer but may be silenced by an ever harder heart.

Summary

There is an expected similarity between the Arminian and Wesleyan positions as they both root in the conditional nature of salvation and the subsequent conditional nature of security. Where the classical Arminian and the Wesleyan depart ways on this topic is in the possibility of remediation when one has apostatized. The Arminian sees this condition as a ‘shipwrecked faith’, a condition in which there is no hope of reassembling the faith again and thus, all is lost. Wesley’s theology of love built around a God of mercy and grace saw this type of permanent apostasy as a possibility but also saw that the mercy of his God would allow time and time again for the sinner to return to the altar, seeking forgiveness and a restoration of his righteousness.

Trusting the Promise

It is at this hour of the morning where God’s promises are so passionately and vibrantly clear. Looking to the East, I can watch as the low, endlessly flat horizon of the Great Plains begins to divide from darkness to light. In the dark, the horizon disappears and yet, at the appointed hour the slightest hint of the new day begins to show. At first, it is a change from deep black to a violet to a blue but it soon changes to a hint of pink then orange then a blaze of glorious yellow as the warming sun pokes it rays above the edge of the world!

I see the promised sun again, light that my brothers in the East have already gloried in without my jealousy and light that my sisters in the West await in anticipation. Your promises, Father, can always be trusted though sometimes I must wait while others enjoy your blessing. You remind me by the passing of the day that others are waiting as well and I should have not pride in the blessings your visit upon me. Glory to God in the Highest!

Psalm 113 

Praise the Lord.
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
     Let the name of the Lord be praised,
both now and forevermore.
     From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
     The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
     Who is like the Lord our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
     who stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
     He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
     he seats them with princes,
with the princes of their people.
     He settles the barren woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the Lord.

Advent Joy – To Free All Those Who Trust in Him

Our anticipation rises yet again as we meditate on Joy during this Advent week. From the plaintive choruses of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, our hearts bear witness to what we know, that the Lord Jesus came to us a man. John speaks to this:

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth. (John 1:9-14)

We break into song exclaiming our joy, knowing in advance what’s inside the packages. God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen ( listen ) lets us recite the story of Christmas Joy over multiple verses like this one:

“Fear not then,” said the Angel,

“Let nothing you affright,

This day is born a Saviour

Of a pure Virgin bright,

To free all those who trust in Him

From Satan’s power and might.”

O tidings of comfort and joy,

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy

Maranatha!

Eternal Security: The Beginning

The Author, Grantor, and Securer of eternal life, promised that His followers would be the recipients of that gift…

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37)

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:27-30)

While the Apostles warned against the possibility of loss and that there may be a conditional nature to this security…

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. (Heb 6:4-6)

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. (Col 1:21-23a)

perseverance Countless words have been written discussing the ways in which Christians believe that they have come to receive the gift of salvation. The moment of justification marks a huge turn in a human existence and people are only too happy to mark it and give voice to the joy that it brings. When talk to turns to the possibility of losing that righteous status, the volume of the conversation tends to diminish. ‘Once saved, always saved.’ is the theological ideal offered by many but, when pressed to source their belief, many are unable to point to the root of that confidence.

The discussion of perseverance goes far beyond scholastic theological wrangling, it has practical purpose in the life of the Christian. We must ask whether or not the believer who has been regenerated, justified, adopted as a Son (or daughter) of God, and united with the Savior in relationship will persist in that relationship. In other words, will the Christian persevere until his or her moment of glory or is there a risk of the loss of one’s salvation?   One end of this discussion is anchored by the ‘P’ in the TULIP – Perseverance of the Saints, in which there is no risk of apostasy extending to the far end of the thread in which apostatizing is a daily and imminent possibility in the life of an anxiety-ridden Christian. Depending on where you locate yourself on the spectrum you make look to the other as naively putting themselves at risk.

It would be foolish to introduce this topic by drawing a distinction between the two major schools of Protestant theological thought, Calvinist and Arminian, and stating that there are but a pair of positions to explore. In fact, there are a number of nuances in the views along this spectrum from one to the other. To narrow the topic down to a manageable size, I am going to organize the posts that follow into four segments that allow positions from guaranteed security to the permanence of apostasy. As with all Christian discussion (actually, any intellectual endeavor), there is an important practice of which we must be cognizant: one should not simply argue their position without engaging the facts presented by the other side. So many times we find theological debate reduced to caricature of the opposing position that is brought about either by a surfeit of knowledge of that position or the unwillingness to consider that your understanding of things may be flawed.

Janet Weiss – Louise – Bull Durham’s Jesus

Actress Susan Sarandon recently spoke about the Jesus that she knows. It appears from here statements regarding the divinity of all humankind that she perceives, that this Jesus was just another guy like you and me, divine but also an activist. Forgive my naivete, but isn’t an activist one who protests and campaigns to achieve a change in the order of things? Jesus was not trying to get the rest of the divines around him to help him change the order, HE CHANGED IT. Perhaps a closer reading of the Bible would help Miss Sarandon [and her partner Mr. Robbins] with an understanding of how Jesus engage the world. (You can read the interview from which this comes here.)

You and Tim [Robbins, Sarandon’s longtime partner] are so well known for being peace activists. What are some ways that regular people can help bring peace into the world?
I think it really starts with your neighbors. I think it starts with your everyday life and living as Christ did, in a loving way and a respectful way. That, then, leads to questioning other things. And you find in your heart what resonates with you. And then you have to take action, whether it’s in the street, or licking envelopes, or writing to your congresspeople, or taking care of veterans when they come home. I think that you have to not be result-oriented in order to look back on your life and think it was a life well lived. I think that it’s every single day, the choices that you make in the presence of how you go towards truth and justice. And it’s an individual decision how that manifests itself.
There is certainly so much need in the world for compassion. Every action is a political action. The only thing I’m completely sure of is that inaction is not acceptable.
I think that Christ was an activist. Christ wasn’t afraid. His life is an example of activism. I think that the gap between the rich and the poor contributes to the pain of the world. I think that that anything you can do that helps to alleviate this huge gaping gap between the rich and the poor will eventually make the world a more peaceful place.

‘Louise’ lost me in the second sentence. Jesus did live in a loving way but often, those on the receiving end of His tough love were anything but immediately enamored with Him and He certainly did not travel around the Holy Land and engage others in a respectful way. Read Galli’s book Jesus Mean and Wild to get a better idea of the way that the Lord confronted those who ran opposite to the ideals of His Father’s kingdom. ‘Janet’ then goes on to say that she envisions Jesus as an activist, that He was not afraid. Well, He certainly had nothing to fear, knowing full well that God had everything well in hand. On the other hand, he held a special contempt for those who had it in their power to relieve the suffering of others and yet did not act; for example, saying that everyone should do what they can in order to alleviate poverty but continuing to store up riches of their own here on earth.

Miss Sarandon, what would your Jesus say about the lifestyle that you and Mr. Robbins openly promote?