Sanctification

In our care group (a weekly meeting for the members of our church) last month we were given chapter six from Jerry Bridges book entitled “The Discipline of Grace”. This chapter was on the sanctification that God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, continues to work in the lives of all His children.
Growing up in a Christian home, with a father who takes very serious his job as the spiritual leader, this was not a new concept for me. Yet, when it comes to hearing and meditating on God’s grace in our lives, whether it be justification (which happens the moment we are saved), or sanctification (the ongoing process by which Christ makes us a little more like Himself each day), we can never be reminded of it enough. It’s the reason we that we don’t have to fear death and God’s wrath, the reason we should keep pressing on when discouraged, the reason we can find purpose in this life. Below is a few quotes and verses that have been a blessing to me over the last few weeks. I hope you enjoy them (everything in purple writing is quoted from John Piper’s book).

“Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us whereby our inner being is progressively changed, freeing us more and more from sinful traits and developing within us over time the virtues of Christ like character.
However, though sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, it does involve our wholehearted response in obedience and the regular use of the spiritual disciplines that are instruments of sanctification.”

Ezekiel 36:26-27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws”

“Renewing grace works as great a change in the soul as the turning of a dead stone into living flesh” ~Matthew Henery

Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

“Regeneration is an act of God’s Spirit (upon salvation), sanctification is a work of God’s Spirit…In regeneration we become new born babies; in sanctification we attain the stature of full grown men of Christ.” ~William Plumer

“God never gives justification without sanctification.” 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD." 1 Corinthians 6:11 “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

“If we are going to become more and more like Him, we must grow towards that same goal of seeking His will. To be more like Jesus is not just to stop committing a few obvious sins such as lying, cheating, gossiping, and thinking impure thoughts. To be like Jesus is to always seek to do the will of the Father. That is a very high standard. We frequently desire to do our own will, resulting in actions that may not appear to be sinful in themselves, but they are sinful if they are not the Father’s will. To become like Jesus, then, is to come to the place where we delight to do the will of God, however sacrificial or unpleasant that will may seem to us at the time.”

This is one of those things that push aside all the fluff we as Christians fill our lives with. We all know the right lingo to use so that people think we have a heart for God, but do our actions match our words? It’s a huge theory today, that knowing Christ makes you happy. But does it? Christ never promised happiness in this life, He promised joy. And as believers, we can have joy no matter what our circumstances are. So what will our answer be to this question.........???

“What is our aim? Is it to please the father in all we do, or is it to just get through life as comfortably as we can?”

“There will always be conflict within us between the “flesh”, or the sinful nature, and the Holy Spirit.” Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the will is present in me, but the doing of good is not.”

“There must be a constant and increasing appreciation that though sin still remains it does not have the mastery. It is one thing for sin to live in us, it us another for us to live in sin.”
This is one of my favorite quotes… “Sin is like a defeated army in a civil war that, instead of surrendering and laying down it’s arms, simply fades into the countryside, from which in continues to wage a guerrilla war of harassment and sabotage against the government forces. Sin as a reigning power is defeated in the life of a believer, but it will never surrender. It will continue to harass us as long as we live.”

2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” “The verb being transformed is passive, that is, something is being done to us, not by us. This does not mean we have no responsibility in sanctification. It means that in the final analysis it is the Spirit of God who transforms us. I can to some degree change my conduct, but only God can change my heart.”

I’ll end with this verse….Philippians 1:6 “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We are blessed are we not??? Blessings!