After we become disciples of Christ, we are to become sanctified. It is a process that will change us to be more like God. This devotion looks at how sanctification leads to purity.
Nuggets
- Sanctification begins when we are justified when we ABCD.
- It is part of our nature to grow.
- When we read God’s Word, we will see how great He is — and how great we are not.
- As we grow to know God more, our desire to follow His laws and commandments increases.
Devotions in the What Is Purity? series
It is our goal as a disciple of Christ to be like God at the end of our journey in this life. In churchy words, we are shooting to be perfect and righteous. Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
Ooo, baby. That is going to be a process to get us there. It is called sanctification.
Let's Put It into Context
When we look up purity in the Holman Bible Dictionary, we are redirected to clean. Clean in the Scriptures refers to disciples being holy and pure. Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and pure.
Glossary
I know. Circular definitions.
Pure means without blemish. For disciples, we would define pure as without the stain of sin.
Another churchy word is sanctification. Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul beginning with regeneration and ending with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Regeneration is the change in us that God brings about when we go from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive. The perfected state indicates the combination of the graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
Sanctification Is a Progression to Purity
“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (II Tim. 2: 21 ESV).
Sanctification begins when we are justified when we ABCD. Justification means the act of making something righteous before God.
Caryl told us what justification entails. He wrote, “… there is not any sin left uncovered nor any guilt left unwashed in the blood of Christ, not the least spot, but is taken away. His garment is large enough to cover all our nakedness and deformities.”
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Resource
Many times, we don’t see ourselves as holy. When Satan is biting on us, we can totally agree with him that we have no holiness in us whatsoever.
Paul said think again. “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again” (I Thess. 5: 23 NLT).
Make you holy. Not will-make-you-holy-eventually.
We are to shoot for holiness in this lifetime. We will be rewarded with holiness in the next.
It can’t be an act. It isn’t us playing at religion.
It is us changing our character to imitate God.
Glossary
So, how do we do that? Three of the steps in the process from conversion to perfection are the following:
- Regeneration = renewal
- Justification = pardon
- Sanctification = being made holy
Resource
We Increase in Grace and Knowledge (II Pet. 3: 18)
It is part of our nature to grow. We have to make sure we have the nutrients needed to fuel that growth. Those nutrients are provided by seeking God.
How are we going to figure out what God wants us to be if we don’t study His Word? How are we going to work on areas in our lives that need fixed if we don’t meditate in His Word?
What we are to learn is that God is in Christ and that Christ is in God.
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It is logical that we would have a weak faith at conversion. We have faith to believe, but there is more faith available to us as we grow. Faith builds faith.
Seed brought up a great point. Many times, we think we can’t do something. We have to do it to convince ourselves that we can.
We can because we have Christ in us. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4: 13 KJV).
We Increase in Humility
When we read God’s Word, we will see how great He is — and how great we are not. We realize, instead, how unworthy we truly are.
I have to process this statement by Strong. He wrote, “As the genius who has arrived at the highest proficiency in any art or science finds it hardest to please himself with his own work, and sees best the inferiority of his attainments to the standard of perfection, so the saint who entertains the loftiest views of the holy character of God will form the most lowly estimate of his own strength and performances.”
Resource
Elaine-speak. We work so hard — sometimes all our lives — but we aren’t satisfied with our work. When compared to what is perfect, that isn’t it.
When we compare our character with God’s, we’ll have to say, “That isn’t it” — even while we are striving to make it it.
How do we apply that to the Sanctification Road? We need to aim for perfection — the holy character of God.
But we have to realize that we aren’t going to get there on our own strength. What efforts and accomplishments we do make toward holiness will be seen as little.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have to navigate the Sanctification Road. It means we need to keep our focus on God, not ourselves, and how it is Him sanctifying us.
We Increase in Doing His Will
As we grow to know God more, our desire to follow His laws and commandments increases. This is tied up in serving Him.
Ephesians 2: 10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (NIV).
We talked in the last devotion that a good conscience can only be a healed conscience. Healing only comes through accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Resource
As we grow in our relationships with God, we should be more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We should be able to distinguish between good and evil.
We Decrease the Pull of This World
As we navigate the Sanctification Road, we focus more on Heaven, not this world. “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Mt. 6: 33 ESV).
An offshoot of that is that we can be joyful in all circumstances. We can be content regardless of the trials that come our way.
Devotions in the Christian Balance series
We Love God and Others More
Christian perfection is achieving the two greatest commandments. We have to love God and others.
Sanctification Has to be Complete to Achieve Purity
“And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4: 24 ESV)
How many times do we just want to bury our mistakes and imperfections? We would rather ignore them instead of take them out and deal with them.
Logan reminded us we have to acknowledge our imperfections before we can work to fix them. He wrote, “Till we feel our own weakness we can never be strong in the Lord; we can never rise in the Divine sight till we sink in our own estimation.”
Resource
We have to be committed to change what is needed. If we are not totally committed to making and keeping the needed changes, we won’t make them.
Along with that, we have to be consistent in navigating the Sanctification Road. We can’t be doing fits and starts.
Making the Connections
In the last devotion, we listed all the training we needed to achieve the climb.
- Be prepared physically, emotionally, and psychologically
- Experienced with climbs at high elevation
- Posses the needed equipment
- Dealing with the environment
- Possess mountain climbing skills
- Possess strength and endurance
Halsey used a mountain climbing analogy, also. He noted, though, that with climbers, the focus is usually more on how far we have come rather than how close we are getting to the summit.
Resource
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
What Halsey was saying was, by navigating the hills and valleys of the Sanctification Road, we use God’s standards to evaluate our actions. Doing so will help keep this world in our rearview mirror.
It is when we use the wrong standard that we lose sight of the summit. We can’t think this is the only life, nor can we think this life means nothing. Seed advised us to look at this life as — step by step — leading us to advancing in goodness.
Resource
One thing I think we have trouble realizing sometimes is that we already possess immortal life. We focus on the fact that these sinful, physical bodies will be changed.
Neobard reminded us that “… we possess already the immortal life which will be perfected in heaven.”
Resource
We have to focus on growing. Maclaren felt that a reason disciples don’t grow is because we our relationships with Jesus do not have depth or reality.
Resource
Ooo, baby. Our relationships with Jesus aren’t based in reality????
Well, we don’t think Jesus’ blood will cover this sin. Or we don’t think that is a sin. Or maybe we think He didn’t die for us.
We would be wrong.
We have to have faith in our relationships with God. It has to be strong and vibrant.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Oh, yeah. The Sanctification Road is hard. It will take work and discipline to keep moving in the right direction.
How Do We Apply This?
Our goal is perfect manhood (which includes womanhood). Perfect manhood describes the fullness of Christ in our lives. We want to have total Jesus in our lives.
We struggle with the concept of righteousness. What does that really mean? It isn’t something we can do ourselves.
Maybe we should shoot for purity. We can figure out if something is pure in God’s eyes or not.
Seed and Logan said it was our duty to navigate the Sanctification Road. Seed wrote, “God’s design is to make men as virtuous and pious as possible.” We are to grow our characters to be more like Him.
No, we are not going to be able to perfectly duplicate God’s character here in this sinful body. But as Seed said, we will be held accountable for making “… the copy so complete as was in our power.”
Resource
It is important for us to be serious in building our relationships with God. We can’t play at it. We have to be committed to seeking God and changing ourselves to mirror His character.
Father God. We want to be navigating the Sanctification Road as we should be. We want to be changing the aspects of our character that need changed. We want to be preparing ourselves for our lives with You in eternity. Help us to be consistent. Amen.
What do you think?
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