"To Him be glory forever": sanctification

Showing posts with label sanctification. Show all posts

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Weak Spots and Blind Spots

About two weeks ago I got a request from a friend. He had been reading a book and as a result was looking for some help is assessing his life as a Christian. He was asking for someone to look at his life and see what might be going on that he didn't see. To look for areas in which as a faithful follower of Jesus he needed to make some changes. He wrote this in his note:

"So that is why I am writing to you, to see if you can offer any advice on where I need correction. All of us have blind spots. It seems it's a lot easier to see sins in others than in ourselves. So please let me know what you see in my life where I need to improve. Please be quite honest and don't worry about me being offended."

In an attempt to answer his question I thought over what I know of him, of his faith, and of his life. I also thought about many of the things the Bible has to say about how God's people are to live. As far as the Bible goes that would include things such as the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment, the Great Commission, the "fruits of the Spirit," as well the preceding passage in Galatians. One of the books I have been reading lately is Proverbs, so that, quite naturally, came into my thinking.

But here is the curious thing. My friend asked about his blind spots, things that he couldn’t see clearly about himself. As I thought about the biblical areas above I was confronted, time and again, with my own weak spots. Areas where I thought about myself and the various roles in my life, such as follower of Jesus, husband, father, pastor and friend. In doing so I found so many things within myself that could be characterized as sloppy, second-rate, incomplete. Maybe not everything, but much more than enough. You get the picture.

It is curious the way the hand of God's providence works sometimes. My friend, seeking what would hopefully be godly counsel, has opened my eyes to some things I need to be dealing with.

As Paul brings his first letter to the Thessalonians to a close he writes:

"Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

That idea of being sanctified, or as I often phrase it as I preach, being shaped more and more in the image of Christ, does not happen in one single, powerful action. It happens bit by bit. Sometimes easily and sometimes with great difficulty and hardship. It begins at the moment of our conversion from unbelief to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it continues until the drawing of our last breath and coming into the direct presence of our Lord.

I am thankful for the opportunity to consider my friend's life and perhaps give him some constructive help. But I am more thankful for the way that God used him to do some work on my own life. Amen.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Cleansing, both the Temple and Me

This morning I preached from Mark 11:12-21, a challenging passage, to say the least. In the midst of this section of Mark's gospel is his version of Jesus cleansing the temple in Jerusalem. The temple is the heart-and-soul of the Hebrew people, the place built as the dwelling place for God and the only location for their most important religious practices.

Well, that is the idea, but as Mark tells the story the temple is a long ways from being a model of holiness and honor towards God. It has become the place for buying and selling of animals for sacrifice, with a currency exchange so that observant Jews could pay the temple tax, and also having convenient routes to be used as a shortcut for foot traffic, rather than walking around it.

Into this scene of chaos walks Jesus, creating a bit of havoc of his own as he casts out the people, things and practices that defile the temple. He casts these things out and does…what? He replaces them with his teaching. Verse 17 begins, "And he was teaching them…" and verse 18 ends, "…all the crowd was astonished at his teaching."

Reading this in our day and looking back at Jesus we can see that he was entirely justified in the cleansing of the temple and to then quickly move on to whatever is the next significant event during this final week of his life. But Mark brings to the fore that the very next thing was of great importance. Jesus threw the bad out of the temple and replaced it with something very good, his teaching, which was teaching that amazed the crowd.

What did he teach? We don’t know. Mark doesn't share that with us. He merely shares that the teaching itself was profound and done with great power. The people who heard it were astonished.

But what does this have to do with us? Jesus has zeal for the holiness of God. The temple, the dwelling place of God with His people has been defiled and Jesus acts to restore its holiness. On the one hand he throws out what defiles it and with the other hand he restores what belongs there. As he teaches the people in the temple he in effect restores what should be going on there. People are coming to worship God. To draw near to God. And as he teaches Jesus is directing them to that purpose.

All well and good. But what about us? What does this mean for us today? In Mark 1:15 Jesus calls on people to "repent and believe in the gospel." When we do this essential step of repentance-and-belief, repenting of our sin and believing in the Good News of Jesus as our Savior and Lord, then this very thing that happens in the temple is something that he begins to do in us.

The same zeal that Mark shows Jesus having for the temple he also has for every person who has faith in him. And he acts accordingly. He begins that process of removing from us those things that are offensive to God and replacing them with things that are pleasing in God's sight. While those things, for evil and for good, may vary widely for each person a place where you can get a good general idea is Galatians 5:19-23.

This business of personal cleansing is not always easy, particularly when it comes to those things that seem or feel so good. The things that we want to make excuses for. Things we want to take a pass on. Jesus loves us too much to allow us to play in the mud as long as we please.

So look at that story of the cleansing of the temple as more than something that happened one day many years ago. See it as a reminder of what Jesus has done, in you, and a marker of what he is doing, in you, right now. Amen.

Monday, February 4, 2013

A Thought on Prayer

Last night in our small group at church we watched and discussed a video about prayer. The specific topic of the video had to do with obedience as an aspect of our prayer life. One of the suggestions of the speaker on the video was that when we have questions about the effectiveness of our prayer, i.e. when we wonder why God is not answering our prayer, then we need to look inside ourselves and see if we are carrying any disobedience that is blocking our ability to reach God in prayer.

I both agree and disagree with that claim. Since the speaker wasn't there in person for me to ask questions of and understand more about what he intended to teach us my response here will be one-sided by default. I welcome any of your thoughts in response to my thoughts.

First my agreement. If I am knowingly carrying unconfessed sin in my life that is something that is going to have an effect on the nature of my communication with God. How can I humbly approach a holy God when I an intentionally keeping Him out of a part of my life? How can I praise God for who He is when I am unwilling to let Him be God over all of my life? How can I ask God to grant my request when by my action, or inaction, I am not loving Him with all my heart? (Exodus 20:3; Matthew 22:37)

Quite simply, I can’t. Any attempt of mine to approach God in a way that I know is deceitful is flawed from the outset. It must be, for God is holy and I am not, something that at times I am acutely aware of.

Now, my disagreement. As I said above, God is holy and I am not, and this is something that God understands, and has eternally understood, much better than I ever will.

I know that God the Father has given His Son for the forgiveness of sin, which in my case specifically means my sin, every last bit of it. (Belgic Confession, article 21 and 22.)

Being claimed by God in Christ and forgiven of my sins means that I am justified. Being ‘justified’ means that I am, in God’s eyes, free of sin and able to approach Him without fear and trembling, but in confidence. (Hebrews 4:14-16; Belgic 23)

Further, God’s work in shaping me in the image of His Son is an ongoing work, something that began when I confessed faith and will continue until the moment I pass into Heaven. (Belgic 24) I will always have rough spots that need shaping and polishing. One day it may be unconfessed sin. Another day it may be hardness of heart.

This isn't to excuse my lack of perfection before God, particularly when I am holding back from Him, but to remember that His Son was perfect and did a perfect work of atonement, precisely so that in my imperfection I can know God’s love and eternal assurance.

Should I confess my sin as I approach God in prayer? Absolutely. But I will admit that there have been times when I have held something back. And there have been times when I haven’t first searched my own heart before coming before Him, such as when responding to the request of someone else for prayer, or when I am just overwhelmed by a particular set of circumstances.

But I don’t think that those failings on my part are the reasons why God hasn't answered some of my particular, and persistent, prayers, such as to bring healing for a friend with cancer or for the salvation of my children. At the end of the day, and at the end of time, God has His own reasons for answering, or not answering those prayers. And knowing that God is perfect in every way, I trust that God’s reasons are correct.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep praying, and try to cooperate with the work that He’s doing in me.

"Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:14-16

Saturday, September 22, 2012

The Work of the Holy Spirit, part 2.

In my last post I wrote briefly about the work of the Holy Spirit. Today I read another essay on the Holy Spirit and his work, this time by William Shisko, titled The Sealing and Witnessing Work of the Holy Spirit.

In writing to the Ephesians, Paul says in verse 1:13:

“In him [Christ] you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”

Of this idea of the believer being sealed in the Holy Spirit, Shisko writes:

“The act of believing that brings union with Jesus Christ brings every benefit of Christ with it, including the sealing work of the Holy Spirit, though subjectively believers often only realize this gradually over time.”

This comment of Sisko’s is something that resonates in my own experience as a believer in Jesus, and two particular ways come to mind to illustrate the gradual work of the presence of the Holy Spirit within me.

The first is through a greater awareness of my own sin and the separation that it brings between myself and God. Now it may seem as if there is something in the idea of being sealed in the Holy Spirit and also separated from God that doesn’t quite add up. How can I be separated from the very One that I am sealed in?

The simple, and biblically true, answer is that I can’t. It is more like when one of my children was young and they wanted to do something that I knew they shouldn’t, something that I was determined to prevent them from doing. So I would hold them as they threw their tantrum. Yelling, screaming, swinging arms and legs violently to get away and do as they sought fit, but my grasp was steady. My sin is somewhat like that.

I struggle against God thinking that my way is best. God even lets me follow my ill-chosen path for a time, but He never releases His firm grasp on me. Never. And as the Spirit works in me I long for the time when I’ll stop fighting to have my own way and gladly trust in His ways, all of the time.

The other way I see the gradual effect of the presence of the Holy Spirit in me is through an increasing understanding of God’s nature. As I learn more about God’s character and attributes I am filled with an increasing sense of wonder, of awe, and of love, for God. I can more clearly see His presence in the natural world, in the people and situations of my daily life, in my family, and in his actions within my heart.

What about you? How has the presence of God, by the Holy Spirit, been at work in your life? What changes has He brought?

William Shisko’s essay is contained in The Beauty and Glory of the Holy Spirit, Beeke, Joel R. and Joseph A. Pipa, ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012) 176.