Imperishable Inheritance

The longer I'm a believer the more I value the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which we go through post-regeneration where we become increasingly holy and conform more the image of Christ, and no one will be with Christ without this process (Heb 12:14). Christ, not the law or any other means, is the end goal of our sanctification. Sanctification only finds fulfillment in glorification, but the anticipation of such a time is worth the wait.

I have learned valuable lessons in patience. Patience is the means to which we can understand God's plan in redemption (2 Pet 3:8-9). If our sovereign Lord is said to be patient towards us'who are we to say that we won't be patient towards Him? The pull of our 'McDonalized' society pushes us to think that our desires must be gratified as soon as possible to validate our success. I had this mindset for so long, and it is still an increasing struggle. That is why passages from Matthew 6 continue to strike me at the core and remind me of my need of sanctification.

"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?" (Matthew 6:25-27)

I read a passage like that, and I am convicted on how little I trust my God for all things pertaining to my existence both temporal and eternal. I still have a mindset that there is a measure of works necessary for my ultimate justification. How I wish I trusted more in the atonement accomplished and not my futile works (Isa 64:6).

My second weakness has always been my view of the role of the Spirit in my sanctification. Truthfully, I just had a bad view of the Holy Spirit. I saw it as only a mechanical agent that regenerates and not an agent that is living that is a gift to lead. The more I meditate on the importance of the Spirit in my life and sanctification the greater my spirituality becomes. I often felt phrases like, "listening to the Spirit" were passe'; but I'm learning what that actually means. He actually does lead, and I was always to dense to realize it. Life goes a lot better when we live life in the fullness of the Spirit (Eph 5:18).

I continue to struggle with persistent sin despite my contrition (1 Thess 4), and I find myself open to lies doubting the very nature of my salvation. The problem is fundamentally not in Satan but in myself. The liar is simply calling into question my own reliance on the work on the atonement that is unconditional and fulfilled (both in the past and to be fulfilled in the future, 1 Cor 1:30). I have hope that despite my shortcomings I will still be glorified with Christ (Rom 8:29-30).

But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:22-23)