Sanctification - lifelong process

10 - SANCTIFICATION - A LIFE-LONG PROCESS

Having just looked into the meaning of the new birth, we must now consider its outworking in sanctification, that is, in the transformation of our lives.

Obviously, there can be no transformation without new birth. As we shall see, there are other aspects of sanctification, but for now we shall focus on the most fundamental because it involves changes in us at the deepest level, taking us from what we are by nature and into the likeness of Christ.

We shall concentrate on just two of the many references to this in Scripture: Romans 8:29 and 2 Corinthians 3:18.

In Romans 8:29, we read that Gods plan is that we should be

conformed to the likeness of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

God is creating a new chosen race of people who are like His Son. In the Lord Jesus, and in Him alone, God has a perfect Man, but He wants a great family of sons in the likeness of the Firstborn. For this reason, God is bringing many sons to glory. The most important thing in the Christian life is that this amazing transformation should be going on in us, not only in our character, but also in our whole being, impacting the whole of our life.

In earlier chapters we saw that the Lord Jesus is not only different from us in character, but also in constitution because He has eternal life, and He revealed this life in the way He lived. For example, as to His character, He is entirely selfless, whereas we are all by nature so obviously self-centered. But more than that, He lived on a different basis, something which is little understood. He lived His whole life, as Man, in fellowship with, in dependence upon, and in obedience to, His Father in everything and at all times. He embodied and set forth true, spiritual manhood.

In the Lord Jesus we see what God intended when He created the human race. The great task to which God has set His hand is to make us like His Son. This work will find its completion on the great day of resurrection, when even our bodies will be conformed to the body of His glory...".

In 2 Corinthians 3:18, we read:

We all ... beholding ... the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same likeness from one degree of glory to another, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Here we have two secrets of this great work of transformation.

On our part, there must be a "beholding the glory of the Lord, a continual looking unto Jesus, a concentration on Him. John says,

We beheld [carefully contemplated] His glory ... full of grace and truth".

Paul says,

God has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

As the eyes of our heart are focused on Him, as we see Him through the Scriptures, as we respond actively in faith and obedience, we shall be changed. It is through the Scriptures, sovereignly given to us by God, that Christ is made known to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Only as our knowledge and experience of the Lord is firmly rooted in His Word shall we stand the tests of time and of life.

God's part is His gracious work in us. We cannot change ourselves. It is futile to try to imitate Christ out of our own resources. Only the Holy Spirit can change us. He alone can reproduce the true likeness of Christ in us, and He does so as we keep looking unto Jesus.

For example, we cannot be patient by simply trying. Keeping your mouth shut when provoked is not at all the same as having no negative reaction at all. We may manage to say nothing, but we cannot control our negative thoughts - that is a fruit of the Spirit, the inwrought character of Christ.

We may put on an appearance of humility or other apparently Christ-like qualities, but these would not be the real thing, merely imitations, plastic flowers. The reality is only produced in us by the Spirit. The Lord Jesus was sometimes moved with indignation, but He never reacted out of selfish anger or impatience to even the bitterest provocation.

When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He did not threaten

The Lord Jesus said from the cross, Father forgive them ... ". How His life shows us up!

When we add to this aspect of Christ likeness the many other aspects, some already touched on, such as His total commitment to the Father's will, we begin to see what sanctification our being transformed into the likeness of God's Son really involves. Being Christ-like is far, far more than being kind, loving, patient and so on. We often hear it being reduced to little more than humanitarian concern for those in need. But Christ likeness includes everything that Jesus is revealed to be. He is the One who not only loved little children and had compassion on the crowds, because they were as sheep without a shepherd, but also the One who, with a whip of cords, in righteous indignation and holy zeal, twice cleansed His Father's house.

We say all this to indicate the depth of the transformation needed in us, but certainly not to suggest that we must passively wait for it to happen. On the contrary, we must ensure that our wills are wholly on the Lord's side. In every situation we must seek to act as we know the Lord would have us act, depending on Him, and not to act according to the desires of our own nature. We must prove His grace to be sufficient under provocation and reject the pride and impatience of our hearts. We must seek, like Enoch, to walk with God.

Let me say it again. This transformation is not achieved by passivity, by waiting for the Lord to change us, but by active obedience to His will. As we do His will, as we continually adjust to Him, His thoughts, and His ways, we shall be changed. As the years pass, we may even notice something of this change, and when He has finished His work in us, we shall be genuinely humble, patient and truly like Christ in every way.

The word transformed in 2 Corinthians 3:18 is the same Greek word used of Christ on the mountain when, ... He was transfigured before them...". On that momentous occasion, the glory of God was seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

It is Gods purpose that we be transformed or transfigured. It is our destiny to be like Him in His glorified humanity!

The same word comes again in Romans 12:1-2,

... be transformed [transfigured], by the renewing of your mind...".

These verses give us further help on the pathway of sanctification.

Present your bodies a living sacrifice ... to God... be not fashioned according to this world ... be transformed by the renewing of your mind...".

As we see our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, and as we present ourselves to God entirely, decisively, and continually, as we refuse to be molded by the world around us, by its ideas, interests and ambitions, and as we allow the Lord to renew our minds, our attitudes, our whole way of thinking, so this great miracle of transformation will go on for the glory of God.