What is Sanctification?
Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.
(Westminster Shorter Catechism)
A Secret Suspicion
I am currently reading a book called the Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall. The first chapter of the book spent time exploring what it really means to love God. There were several pages that I read in which I felt like I was being spiritually filleted. To love God - oh how I continually fall short! I kept reading until one particular quote stopped me in my tracts, "You cannot love God if you are under the continual secret suspicion that He is really your enemy." Upon reflection of this statement, I realized that I had lived much of my Christian life under the secret suspicion that God was my enemy, that His favor over me ebbed and flowed with my personal progress in sanctification and personal holiness. When I reflect upon that time, I remember with tears the silent agony I felt and the dull ache that clouded my heart and whispered that perhaps all was not well between me and the Lord. With this reflection comes a further epiphany of some of the statements and sentiments that have contributed to this silent suspicion. One particular sentiment that comes to mind is the idea within modern Evangelicalism that the Gospel requires that one must be in a state of ultimate surrender in order to be assured of a right standing with God. The more I reflect on this sentiment, the more I understand it to be a contradiction to the free grace, comfort, relief, and joy found in the Gospel.
What does total surrender mean?
In a sense, when I think upon this sentiment, I can agree that God does require total surrender. The total surrender He is requiring can be summed up in the law in Matthew 22:37-39, "And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the Prophets"
The requirement of total surrender can be summarized as perfect, unending, complete, and personal obedience to the command to love both God and neighbor from the moment one is born until his dying breath.
The very fact that we are Christians does not mean that this summation is no longer binding for us. We are not graded on a curve. We either fulfill the full terms of this requirement or we don't. There is no in between. Can I ask if you have fully surrendered in this way?
The problem with the sentiment of total surrender, is that it points struggling Christians away from the sufficiency of Christ in their sanctification and breeds a secret suspicion that God is their enemy, and ultimately erodes the believer's assurance, the assurance that ironically is needed for the strength to continue to press forward in sanctification.
Jesus fully surrendered in our place.
The truth is that we need someone who fulfilled this requirement in our place: the perfect law-keeper, The Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew 5:17 says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them". This is perhaps one of the most wonderfully comforting truths about the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ, from the moment He was conceived, in His living and suffering, was fulfilling the covenant of works in the place of His people, including the weak and struggling Christians who are consistently aware of their own sin and misery. He identified with us in His baptism, overcame Satan in the wilderness for us, elevated the law to strip us of our self righteousness, and fulfilled that very law in our place. He surrendered perfectly to the will of His Father, not just as an example to follow, but to become our gift of righteousness, wisdom, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
He bore the heavy cross and was crushed by the full might and wrath of a Holy and righteous God in our place. "And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" Philippians 2:8. Beloved, did you know that this is the obedience required to withstand judgement on the last day? Did you know that this obedience is given to you as a free gift the moment you receive the good news of the Gospel by faith? Receive "and rest in the good news that "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" 2nd Corinthians 5:21. He was raised for our justification and has ascended to heaven at the Father's right hand. Even now He has sent the Holy Spirit as a Comforter to bring these things to remembrance as we struggle with our daily onslaught of sin. He is right now praying that our faith will not fail, interceding for us. Isn't that wonderfully comforting?
The more I have come to understand the distinction between the law and Gospel, the more I see what it means to boast only in Christ. For the law reveals nothing but my sin and misery. To be honest, none of us has fully surrendered in the way that God has required to gain eternal life and also to retain it. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We all continue to fall short of the glory of God. God will never be pleased with any progress made in sanctification outside of the active obedience of Christ imputed to the believer by faith. Even our best works in this life are still tainted with sin. As Christians who have been awakened to our old nature, we understand that the more we encounter the holiness of God, the more we are going to see that we woefully fall short. We need to receive the comfort of the Gospel before we can obey. This sentiment leads to unhealthy introspection. If believers are constantly introspective searching for some merit to placate their consciences, then they either will devalue the law of God through self righteousness or despair in failing to meet His perfect commands.
The idea of total surrender, when carefully and honestly considered in light of the righteous requirements of the law, places a dark cloud of suspicion over the wonderful comfort of receiving Christ's kindness by faith. There is no place for weakness in this sentiment. Thanks be to God that the Lord Jesus Christ has condescended to us, identifies with us, and bears patiently with our weakness and frailty. I am grateful for this verse found in 1st John 2:1
"My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous"
Some Resources: I have linked below some resources which provide great information and context in regards to how unhelpful this term is when used.
(Guilt Grace and Gratitude - A Paradigm for Comfort - John Fonville)
Thank you for this much needed reminder, Joy. ♥️ You write beautifully!
ReplyDelete