In our previous post, we discussed the idea of sanctification, which is a very "church-y" term that refers to how God touches someone and they are changed. You may have thought as you were reading, or as you were leaving the service, whether or not you have experienced sanctification. Maybe you walked away still feeling confused as to what sanctification is. That is okay! This is a topic that many long-term Christians still do not fully grasp.
The journey of understanding sanctification can be part of the journey of experiencing it. Wherever you are at in this journey, you are welcome here. If you have not yet read the previous posts, you may want to start at week 1 of our Holiness series. Click here for that post.
This may come as a surprise or it may be obvious to you, but one of the main reasons that many people choose not to follow Jesus is because of the way Christians act. The behavior of professing Christians too often causes others to not want anything to do with Christianity. Lord, help us.
Many people agree that Jesus was a good person. That He had interesting teachings. That He helped people and set a good example. Yet when Christians act poorly, we drive them away from Jesus. This is heartbreaking! And absolutely not the way things should be.
If you have been guilty of behavior that drives people away, you are not alone. Most Christians have been. Yet it is our call to, when we know better, we do better. There is grace and transformation available to us.
Stages of sanctification
Let's break this theological concept down for a minute. In our tradition, we believe that the first work of grace is salvation, which occurs in the moment that we say yes to Jesus. This work of grace requires nothing from us other than our yes. It is freely given, and we simply need to receive it.
The second work of grace is sanctification. This can happen in the same moment as salvation. A person is saved by grace and, in that moment, transformed by the work of the Spirit. However, sanctification is much more commonly experienced as a process. Unlike salvation, sanctification requires something of us: it requires us to offer ourselves, our lives, to God.
In the Church of the Nazarene, we believe that someone can become entirely sanctified in their lifetimes. This is actually seen as the ultimate goal of our lives. It is not just that we die and are then in heaven with Jesus; we can experience the restorative grace of sanctification in our lifetime.
There are many conceptions and misconceptions about what sanctification is. It is easy to believe that sanctification is God's removal of sin and bad things from our lives. However, it might be better to imagine that entire sanctification is not just a life without sin or with minimal sinning after God has cleared out all the sin, but is instead the action of God restoring us to our createdness.
Confess and be restored
Too often as the church, we place a heavy emphasis on the first work of grace, salvation, because we want people to be able to go to heaven. But the truth is, a "confess and be saved" gospel leaves people forgiven but not free, justified but not transformed.
A "confess and be saved" gospel is not one that produces people who make others want what they have. A "confess and be saved" gospel leaves people in their struggle. This gospel is too small for the God we serve.
So let’s agree that the Gospel is much more than a "confess and be saved" gospel. We can probably agree that sanctification, a transformation of the people of God, is necessary and real. But when we think about sanctification, we likely think that the process of sanctification is that God needs to come in and remove the bad stuff to make us Holy.
What if that is not the case at all? Not to say that He will leave you unchanged; actually, it's the opposite. When we give ourselves to Jesus, when we surrender… God does not come in and simply clean house.
Let's paint a picture here of a store that has seen better days. They are losing more money than they are making, they have had to let several employees go, they are not able to make updates or repairs on their building. The store is on the brink of closing down. As a final "Hail Mary," the store is sold to a new owner, and the new owner comes in to clean house. They get rid of any underperforming or toxic staff. They do a complete rebrand, giving the building a facelift and the branding new colors and a modern design. They remove any goods that are no longer in demand and add products that they hope will fly off the shelves. Maybe they introduce new products or services, such as online shopping or drive-up service to help satisfy our culture of instant gratification.
Maybe this is how you picture entire sanctification. That God cleans out all of the bad stuff and sets up an entirely new way of living. Once you are up and running, you can claim the badge of entire sanctification. But Ephesians 1:4-8 suggests to us that this way of looking at it is incorrect.
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
When God created humanity, humanity was perfect and was created in the likeness and image of God. The fall and sin came AFTER humankind was created, not before.
Before God made the world, He loved us. And when He created humankind He said it was GOOD. God’s original design, as seen in the garden is GOOD. Man is GOOD, and at our core, sin is not our nature. Holiness exists because God is holy, and God created His people to be like Him.
Let's paint another picture. You just bought a big, beautiful old brick home in a historic neighborhood. But when you walk inside after signing all of the paperwork, it dawns on you that the inside is not quite as beautiful as the outside. The floors are awful, scratched up and stained. Some of the rooms even have thick green carpet, including the bathroom! The paint is peeling, and several rooms have sticky, faded wallpaper up. The kitchen cabinets are in extremely rough shape.
One thing you could do is take the easy way out. Try to clean up as much as possible, lay down vinyl flooring, paint over the layers and layers of paint and wallpaper that are there. We might call this the "landlord special." Cover it all up—it will look brand new. The fruit of your labor will look good for a while, but eventually you will see that you did not get to the root. In a few years, you will see the paint start to peel, the vinyl begin to discolor and warp.
What's the other option? To restore that house back to its original beauty. Rip up the carpet and refinish those hardwood floors. Find the root of the peeling paint, remove it all along with the old wallpaper, and put a fresh coat up. Those kitchen cabinets? Sure, you could paint them… but eventually you’ll need to repaint them, again and again. Restore them to their original beauty, take the time needed to work with them, removing years of stain and wear, years of filth. Then stain them to look brand new, and made to last a lifetime.
Your house, restored, is going to WOW people when they walk in and see the restoration of the 100 year old floors. Your house is not going to need to be repainted and touched up every few years because you got to the root and can enjoy the fruit.
Church, sanctification is not the process of cleaning house and taking all the crap out of us. Sanctification is not about covering up the nasty wood floors with fresh vinyl in order to manage the mess. Sanctification is God coming in and restoring us to our createdness. It is in our nature to be like Him. It is in our very makeup to be like God. Our bodies were designed to worship God and know Him as our creator and therefore to live holy lives. By opening up and allowing God to enter in, you will experience freedom and liberation from your sin, not just forgiveness and justification.
When we open up and let God come in - we find our hearts go from familiar to fascinated. We find we are not moved or motivated by our bent toward sin but instead motivated by our love of God.
God is not interested in helping us manage our sin - God is moving in and restoring us to our createdness. Sanctification is not a life lived of constant confession of sin to experience forgiveness and justification.
When we say yes to fulfilling our purpose, because of who created us, that yes is God entering in and sanctifying us through and through ENTIRELY.
Entire sanctification is a constant process and surrender to our creator and the result is
That we no longer are moved or motivated by our bent toward sin but moved and motivated by our love of God.
I am not saying this is easy - we live in a fallen world. Trauma, fear, hardship, disease, addiction, pain is all very real. Church, let us walk away from this series on Holiness and understand that at our core, we are a holy people. Sanctification is the process of restoring us back, not making us into something entirely different. Liberation and freedom from your sin is available. Sanctification is not just a form of sin management - there is so much more for us. We don’t have to live this life waiting till we die and are with Jesus in glory to experience freedom and liberation. Don’t let yourself be fooled into believing that finally being with Jesus is our only hope of a life of freedom and liberation.
The second work of grace on the Cross offers you freedom now.
Does the question still remain - am I sanctified?
Well, do you live your life still bent toward sin? Do you live a liberated and free life or are you still, daily, in the wrestle?
We want the fruit from this church to be obvious… but only because we focused on God taking care of our root first. Real fruit is produced from letting God deal with the root.
People don’t need a church, a people, who are out there pointing out where all of the sin is. Our job is not to get all of the sin out - if this is our goal, we will constantly be reeling.
Our job is to be a people who let the Spirit come in, who open ourselves up and separate from the World in order to allow the Spirit to come in and sanctify us through and through, ENTIRELY. And because of how we show up, the world will begin changing.Â
The world will not be put off by the church, but will instead want to be the church because of how we show up. We aren’t called to show up as "sin detectives" with a one-work-of-grace kind of gospel. We are called to show up as a holy people, pointing back to our Holy God that not only FREELY gives salvation but also does not leave His people forgiven but not freed, justified but not transformed.Â
The second work of Grace, sanctification, is ready to move in and restore us back to our createdness. We just have to offer ourselves and open up.
Original message by Pastor Makenzie Flores
Blog post adapted by Allison Freytes
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