Personal Sanctification

My life is such a contradiction. My soul yearns for holiness and then runs from the mortification necessary to attain it.
- Mother Angelica

Personal Sanctification

We are what we eat. And don't eat. What we think. And don't think. What we say. And don't say. What we do. And don't do. This includes wanting to think, say and do the right things, yet frequently failing to follow through.

Scripture, as the authoritative Word of God, is many things. Not the least of which is a mirror to discern truth. Including our genuine reflection. A tremendous gift. Yet more often than not avoided. Even by modern Christianity. The average member unable to recite 5-10 verses in a row, much less rightly interpret and comply with they message. Add to this an equally dismal record of serious prayer, and for the most part First World believers are practical agnostics. Finally, since spirituality abhors a vacuum, opportunistic worldliness and worse most often fills the void. Both in society and Churchianity.

If someone listens to God’s word but doesn’t do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like.

- Hebrews 12:14 NIV

Junk in, junk out. An unfortunate truism in both the world of the secular and sacred.

When it comes to the pursuit of personal and corporate holiness, having strategically invested seventy thousand hours seeking and serving God, I known something whereof I speak. While hundreds of millions, if not billions, content themselves with Scripture's precious promise of positional righteousness through the inconceivably costly atonement of Christ, I've spent over three decades researching the conditions associated with God's gracious offer. As James, the half brother of Jesus points out, mental assent is hardly enough given even demons believe the gospel but to no avail. So too James warns those who fail to appropriately respond to Christ's commands:

"Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like. But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world." James 1:22-27 MSG

Theologically sin comes in two forms. The category that should be most obvious are sins of "commission" or the wrong that we do. Unfortunately, as culture or even an entire generation embraces, rather than resist temptation, truth becomes increasingly harder to recognize much less believe. As individuals or whole societies wade deeper into the darkness of deception, attitudes and actions that were once pitch black pass as grey and grey appear white. Modern society's seen an unprecedented upheaval in moral and religious standards, much of the thinking of which has been incorporated into Churchianity. When everyone's moving together, like those aboard a ship at sea, there's little sensation of traveling at all, much less in the wrong direction.

For this reason, in a single generation some of the most blatant violations of God's clarion commands have become the norm. In many cases, what was unacceptable and even unthinkable throughout human history in now entrenched as an inalienable right or even "moral" imperative. Personal choice not only passes for the new integrity, but an emerging widespread from of religion. Welcoming everything, except morality, has become the only enlightened, politically correct choice.

Sadly the vast majority of modern Christians show little or no interest in the rigors of costly discipleship. Prophetic Christians recognize our desperate need for not only individual and corporate renewal and revival if not reformation. These understand the realistic hope requires honesty enough to admit the true extent of our need in light of the Bible’s guidelines for benefiting from God’s supply. They also daily confess any lack of discipline in regards to doubtful habits and/or besetting sins short-circuiting their work and prayers to more fully experience the power of God.

The following graphic emphasizes that knowingly or not, all who have heard the story and claims of Christ are somewhere to found on the continuum from inappropriate two appropriate response:

Sins of omission, are more subtle by nature. Yet, while the good we fail to do is less evident, the Bible continually emphasizes this part of the equation. A theme well developed in scripture, Christ's most in depth teachings on salvation such as the Good Samaritan and Rich Man and Lazarus, Rich Young Ruler and Sheep and the Goats all strongly suggest the difference between heaven and hell hinges on our response to each other. Particularly the most needy.

The teachings and lifestyles of Jesus and His apostles provide a clarion call for Christians to lay down worldly pleasures and pursuits for not only our soul's sake but that of the Kingdom of God. Unfortunately, all who would answer soon find that while "the spirit is willing the flesh is weak." Again James provides insight into the two competing wisdoms at war in both the world system around us and our own hearts and minds:

"If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness." (James 3:13-18 NLT)

While choosing the wisdom from above over that from below seems a no brainer, as is so often the case "the devil's in the details." In point of fact, given the vast array temptation and deception stacked against us, the human salvation and sanctification is nothing short of miraculous:

"You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." (Matthew 7:13, 14 NLT)

"Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, Who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." (Mark 10:23-27 NIV)

If eternal life is simply a matter of belief, why should the road to salvation be narrow and difficult? If God merely requires acknowledging Christ as our Savior, why is all but impossible for the wealthy to enter, much less progress in the kingdom of God? The answer is clear to anyone reading the New Testament. The appropriate response to Christ's death on the Cross is our shouldering our own:

"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" (Luke 9:23-25 NIV)

Self denial is such a predominant theme in the Gospels and Book of Acts, Epistles and The Book of Revelation that even such notables as Søren Kierkegaard, the brilliant 19th century Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher famously noted:

"The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

While today the sting of such a fearful indictment is lost on the "itching ears" of modern Churchianity, truth remains true in both time and eternity and as such we are faced with an overwhelming dilemma. Given the demands of authentic Biblical Christianity "how then shall we live?"

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