AM I WRESTLING WITH MY SIN (Or Am I Sanctified Completely?)

1 THESSALONIANS 5:23-25: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit,  soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord  Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it. Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.” CSB

OBSERVATION: Why am I still struggling with that sin? When will I no longer have to wrestle with temptation? Will I ever be like Jesus?

It is time to dust off one of those Big Church Words. It is the word – Sanctification. There are those today who propose we no longer use these difficult terms. Yet, the Scriptures are filled with them, and we will either take them on or fall into the temptation of dumbing them down. Our culture seems to dumb down everything difficult. This does not make the difficult concepts of life easier to understand. Rather, it makes the important truths of life remain hidden and out of reach.

Sanctification is such a term and concept.

If we don’t understand the principle of sanctification in our lives, then we will remain stuck and fighting the same battles over and over again. Sin, temptation, and our old nature will keep winning, no matter how hard we try. When we don’t understand sanctification, we will keep trying harder and harder, only to fall harder and harder. Sanctification is the key to our daily walk of victory and our spiritual growth.

What is sanctification?

Sanctification literally means to be set apart, to be made holy, to be made whole or complete. We see this term used practically in the ministry of the Temple. All of the tools and utensils that were used in the worship of the Lord were set apart and declared holy. They were not holy because of their composition or intrinsic value. They were declared holy based on the purpose that God had given to them. It was God Himself who declared them holy and also gave them a purpose that was set apart from all other purposes and functions.

The same was true with the Priests and Levites. They were set apart based on God’s calling and defined purpose for their lives and service. They were no better and no worse than any other Israelite among them. They were simply chosen and called of God for a special purpose. They were sanctified for the task God had given them. We too, as believers in Jesus Christ, have been called apart for a distinct purpose.

Romans 8:28-30: “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,  so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified;  and those he justified, he also glorified.” CSB

We have been called according to His purpose. We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. We have been justified by the blood of Jesus Christ so that we can also be glorified with Him.

We have been Sanctified!

Sanctification is both positional and experiential. We stand fully justified before God the Father based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross and His victorious resurrection. We are set apart by grace through faith. Yet, our sanctification is also experiential. We are being changed daily, moment by moment, step by step, into the image and nature of Jesus Christ. We stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ, while we daily have to put off the old clothes of our sinful nature and put on the clothes of repentance and obedience to the leading of the Spirit.

This is where we can get stuck!

We did nothing to earn our salvation. We did nothing to be set apart for God’s purpose – our sanctification. Our salvation and our sanctification are a work of God’s grace, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s work from the beginning to the end. So Paul reminds the Thessalonians,

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit,  soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord  Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.”

Paul recognized that sanctification was God’s work in our lives. He had called us. He had redeemed us. He had set us apart. And, He was changing us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. This was a complete work. Jesus died to save the entire man – spirit, soul, and body. As we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are to be about our Father’s business, set apart for His work, and surrendered to His purposes. Paul reminds them,

“He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.”

If this is true, then one would assume there is nothing that we need to do. If sanctification is God’s work, then why am I still struggling in areas of my life? Why is life such a wrestling match?

While sanctification is fully God’s work in us, this does not mean that we do not have a part. We do not call ourselves to salvation. We do not create the eternal purpose and destiny for our lives. We do not make ourselves holy, pure, and complete. This is a work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is the work of God by grace through faith. Yet, there is something we are called to do.

We are called to stop wrestling and yield to God’s work in our lives!

Paul makes this point several times in his letters. Yielding is not inactivity. It is not the call to do nothing. Rather, we are called to walk in response to the Spirit’s leading and work in our lives, moment by moment, as He leads our way and gives us the grace to obey.

Colossians 1:28-29: “We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” CSB

Philippians 2:12-13: “Therefore, my dear friends,  just as you have always obeyed,  so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.” CSB

2 Corinthians 3:17-18: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.” CSB

Romans 6:12-14: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God,  and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.” CSB

Sanctification is the call to surrender to God’s work in my life. It is not the call to pull myself up by my bootstraps and wrestle with sin, the flesh, and the devil. It is a call to be set apart for God’s purposes. It is a call to allow God’s working in me to transform me from the inside out and then to respond to that transformation with grace-empowered obedience. Jesus is in the lead, and my call is to follow Him, step by step, moment by moment, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification is a call that we all have difficulty with. It is easy to forget that “…faithful is He that has called you, and He will do it!” And, so, like the Apostle Paul, I cry out…“Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.”

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit,  soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord  Jesus Christ.”

In Jesus’ Name!