Word of Encouragement (6/30/2021)

Let’s continue our reflection on Paul’s prayer in 1 Thess. 5:23-24: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”

Here, we learn that God wants us to be sanctified completely. Let’s linger there for a moment. We tend to read this and quickly move on, saying to ourselves, “Yes, that’s what God desires. But He knows, and we all know, that that is impossible in this life.” That is theologically right. Yet, if we are not careful, we can use theological truths to our detriment, not to our benefit. What is one danger of quickly saying what is mentioned above? We make up our own standard of sanctification and grow complacent about our progress (even though it may be quite slow). How would you feel if you asked someone to do something and he ignored your expectation and did a subpar job according to the standard he made up for his convenience?

But what are we to do with the perfect standard, which is impossible for us to meet in this life? Should we constantly live with guilt all the time because we fall short all the time? Isn’t that too morbid? But let’s not forget that the guilt we feel as believers is never alone; for those who are in Christ Jesus, the guilt they feel is always accompanied by a renewed and deeper understanding of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. For God uses our guilt to drive us to Christ for His forgiveness and healing. If our theme of praise even in heaven is our redemption in Jesus Christ, we will be conscious, even in heaven(!), of our fallen, sinful state, from which we have been saved (without feeling guilty, of course). So, in this life, even though we feel guilty, we will not live in guilt all the time; rather, we will live in humility before God and men and in reliance upon God’s grace and help. This humility is all the more necessary because we can work only on the problems that we are aware of and God brings our attention to but we know that there are so many other areas we can be working on.

Also, let’s not forget that sanctification is a process. There is a sense in which we are already sanctified completely: as far as our status is concerned, we are set apart unto God wholly and completely. Jesus purchased us with His own blood. We are His. Sin and Satan and this world have no legal claim over us! We call this our definitive sanctification. But there is a sense in which we are not completely sanctified yet—that is, in terms of our character and life. This will require our entire lifetime. So, the Shorter Catechism describes our sanctification as God’s work as opposed to God’s one-time act, such as our justification. We call this our progressive sanctification.

Consider what Paul said regarding our sanctification earlier: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor…” (1 Thess. 4:3-4). See how he goes directly from stating what God’s will is for us—our sanctification—and how we are to abstain from sexual immorality and control our bodies in holiness and honor? So then, the completion of our sanctification is not something that happens from nothing; it is the culmination of the process of our sanctification throughout our Christian life. That is why we must abstain from sexual immorality and discipline our bodies in holiness and honor. That is why we are to hold fast what is good and abstain from every form of evil. That’s why we must pray for our sanctification and the sanctification of others. And Paul’s prayer shows that it will take God’s cosmic intervention—Christ’s Second Coming—to bring our sanctification to its glorious completion, which He will not fail to do! Let us long for that day when God will sanctify us completely! May that hope compel us to grow in our sanctification!