Flourishing Life

One can only do so much in a sermon! Each week there are illustrations, scriptures, and stories that are left on the proverbial editing room floor. This week, with a baptism, receiving new members, and communion, there was not much time for sermonizing. So, here is a Scripture on which I wanted to comment during the message this past Sunday.

“But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.” Romans 6:21-22 (NRSV)

This verse comes in a lengthy section of Paul's letter to the Romans about sin and salvation, grace and sanctification. First off, what is "sanctification"? Certainly we don't use this word very often in everyday speech. When's the last time you had a conversation like this at the water cooler?

"Hey Bob, how's that sanctification project coming along?"

"Oh, pretty good. God is really blessing me!"

No, I didn't think so.

Sanctification is one of those theological words that gets lost in the shuffle in most churches, particularly following the confusion about this word surrounding what was called the Holiness Movement in the 19th century. Since then, it's all but dropped out of the vocabulary of mainline churches.

Sanctification. What is it? Why does Paul call it an "advantage we get"? Is it a one time deal or is it a process? What is the relationship between sanctification and eternal life?

These are big questions. I won't even attempt to answer them all here, but I would like to share about the basics to at least whet our appetite for the fact that what most Christ-followers experience is only a small part of the blessing that God has made available to us in this life.

Notice, first, that sanctification is something we receive. It is a work that God does in us. We definitely must cooperate with this work, just as we do with justification. To be justified is to be "saved" or "redeemed." Most of us are aware this is a gift of God. Jesus laid down his life to reconcile the whole world to himself, including us. We receive this gift of salvation by faith, but trusting in the goodness and grace of God. For most folks, trusting God for salvation is a big deal. It's not automatic, it takes effort and can be a process of turning away from trusting in your own good works and learning to trust in the work of Christ.

Sanctification is the process of being sanctified, being made holy. To be holy is to be set apart for service to God. You see, when God redeems our lives, he doesn't simply want to leave us in the same state of confusion and wrong choices and sin. He wants to change us. His goal is that we would become like his Son, Jesus. Jesus loved people with a pure love, not holding their faults and sins against them. Most of us do not love the way God loves. We love with strings attached, with conditions. We love people who are good to us. Jesus said that even the worst of sinners love those who love them. If you want to be like Jesus you have to love God with your whole life and love your neighbor as yourself. Sanctification is really about love. It's about fully receiving the love God has for you and then living a life of loving service to others. To be sanctified is to accept yourself the way God accepts you, as you are, and to be free to accept others the way God accepts them.

Sin flows from a lack of love. We don't love God, we don't love others, we don't love ourselves. But to be made holy is God's plan for us. It is God's gift for us. He created us to reflect his image to the rest of creation. Jesus came and lived and died and lives again, so we can understand who God is and how much God loves us. When we give ourselves fully to this process of sanctification, we overcome temptation to sin more and more as the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to the immensity of the love of our loving Father in heaven. We sin less and less and we make loving choices more and more.

Sanctification is about freedom. God sets us free from the penalty of sin, that's justification, but he wants us to develop as Christ-followers, growing closer and closer in relationship to him, learning more and more of his love and offering more and more of his love to others. That's sanctification: the freedom to love fully even as I have been fully loved.