“Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.” (Le 20:7-8 AV)
How confusing is that? Verse seven states the saint is to sanctify himself. Then the end of verse eight the LORD states it is He that sanctifies. Which is it? Obviously, it is both. To understand why both can be true we must understand the meaning of the word. To sanctify means to set apart for a specific purpose or status. It also means the process by which the object is prepared for that purpose or status. The saint is to set himself apart from that which would hinder his purpose or status and the LORD prepares the saint for that purpose or status. Theologians call this distinction positional sanctification and practical sanctification. The error in the theologians is to make so much of a distinction as to the first can be done without the second. Rather, practical sanctification occurs because positional sanctification has been accomplished. In other words, whether positional or practical, they are two expressions of the same event. A person or object is set apart and as a result, is prepared. We are encouraged to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in practical sanctification because we have been positionally placed in Christ.
Think of a car wash. It’s funny when I take Lisa to a car wash. She will not go to one herself. She is terrified. She thinks that once you are in a car wash, the whole experience could be ruined by being trapped, or worse, having a car accident. She will not drive a car into and onto the guiding track. The moment she does, she has to yield control of the car to something she cannot see or influence. It is a total yielding in order to get the car washed and waxed. There is a setting apart from. The dirty car must be set apart from everything. It must be set apart from other cars. It must come out from the world that made it dirty in the first place. One must pull off the road and drive in a lane that guides the car to the wash. One must follow the instructions and steer to the exact place which the attendant determines. One thing is for sure. A car that remains on the road a will not come apart is a car that stays dirty. If there isn’t separation from the normal course of operation, the car remains filthy. The driver must choose to be cleaned. It cannot be forced upon the car. Rainwater is insufficient. Rain may wash off some of the dirt. But not all. To be totally clean, the driver must separate himself from all other drivers and enter the wash to be cleansed. He doesn’t do the cleaning. The wash does that. He doesn’t apply the wax and buff it out. The wash does that. He doesn’t wipe down the car. The wash does that. His part is to come out of the dirty environment that made the car dirty and yields to the control of the one who can make it clean.
This is the understanding above. For sanctification to be efficacious, the saint must come apart and yield to the cleansing and maturing that only God can do. God will not force it upon the one who chooses not to yield. There must be a coming apart. There must be a sanctification. To be sanctified, one must first sanctify himself. Once the saint does, then God can sanctify him. We wonder why we have little victory in our spiritual lives. It is because we haven’t put the blinker on, got off the highway, turned into the wash, and let go of the steering wheel. We are not clean because we choose not to be cleaned. We are not sanctified because we have not first sanctified ourselves. God is waiting. He is waiting for us to choose His perfect sanctification by a free will choice of our own to yield to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we are driving around filthy and aimlessly.
No comments:
Post a Comment