1.
What is
sanctification in relation to being saved?
It is
a gift and a promise tied to your entrusting Jesus to save you. The gift is
holiness. The promise is God will grow
you now and perfect you later.
2.
How can we apply
sanctification to our daily lives? How
can I live it practically? The gift of sanctification is applied to you. The promise of God to grow in you can be
cooperated with by trusting His Word and making the tough choices to follow
Him. This isn’t general, but very
specific.
3.
What does it do for
us?
It begins
to make us into what our justification says is true about us and promises to
complete the work.
4.
How do we obtain
it?
Justification is by grace through faith,
and that legal pardon plants the seed of sanctification in you. It is a gift, not a wage.
5.
Is it a lifestyle
change?
Yes,
but maybe not how you mean it. It’s
trusting God and courageously following which will change your lifestyle a
bit. But just changing your lifestyle
will not cause you to trust God more.
Probably less.
6.
What does God then
use us for once we are apart?
To
love Him, love others, and thus bring Him glory. Could look like missions, it could look like
working at the mall. It could look like
adopting two kids, it could look like holding babies at church. It could look like praying in the mornings,
it could look like praying sporatically throughout the day. It will look imperfect, and God will
magnified in His grace through our weaknesses.
7.
Why is it so
divisive?
Grown
men and women disagree on how much self-effort is involved in
sanctification. Obviously trusting God’s
Word and courageously following it is action, but that is faith action not
self-effort. Faith in action is
propelled by a self-lack where self-effort is propelled by willpower. The self-effort side is convinced that
Christians will not grow without constant prodding and examination. Trust & follow sounds too soft. The trust & follow side is convinced that
no fruit is born out of self-effort and tremendous damage is done when
Christian’s believe in levels of spiritual maturity they can obtain by method
alone. They slowly add more religion and
rob the dependency on God we have.
8.
How can I sanctify
myself?
You
cannot set yourself apart for holiness.
Holiness is something only achievable by Christ alone. You could set yourself apart for wholesomeness,
or goodness. But sanctification is a God
thing.
9.
What is the
non-Christianese version?
Becoming
perfect
10.
What is our role or
responsibility in the sanctification process?
Trust
Jesus’ Way in the face of trials, pain, confusion, and cultural sways. Then follow accordingly.
11.
Is sanctification
defined in the Bible?
The
generic meaning of the word is “the state of proper functioning”. To sanctify someone is to set that person or
things apart for the uses intended by its designer. A pen is “sanctified” when it is used to
write. Glasses are when they are used to
improve sight. The Greek word translated
“sanctification” means holiness.
Biblically then, sanctification means “to make holy”.
12.
Was anyone in the
Old Testament sanctified?
Yes,
in a minor sense of made outwardly holy or ritually holy. But apart from Christ’s sacrifice one cannot
be made Holy.
13.
How is
sanctification different from justification?
Justification is a legal verdict of
not guilty. Sanctification actually
makes us holy.
14.
How is sanctification
relevant to Christians? Relevant= closely connected or appropriate to the
matter at hand. So sanctification is
relevant to Christians only. Also it’s
relevant in real time, in your real life, really.
15.
Are holiness and
sanctification the same thing?
Great
question. Holiness is something that
only God is. Perfection is all
things. Sanctification is different
because one is set apart to become holy in the image of Christ, it’s a process
until we die or are raised.
16.
How do you know you
are sanctified?
You
have received the Holy Spirit.
17.
How does it help
our spiritual life?
You
spiritual life is at war with your old nature/flesh. Sanctification promises victory can be
had.
18.
Why does it have to
be painful?
Isn’t
that a great question? The goal of
spiritual growth is not only formation of Christ-trusting character and
thinking, but ultimately fruit bearing that is such good news for all mankind
that they are drawn to Jesus. One key
way we grow is to build up the inner man, but there is still the problem of the
outer man. Building up the inner man
doesn’t always influence the outer man. (Though it can.) In these cases the outer man is buffeted by
pain and suffering in order to release the inner man. If this is misunderstood Christian’s bail
out. There are three causes of suffering
for us.
1) The fallen world= sickness, accidents, financial
stress, mechanical failures, tech failures, job loss, death, rebellious
children, other people’s wrong choices, genetic problems, etc. There is no amount of faith to make you
immune to these.
2) Our wrong choices= negative consequences. Grace doesn’t protect us from real world
consequences. Also it’s possible we
might experience discipline from Dad.
This might help us avoid learning the hard way. (Ex- a dad might spank his kid for playing in
the street. Harsh, but that kid won’t
get hit by a car.)
3) Following Christ.
So we
can respond without shock that it’s happening, without trial comparing with
others, and by focusing on the promises of Romans 8. Be thankful for the privilege to suffer with Christ. Tell God it hurts, tell Him it’s the worst,
tell Him it’s His fault, just trust Him anyway and keep following. God doesn’t break us, but He does allow our
suffering to shape us. He doesn’t waste anything. If He is the breaker, then my friend, there
is nobody to trust.
19.
What should you do
when you don’t “want” it sometimes?
First,
congratulate yourself on being honest.
We don’t all want to follow Jesus all the time. Admitting that shows that you are closer to
growth. Because you recognize a lack in
you and it’s humbling. So what do we
do? If you are in Christ, you are a new
creation with new desires. So when you
don’t want, you are listening to the wrong wanter. It might be louder, stronger, and more in
control of you, but if it doesn’t want to follow Jesus it’s the old
wanter. Renew your mind and trust God’s
love for you. The more you trust,
especially on your worst day and after your biggest fails, the more love you
can experience/feel and it can woo your new heart/wanter into war.
20.
If someone, for a
long period of time, believes in God, is “holy”, and was a “good” family man;
is he saved? What if this man just
snapped and left the family and did unspeakable things? Is he saved?
He acted like a Christian! Is it
wrong that I want this man to go to hell and burn for eternity?
Wowsers. Ok based on this information, nobody can tell
if He is saved or not. You didn’t say He
entrusted His life to Jesus, so I might say no.
But I don’t know. He might be, just
like you or like me, broken and hurt, trying to the right thing, and doing the
wrong thing.
Is it
wrong to want him to burn? Hmm. It’s not wrong to tell God that. It’s a genuine pain you experience. Hell is eternal death so technically you
desire His death, and that would make your thoughts murder, according to Jesus. BUT did Jesus explain that to make you feel
like garbage? Did Jesus say that to make
you try not to mentally kill the people that hurt us? Or did Jesus say that to make you see you can
NEVER be perfect apart from Him? Yeah,
it’s wrong, and Jesus can cover it. He
died on the cross not just for our sins, but to remove our pain and suffering as
well. All will be accomplished.
Should
you keep murdering the guy in your head so that Jesus grace can overflow
you? No.
But also, bitterness only hurts you.
It’s like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies. Jesus can free you from that too. But it requires hard trust in His love and
protection and forgiveness.
Messy
stuff.
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