And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly;
and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is
He that calleth you, who also will do it.
1Thessalonians 5:23-24
Christians speak much about sanctification and yet many do not know what it means to be sanctified. Yes, God has sanctified in heaven all who believe on His Only Begotten Son Jesus Christ and have faith in Him. This is the dual effect placed upon Authentic Christians: Justification and sanctification, therefore we we die, whenever that occurs we are already sanctified and have been justified. But, we while here on earth must work out this sanctification in our daily lives, not justification for man cannot by any work justify themselves.
Are you praying to become sanctified? Well, God has done His part are you willing and are you prepared to face the standard that has been set forth in Scripture? I believe that we take sanctification way too lightly and will do all we can to avoid the cost of sanctification. Why? Because sanctification means that we must narrow our interests as to this world and its culture and we must broaden our interests in God. Authentic Christians who are pursuing sanctification are the ones concentrating on God's viewpoint, not man's. Why do some attempt to avoid the costs of sanctification? It is because there has not be a realizing as to the meaning of sanctification, not from man's point of view, rather God's. Are you prepared to that which will cost you? Here is a fact: It will cost you everything that is not of God in you. Are you prepared to set yourself apart and allow the Holy Spirit to work in you?
This is what these early Church fathers always stated as to our life, as to our growing in sanctification. First, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, repent of your sins against our holy God, and then be obedient to the commands of God, His precepts.
Authentic Christians have all they will ever need but many are running too and fro trying to obtain what God is willing to freely give, they are striving after things that are not of God even when they may seem to be godly. Clement gives us a wonderful admonition so that we can grow in our sanctification:
"How blessed and wonderful, beloved, are the gifts
of God! Life in immortality, splendour in righteousness, truth in perfect
confidence, (Some
translate, “in liberty.”) faith in assurance,
self-control in holiness! And all these fall under the cognizance of our
understandings [now]; what then shall those things be which are prepared
for such as wait for Him? The Creator and Father of all worlds, (Or, “of the
ages.”) the Most Holy, alone knows their amount and
their beauty. Let us therefore earnestly strive to be found in the number
of those that wait for Him, in order that we may share in His promised
gifts. But how, beloved, shall this
be done? If our understanding be fixed by faith towards God; if we
earnestly seek the things which are pleasing and acceptable to Him; if we
do the things which are in harmony with His blameless will; and if we
follow the way of truth, casting away from us all unrighteousness and
iniquity, along with all covetousness, strife, evil practices, deceit,
whispering, and evil-speaking, all hatred of God, pride and haughtiness,
vainglory and ambition.
(The reading is doubtful: some have ἀφιλοξενίαν,
“want of a hospitable spirit.”) [So Jacobson.] For
they that do such things are hateful to God; and not only they that do
them, but also those that take pleasure in them that do them. (Rom. i.
32.) For the Scripture saith, “But to the
sinner God said, Wherefore dost thou declare my statutes, and take my
covenant into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my
words behind thee? When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with (Literally, “didst run
with.”) him, and didst make thy portion with adulterers.
Thy mouth has abounded with wickedness, and thy tongue contrived (Literally, “didst
weave.”) deceit. Thou sittest, and speakest against thy
brother; thou slanderest
(Or, “layest a snare for.”) thine own
mother’s son. These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou
thoughtest, wicked one, that I should be like to thyself. But I will
reprove thee, and set thyself before thee. Consider now these things, ye
that forget God, lest He tear you in pieces, like a lion, and there be
none to deliver. The sacrifice of praise will glorify Me, and a way is
there by which I will show him the salvation of God.” ( Ps. l.
16–23.) The reader will observe how the Septuagint
followed by Clement differs from the Hebrew."
Do you see in this writing of Clement of Rome anything that we find so important: i.e., must have only wine in the communion cup, or, we must meet on Sunday, or, we must speak in some "gibberish" tongue, or, that we must do this or that other than that we are to become obedient in our Authentic Christian Faith? No! Some things are ok, only wrong if they are forwarded as the sign of a true doctrine. The only sound doctrine and are not fables are that which is simply found in Scripture, nothing added, not taken away, only Scripture. Authentic Christian Faith has always had the need to fight that which appear intellectually respectable and to fight the threat of legalistic or philosphical perversions of Christianity. Many follow those heretical ideas and then schisms occur and new sects are developed.
How can you or I grow in sanctification? Read the Bible!
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God, and keep His commandments:
for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Live what God has declared you to be
Richard L. Crumb
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