This is actually for anyone who wants to read it, but it's especially for Trish, my dear sister who is writing what a lot of us have thought or are thinking.
I totally get your struggle with entire sanctification. You're not the only one who has thought about the seeming discrepancy between being "entirely" set apart for God and the life things that creep up to threaten our set apart-ness.
Think about it this way: we can only submit ourselves as wholly to God as we know ourselves. When we are entirely sanctified, or completely set apart, we offer God everything we are, crucifying everything that we are and letting Christ live within us (Gal 2:20). That means that Christ takes over everything.
If Christ takes over everything, that means the light of His truth will shine in our lives. When His light shines in our lives, we begin to see areas of our lives that were previously hidden in darkness. Hence, we have to deal with another issue. That doesn't mean we're not entirely set apart. It means that because we're entirely set apart, the Lord has free reign to uncover those parts of us that leave something to be desired. If we weren't completely His, He wouldn't force Himself into our dark corners to do some "house cleaning."
Remember, too, that our salvation comes by grace through faith. It doesn't come through acts of the entirely sanctified. Entire sanctification isn't a level in which one claims to have "arrived." Entire sanctification is a level in which one claims to have experienced a level of God's grace that prompted them to deepen their faith by submitting oneself completely to His control.
2 comments:
"by grace through faith"
one of my favorite sayings and promises... one will recieve grace even with the smallest amount of faith. There is no other way.
That phrase keeps me in awe of God.
Wow - so I don't read your blog on a regular basis, but someone finally gave me the 4-1-1 that you had responded to my comment. So... I DID read it. It was just... well... today.
I went through DoH - which, by the way, should not be taught by Gavel, and shouldn't be at 8AM. I did my paper and whatever - but I still have my issues. And honestly, my biggest complaint has nothing to do with the doctrine itself, and instead, with the people that claim to be entirely sanctified.
There's too much pride involved in it. If you're that in love and devoted to Jesus, I just don't think you'd walk around telling people, because it rarely is seen as glory to God, and is instead seen as "look at how much more holier I am than you."
And if I can be honest on here (and I'm hearing no one stop me) maybe I just have a hard time believing in all of this because I'm soo far from any kind of Christian 'perfection' or anything that you want to call it. I know I love God, but not enough. I know I have tons of junk in my life that I haven't gotten completely around to cleaning up. And some would call this unrepentance or I'm stubbornly ignoring God or something. I call it life. And growth. And... Christianity.
There's way too much of a misguided emphasis on this doctrine (i.e. it's preached a lot, but inaccurately) so forgive my stand-ofishness.
I'm jaded.
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