Jesus came that we would have life and have it to the full. He wasn’t just talking about eternity with Him when this life is over. He was talking about then AND now. The invitation to be “born again” is not to wait until the day we die before life rushes forth in beauty and wonder. No, life begins with new birth and culminates in our glorified existence with Him in eternity. But we need not wait. I would suggest, it is wrong and destructive to wait. Like a baby with developmental deficiencies is a person who comes to Jesus for salvation but does not grow and mature in their faith and life. But how does that work?
Life is a journey. Whereas some believe we are people on a spiritual journey I am convinced we are spirits on a human journey. Our spirit inside of us is what is alive. We are reminded of this every time we are confronted with death. A body may be present, but the life is not there. It is our spirit that is alive and is animating our bodies on this journey called life. So I think it is of utmost importance that we recognize our spirit’s value, know its origin, and learn how to steward it well. We cannot do this on our own, we must look to The Creator who made us with great delight and intention. Because of the fall of man we are in a deficit until the day we acknowledge our need for a Savior, believe that Jesus is the Son of God who gave His life as a ransom for our own, and confess Him as Lord publicly. In doing so we stand justified before God, by faith through grace! But, we still have to live this life day after day. (Click here to read my post The Fruit Of The Fall)
Once we have received Jesus as Lord and Savior we start the journey of sanctification. To be sanctified is to be set apart for a special purpose. For the Christian, it is the process by which we are made holy, crafted by the Master’s hand into the image of Jesus through the shaping of our lives by His Word and His Spirit. To ignore this process is to spit in the face of God. To diminish the importance of the sanctification journey is to literally “take the Lord’s Name in vain.” Many people are careful not to say “Oh My God” or “GD” out of concern for dishonoring God’s Name but can I tell you, words are nothing in comparison to a life that says “thank you for saving me from eternal death but I refuse to let you shape my life in any meaningful way here on earth.” Not only is this disrespectful and selfish it’s dangerous for you and others. (Click here to read my post Is Your Name In The Book Of Life)
Planted in the Magic Kingdom
I remember going to Disney World for the first time as a little boy. Though the rides and atmosphere certainly impacted me I was most dumbfounded initially by the topiaries scattered in and around the Magic Kingdom. These character-shaped plants and shrubs blew me away. My Dad tried to tease me by saying the Imagineers had engineered the seeds in such a way that when they planted them, Disney character-shaped plants emerged naturally. I knew that wasn’t true but I still could’t figure out how in the world they were conformed so well into the image of Mickey and Donald. Dad finally came clean and revealed that master craftsmen shape each plant painstakingly until they are in the image of the characters we know and love. There were other plants in the “Kingdom” as well, they just weren’t shaped at all. I didn’t pay much attention to them, and neither did most people, because though they were in the Kingdom, they weren’t crafted by the Master’s hand and were not conformed into anything magical. The same can be true of us as Christians when we receive our justification in Christ but neglect to present ourselves to His Word and His Spirit to be shaped into the image of Jesus more and more by His sanctifying love.
My buddy Skyler calls it moving “up and to the right” and I love that picture. Like the stock market, the journey of sanctification is not a perfect incline. We have peaks and valleys. There are days we feel close and those we feel we are ruining everything, but if we will persist in our faith and continue to be crafted by the Master’s hand, over the course of our lives He will be glorified. Today, lean on Jesus to justify you, trust His Spirit to shape you and sanctify you, and look to the day when we will all be gloriously renewed and rewarded in His pretense forever. Let’s join with John Newton, the former slave trader and author of Amazing Grace when he said, “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But thank God I’m not what I used to be.” (Hear Skyler Farley on my Podcast by clicking here)
From the Bible
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. – 2 Corinthians 1:18 ESV
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ… – Titus 2:11-13 ESV
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. – 2 Peter 1:5-9 NIV