There is much debate, at times in regard to sanctification. In our Wesleyan heritage, our belief is that entire sanctification, or what John Wesley refers to as Christian perfection, is obtainable in this lifetime. At least...I thought it was what our heritage gave us.
As I sat in class last night and we discussed this issue, I became all too aware that we are losing our holiness roots. The T.A. asked if becoming perfected in love (Christian perfection) was possible in this lifetime. As I nodded my head yes, and a couple other people did the same, I realized that we were the only ones standing on this ground. Some were shrugging their shoulders and some were shaking there heads no.
As the conversation progressed, most everyone agreed that we were striving for entire sanctification. The problem was that many did not believe that it was possible. How can one truly strive for something that does not exist? It is like striving for a grade higher than an "A". You will never get it...because it does not exist. Thoughts like these (striving for something that we cannot obtain) bring to mind the popular Ecclesiastes verse..."Vanity of vanities!,: says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity." (Ecc 1:2)
Later on...we began to discuss why the Gospel is no longer treated as good news. Maybe...just maybe...we don't treat it as good news because we have lost the idea that we can overcome sin and can be perfected in love and be entirely sanctified. We are not defeated. We are victorious through Christ's victory over death. We must understand that if we truly want to follow Christ. We are freed from our bondage to sin to become the people that we were meant to be. Believe that you can be that person. Sin reigns no more in your life...but Christ sits on the throne and calls you to be holy! So...we should strive for this sanctification...with the expectation of achieving it.
Links
John 1:9-12
The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
4 comments:
The inconsitencies of the students here drive me crazy!!
I swear you could confront most of them with the most pure and simplistic orthodox (not Orthodox) truth and they would be tended to refute it because it's not what their seeker-church-quasi-baptists-nondenomination-megachurch taught them.
AAHHHH.
"...Sin reigns no more in your life...but Christ sits on the throne and calls you to be holy! So...we should strive for this sanctification...with the expectation of achieving it."
True, sin does not reign, and Christ calls us to be holy. But we are in the world and there is sin in the world. The idea of sinfulness is Christ's authority in the person's life being given away to sin. So the will of a person is a big factor, there is no "no more sinning" switch that the Holy Spirit clicks in us.
Was there a discussion on the "already but not yet" perspective of sanctification? The concept is that we are to pursue it faithfully, but it is complete only when Christ appears, that is in reference to passages such as 1John 3:2, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." and other passages like it..
my point is, there should be an understanding of God's sanctification of the person, but sanctification is complete only with the return/reign of Christ. Obviously this is not a Wesleyan teaching, but I'm not Wesleyan and do not feel bound by it. Keep in mind that "Wesleyan Heritage" should also not be given more prominence than scripture. Heritage/Tradition is important, but it is alarming when theology is founded on heritage rather than scripture. Perhaps an examination of that thought in Wesleyan heritage in relation to scripture would be a good follow up post.
Leslie,
You make a good point, and truly scripture should be our first filter, but it also seems that a correct understanding of scripture can only come when one interpretes scripture back through the faithful witness that have actually handed the scriptures down to us.
This "wesleyan" concept of sanctification is actually not new at all. If one were to even begin with a cursory glance of the early Fathers and Mothers of the church then he or she would see that they contstantly emphasized the erradication of sin and the will to sin. The eastern church refers to this as "Theosis" or "Deification" in short this means partaking in the divine essence.
This concept is not new and one could even argue that it goes back to the apostles (cf. 1 John). St. Athanasius articulates this concept when he says "God became man, so that man might become god." This does not mean that we becomes 'gods' as is believed by Mormon heretics, but simply that we become like God when we partake of his divine essence in the Son by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.
While this conept is wesleyan in it's terminology it has a long standing tradition in the church and may in fact (and I think so) be the superior interpretation of biblical data given it's wide support in the early Fathers and Mothers of the church.
- Ben
I find it interesting that we are told numerous times within the Biblical text to flee from sin and cease sinning.
1 John speaks of the idea that we decieve ourselves if we think we are without sin.
"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say(for those of the whole world. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." 1 John 1:8-2:1.
Yes...we have sin in our lives but if we confess our sins He will cleanse us from that. Then we are forgiven and cleansed from our sins meaning at that moment we are pure. Now we have the choice as to whether or not we sin again. I think this is where the question really lies. Can we go on from this moment without sinning? YES!!!
This is not a concept from the Church Fathers, the Apostle John, and John Wesley. This is an idea from Christ Himself.
Two times in the Gospel of John, Jesus tells someone to "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (Jn 5:14), and "Go now and leave your life of sin" (Jn 8:11).
We are told to live as Christ lived, walk as Christ walked, and love as Christ loved. He is the "poster-child" for what we are all to be like.
1 Peter 1:15-16 tells us to be "holy" just as the one who called us is "holy".
Matthew 5:48 tells us in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount..."Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
What we see in the Scriptures is the idea that we were created in the image of God. It was...in the words of God..."good". We were pure, we were unblemished. Then, of course, sin entered into the world and tore that apart. We were impure and blemished.
Of course Christ comes along and shows us the deepest reality of who we are...children of God, made in the image of God. Nothing will ever change that. Sure, things will make it more difficult to live that out, but we can always make it back to what we are supposed to be.
The problem I have in not believing that we can become entirely sanctified (or in Wesley terms "perfected") is that it is a defeatest (sp?) attitude. What victory is one claiming? The kingdom of God is in our midst and we have no power? We are subjected to the power of sin and evil in our lives?
I don't think that is what Christ called us to. He called us to be like Him...and I find the character of Christ to be one that would not call us to something that we could not achieve. If God calls us to something, it must be possible. Besides, I have trouble finding many circumstances where Christ proclaimed "Believe the good news!" without first proclaiming "Repent!"
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