A few years ago I was talking to another Christian, then in his 80s about sanctification; the on-going process of becoming more holy. Scripture seeming to suggest that we would go 'from glory to glory'. Myself then approaching 40 (or possibly having not long reached it) I was beginning to despair of ever seeing any of the transformation that I had sincerely expected to see in my Christian walk back when I was in my early 20's.
I asked this gentleman, a man I had long looked up to because of his commitment and devotion and general apparent Godliness, what his experience of sanctification was in his 80s, hoping to hear that it does indeed get better!
His answer quite staggered me. (Though it really shouldn't have).
He said, 'To be honest, I've completely given up'.
I felt a little winded by that, I have to say. But by my own experience and lack of progress in this area, I can see why at his age he had probably abandoned hope of being changed from glory to glory, until he was actually IN GLORY.
I can tell you that the brother in question, a little while after this did actually experience some major renewal, and that gave me hope again but I never forgot how flat that conversation left me.
But I have to say that my hope of sanctification was really no hope. Because without meaning to, it was really based on the premise that I didn't have to work at it. I just sort of expected God to change me.
He certainly has changed me but I am coming to believe that he has put much of the agency for that change in my own hands.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a good reformed boy and I certainly do not believe in a sanctification by works but I am coming to believe that, as he allows us and draws us by his grace, he is calling us to partner with him in our transformation. Why else all that instruction about sowing to the Spirit there in Galatians?
What we sow, we reap. If I sow only to the sinful nature I reap from that nature destruction....but if I sow to the Spirit, I will reap the fruit of the Spirit; Love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
Now to take you to the verse that is the starting point for this series. Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
There are two instructions. A negative and a positive.
1. Do Not Conform
The default setting is conformity, whether we like it or not. If we conform and go along unquestioningly with the crowd, following this world and it's aspirations and philosophies and indulgent life style, transformation for us is never-never land. It's pie in the sky when you die. But you'll never become what God has called you to be here and now. It counteracts our very own prayers when we ask God 'your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is heaven'. We shouldn't just pray that and then act as if we didn't belong to him. If you conform you die. Because you are sowing to the sinful nature that loves an easy life and avoids challenge at all costs. And you will reap from that nature destruction. I know because I am largely describing myself.
2. Be Transformed.
There is an implicit understanding that you are the curator of your own transformation here, as you join with the Holy Spirit (sowing into what he is doing in and around and through you. And as a result he brings about fruit in your life. How can we be commanded to be transformed if it was not possible to do so. And even better than that, he tells us how. By the renewing of your mind.
In this series I want to explore what it means for us to renew our minds, and to have renewed minds. But I think we can be hugely encouraged that there is something we can do about it. It's tough and it's going to take a lot of work and a certain amount of discipline (and no discipline is pleasant at the time but later on, if learnt from, produces a harvest of righteousness for those who have been trained by it) but we can do it with the help and the grace of God.
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