Even when I was growing up in church, there were some words used that I did not understand.
I heard the words used a lot, but had no idea what they meant. Short words like ‘glory’ and then some bigger words.
A word like sanctification. Now, with no disrespect meant to those who attended the congregations, these were made up of people whose literacy levels were not outstanding. Perhaps their only reading would be making their way through scripture. Yet they would not hesitate to throw in some big ol’ words that would bamboozle those who got decent English grades.
Sanctification. What a word. After you’ve said it sometimes you think you’ve already finished a sentence!
What does that mean, I would ask. Lots of confusing other words that made matters worse is what I would get. Keeping quiet is what I would learn to do.
Of course I got older and could read a dictionary … and that helped a bit. I guess. OK it probably didn’t.
What did help was years later, someone simplifying things for me. Helping me to understand that the word sanctify was not a religious word, even if it had been pinched by religious types to get all … religious. To sanctify something, was to set it apart for its proper use. (Thanks Ray Stedman.)
That was the simple answer – and man did that ever come across as simplicity itself.
Lately a friend of mine gave a book for me to read. It’s a biography of a man by the name of Rees Howells called Intercessor. I had not heard of the guy before, but apparently he played a significant role in missions and revival in the first half of the 20th Century.
An apsect that struck me about the story was how Rees, who by all external accounts, was a decent guy, went through a journey with God where the Holy Spirit exposed just how much self was a problem in his life. As I read account after account of the Spirit challenging Howells about whether he really had sacrificed everything for God, it was deeply moving and humbling.
I do not write this in a privileged position of one who has made it, and has attained holiness. Yet, I do look back on the journey with Jesus, and as I did so and reflected on what He does in my life, another effort at defining the word sanctification emerged.
Stripping away the world/self in me until all that is left is heaven
It is very much as if God delights in shining His light on the deepest part of me. And as it highlights the level to which I am conditioned to rebel against God, He empowers me to painfully but deliberately reject this, and in its place God fills it with Himself. His rule, His standards, His values, His character – He embeds these things in me, as He makes me aware of how subtle opposing forces can be that will revert me back to the world and self.
It is like my life was a run down house in the ownership of a dreadful occupant who only wanted to trash the place and make it look as if that was the accepted way. Then someone kicks the dreadful occupant out and promises to renovate the house, and in renovating it the New Occupant tears out, and rips out and crushes all the elements of the run down property. As the New Occupant reveals how deeply corroding the rot had become, He miraculously entrenches at the core a far better and lasting material.
This is another effort at what sanctification is. It is worthy of praise, because the model on which the new life is being developed is the model of eternal life – Life Himself.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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