The Kingsman seeks to be more and more like Jesus; how does that work? This is all about what he learns and applies in his life from the process of sanctification as described in Scripture.
A man doesn’t argue with the mirror when it shows him something true. He might not like what he sees, but he doesn’t smash the glass over it. That’s close to where the Kingsman stands with sanctification — already forgiven, already declared holy, and still, every day, catching a reflection of the man he’s still becoming. Scripture has a word for that in-between place, and it isn’t a word many men keep in regular use. But it’s a reality every man in Christ is already standing inside of, whether he’s named it or not.
Paul told the Thessalonians plainly that this is the will of God, the Kingsman’s sanctification (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Peter called him to be holy in all his conduct, because the One who called him is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). And Jesus prayed it over His own before the cross — sanctify them in the truth, Your word is truth (John 17:17). Consider four things the Kingsman can learn and apply from that process — the position that was already settled (Hebrews 10:10), the ongoing work that isn’t finished yet (Philippians 1:6), the active cooperation asked of him along the way (Philippians 2:12-13), and the reflection he’s being changed into as he keeps looking (2 Corinthians 3:18).
The Position That Was Already Settled (Hebrews 10:10). By that will the Kingsman has been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That’s a finished statement about an unfinished man. Before he’d done a single thing to deserve it, before he’d sorted out the habits still catching him out or the thoughts still needing to be taken captive, he was already set apart, already declared holy in position, on the strength of an offering made once and never repeated. He didn’t qualify for that status. He was given it. That matters most on the days when the gap feels widest between who he is and who he’s meant to be, because the starting point was never his own record. It was Christ’s finished work, and nothing the Kingsman does today adds to it or takes away from it. He can stop performing for a verdict that was never his to earn in the first place, and that alone should change how he carries a bad week.
The Ongoing Work That Isn’t Finished Yet (Philippians 1:6). Paul was sure of this very thing: that He who began a good work would carry it on to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. Positional holiness doesn’t erase the daily reality of a man still under construction. There’s a difference between a house that’s been bought outright and a house that’s been finished, and the Kingsman lives somewhere between the two — owned completely, scaffolding still up in half the rooms. That’s not a design fault. It’s the process working as intended. When an old sin resurfaces, or patience runs out faster than he’d like, the answer isn’t panic that the good work has stalled. It’s remembering whose project this is, and that the Builder doesn’t walk off a job halfway through. The Kingsman is allowed to be a building site and a temple at the same time, and he should stop expecting one to cancel out the other. Progress in this life was never going to look finished. It was only ever going to look like ongoing.
The Active Cooperation Asked of Him (Philippians 2:12-13). Paul tells the church to work out its own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in them both to will and to work for His good pleasure. That’s not two ideas fighting each other. It’s the actual shape of sanctification. His standing was settled without his help; his growth won’t happen without his cooperation. God isn’t asking the Kingsman to sit still and wait for transformation to fall on him like weather. He’s asking him to show up — to the Word, to prayer, to obedience in the moment it costs something, to putting sin to death rather than negotiating terms with it. None of that earns him anything he doesn’t already have. It’s simply working out, in practice, what grace has already made true in position. A Kingsman who understands this stops waiting to feel different before he acts differently, and starts acting in line with what’s already true of him, trusting the feeling to follow the obedience rather than the other way round. Fear and trembling here isn’t dread. It’s the seriousness a man brings to work worth doing properly.
The Reflection He’s Being Changed Into (2 Corinthians 3:18). Paul says the Kingsman, beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, is being transformed into that same image, from one degree of glory to another. Not from nothing to everything in an afternoon. One degree to another. A man only ever sees the reflection he’s standing in front of right now, not the whole staircase above him, and that can feel like standing still if he’s expecting a sudden arrival rather than a steady climb. But the mirror isn’t lying to him, and neither is the process. Every degree is still glory. The Kingsman’s job isn’t to measure the distance he hasn’t covered. It’s to keep looking at the right face long enough to start resembling it. That means the time he spends beholding matters as much as the effort he spends striving, because a man becomes what he keeps his eyes fixed on, for better or worse. Change him a degree at a time, and he’ll still arrive.
That’s what it means for the Kingsman to grow through sanctification.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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