by Jacob Ninan
The way many preachers invite people these days to come to Jesus is by promising them that once they do that, Jesus will take care of them in every way. Jesus would even provide them a place in heaven. The implication is that all they have to do is to 'accept Jesus' and after that they don't have to worry about anything any more! But this is not the Jesus of the Bible. The primary aim which the real Jesus came to fulfil was to save us from our sins (Matt.1:21). This does not even mean merely the forgiveness of our sins, but also delivering us from the power of sin in every area of our life and to help us to become like Him in His character. It is true that while He was on earth He healed many people and cast out demons from many. But that came, as a bonus, out of His compassion for people. But just by getting healed or receiving a miracle from Jesus, people don't get their sins forgiven or become like Jesus! As a result of this false preaching that is going on, which is merely aimed at gathering more people, many people think they have come to Jesus while they have not come to the true Jesus.
"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matt.7:13,14). There are two things Jesus mentions here—a narrow gate and a narrow way. Entering through the narrow gate is to confess our sins, turn away from our sinful life and to decide to follow Jesus. We give up at this gate our confidence in our own righteousness, and receive the free gift of grace that God is offering through Jesus. This is when God forgives ouir sins and accepts us through this process known as 'justification'.
Many of those who assume they have come to Jesus have not actually entered through this narrow gate, and so they have not really received salvation, even though they may be assuming they are saved and that they have been accepted by God.
Many others who have entered through this gate and received justification from God think that this is all there is to it, and continue their old life doing whatever they please, because they imagine everything is fine between them and God. But they have not heard about the narrow way that they now have to walk in for the rest of their life. When they continue to live their own life, will they become like Jesus? No. Now they have to walk on this way called 'sanctification'. Jesus says that many are actually walking along the broad way, doing what they like and enjoying themselves, not realising that it is leading to destruction, because they think they have already been justified.
Sanctification is to be set apart for God— made holy. In practical terms this means to be separated from our old ways of life and to follow Jesus, so that we can become more and more like Him. If we are not walking on the narrow way, where we give up our old life and follow the life of Jesus, we will not become like Jesus even after having been justified.
There are several wrong ideas among Christians about sanctification based on misunderstanding of different verses in the Bible.
1. Sanctified when we are born again.
2Cor.5:17 says that when someone comes into Christ, he becomes new. So some people assume that all we need to do is to be born again, and then automatically all of our life will become renewed. But that is not what this verse says, and practical life will demonstrate that. What happens when we are born again is that God gives us a new heart that wants to stop sinning and to do the will of God. But, it is only as we proceed to follow the Holy Spirit working through this new heart that our life will become transformed. That is why sanctification is an experience that will go on and on throughout our life.2. Sanctified in the twinkling of an eye
When the Bible talks about being changed in the twinkling of an eye when Jesus comes again with the sound of a trumpet (1Cor.15:52), it is talking about how our body will be replaced with a glorified body similar to the one Jesus received after His resurrection. It is not about becoming like Jesus in all His character instantaneously!3. Sanctified by beholding the glory of Christ
When some people read about being transformed from glory to glory as we see the glory of Jesus in the word (2Cor.3:18), they think that this is all they have to do—read the word to discover more of the glory of Christ. But what should actually happen is that when we see the glory of Jesus in the word as we read it, we should also see ourselves in the mirror and realise how different we are from Him. That should prompt us to seek after Him and for the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to live like Him. If we only hear or read the word of God and don't do what it says, we will only delude ourselves (Jas.1:22,23).4. Sanctified through a special event
People wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a special experience, a breakthrough, etc., when they hope to be suddenly changed to become like Jesus. They fast and pray for many days or keep praying for a revival to bring a breakthrough to them.But the only way we can become like Jesus is by denying ourselves and doing the will of God. "If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Rom.8:13). The Holy Spirit is not going to do it without our active cooperation. It is we who have to put to death what we would like to do in order to do the will of God, all with the help of the Spirit.
Another problem is that many are not able to distinguish between what God has planned for us and what we actually experience in our life. There is a huge gap between the two, and sanctification is the process through which the gap gets reduced. In other words, as we go through the narrow way, in the way of sanctification, we put away more and more of our old life and partake more and more of the life of Jesus.
1. Imputed righteousness and our actual righteousness
God is holy and perfect, and He cannot accept us with out imperfection. Even after He has forgiven us, if He looks at our actual life with all our imperfection, He cannot accept us. That is why, when He justifies us, He covers us with a robe of righteousness (Isa.61:10), which is to say that the righteousness of Jesus is credited to us when we believe (Rom.4:3). This means that when God looks at us now, He sees the righteousness of Jesus and that is how He accepts us. But we can't be happy with merely a robe of righteousness, but sanctification is to actually help us more and more to partake of the righteousness of Jesus in a practical sense. Peter makes it clear that after we receive justification from the cross, we now ought to die to sin and live to righteousness (1Pet.2:24).2. God's provision and actual victory
God has brought us out from being under the Law and placed us under grace so that sin need not have dominion over us (Rom.6:14). This does not mean that because we are under grace sin will automatically stop ruling us or that we will automatically become like Jesus. What Rom.8:13 says is still true and we have depend on the Holy Spirit moment by moment and follow Jesus.3. God's promises and our responsibility
We see that according to God's plan, all who have been justified are meant to become like Jesus (Rom.8:29). But just because that is what God has planned, it does not automatically happen in our life! There is something we need to do from our side to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in this journey. Peter talks about the promises of God by which we can expect to partake of the divine nature (2Pet.1:4). We cannot think that God will keep His promises and so we will become Jesus somehow! No. Peter says that because of these promises we ought to make sure that we order our life accordingly (vv.5-7).So, what is our role in sanctification? How are we to walk along the narrow way that leads to life? Jesus has made that very clear. "And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me" (Lk.9:23). We follow the Master because we want to become like Him. In order to become like Jesus, we have to take up our cross daily. That means that every day we have be clear in our mind that we are going to die to our old life in order to do God's will. After that we deny ourselves whenever our will crosses His will, and then we follow Jesus by doing what He does and what He tells us to do. We must admit that our actual life is very different from that of Jesus and that we are defective in many ways. We have defects in our personality, we have baggage from the wrong way our parents have trained us (or not trained us), and we may be suffering from the consequences of traumatic experiences we have gone through. Now we need to cry out to God for transformation in all such areas, if we want to become like Jesus. The world tells us not to worry, but to be happy. But there is to be a deep cry for help coming to God from our heart (Jas.4:8,9). Jesus says that it is those who mourn who will be comforted (Matt.5:4).
If we don't go this way in our practical life, how can we expect to become like Jesus? We should not take cover inside a doctrinal bubble saying we are 'in Christ' while our actual life is different from His. May God help us all to cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He tries to give us the nature of Christ.