being justified and sanctified

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1

Ever since Adam and Eve first committed sin, we now live in a sinful world and are considered sinners by nature. Even a new born baby is a sinner by nature for the Bible tells us that “all have sin and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Therefore most of us hide ourselves from our sin, sheltering away from the guilt that always haunt us for the sin we commit. It is so natural and easy for the human race to fall into the nature, committing the sin of lust, greed, laziness, loath, etc. Even as Christians, there is no escapism from sin.

Many times when we come to realize that these things we do are not pleasing in our master’s eye, we start to build loads of heavy burden on ourselves, burden of guilt because the pass cannot be erase. We cocoon ourselves and shy away from God because how can an immoral mortal being come and worship a holy immortal being. We come to a point where we cannot comprehend how God is able to forgive us? We ask how can a convicted criminal be forgiven for throwing a child off the balcony or how can a convicted serial rapist be forgiven by God for all the trauma he has caused to his victims and their family? We are bondage to sin but God in His way has shown us endless mercies and grace to us the sinful human race by removing all sin and condemnation. God has invited us into His presence by means of giving and surrendering our lives to Him. Being a bondage to God is not chained, whipped slave but rather it is setting us free from the bondage of guilt and condemnation we once lived in. We are free to enjoy of the great benefits that belong to the adopted children of God. In Chapter 8 of Romans, it has been declared that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The eighth chapter as we can see, is the triumphant hymn of hope for the human race. We understand what is doing the time for crime, but in Christ, the time has been removed for the crime. When we immerse into God, all transgression of the past are wiped clean.

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1). We are reconciled with God and our debt of sin is paid for in full. Many theologians have stated that justified by faith is justified by the work of Christ alone. The gospel will cease to be the “good news” if it ceases to declare that Christ alone has accomplished our salvation. Therefore, we are justified by the Grace of God (Romans 3:24) through Faith. Romans 3:20 clearly points to that no doubt our own righteousness are not sufficient to save us. God almighty with His unlimited grace and infinite wisdom has created a way of atonement for us. God offered His own son as atonement for all our sins. We are therefore justified freely by His grace. We are set apart from the law that condemns rather justify us. God’s crucifixion on the cross is a symbol of ultimate sacrifice which started since the Old Testament time when they offered sacrificial lambs. All this being done, we have to just come and believe for this righteousness in God requires faith through believing.

God has come to sanctify us and set us apart for His service after having been justified by faith. Sanctification means being made holy or purified. Sanctification is the process by which, according to the will of God, we are made partakers of his holiness; that it is a progressive work; that it is begun in regeneration; and that it is carried on in the hearts of believers by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Sealer and Comforter, in the continual use of the appointed means-especially the Word of God, self-examination, self-denial, watchfulness, and prayer. An illustration would be when an abused child, all his or her life growing up in an abusive environment is finally adopted by loving parents, this children will take time to acclimatize themselves to the love, attention and warmth shown in the household. These children have clung on to old habits such as stealing food rather than ask for fear of being beaten up. As Christians, likewise we still hold on to old habits. Sanctification purges us from our sinful ways and make us more in the image of Christ. However, this is no license to continue in our sinful ways have the process of sanctification repeated over and over again. For it says in Romans 6:1-2 “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and always remember that we have been bought by a price. The problem with Sanctification is that it is a battle because now we have a new body and it is drawn toward sin but by having a new heart and a new spirit with that we now have a stronger spirit that goes against the forces of sin that comes back and haunt us.

We should be grateful for the mercies that He has shown to us for we got something that we don’t deserve from God. We should live a life that is worthy, a lifestyle that is pure and holy, one that was worth all the trouble that God went through for us. When we live a life that is holy and please to God, we want to focus on fostering an even closer relationship with God, ourselves and others. We need to live a life that is transformed by having our minds renewed so that God can further move and reveal to us his good and perfect will.

In ministry, we fall short of how God wants to steer us because of the time we think that we can still carry on in our old ways and continuously have God go through the process of sanctifying us again. By going back to our old ways it’s like “re-cracking” the hole God sealed. God cannot work through a vessel that has holes. We need to change our bad habits, not continue to go on our old ways. In other words, we are to go through a phase of metamorphosis, transform into a new creation, only than will we see our ministry being taken to the next level. It’ll also help us to relate better to people we minister to because when we minister to people, we have to have gone through the transformation ourselves completely before we can lead other to their own metamorphosis. We cannot lead people through that phase unless we have completely gone through that phase ourselves. It is like in the office, I look to my boss for guidance and advice to my promotion in the company. My boss would have gone through the tough times and the routine to get to where he is before he can lead me and the department. Like wise, we have to say a total goodbye to our pass sins and move on ourselves first.