Grace (as Bill Beatty Understands It): Sanctifying Grace
Okay - the final installment in Grace series (though there will be an APPENDIX following this - it will be a repost of an entry about Grace I posted in January).
Sanctifying Grace - the work of the Holy Spirit - Sustaining Grace...
I was talking with the person who asked me to do these "Grace Talks" at our confirmation retreat and originally she had asked me to present "Sanctifying Grace." "But," she said with a look of concern on her face, "I think that's the hardest one to talk about."
I don't know if that's the case. Maybe. We'll see. It SHOULD be the easiest to talk about out of our experience. After all, it is sanctifying grace that gets us through from day to day and leads us more and more toward the perfection that God wants for us.
Hebrews 6:1a
Therefore let us go on toward perfection
Go toward Perfection - to Quote Hebrews. That's a Wesley thing, right out of our Book of Discipline - "Are you going on toward perfection?" (from the Historical Questions: Paragraph 327.2 of the 1996 Book of Discipline [since my 2000 BOD walked out of here and the 2004 CD won't load on this machine ARGH]). Followed by two pointed questions:
"Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?"
"Are you earnestly striving after it?"
Wow - heavy stuff. Do we really answer those honestly when we're ordained? How DO we answer those questions?
Well, I could ask: "What IS perfection?" What do you think of when you hear the word? Do you think of some kind of Utopian paradise? Do you think of some kind of perfect specimin of a human being, male or female (heh, or maybe the DaVinci guy:
Anyway, what does perfect mean to any of us? Is it just a spiritual thing? Is it more? Less? Going on toward perfection... That's the work of the Holy Spirit - and that's Sanctifying Grace - that Grace that sustains us and perfects us...
Christian Perfection, From Wikipedia:
Perfection, is the process of santification, a work of grace. To Wesley, santification is grace led spiritual growth. Christian perfection, according to Wesley, is “purity of intention, dedicating all the life to God” and “the mind which was in Christ, enabling us to walk as Christ walked.” It is “loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves” (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, 109). It is “a restoration not only to the favour, but likewise to the image of God,” our “being filled with the fullness of God” (The End of Christ’s Coming, 482).
Wesley was clear that Christian perfection did not imply perfection of bodily health or an infallibility of judgment. It also does not mean we no longer violate the will of God, for involuntary transgressions remain. Perfected Christians remain subject to temptation, and have continued need to pray for forgiveness and holiness. It is not an absolute perfection but a perfection in love. Furthermore, Wesley did not teach a salvation by perfection, but rather says that, “Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ.” (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection)
Wesley did not use perfection to describe sinlessness. Similarly, perfection is not the state of being unable to sin, but rather the state of choosing not to sin. Wesley's perfection represents a change of life, a freedom from willful rebellion against God, impure intentions, and pride. Wesley also did not view perfection as permanent.
This is a poem that Wesley taught to his followers, lest they forget the doctrine of Christian Perfection;
Do all the good you can,
to all the people you can,
at all the times you can,
in all the ways you can,
by all the means you can,
as long as ever you can.
So, Sanctifying Grace isn't perfection in that we are made unable to sin (and, thus, be like Jesus - so who would need Him, eh?) but it is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit that enables us to resist the temptation to sin.
Here's what The Book of Discipline has to say:
We hold that the wonder of God’s acceptance and pardon does not end God’s saving work, which continues to nurture our growth in grace. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to increase in the knowledge and love of God and in love for our neighbor.
New birth is the first step in this process of sanctification. Sanctifying grace draws us toward the gift of Christian perfection, which Wesley described as a heart “habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor” and as “having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked.”
Christian perfection is about restoration and renewal...
Sanctifying Grace – removes the stains of the past – we come to Christ and are immediately forgiven of all our sins – EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Sanctifying Grace is God working in us to take away our DESIRE TO SIN...
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Come, Almighty to deliver,
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
You gotta love Chuck Wesley... well, I do, anyway. But I highlighted moments in "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" that speak to me of Sanctifying Grace. God, taking away our desire to sin (take away our bent to sinning) and moving us toward the perfection that will be achieved in our reunion with God (Perfectly restored in Thee...).
BUT - I'm afraid that I don't think I'll ever be perfect in this life. Not that it's impossible for God, but it IS impossible for me. I am way too sinful. YET, God continues to work in and through and (more often than I'd like to admit) in spite of me. Because of Sanctifying Grace.
2Corinthians 5
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Psalm 51
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,and put a new and right spirit within me.
So, how do I paint a word picture of Sanctifying Grace? Hmmm...
Well, I remember my brief career as a shoplifter. Every once in a while my family would go to the Hills store in Jamestown (this was all before I turned 10, or so, but I don't remember exactly when) I would occasionally boost something from the toy aisle - a GI JOE gun from a playset, or some other small item. Maybe three times...the last time I clearly remember. I opened a Star Wars toy box and didn't take out the toy itself, but the little flyer inside that advertised the product line (we weren't all that well off when I was little and, while I had plenty of toys, I didn't often get the really COOL toys...but I could dream...). So, I got busted by the store security. And it scared me. A lot. But the most devastating moment came when my mom had to come and get me from the store (I was banned for life, by the way - of course the store is out of business, now...) and she looked at me with sadness in her eyes and asked me a simple question, "How will I ever be able to trust you again?"
What could I say? How could she trust me? I had demonstrated that I was NOT to be trusted...sigh... What could I do? Well, I knew that I couldn't DO anything that would garner her trust again, but I could resolve to never again steal. And I haven't. I don't even have the desire to anymore. But, I recognize now that it was not that I somehow overcame my "bent toward sinning" but the Holy Spirit working in me.
The thing is - it's really working in my life. Do I still sin? Yep. And I, as Luther suggested, sin boldly (that's probably a topic for another time - but basically he was saying that we need to own up to our sin - to do otherwise is to suggest that we are without sin, and we decieve ourselves and we make God out to be a liar:
1 John 1:
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
BUT - and this is the Sanctifying Grace moment - we are not left alone to fend for ourselves. Yes, we will sin, but God is working us and moving us - shaping and molding - perfecting us - making us new creations, creating in us clean hearts:
1John 2:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
So, I'm not a shoplifter anymore. So, I won't watch movies with nudity/strong sexual themes anymore (though, oddly, extreme violence doesn't seem to bother me). I have the safe settings on my search engines engaged. I have learned to cope with my tendency toward putting things off that I don't like to do. And the changes in me have mounted up over the past couple of decades. But, it's not a list of do's and don't's - it's God working in me through the Holy Spirit. I have been released from some addictions that I had fallen into (no, not drugs or booze - sorry, but my testimony isn't nearly that interesting) but it isn't me doing it. It was not simply because I sat down one day and decided to live differently, it has been a process over the past 25 years. It is God working in me to release me and free me and make me whole and new again.
I gotta quote U2 again:
That's a plea for Sanctifying Grace. That's MY plea. God, take this heart, and make it break...
So, an image of Grace to sum it all up:
My daughters love to play outside. They love to run, swing, slide, dig in the dirt, play on/in/over/beside anything that they can (no matter how dirty it is). And, while I don't like them to get dirty, I know they will. So, every once in a while, while they're getting good and dirty, I'll start running bathwater for them. I'll get the bubbles going and I'll throw in their favorite bath toys. I'll set out the soap and shampoo and washcloths. I'll get the towels ready. They're having fun, I'm working without them even knowing it.
Then, I'll call them in. "Bath time." Now, they have a decision to make. They can choose to ignore the bath call, or they can jump in. They know that I only want what is best for them, and, while getting dirty may be fun, the dirt has to come off. So, in the tub they go. And I scrub them. And they play. And I scrub some more. And they splash around. All the while they are shedding the dirt that had covered them. But they aren't cleaning it off, I am...
Does that make sense? I had to spell it all out for the kids at the retreat, but I think I'll leave it alone...
Yahweh, Yahweh...take this heart, and make it break...
Sanctifying Grace - the work of the Holy Spirit - Sustaining Grace...
I was talking with the person who asked me to do these "Grace Talks" at our confirmation retreat and originally she had asked me to present "Sanctifying Grace." "But," she said with a look of concern on her face, "I think that's the hardest one to talk about."
I don't know if that's the case. Maybe. We'll see. It SHOULD be the easiest to talk about out of our experience. After all, it is sanctifying grace that gets us through from day to day and leads us more and more toward the perfection that God wants for us.
Hebrews 6:1a
Therefore let us go on toward perfection
Go toward Perfection - to Quote Hebrews. That's a Wesley thing, right out of our Book of Discipline - "Are you going on toward perfection?" (from the Historical Questions: Paragraph 327.2 of the 1996 Book of Discipline [since my 2000 BOD walked out of here and the 2004 CD won't load on this machine ARGH]). Followed by two pointed questions:
"Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?"
"Are you earnestly striving after it?"
Wow - heavy stuff. Do we really answer those honestly when we're ordained? How DO we answer those questions?
Well, I could ask: "What IS perfection?" What do you think of when you hear the word? Do you think of some kind of Utopian paradise? Do you think of some kind of perfect specimin of a human being, male or female (heh, or maybe the DaVinci guy:
Anyway, what does perfect mean to any of us? Is it just a spiritual thing? Is it more? Less? Going on toward perfection... That's the work of the Holy Spirit - and that's Sanctifying Grace - that Grace that sustains us and perfects us...
Christian Perfection, From Wikipedia:
Perfection, is the process of santification, a work of grace. To Wesley, santification is grace led spiritual growth. Christian perfection, according to Wesley, is “purity of intention, dedicating all the life to God” and “the mind which was in Christ, enabling us to walk as Christ walked.” It is “loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves” (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, 109). It is “a restoration not only to the favour, but likewise to the image of God,” our “being filled with the fullness of God” (The End of Christ’s Coming, 482).
Wesley was clear that Christian perfection did not imply perfection of bodily health or an infallibility of judgment. It also does not mean we no longer violate the will of God, for involuntary transgressions remain. Perfected Christians remain subject to temptation, and have continued need to pray for forgiveness and holiness. It is not an absolute perfection but a perfection in love. Furthermore, Wesley did not teach a salvation by perfection, but rather says that, “Even perfect holiness is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ.” (A Plain Account of Christian Perfection)
Wesley did not use perfection to describe sinlessness. Similarly, perfection is not the state of being unable to sin, but rather the state of choosing not to sin. Wesley's perfection represents a change of life, a freedom from willful rebellion against God, impure intentions, and pride. Wesley also did not view perfection as permanent.
This is a poem that Wesley taught to his followers, lest they forget the doctrine of Christian Perfection;
Do all the good you can,
to all the people you can,
at all the times you can,
in all the ways you can,
by all the means you can,
as long as ever you can.
So, Sanctifying Grace isn't perfection in that we are made unable to sin (and, thus, be like Jesus - so who would need Him, eh?) but it is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit that enables us to resist the temptation to sin.
Here's what The Book of Discipline has to say:
We hold that the wonder of God’s acceptance and pardon does not end God’s saving work, which continues to nurture our growth in grace. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to increase in the knowledge and love of God and in love for our neighbor.
New birth is the first step in this process of sanctification. Sanctifying grace draws us toward the gift of Christian perfection, which Wesley described as a heart “habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor” and as “having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked.”
Christian perfection is about restoration and renewal...
Sanctifying Grace – removes the stains of the past – we come to Christ and are immediately forgiven of all our sins – EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. Sanctifying Grace is God working in us to take away our DESIRE TO SIN...
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Charles Wesley
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.
Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
You gotta love Chuck Wesley... well, I do, anyway. But I highlighted moments in "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" that speak to me of Sanctifying Grace. God, taking away our desire to sin (take away our bent to sinning) and moving us toward the perfection that will be achieved in our reunion with God (Perfectly restored in Thee...).
BUT - I'm afraid that I don't think I'll ever be perfect in this life. Not that it's impossible for God, but it IS impossible for me. I am way too sinful. YET, God continues to work in and through and (more often than I'd like to admit) in spite of me. Because of Sanctifying Grace.
2Corinthians 5
17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Psalm 51
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,and put a new and right spirit within me.
So, how do I paint a word picture of Sanctifying Grace? Hmmm...
Well, I remember my brief career as a shoplifter. Every once in a while my family would go to the Hills store in Jamestown (this was all before I turned 10, or so, but I don't remember exactly when) I would occasionally boost something from the toy aisle - a GI JOE gun from a playset, or some other small item. Maybe three times...the last time I clearly remember. I opened a Star Wars toy box and didn't take out the toy itself, but the little flyer inside that advertised the product line (we weren't all that well off when I was little and, while I had plenty of toys, I didn't often get the really COOL toys...but I could dream...). So, I got busted by the store security. And it scared me. A lot. But the most devastating moment came when my mom had to come and get me from the store (I was banned for life, by the way - of course the store is out of business, now...) and she looked at me with sadness in her eyes and asked me a simple question, "How will I ever be able to trust you again?"
What could I say? How could she trust me? I had demonstrated that I was NOT to be trusted...sigh... What could I do? Well, I knew that I couldn't DO anything that would garner her trust again, but I could resolve to never again steal. And I haven't. I don't even have the desire to anymore. But, I recognize now that it was not that I somehow overcame my "bent toward sinning" but the Holy Spirit working in me.
The thing is - it's really working in my life. Do I still sin? Yep. And I, as Luther suggested, sin boldly (that's probably a topic for another time - but basically he was saying that we need to own up to our sin - to do otherwise is to suggest that we are without sin, and we decieve ourselves and we make God out to be a liar:
1 John 1:
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
BUT - and this is the Sanctifying Grace moment - we are not left alone to fend for ourselves. Yes, we will sin, but God is working us and moving us - shaping and molding - perfecting us - making us new creations, creating in us clean hearts:
1John 2:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
So, I'm not a shoplifter anymore. So, I won't watch movies with nudity/strong sexual themes anymore (though, oddly, extreme violence doesn't seem to bother me). I have the safe settings on my search engines engaged. I have learned to cope with my tendency toward putting things off that I don't like to do. And the changes in me have mounted up over the past couple of decades. But, it's not a list of do's and don't's - it's God working in me through the Holy Spirit. I have been released from some addictions that I had fallen into (no, not drugs or booze - sorry, but my testimony isn't nearly that interesting) but it isn't me doing it. It was not simply because I sat down one day and decided to live differently, it has been a process over the past 25 years. It is God working in me to release me and free me and make me whole and new again.
I gotta quote U2 again:
Yahweh
Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don’t make a fist
Take this mouth
So quick to criticise
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahewh, Yahweh
Still I’m waiting for the dawn
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break
That's a plea for Sanctifying Grace. That's MY plea. God, take this heart, and make it break...
So, an image of Grace to sum it all up:
My daughters love to play outside. They love to run, swing, slide, dig in the dirt, play on/in/over/beside anything that they can (no matter how dirty it is). And, while I don't like them to get dirty, I know they will. So, every once in a while, while they're getting good and dirty, I'll start running bathwater for them. I'll get the bubbles going and I'll throw in their favorite bath toys. I'll set out the soap and shampoo and washcloths. I'll get the towels ready. They're having fun, I'm working without them even knowing it.
Then, I'll call them in. "Bath time." Now, they have a decision to make. They can choose to ignore the bath call, or they can jump in. They know that I only want what is best for them, and, while getting dirty may be fun, the dirt has to come off. So, in the tub they go. And I scrub them. And they play. And I scrub some more. And they splash around. All the while they are shedding the dirt that had covered them. But they aren't cleaning it off, I am...
Does that make sense? I had to spell it all out for the kids at the retreat, but I think I'll leave it alone...
Yahweh, Yahweh...take this heart, and make it break...
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