THE PROCESS OF BECOMING  #210

Good Day, Meetpastordan Readers…I just got back from my walk with Cliff and Glenn, and had the opportunity to see this incredible sunrise that was spell-binding with its red, gold and purple hues.  Wow!  God is quite the Artiste!  I couldn’t help but think of Psalm 19: “The heavens tell the glory of God. The skies display his marvelous craftsmanship.  Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.  They speak without a sound or a word; their voice is silent in the skies; yet their message has gone out to all the earth…” When a day starts like this, ya know It’s going to be a great one!  🙂

That being said, I want to kick off this great day by writing about one of my favorite topics…freedom. One of the reasons Jesus came was to “set the captives free”. (Luke 4:18) So if you’re wondering, “What captives was Jesus referring to?”…the answer would be US!  We are the captives, because without him, we are enslaved to our sin-nature (our human nature, as our culture calls it), and we proved without a doubt that we were “utterly helpless” to do anything about it though our own effort. (Romans 4:6)

So I want to address this subject by clarifying a misconception that seems to be prevalent among Christians.  “Justification” and “Sanctification” are not one in the same, and to miss this difference can mire us in our Christian walk.  I mention this because I have ample opportunity to ask people about how being a Christian has enhanced or changed their life, and many times I get, “Well… It’s hard to say” or “Well…I really haven’t experienced what I had expected.” Invariably I find that this dilemma is rooted in the person’s expectation of what was going to happen when they said, “Yes” to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Theirs is the same story as one I’ve revealed in previous postings about a friend of mine, also in recovery, who has lamented many times in meetings about situations that baffle him, or are beyond his control. His exasperated final statement is always something like this: “Well, I’m just going to turn it all over to God” or “I’m going to let go and let God!” Finally I had the opportunity to ask him, one on one of course, what he expected when he “turned it over to God”, and his answer was exactly what I expected him to say: “Well, I’m just going to let God take care of this for me.”  Therein lays the problem.

So now let’s look at the root of that problem. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, an incredible transformation takes place.  This transformation is often referred to as the “great exchange”, as described in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new has come.”  What this means is that we are no longer enslaved to our sin nature.  Now we have the indwelling Holy Spirit living in us (the essence of Jesus Christ) empowering us to make different choices. This is perfectly described in Galatians 5:16-: “So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit.  Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.  But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to your sin nature.”

Now let’s compare and contrast our old choices (before being in Christ) with what we can expect when we rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us.  Galatians 5:19-23 tells us: “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activity, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, out-bursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.”  Apostle Paul takes this opportunity to add this reminder for the benefit of the Galatians: “Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Now he contrasts the worldly life to the Spirit-directed life: “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  One way is the pathway to freedom; the other is the pathway to bondages that lead to spiritual death.

On the front cover of Neil Anderson’s book entitled, “Victory Over the Darkness”, there is a one sentence synopsis of the book: “realizing your new identity in Christ and the power that comes from that identity.”  The moment you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are in Christ. Here’s what happens to you instantaneously: 1. Your sins are forgiven 2. You inherit eternal life  3.You receive the indwelling Holy Spirit  to empower you to become the person God created you to be  4. You are grafted into God’s family as “his Child”  5. You are now worthy and acceptable in God’s eyes, not because of anything you did or didn’t do, but because of what Jesus did for you  6. In God’s eyes, you are a Saint (and not a sinner) because you are covered with the blood of Jesus 7. You are heir to all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm  8. You are heir to all the promises in the Bible. Wow!  How’s that for hitting the spiritual jackpot!!

I want to expand on number 6 above because it is so vitally important that we understand what this means to us.  But first I want to point out, “the sin issue” is over! Christ paid the price for our sins on the cross.  If we are in Christ, God proclaimed through David in Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, that far has God removed our transgressions from us.”  And Colossians 2:13-14 tells us: “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.  Then God made you alive in Christ. He forgave all our sins.  He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.”  That is GOOD news!

But now that we are in Christ, will we still fall short of God’s glorious standard?  Absolutely…we all will.  But now, because of our new identity, God does not count this as sin against us.  Remember, we are a Saint, meaning “a believer” in the New Testament. When we slip and fall, God just wants us to get up and keep marching down the path of Sanctification, meaning… we are in the process of becoming (hence the title) more Christ-like.  This path is our training ground for eternity.

The process of Justification is instantaneous. But at that point we haven’t even taken the first step down the path (or the process) of Sanctification.  This is a life-long process where we grow and mature as Christ-followers, picking up our cross daily and facing the trials and tribulations that will inevitably come our way. Our growth and maturity comes from how we handle these challenges.  Keep in mind the truth found in Galatians four paragraphs above.  The more we rely on the Holy Spirit guide and empower us to become the person God created us to be, the more we start experiencing the joy, peace, serenity and freedom that we expected when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  But the fact is, we have to participate in the process.  “Let Go, Let God”, is the right answer, but we have to get out of the way and “let” the Holy Spirit empower us to overcome.

So how do we do that?  We call on Him (“we admit our dependence on Him” – James 4:10) such as  this:  “Holy Spirit…give me your wisdom, courage, strength, power, patience, perseverance, eyes to see, ears to hear…whatever it is we need to handle our situation or challenge in a way that brings honor and glory to God, or allows us to become the person He created us to be, “He will lift us up and give us honor.” (the conclusion of James 4:10)

The indwelling Holy Spirit is a gift from God so we can rise above our circumstances, or overcome our challenges.  Now  we are capable of becoming the person he created us to be. 2 Peter 1:3-4 is a promise to us: “The more we grow in Christ, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a Godly life.  He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness!  And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises.  He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.”  That, my Friends, is “the process of becoming” more Christ-like.

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May God Bless Ya…

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)