Sanctification

God is my Father who loves me. I believe that my sin amounts to a failure to live in the Assurance of this Truth. If at all times I believed this Truth I would be freed from my sin forever, because sin is defined by unbelief in this Truth, this Word. 

This is the Truth that human beings were designed to be as the sons and daughters of God; it is the Truth which we have stepped outside of in our sin and disbelief in the Word of God. In our failure to live in our identity as beloved sons and daughters of God we have declared that the statement that God is a loving Father is a false statement.

But this is the Truth which Jesus has redeemed as the divine Son of God who became a human being and saved the world.

This is the New Commandment, which "is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining."

The "passing away" of the darkness is the process of sanctification. It is the process of human beings learning to believe that God is their Father who loves them freely in his Son Jesus Christ. It is the process of realizing that we have totally and certainly received his righteousness. It is the process of receiving the free grace of God. It is the process of letting go of our own righteousness and holding on to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is the righteous deeds with which the saints are clothed. The righteousness of the saints is their joyful response to their righteousness in Christ, even as they are sinners. 

This is the great paradox of sanctification. When Paul says he is the chief of sinners, this is both a legitimate statement and precisely the reason he is a holy man. Paul has no confidence in himself, and that is why the man Paul was a great man. The pharisees were not great men because they thought they were great. The righteousness of God has turned the righteousness of humanity on its head.

But the layman makes a parade of the fact that he is a layman. The human heart is so deceptive that we take pride even in lowness.

But this only reinforces the truth that the love of Jesus is the only possible source of a human being's righteousness. My righteousness is only ever because Jesus loves me. 

In the moment that a human being truly says, "Yes, Jesus, you alone are my righteousness," there is a substance or fruit within him or her that is legitimate righteousness. That is the paradox. The legitimacy of our justification by faith alone produces the certainty of this sort of righteousness and fruit which pleases God. 

Those who reject the love of God in Jesus Christ can never please God. No action performed by a human being that is not a response of thankfulness to the Love of God the Father in Jesus Christ is righteous. Righteousness is defined by thankfulness. Thankfulness purifies our actions. Thankfulness is holiness. And thankfulness is an aspect of receiving. Thankfulness has nothing to do with ourselves, but everything to do with the Father who gives his Son.

The essence of faith is nothingness. Faith in Jesus is only substance in its nothingness. We look to Jesus and accept his righteousness. That is faith, and it is a reality. Yet the moment we become introspective it disappears and is nothing. It is only a reality when it is ignored. 

The righteous will live by this faith. We always become less as Jesus becomes more. Once this process becomes introspective, once the saint realizes he is effectively looking away from himself to Jesus, this faith is ruined and corrupted. But the Spirit works this corruption as yet one more reason to look away from self back to Jesus. 

The new life in Christ - the new birth - is the growing up of this nothingness, the substance that only exists when it is ignored. The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the believer to glory in the cross and in weakness.

How does this process work itself out practically and tangibly?

It does not work out practically by Christians wallowing in foolish habits their whole life. This process is a process. The Christian who keeps looking at pornography their whole life really has no idea how unrighteous they are and how much they need Jesus. This person is a hard-hearted person who manages their sin and believes the lie that they have their life under control, that they really are no worse than many of their peers. This is nothing short of self-righteous.

This works itself out practically as the Spirit removes these blinders and gives us a true vision of the wretchedness of our sin and of Jesus' love for us in spite of that sin. Sin looks ugly in the light, but it also dies in the light, because it shows the depth of the love of Jesus as it is revealed more and more. And as it dies the light shines more, then deeper and uglier sins are revealed, and the reality of the love of Jesus increases. Here the Christian has no choice but to cling to the unconditional love of the Father in spite of their wicked sin. That is righteousness. That is faith. That glorifies the love of the Son of God.

I don't think that the resurrected body is a body with a sort of super-power ability to resist drunkenness or pornography. I don't think that will be an issue. The resurrected body is a body which belongs to a soul that has walked through death and experienced total weakness and learned total dependence and faith in Jesus, and is forever united to him in the infinite joy of faith.

I am looking forward to authentic righteousness.