Change comes in all shapes and sizes. If you want to lose weight and build muscle, lifting weights regularly can help. But how do we change our emotions, our struggles?
Paul writes in Romans 8:29 that we are to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. Sanctification is the process whereby Christians, disciples of Jesus, look more and more like their master. That is a major element of the process of discipleship, learning from Jesus how to live so that our lives look more and more like his life. I am not talking about beliefs. I’m referring to the choices and actions of our lives. Sanctification involves pruning which is intended to help us live more like Jesus lived.
A Christian is one who answers Jesus’ call, “Follow me,” and hour by hour, day by day throughout their lives, learns to live like Jesus lived, and then actually lives that way. But this is not simply an outward process. As I mentioned already, sanctification starts inwardly; as the Spirit of God enters our lives he helps us desire to live more like Jesus and do life the way Jesus did.
Once we give our lives to God, whether it is a moment of decision or a long process, the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives recreating us, making us into new people. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.” We are connected to Jesus, like branches on a vine. We learned last week that we Christians have the amazing privilege of taking on the qualities of Jesus, by his Holy Spirit who lives in us.
With God’s Spirit in us, we have so much more than hope of eternal life. This is part of how we experience what Jesus taught us John 10:10, that he came so that we might have abundant life. What he was referring to is the transformation of our inner lives so that they would become more and more like his inner life. Just as astounding love and goodness flowed freely from him, so too he wants that kind of life, his kind of life, to flow freely from us. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Then to top it off, he adopts us into his family, signifying the intensely close relationship he wants to have with us. So not only does his Spirit live within us, but also we are relationally situated in his family.
As we think about sanctification, perhaps the most important question we can ask ourselves is this: do we see evidence of sanctification in our lives? Read through Galatians 5 and familiarize yourself with both the anti-fruits of the sinful nature, in verses 19-21, and the Fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23.
When we surrender our lives to God’s Spirit, we begin to practice the habits we see Jesus practicing, and little by little that practice shapes us so that what naturally flows out of our lives is the fruit of the Spirit, things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Likewise, anger, jealousy, rage, lust and other such traits gradually decrease in our lives.
Gardeners, do you only prune a plant once? No, it is a regular part of the life of the plant. Likewise, pruning in the life of the follower of Jesus is a regular part of following him. Ask yourself: Are any of the anti-fruits of the sinful nature still flowing from your life? It might be a pervasive critical spirit, it might be a manipulative intimidating approach to relationships, it might be a hair-trigger temper, it might be lust or pornography, gossip or complaining. And are there any Fruits of the Spirit that should be flowing from your life, but are not? Any pruning that needs to take place?
If so, confess it to the Lord and repent. If there is a part of your life that you have regularly struggled with for many months or years, I highly recommend that you talk with someone about it. We are meant for community, to follow Jesus together. Some sins are deeply entrenched, and we need help. Nothing is too difficult for the Spirit, but remember free will. Oftentimes those sins are such a part of lives that they flow from us freely, and we struggle to give them up. We might even enjoy some sins. Talk about it with God and with others. Get help. Some may benefit greatly from professional counseling or anger management or an accountability partner.
As they were listening to him talk about pruning and cutting, Jesus’ disciples could easily be thinking about the sins and struggles in their own lives, wondering…am I about to get cut off? In the next post, as if reading their minds, Jesus has an answer for them. A very important answer.
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Engaging Scripture 