Saturday, December 12th, 2009
In our salvation, we learn that we have a new standing in Christ, declared righteous, adopted into the family of God. We also learn that God is working in us to make us more like Christ, God is helping us to die to sin and to mortify the lusts in our hearts. He is moving us into a life of holiness and this process is called sanctification. We learn from this confession that our sanctification we will never be perfect in this life. There will always be a continual battle, a struggle between our sinful nature and the Spirit.
Romans 7:21-23 says:
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
We will continue to struggle in our lives. Will we ever be perfect? Yes, the Apostle Paul says “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” [Philippians 1:6] But he recognizes that in this life we will face our enemy every day until that day. This confession is a helpful reminder that God is working in us, reminding us that even though Christ has restored us, we will still continue to fail, to sin, to struggle… no matter how good we are, no matter how far we think we have come along, there will be times of relapse… and that our lives must be lives of continual faith and repentance.
And this is our comfort, our wonderful and loving God still loves us because of Christ and His atoning work on the cross for all of His children who still struggles with sin, and who still fail. Yet, Christ’s work is greater than our sins, the Fathers’s love deeper than our failures, and the Spirit’s loving presence more powerful than any of our struggles.
This sanctification, although imperfect in this life, is effected in every part of man’s nature. Some remnants of corruption still persist in every part, and so there arises a continual and irreconcilable war—the flesh warring against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 13, Section 2
Tags: sanctification
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