I’m Made Holy! – How Can This Be?

Scripture Reading:  2 Thes 2:13-16

 

A group of us women have been studying The Fruit of the Spirit from Gal 5:22-23 for many weeks. We began noticing that, while each of the facets of the fruit (eg Love, Joy, Peace, etc) was something produced by the Holy Spirit in a Christ-follower, there were also commands or directives from other verses to the Christian to be loving, joyful, peaceable, etc.  For instance, take the facet of Love.  In 1 John 4:9, we see God’s love is manifested in us; and in Matt 22:37, 39, we read, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  One verse shows it is God’s love in us, while the other is a command to love.

 

This was the first in a series of times God brought this concept to me:  If I am to grow to maturity, I need to recognize that both the Holy Spirit and I have parts to play in the process.  My next experience with these ideas came when I was preparing a talk on “Hope.”  It provided a name for how I am to live out my sanctification toward maturity.  In his book The Transforming Power of the Gospel (NavPress, 2012), Jerry Bridges coined the term “Dependent Responsibility” to describe the joint nature of my becoming holy.

 

·         The responsibility part of this term: work out daily the life you have been given in Christ (see Phil 2:12).

·         The dependency part: depend on the Holy Spirit for success (see Phil 2:13). He is the primary agent of our sanctification, without Him, we cannot experience the life and power of Christ in us.

 

In our reading today (which is my latest encounter with this idea, we note that in verse 13, both God’s part and our part in the process of our sanctification are mentioned.  The Phillips Translation of the New Testament says it this way, “He has chosen you from the beginning to save you, to make you holy by the work of His Spirit and your own belief in the truth.”

 

It seems to me as if God has been using a microphone to get my attention about something specific regarding being holy.  What is it? I’m not exactly sure, but I do know it has lead me to focus on it more these days, and I continue to ask, “Lord, what do you want me to know?”

 

This is what I’ve learned so far by listening to His answer:

·         The Holy Spirit’s role in my sanctification (maturation process) is to provide power, means, and desire in me to be more like Jesus.

·         My role is to trust God to sanctify me, present my body to Him, and yield to the Spirit – in other words, depend on Him.

·         My role also is to choose to do what’s right (obedience) – in other words, take responsibility for what I think, do, and say.

 

Holy Spirit, as You continue to bring thoughts of sanctification, maturity, holiness, please give me Your wisdom in what further understanding I need in this area of my life. Amen.