Growing up everyone has the same irrational fear: death by quicksand. Do you remember when you were terrified that you would meet your Maker by way of quicksand? I do. There was something mysteriously dark about the idea of quicksand. Yet none of my teachers seemed motivated to let us know that we are not just going to stroll up on person-swallowing quicksand one day.
The terrifying thing about quicksand is the reality that you can’t pull yourself out of it. You have nothing to grab onto. But think for a moment about why you can’t pull yourself out of quicksand. Why can’t you just grab hold of your head and pull yourself up? Because you are sinking. A sinking arm can’t grab a sinking head and stop it from all sinking. Someone who does not know how to swim can’t save herself by swimming. A sinking person needs someone one on firm ground who is not sinking to rescue him.
In Phil. 2:12-13 we are told that unsanctified people don’t sanctify themselves. Rather, they are sanctified by someone who is perfectly sanctified. I am going to make four points and seek to prove each point as we work through the Scriptures.
Point 1: You are active in Christian life. You work. No matter what you believe about the sanctifying process of renewal, you know that you are active. You make choices, exert energy, and get to work. God calls us to activity, saying, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work…” Whatever sanctification involves or entails, it includes you being active. Paul has already called us in Philippians to get to work in various ways, so this is no surprise. We are not robots who just do whatever our hearts desire until God steps in and moves us like puppets.
What must be firmly maintained, however, is that we work from a position of already having salvation, not in order to get it. Paul writes, “work out your own salvation”. Whatever Christian sanctification is, it is has absolutely nothing to do with meriting or earning God’s love and favor. You already have it in full, forever, through faith in Jesus.
Point 2: You are active because God is sanctifying you. Paul writes, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you…” In other words, we work because God is at work in us. Sanctification is not a synergistic partnership between you and God to accomplish a renewing work in you. The Westminster Shorter Catechism answers the question, “What is sanctification?” by saying, “Sanctification is the work of God's free grace…”. Just as forgiveness is entirely a work of free grace, so is daily sanctification.
God is working at the deeper, root level, at a place behind all of our working. We are not puppets but we are also not the puppet master. It is God who sanctifies us, not us. It is God working in us, “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” God takes pleasure in renewing you, so take heart. God hates your sin more than you do. God loves for you to grow in Christ-likeness more than you do.
Point 3: While your justification is a one-time act of God through faith in Christ, sanctification is an ongoing work of God through faith in Christ. Through faith in Christ alone you were at one time, for all time, forgiven and accepted by God. As someone already totally forgiven and accepted, you remain a sinner who sins because God did not fully sanctify you at that same time, eradicating all of your sin in that same moment. God did, however, give you his Spirit and a new nature and He has chosen to begin the ongoing work of sanctification. In Phil. 1:6 Paul gives us confidence, writing, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” The work of renewing you is ongoing, it is not done yet. Don’t be so surprised when you keep realizing how sinful you really are. But don’t despair. You can keep up the good work because God is more interested in sanctifying you than you are and he has promised to complete the work.
Point 4: The work of sanctification is the work of God to renew us to die to sin and live to righteousness, all through faith in Christ. But what does this actually look like? Answer: just as God justifies you through faith in the Gospel, God sanctifies you through faith in the Gospel. Just as you look to Jesus for forgiveness, you look to Jesus for ongoing renewal. You never graduate from the Gospel. You never move on from Jesus. The key to becoming more like Christ is not to trust yourself for power or to obsess over yourself in an introspective naval-gazing neurotic way.
The work you are called to, fundamentally, is to know that to “live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21; emphasis added). The work is to continue “looking to Jesus” (Heb. 12:2; emphasis added). The work is to know that, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20; emphasis added). Christians start with faith in the Son of God, continue in that faith, and end in that faith, until you see the Son with sight.
You can’t sanctify yourself any more than someone who doesn’t know how to swim can pull themselves to shore by swimming. But God knows how to swim and (surprise!) he is already pulling you to shore before you even knew you were in trouble. Marvel at who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for you. Jesus died and rose to give you once-for-all forgiveness and acceptance. And Jesus died and rose to start the ongoing renewal process that one day he will finish. It’s His work of free grace, so take heart Christian because God is at work in your life in a big way.
