by Bruce Gold – Custodian / Valpo FUMC
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) Christ is the pattern. He is very God of very God, but He is also a man. When we follow the examples of Jesus, we become sanctified.
When we, through faith, reach out to God, the Lord saves us. We have been justified. Our sin nature has been recognized; we have turned away from the world and turned toward God. When we are justified by God, through our faith, we enter in to the process of sanctification: living in the image of Jesus. We have chosen the narrow path. We beg to be transformed by God. We have admitted that we were dead in our sin nature and now we are alive in Christ.
Charles Wesley, in his Confession of Faith, explained this transformation: “We believe sanctification is the work of God’s grace through the Word and Spirit, by which those who have been born again are cleansed from sin in their thoughts, words, and acts, and are enabled to live in accordance with God’s will…” But, being in the process of sanctification does not free us from all the weaknesses of our physical nature. It is up to us to use our new-found relationship with God to fight against the “world, the flesh, and the devil”. To be sanctified, set aside by God, is not a once-and-done. It is a battle that we must face until we take our place with the saints in Heaven.
BG
Being a believer, a follower of Christ is a daily walk with God struggling all the way against the sin in front of us that is our sinful nature. Living a Christian lifestyle is hard work. It’s a struggle just to not fall into the sin of believing because you’re a follower of Christ that we are better than others. It’s a struggle to keep lust and envy out of our thoughts and lives. It’s a struggle to give of ourselves, of our time, and our finances. Whether we realize it or not, we evangelize every day as we live our lives. Other people are always watchig what we do. If we say we are a Christian, and then don’t live up to that, people notice. It’s my responsibility as a Christian to not lead others astray, especilly by not being a very good example of Christianity for them to follow.
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