Sanctification

Sanctification is a long and scary word.  It is one of those words which gets thrown around in religious circles without anyone really understanding what it means.  Most of the time it is simply dismissed as something which speaks of a kind of holiness that is both unrealistic and out-of-touch with what is deemed to be real life.  Only the religious folks who are extreme and have gone off the deep end give it any attention and when they do, none of the mainstream traditional folks want any part of it.

 

It is a shame that the word sanctification suffers from such misunderstanding. If we read the Scripture and take what we are reading seriously, the sanctified life will become our great pursuit.  My first serious encounter with the word came when I went as a young man to Asbury College.  It was much talked about and preached in our three weekly chapel services.  It was back then that I started struggling to understand.  What I have realized over the years is that the struggle to give a final definition that pleases everyone is simply an illusion. 

 

A writer who has helped me immensely and consistently in my journey toward understanding and experiencing the sanctified life is Oswald Chambers.  In "My Utmost for His Highest,"  he wrote, "Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me.  Sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for me, and He has to get me into the mind and spiri where at any cost I will let Him sanctify me wholly."  (August 14)  It is a simple definition of a big and scary word.  As we reflect on the words of Chambers, we may decide that the scary part is not the length of the word, but the way taking it seriously calls for us to live.