#07 Obstacles to sanctification

[AI translation] Last time we talked about God Himself wanting our sanctification. True holy living is not a bunch of striving to do good works, but a life given over to the lordship of the living God. Walking with Jesus, turning together in the small and the great things of our lives. We do not force it out of ourselves, but holiness is something like the forgiveness of sins that God wants to do for us. It is not something to be striven for, but to be accepted as a gift that God has ready for his own. We must give ourselves into the Lord's hands so that He Himself may do His work in us to sanctify our lives. To work out in us the life made possible for us by the death and resurrection of Christ. We must place ourselves in the Lord's hands so that he may form us, shape us, shape the reality of holy life in us and through us. So that we do not hinder God in his work of sanctification. For that can be hindered. In the passage we read here, the apostle exhorts us to remove obstacles to sanctification, not to obstruct the flow of Jesus' renewing life-force.Such a concrete obstacle to sanctification is fornication. That is why the apostle, when he speaks of God's will for our sanctification, immediately goes on to say: 'that you may keep yourselves from fornication: that each of you may be able to bear his own vessel in holiness and honour. Not in the lust of lust, as the heathen, who know not God." (1 Thess 4:3-5) Perhaps Paul links holiness and the warning against fornication so closely because he is writing to people who, only a few months ago, were pagans and, as pagans of old, were practising the most absurd sexual immorality as a cultic act. But not only then, but always - even now, always - we have the inclination to make a cult out of sexuality, of sexual life. Of course, it is not the sexual instinct itself that is the obstacle to our sanctification, but the abuse of it. The sex instinct itself is a divine gift, it is part of human life, it is not in itself impure. It is as natural as the desire for food. God has given us the wonderful power to share in His creative power. Through this miraculous power, mere femininity becomes motherhood and mere masculinity becomes fatherhood. It is through the divine gift of sexuality that the home, the family, the sacred community of parents and children is created. There is nothing more beautiful on earth! Heaven bends down and turns this utterly earthly thing into heaven.
But while sexuality, with the guidance and restraint of pure love, can become heaven, it can turn earthly life into hell through misuse. Sexuality has called forth more happiness and more unhappiness than anything else in life. It all depends on how we treat it. Hence this stern admonition: abstain from fornication! It is as if the apostle were saying: 'God has paid a very dear price for you, lest you give your bodies to uncleanness and corruption. God has a right over you, your body is His! Any sinful gratification of the lusts of the flesh - that is, unholy gratification - is a desecration of the temple of the Holy Spirit! And with the defilement of the flesh, the soul also becomes unclean. The demons of this passion are able to impose their dominion on every thought and will of man, this sin, this fornication, claims everything: body, soul, money, honour, innocence, fortune, a job - everything, everything! One thinks that the pleasure of sex can be enjoyed unencumbered by morality, and suddenly one finds that what was promised to be heaven for one - turns into hell. All that is achieved is that man becomes more and more disgusted with himself!
Therefore, "all ye shall be able to bear your own vessel in holiness and honour." (1 Thess 4:5) The body is compared by the apostle to a vessel, a tabernacle, in which some very great treasure is kept. Of course it is, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit! The Word of God very often exhorts you to keep and care for this temple - just as a man keeps and cares for his own house. No one would be willing to let wild beasts or thieves into his own home to prowl about at will. Why do we not take better care of the temple of the Holy Spirit, our own bodies? Why do we allow in our bodies thoughts and guests that are unclean and profane? Why do we not take better care that the enemy does not creep in and take over? Our mouth, our eyes and our ears are the doors and windows of the body's dwelling, which must be guarded very carefully. Through these the beasts and thieves enter. Watch out for these doors and windows! Be careful what you let in, for what you once let in will become stubbornly entrenched in your mind, memory and imagination, and then it will be very difficult to get rid of it!
So the apostle continues, "let no man go beyond and harm... his brother" (v.6a) This phrase "go beyond": means to cross a certain boundary. It means to take care not only of my own dwelling place as a wise steward, but also of the property of others! Do not cross the boundary to where another's property begins, do not cross the boundary against another's wife, property, honour, reputation! Beware of all such crossings: in word, in deed, or even in thought and desire! "For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness" (1 Thess 4:7) Is not the apostle right when he points to these things as obstacles to our sanctification? Perhaps this is the point where there is so much resistance that it holds back the breakthrough of the Christian life, which does not allow the vibrant life with Jesus to prevail! Perhaps here is the bondage that holds back true and full joy in Christ. Herein lies one of the most powerful and stubborn bondages that keeps us from being set free for Christ and His work.
But is there ever a release from this all-claiming power of sexuality? There is! When the apostle says, "Let every one of you keep his own vessel in holiness and perfection", he continues, "not in the lust of lust, as the Gentiles do, who do not know God" (vv. 4-5). We know the God who has made it known to us that "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor turkeys, nor sexually immoral, nor thieves, nor gluttons, nor drunkards... shall inherit the kingdom of God!" (1 Cor 6:9-10) And if we do have such things in our lives, we know the God who has made it known to us that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) We know the God who broke the power of this sin by the death of Jesus on Calvary, and we know that His blood can cleanse us from all sin, even the hidden, deep-rooted contamination of sexuality! He alone can deal with the many miseries of sex, but He can deal with them!
Where someone truly gives Jesus the power and control over their life, it is at this point that miracles happen. Forces, storms, desires thought invincible are sublimated in the body, the otherwise destructive power of the sexuality is purified and transformed into a driving force towards creative ends, or perhaps on a higher plane: music, fine arts, poetry, charity, helping and serving the fallen and the poor. Jesus, when he says: "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it away" (Mt 18,9), is rightly closing the doors to a lower life, but only to open the doors to a fuller life. We can therefore entrust to him the control of our thoughts, desires, feelings and will. On Lake Balaton, I have experienced that the same wind can drive different boats in different directions. It all depends on how the sail is set and which way the helmsman turns the rudder. The force of sexuality, the storm of sexuality, can also take you in different directions. One into the ruin of self and others, the other into the sure course. It depends on who holds the rudder and the sail!
We know God: the God who became our brother, our friend in Jesus Christ, who came into our very lives - "the Word made flesh". It was there that God entered into human life - at that most vulnerable point in our lives, in our flesh - where the destructive power of sin is most real, to fight His redemptive battle for man in the human flesh. Such is the God we know, and we will only truly know Him in all His redemptive power, His life-cleansing, life-regenerating power, if we are willing and dare to surrender fully to Him the rudder and the sail-blade! He will know how to use the powers of sexuality that we can't do anything with! In this way, the sexual instinct will not be a hindrance, but an instrument of His sanctifying work in us. "For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness." (verse 7)
Living Spirit of God, come, let me be holy,
And be one with Jesus on earth below!
Untie me, send me away, fill me with fire!
Living Spirit of God, come, let me be holy!
(Canto 463, verse 3)
Amen
Date: 31 January 1954.