The grace of God is continuously
operative, both in and around us. GOD does not throw people away. Rather,
HE transforms us. How so? Love
is God’s very essence and the modus
operandi by which He graciously and mercifully liberates us from the shameful
and destructive forces of sin. However, divine
love also has a component of justice, so sin is remedied and sinners redeemed
by the God who hates sin but loves people.
Therefore, it is a practical
necessity that GOD would provide us 1) the means to be saved from the power and
penalty of sin, and 2) the means to be delivered from the dominant sinful influences
of the world system in which we live.
These two salvation operations are commonly called conversion and sanctification. Both
operate through grace.
Grace is
God’s unmerited favor. We never deserved
salvation, neither could we labor to attain it, but it was freely afforded to
us as a loving act of divine redemption.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Grace is
a divine operation that can only be initiated by GOD; nevertheless, it requires
a human response, which is also ably assisted by God. God’s
post-conversion activity within the lives of believers is the process known
as sanctification. It is an operation that is largely divine,
but simultaneously human. That is, life
is imparted to the believer by the Holy
Spirit and s/he is released from the compulsive power of sin and guilt
and thus enabled to love God, to
strive to please Him, and to commence Kingdom service. It is GOD that purifies
and sets believers apart for service, but WE
must become cooperating partners in
this process.
The Apostle Paul offered this
practical admonition to young Timothy, his protégé. “No man that warreth
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (II Timothy 2:4) It is a direct echo of Christ’s claim that
believers must be “IN the world,” yet not OF the world. (John 17:11) This is indeed a paradox. We are commissioned as the “salt” and “light”
of the world. (Matthew 5:13-14) Yet, despite
our close proximity, we are charged to avoid adopting worldly practices. To wit, we have been divinely dispatched as human transformers. This is our mission, but it is also our
greatest challenge – that we be IN…but not OF…the world.
Therefore, utilizing the metaphor of
a noble house, Paul instructs
winner-believers to “depart from iniquity.”
He contends that even noble houses contain both vessels of “honour” and “dishonour.” Our task, via the divine purging process, is to identify with (and assimilate
the characteristics of) honorable vessels
that are “sanctified” and “meet” [fit] “for the master’s use.” In effect, “the
husbandman” (God) continuously prunes
and purges “every branch…that it
may bring forth more fruit.” This is the
process of sanctification, i.e. believers
being divinely prepared and set apart for Kingdom service. In the words of Jesus Christ…
John 15:1-8
1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch
that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my
disciples.
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