Oh the sin nature never let’s up! One minute you are walking in perfect communion with the Lord and then the next minute you are battling the flesh. It’s like a wrestling match. I feel as if I have to place my flesh in a choke hold just so I can rest and breath. But then I get tired of keeping my guard up and want to rest and as soon as I do that…BAM!!!! I am punched by my flesh and the wind is knocked out of me.
So then I have to call upon the Lord again as I start to lose this fight. I hate this battle between my flesh and my spirit. My only hope is that when I die I have the promise from God himself that I won’t have this inner struggle anymore. He has promised me salvation and salvation consists of three different things. They are: Justification; sanctification and glorification.
These three things are linked together like a chain. You cannot have one of them you need all three in order to be delivered from the consequences of the sin nature. Most people think salvation consist of just the 1st item; Justification. That could not be further from the truth.
Justification deals with the penalty of sin
Sanctification deals with the power of sin
Glorification deals with the presence of sin.
Most people think about salvation as just being forgiven only. I was saved on this or that day….etc. What they are saying is that they were justified on a specific day and the penalty of their sin was dealt with at that time. But that is only the 1st part of salvation. You cannot stop there.
It’s like this: Justification starts the process of salvation. Sanctification is the part that we live out. And Glorification is the end process of our salvation.
That is why when the Bible tells us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” we don’t need to get all worked up and scared. It does not say…”Work FOR your salvation….” But rather, “Work it out”. In other wards, walk in holiness and let the Lord set you apart so that he can wash you and you can be clean.
Philippians 2:13-14: Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
I love the fact that the Word tells us to work out and then it says that it’s the Lord who works in us. This is fully dealing with the middle link of the chain of salvation…..Sanctification. And I also love what the word implies here too. When we try to clean ourselves…it’s only outward (Work out…) but when the Lord does the cleaning it is always inward (Work in). Thank you Lord for washing me clean from the inside out.
So now going back to my thoughts from the beginning of this post; I hate the process of being washed all the time. I hate the fact that I absolutely love being dirty most of the time. And I hate the fact that I desire to be clean even more than I desire to be dirty yet I battle back and forth with these two things…..I hate the tug-o-war. My hope is in the fact that once I die; sin will no longer attack me from the inside. I will be clean as the Lord gives me a new body that is sinless. I simply cannot wait. I feel like a child waiting for Christmas to come….as there are so many similarities. The child waits for Christmas and I wait for Christ. The child waits for presents to open; I wait for the Lord’s presence.
Oh how I long to be free from this body of death and I hunger for the day in which the Lord himself will complete this process of salvation and I am thoroughly clean from the inside out!
