I yield... I yield...

For the past months I have increasingly struggled with the ideas of sanctification. I understood them well, or so I thought. I liked where they point us theologically. I thought they were well rooted in scripture. I knew that I was partially sancitified, or wed unto Christ or circumcised of heart (whatever terminology you prefer), but I longed for a more complete more full sanctification unto the GOd I love so dearly. I began praying for this more and more. However, it seemed the more I prayed the more I felt distant from that goal. I tried to be holy, to pour more of myself out to my wife and my church, to serve more, to pray more. It didn't work.
During my Romans and Galatians class taught by Dr. Ken Schenck Romans 1:16-17 began to speak to me. So I decided I would preach on it. I did my word studies. I read three or four of the best commentaries. I spent time in prayer. I gave it all time to percolate. As I began to put all of the pieces of the message together I realized this: I don't get any closer to God on the basis of what I do. I don't always even gain ground on the basis of what I seek from him.
Romans 1:16-17 states roughly, "I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe. First to the JEw and then to the Greek. For a righteousness of God is revealed from Heaven from faith to faith. For as it is written, 'The righteous will live by faith."
John Wesley would have argued that this "righteousness from God was given at first to us when we first believed and then that God goes on, in our faith, to make us actually righteous. PErfecting over time. (Forgive me if this is an elementary understanding of Wesley.) Anyway, what do I take from this? What did I get?
I got this: God makes me holy by my faith in Christ. I don't need to seek holiness as an end. I don't need to do things to become holy. I need to trust Christ to make me holy. Those things "holy people" do come as a biprduct of that trust and faith in Christ that grows deeper as the days role by. John Wesley summed it up this way in a brief hymn. (from www.ccel.org)

NOW, even now, I yield, I yield,
With all my sins to part;
Jesus, speak my pardon sealed,
And purify my heart;
Purge the love of sin away,
Then I into nothing fall;
Then I see the perfect day,
And Christ is all in all.

Jesus, now our hearts inspire
With that pure love of thine;
Kindle now the heavenly fire,
To brighten and refine;
Purify our faith like gold,
All the dross of sin remove;
Melt our spirits down,
and mouldInto thy perfect love.

I yield... I yield...

While I emphasize sanctification as a process of submission to Christ let me also not too emphatically assert that I believe it can take place in a single moment too. Although I think that this moment of which many testify is simply the moment they realized all they needed to do was to yield... to yield...

I'll admit that to some of you who might read this, this blog seems like pretty elementary stuff. I agree, it is. What I'm bloggin about is something I've known in my brain for a long time. It is something though, I confess, I am just now learning in my heart. and I yield... I yield...