The complex process of sanctification

I am sure that many times, out of a misguided and simplistic desire to glorify God and defend his faithfulness at all costs, we preachers end up impoverishing and diluting the wonderful and multifaceted experience of sanctification. We refuse to admit that sanctification is an arduous, zigzagging, long-term process. That sublime path is mined with hesitations and falls. It includes victories, but also great defeats. Sometimes we can make huge leaps to maturity. But we can also crash into the walls of our fallen humanity and experience serious setbacks.

In a moment of great sincerity, the apostle Paul wrote about his own agonizing experience regarding sanctification. He had discovered that the desire to please God was in him. But he had also discovered another urge, another "law" within him that frequently led him to violate his best intentions and offend the God he loved so much.

Compulsively, many Christians try to hide anything that seems to contradict the clear promises of power, victory, and security that God's word provides us in our fight against sin. They seek to suppress or disguise any element of the Christian experience that reveals the true complexity of the path to perfection. We mistakenly think that if we admit in our experience any element that complicates or casts doubt on the fidelity and simplicity of the Word of God, this amounts to questioning the character or integrity of the Father. In doing this, we ignore that God does not seem to care much about the fact that his processes are sometimes elusive, complex, and seemingly contradictory. He is totally sovereign. We easily forget that it is He who has said (Isaiah 55: 8, 9):

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

9 As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

The methods and ways that God uses to lead His children through the sanctification experience are often weird and unpleasant. At times, they might even seem grotesque and unfair to us. We have to remember, however, that He is sovereign. God always knows what He does! As a supremely experienced and confident craftsman, he never apologizes for the materials or processes he employs to produce his masterpieces.

At times God will use the defeats, failures, and falls of our journey to forge broken and humble men and women who reflect the simplicity, grace, and mercy of Jesus Christ. Every work of God in our lives is by definition good. For those of us who are in Christ, every experience of our spiritual journey — even spiritual failures and downturns — is used by God for our improvement, even though at the time we experience them they may seem chaotic or unfair. Only at the end of the journey, when we can look back with the divine and eternal perspective, will we be able to see that what seemed grotesque and meaningless at the time, was perhaps the greatest display of God's love and mercy for us.