The God who justifies us
Author
Dr. Roberto Miranda
Summary: Sanctification is a difficult and lifelong process, and it's important to be patient with ourselves and others as we navigate through it. Even biblical characters who passionately loved God, like Jehoshaphat, Abraham, David, and Peter, had moments of sin and inconsistency. God understands our human nature and is patient with us. We should also be patient with ourselves and others, and not condemn ourselves or others for failures. This will allow us to focus on pleasing God and following His Word.
Sanctification is not for cowards. It's agonizing, and it's the effort of a lifetime. It is not a black and white, all or nothing issue. By remembering the accidents and vicissitudes of our own growth journey, we can identify with those who struggle with addictions, emotional deformations, and attachments of various kinds. When we recognize how complex, arduous, and subtle the believer's sanctification process is, it enables us to be more understanding and patient with those who experience failures and failures on their own spiritual journey.
Contradiction and inconsistency are an inevitable part of the Christian experience. The formation of a son or daughter of God will inevitably involve painful falls and inconsistencies that must contradict the noblest aspirations of the soul. This is not necessarily an indication of a personal evil, but a product of our genetic condition as fallen and imperfect beings. There is no doubt that biblical characters such as Jehoshaphat, Abraham, David, and Peter passionately loved God. Throughout their lives, they showed that they were willing to take great risks and confront great dangers to defend the interests of the Kingdom of God. However, their condition as fallen men, prone to sin and disobedience despite their best intentions, led them to sin and err on more than one occasion.
By stopping to focus on the low moments of the biography of these characters, the Word humanizes them. It takes them out of the spiritual stratosphere and brings them down to our level. It allows them to transcend their time, reach through the centuries, and speak to our own modern experience. It provides us with the opportunity to see how people who loved God so deeply could also fail in such dramatic ways. By analyzing the complex and nuanced soul of these men and women of God, we can better understand the springs that move our own experience, and have a more complete understanding of the principles that govern the process of sanctification of the believer.
The psalmist states in Psalm 103: 13 and 14:
13 As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.
14 Because he knows our condition; He remembers that we are dust.
God is compassionate and patient with us precisely because He knows that our very nature leads us inexorably to sin. As much as we want, there will be times when our very biological condition will cause us to stumble and sin against the God we love so much and want to please. That is why the writer of Ecclesiastes also declares: "Certainly there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins" (Ecclesiastes 7:20).
This sober and complex understanding of the condition of every human being should lead us, then, to an attitude of deep mercy and patience with others. As we enthusiastically encourage ourselves toward the holiness and perfection to which the Word calls us, we must make provision for the moments of inconsistency that will inevitably come.
That tolerant attitude will not only allow us to forgive others when they fail us, but it will also allow us to forgive ourselves when we fail God. Paradoxically, when we assume that enlightened posture, we are free to please God and do his will. By refusing to condemn ourselves or others, we release energies that we can then channel into the true battle of subjecting our flesh to the principles of God's Word.