On Perfection

E and I had a great talk about this very Spurgeon entry the other day. This morning a friend sent it to us as an encouragement. I had thought about blogging an excerpt but never got around to it.

Most of the time colloquilisms are what they are, because they ARE true.
"Christianity is a DONE religion, not a DO religion." Christ did it all. When I think of our chief end - to glorify God and fully enjoy him, enjoyment comes out of, well, "joy". Worrying about if I am doing it right, or if I could do it more perfectly, which paralyzes me, or beating myself up because it doesn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to is counterintuitive to fostering joy. The point is to find His joy in walking through IT .. whatever it is.
I'm pontificating ... blah, blah, blah... Love this entry.

July 23rd

Sanctification

C.H. Spurgeon

Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us … sanctification. 1 Cor. 1:30.

The Life Side. The mystery of sanctification is that the perfections of Jesus Christ are imparted to me, not gradually, but instantly when by faith I enter into the realization that Jesus Christ is made unto me sanctification. Sanctification does not mean anything less than the holiness of Jesus being made mine manifestly.

The one marvellous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you.” It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification, and imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His word?

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ. It is His patience, His love, His holiness, His faith, His purity, His godliness, that is manifested in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests it in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is on a different line. In Jesus Christ is the perfection of everything, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfections of Jesus are at my disposal, and slowly and surely I begin to live a life of ineffable order and sanity and holiness “Kept by the power of God.”