I just consumed a brownie, a cookie bar, and a mini twix because the question of sanctification is stressing me out. Here I am trying to play the part of a theologian and solve why the whole world does not follow the Christian religion. There goes another mini twix. Ok, deep breath.
Scenario one: Sanctification is God's responsibility. That means God is in charge of scoping out those he wants to save, he is in charge of making people Christians.
So why don't we see more "sanctified people" around us?
According to my limited reasoning skills, maybe God just wanted Christianity to be sort of an exclusive club, like a country club or the mafia. God handpicks the people he wants to be up in heaven with him. I don't really blame him for this, I would want to pick the people I'll be surrounded with forever and ever. But then I wonder why he picks some of the people he does... the club thing can't be right.
Maybe God has the biggest game of dice going, maybe God rolls one for each person, or maybe he flips a coin. That can't be right either, math class has taught me that coin probability would make half the people in the world Christians.
Maybe God wants to keep us guessing. He's sure doing a good job of that.
Scenario two: Sanctification is our responsibility. That means it is up to us humans to find a Bible (luckily, Gideon has placed one in every hotel bedside table), accept Jesus into our heart, and learn how to live like a Christian.
This would explain why we don't see more "sanctified" people around.
I'm not sure if this applies to the whole human race, or maybe just college students, but the truth is, we don't like to take responsibility for things.
Look at all the effort it takes to be a Christian. As if we don't have enough textbooks to read, now we have to read about people that lived a long, long time ago in the Bible? We have to "ask Jesus into our heart" (I've always disliked that phrase. I just don't really get it), we have to live like a Christian? That is tough stuff right there.
It is not human nature to forgive a person that has wronged us. If a girl down the hall takes my favorite shirt without asking and rips it, I don't want to forgive her. I want to go to her closet and dump bright green paint all over her clothes. Little forgiveness is hard, but how much more difficult is it to forgive something of significance?
It is not human nature to say I'm broken and crummy and all gross on the inside and quite self-centered. But the Bible says that is what we are. Thats tough to swallow, even with a spoonful of sugar.
It is not human nature to believe and hope and trust in something unseen.
That is why I think sanctification is our responsibility, and that is why we don't see more sanctified people among us. Because living like a Christian is tough.
And this is my disclaimer, that is what I think after thinking about it for twenty minutes, and from my twenty years of life experience and from the sugar high that I am currently on.
The truth is, I don't know if we can figure it all out on this side of life.
I don't think we can figure it all out in this life—but there has to be a better way to live.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post!
Mike