UTMOST
July 23, 2009
SANCTIFICATION
Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us ... sanctification.
1 Corinthians 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."
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LeastMost:
Utmost with the Least Most
Set apart.
Realizing I am nothing isn't hard when I look in the mirror, but what is a miracle is realizing God sees me as perfect.
Not perfected, but perfect in grace, established in mercy, sanctified by the Life and Death of the Son of God.
When He looks at me, He see's a life lived like Jesus did. An obedient life living after not the flesh like I know I do, but after the Spirit of God as He is doing in me and through me.
Thank God I may never see that aspect of His Work to me, but I can be humbled by my sin that is prevalent to me. I am a sinner, that is obvious.
What is not obvious is sanctification meant He already placed me in a category separated from the World and called me Holy.
Love like that dumbfounds me and makes me childlike running to a Father who could do know me so well in my sin, save me from my actions, sanctify me from my judgement and cause me leap into the lap of a God who is not ashamed to call me His Son.
THAT is all Jesus did.
That is good news for me a sinner.
It is great news for those who don't know God yet because it isn't a message of Clean Up and Fix Up, but one of Loving us up to a higher calling than we had ever imagined or dared to believe we could live.
One where He will say...,
"..,presented faultless before the Father with exceeding Joy."
Michael James Stone
UTMOST
