Adam White

Whereas justification is totally down to God and we contribute nothing towards it, sanctification is a co-operative effort between us and God. God wants us to be involved in our growth but doesn’t leave it entirely up to us…

God’s role in sanctification

Each member of the trinity (father, son and spirit) has a role in our sanctification:

God disciplines us as a father: He shows us the path to holiness  by correcting us in love when we stray. Hebrews 12:7-11 beautifully illustrates God’s discipline as a method of teaching.

Jesus earned our sanctification and became our sanctification with what he achieved here on the Earth (1 Corinthians 1:30). But just as importantly, Jesus is our example for sanctification. He came to show us how we are to live our lives. We are to pursue a likeness with Jesus (1 Peter 2:21 and 1 John 2:6)

However, it is specifically the Holy Spirit that works within us to change us and sanctify us. 2 Thessalonians 2:13, Galatians 5:22-23 and Galatians 5:16-17 all show how the Spirit within us works to change us.

Our role in sanctification

To begin with our role is a passive one: We depend on God to save us and allow him to work in us.

However, we need to be cautious so not to become lazy and fall back on the passive role and wait on God to do all the work. So we also have an active role in that we strive to obey God and take steps to increase our sanctification. Philippians 2:12-13 says we need to “work out our own salvation” and I love how Hebrews 5:12-14 tells us to grow up and train ourselves for God.

Both the passive role and active role are important but if we neglect our active role of striving to obey God we become passive, lazy Christians and if we neglect the passive role of trusting God and yielding to him we become proud and overly-confident in ourselves. The correct balance is vital!

To be continued…

View entire series

Posted by Adam under Faith | No Comments »

This is from another email I was sent today:

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. – Malachi 3:3

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’

She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?

He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.’

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

I find it amazing that I can look at a verse like Malachi 3:3 and just pass over it without thinking. But if you stop and look a little closer you realise the true depth of what is being said.  I don’t think I like the idea of being put in a hot fire though even if the outcome is worth it. It is a very challenging thing to face and I wonder how I’ll cope. Thankfully I don’t have to face anything alone because God is right there with me :)

Posted by Adam under Faith | No Comments »

Lindsay has posted an interesting bible study on our needs and God’s riches on her website.

I think it is amazing how God seems to talk to us about something from so many places at the same time. My church preached on Sunday about God vs Gold and then last night I happened to listen to a couple of Northpoint sermons on money. And then today I read this bible study by my friend Lindsay saying almost the same thing again!

The challenge I feel God is setting for me is to re-evaluate what I am doing with my riches. God has given me all that I need and has blessed me with much more. But what should I do with the more? Should I be saving it for a rainy day like the rich man in Luke 12:13? According to Jesus no. We have this view that when God blesses us with extra it is for us when in fact it is for us to give to others.

The best explanation I have heard is to give first to God, then save and use the rest to live on. I feel challenged at the moment to work out what I need to live on and use the rest more wisely (i.e. no more DVDs that I don’t watch or books I never read) but to save some and use the rest for the glory of God. I also feel like I need to look at all the things I already have and work out how I can best leverage them for God (this could mean giving things away or maybe using them for a better purpose than gathering dust in my garage/loft).

When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount he clearly says we should store up riches in heaven and not on earth (Matthew 6:19). Am I being a good steward of things here on earth? I think I could do better as I am storing up too many things for myself.

A Spirit-led rethink is needed I think!

Posted by Adam under Faith | 2 Comments »

Mark Driscoll recently spoke at the Brighton Conference (I didn’t attend but I have since started to catch up on what I missed) and in one of his talks he spoke about the Holy Spirit and how Jesus wasn’t the ultimate missionary alone.

Isn’t it funny how a lot of teaching about Jesus says he was born, died and rose again. Whatever happened to the 30 years when he walked on the Earth? A lot of people miss this part out but it is crucial to Christians to understand this fully. Jesus could have very easily have clicked his fingers and forgiven all our sins and yet he chose to die on that cross to show us the sacrifice and the cost. In the same way he walked on the Earth for 30 years to show us how it should be done!

But he didn’t do it alone. Jesus didn’t start his ministry until after a very significant moment: His baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. Until the Holy Spirit had come and rested on him he did not have what was required to do what needed to be done. I believe that as a normal man Jesus chose not to use some of the divine powers he had. Instead the Holy Spirit enabled him to do the amazing things he did to show us how it could be done. With the Holy Spirit in us we can walk in his shoes and do as he did. With the Holy Spirit resting on us we can achieve great things for God.

However, after Jesus was baptised and had received the Holy Spirit what was the first thing he did? He didn’t come up from that water and head straight to the people. The first thing he did was head out into the wilderness. He needed 40 days of silence, solitude, prayer and fasting to prepare him for what was to come.

Silence
I surround myself with noise all the time. I have music at work and in my car. I have TV and films at home. I even wake up to news on the radio. There is actually so much noise in my life that when I try to fall asleep I struggle because songs are still playing on loop in my brain. How am I meant to hear God through all this racket? It is time to turn off the stereo and listen for God in the silence.

Solitude
This goes hand in hand with the silence. If I surround myself with people all the time they just count as another distraction. I am not saying that I have to live as a hermit but sometimes I should say no to a trip to the cinema and stay in and spend time with God for a change.

Prayer
Silence and solitude without prayer seems silly to me. Prayer is the most important thing we can do in life (along with reading and following the word of God) and there is no better time to do it than when everything is quiet. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pray with other people as this is also important but Jesus thought it important on a number of occasions to get away from the busyness of life and seek solitude to pray to God.

Fasting
Fasting is a new thing to me that I don’t know much about. I have only ever done it at lent but feel like I should do it more regularly. It doesn’t have to be food by the way, that is just the traditional thing to fast from. You could fast from TV or alcohol. There are lots of choices. The important thing as far as I am aware is not to just fast, but whenever you get that feeling of hunger for whatever you are fasting from you must seek God. Use the time that you would be doing whatever it is you have given up to pray and read your bible.

I can’t write an article on this without mentioning the fact that Jesus was also tempted in his 40 days. This will happen to all of us whenever we do something like this to seek God. The devil wants to stop us from getting close to our father in heaven and will try all the tricks in his arsenal to stop us. Like Jesus we must put our trust in the word and the devil will flee from us.

So, I am saying that we should all go and camp in a field for 40 days? Of course not! As none of us are preparing to do what Jesus went onto do I don’t think we have to go to such extremes, but maybe trying to do this on a smaller scale could help us. If you feel like there is something amazing that God wants to do with you in the near future don’t you think you should get yourself prepared? So ask for the Spirit to rest on you, seek God in silence, solitude, prayer and fasting and you will be ready to walk in Jesus’ steps.

Posted by Adam under Faith | 1 Comment »