Our Young Adults group in church recently started to brainstorm for topics for our Young Adults retreat. One of the topics I proposed was sanctification. There are twofold reasons for this. When people think of the gospel what they have in mind is usually justification alone. But this sadly misses out on another gift of grace that is sanctification. God saves but God also perfects! Without sanctification, all obedience is a reliance on self-effort and hence we are grooming Pharisees rather than disciples.
Hebrews 12:2 powerfully captures this idea. Jesus Christ is rightly attributed as both the founder and the PERFECTER of our faith: " ... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
The other reason is a personal one. There was a time gap between my understanding of justification and my understanding of sanctification. Why this is so I do not know, but it is definitely observable that I am not the only one. The idea of sanctification seems a lot more difficult to grasp but it is tragic that sanctification often becomes the forgotten gospel and by virtue of that, the Holy Spirit becomes the forgotten God (not that there is another, but to emphasize the point I will use this rather irreverent description. God have mercy)
But the other topic I am proposing, one that I think is worth dwelling a bit more in my own personal life even if we don't choose to do this topic is the idea of the syncretistic Christian.
Syncretism can be loosely translated as dual worship although the actual meaning of the word carries more than just that. In everyday terms, it is simply the worship of God without letting go of the worship of idols. The worse thing about syncretism is the deception it plants in every believer (I am trusting in Jesus Christ, so I should be alright). Perhaps the second worse thing it does, is that syncretism involves God and brings God into the believer's idolatry.
Where can we expose the syncretistic heart? I will try to summarize two points on how this occurs in Christian life:
(1) Syncretistic Christians follow Christ so that God will deliver the idolatries of their hearts
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." (John 6:26)
(2) Syncretistic Christians pray syncretistic prayers and give thanks to God when an idolatrous pursuit seems to be granted. This is captured harrowingly in Saul's speech when Ziphites revealed to him the location of David as he was pursuing David's life
Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.” And Saul said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me."
(1 Samuel 23:19-21)
Are these the marks of our lives? We must surely force ourselves this question. Are we following God or are we merely following our idols and using God as a vehicle to grant the idolatries of our hearts? There are surely more marks of the syncretistic Christian that we can identify and this topic is worth developing further.
Hebrews 12:2 powerfully captures this idea. Jesus Christ is rightly attributed as both the founder and the PERFECTER of our faith: " ... looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."
The other reason is a personal one. There was a time gap between my understanding of justification and my understanding of sanctification. Why this is so I do not know, but it is definitely observable that I am not the only one. The idea of sanctification seems a lot more difficult to grasp but it is tragic that sanctification often becomes the forgotten gospel and by virtue of that, the Holy Spirit becomes the forgotten God (not that there is another, but to emphasize the point I will use this rather irreverent description. God have mercy)
But the other topic I am proposing, one that I think is worth dwelling a bit more in my own personal life even if we don't choose to do this topic is the idea of the syncretistic Christian.
Syncretism can be loosely translated as dual worship although the actual meaning of the word carries more than just that. In everyday terms, it is simply the worship of God without letting go of the worship of idols. The worse thing about syncretism is the deception it plants in every believer (I am trusting in Jesus Christ, so I should be alright). Perhaps the second worse thing it does, is that syncretism involves God and brings God into the believer's idolatry.
Where can we expose the syncretistic heart? I will try to summarize two points on how this occurs in Christian life:
(1) Syncretistic Christians follow Christ so that God will deliver the idolatries of their hearts
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." (John 6:26)
(2) Syncretistic Christians pray syncretistic prayers and give thanks to God when an idolatrous pursuit seems to be granted. This is captured harrowingly in Saul's speech when Ziphites revealed to him the location of David as he was pursuing David's life
Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon? Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand.” And Saul said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me."
(1 Samuel 23:19-21)
Are these the marks of our lives? We must surely force ourselves this question. Are we following God or are we merely following our idols and using God as a vehicle to grant the idolatries of our hearts? There are surely more marks of the syncretistic Christian that we can identify and this topic is worth developing further.
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