I am a failure. Now you argue...but you are wrong. I created a brochure of Lenten practices and adopted one for my own Lenten discipline. I lasted three days and despite best intentions, didn't get it done. I haven't given up yet...Lent is not over...but I'm pretty sure it's a lost cause.
This week, I got new insight about justification and sanctification...big religious words that most people don't use. Justification I understood as God's work on my behalf. God comes "en-flesh-ment"...incarnate...to embrace the full sinfulness of humanity, and reconcile that sinful humanity to Godself. That is miracle in and of itself. And I think I get that one correctly...all God's work...all our grace...
Then, there is sanctification. I understood that one as our response to God...our "work," if you will, to be more "like God"...to "respond to God's grace" in ways that make us more "holy." We never get it exactly right, but we work toward it and God blesses us...That part, I had wrong.
The better understanding (from my new best friend, Barth) is the idea that God turns toward us in justification, and that GOD turns us toward him in sanctification. We cannot make ourselves holy any more than I can manage to get my Lenten discipline done. We just can't. And if we think we can, we become little mini-gods, saving ourselves and judging others who aren't working as hard as we are.
God turns me toward God, and that is the process of sanctification. I, today, am so very grateful for this God who worked through Christ for the salvation of all, and who patiently continues every minute of every day to turn us back toward God. My Lenten failure becomes the very means of sanctification in the only way it is really possible...through God's work.
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