SANCTIFICATION, PROCESS OF
God deals with some people like grapes. He seems to take them in one bite, to take hold of their whole life all at once. Others are dealt with more like onions. God seems to take them one layer at a time.1186
Construction activity is going on as God is building his church. You probably have seen the button given out at the Basic Youth Conflicts Seminars that has the letters “PBPGINTWMY” on it. It is designed, of course, to evoke the question, “What do all of those letters mean?” The answer is: “Please Be Patient, God Is Not Through With Me Yet.” It is true that we are “under construction.”1187
God’s work of grace apparently moves downward through our physical body. The last part of us to experience full salvation seems to be our right foot! Actually, the way we act behind the wheel of a car is often more indicative of our walk with God than the way we act praying in a pew or smiling over a well-marked Bible. So, if we occasionally must speed, maybe it would help to sing loudly:
At 45 m.p.h.—“God Will Take Care of You”
At 55 m.p.h.—“Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”
At 65 m.p.h.—“Nearer, My God, to Thee”
At 75 m.p.h.—“Nearer, Still Nearer!”
At 85 m.p.h.—“This World Is Not My Home”
At 95 m.p.h.—“Lord, I’m Coming Home”
Over 100 m.p.h.—“Precious Memories”1188
The process of sanctification is something like the springtime ritual of “scalping” a lawn. After months of inactivity and apparent deadness the thick and tangled thatch of dead and decaying grass must be violently removed to allow the fresh, new, green growth to appear.
So God uses the trials and problems of our Christian life to strip away the worthless and self-defeating habits of our old nature. This allows the glorious new nature, God’s own loving, holy character, to appear and triumph through us.1189
The process of sanctification can be compared to an iceberg, which is almost 90 percent under water. As the sun shines on the iceberg, the exposed part melts, moving the lower part upward.
In the same way, we are usually aware of only a small part of our sinfulness and need, which is all we can deal with at any one time. However, as the light of God’s work in our lives changes us in the areas we know about, we become aware of new areas needing the work of God.1190
A little boy had a toothache and knew that if he went to his mother, she would give him something to deaden the pain and let him get to sleep that night. But he did not go to his mother, at least not until the pain was very bad, because he knew she would also do something else—take him to the dentist the next morning. He could not get what he wanted, immediate relief from pain, without getting something more, having his tooth repaired. And, since he knew dentists, he knew that something else would probably happen to his mouth, because dentists tend to fiddle about with other teeth, those that have not yet begun to ache.
Our Lord is like a dentist. People go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure us of that sin, all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked for, but if you call him in, he is likely to give you the full treatment.1191