In the previous post I did a recap of the event.
I went to the Death To Performance event because when I first saw it, I thought, “yes, I see that struggle in myself”. That is, the struggle to perform and be accepted and thinking through what that breeds in me. I do not want to live and die on, or for, my performance and abilities. BUT, I do want to live and die on, or for, God’s ability and performance. That is what living a Gospel centered life is about. So that is why I went.
The overarching takeaway for me was sanctification. I am going through a class at church that is dealing with sanctification, as well as reading books on it, and the Lord is continually working it in my heart.
One of the things that bothers me is that we trust God to justify us, that is, we call on Jesus to save us, and He truly does… and He truly begins a good work… and He will truly continue that work. But so many times we do not trust God to set us apart. That is, there is no evidence of our faith for sanctification. Faith without works is dead.
So on the one hand, people feel the need to perform and they become steeped in legalism and “do not touch, do not taste, do not handle” or on the other hand, people say God will change me in time, I trust Him to do it… and yet there is no evidence of that trust.
The Bible is very clear that “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.“ – Romans 8:13. So, just as in salvation, we must be saved, but we cannot do it, so in being set apart, we must be set apart, but we cannot do it. We must “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” Therefore we come to be set apart the same way we are saved. We pray for it… we believe and receive… by faith… and there is evidence of that faith.
So then we can see why Jesus gave us the example to pray in John 17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” If God is already doing the work in the disciples why would Jesus pray for the work to be done… because that is our trust, that is our faith… we are partnered in it. Paul continually prayed for the sanctification or the set apartness or the enlightening or the understanding of all the churches that he ministered to. David prayed for his own set apartness:
“Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!” – Psalm 119: 36
“Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.” – Psalm 19:13
Just as we pray, “Lord save me”, so we must pray “Lord set me apart, sanctify me”. I am afraid that too many times, myself included, we are comfortable at the pace of our sanctification… or the pace being slow… we are ok with the level of sin… and do not realize that having less sin in our life is so much better than having more. We are not often enough staggered by sin’s oppositeness to all that is good and all that is from God.
Wisdom is needed from God on being set apart and dwelling with others at all different levels in their own walk with Jesus and not being self righteous, or legalistic… but the fear of merely appearing that way, should not hinder one from yielding to the sanctifying work of the Spirit in one’s own life. That is what I love about Jesus. He hung out with fishermen and tax collectors and was perfectly holy and set apart… and in that, sometimes the consciences of others cannot help but be pricked.
In the end, the performance is all of God. So we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God working in us both to will, and to do for His good pleasure. Then when we are given any crowns we are going to cast them right back at the feet of Jesus because it was Him doing the work all along… He graciously asks us to join in.
“For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.” – Colossians 1:29
Welp. At the conference, I received a copy of John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin. So, I shall soon see what he had to say on the subject.