Sanctify Them

I think there are multitudes of people who love the idea of being Christian. I am reminded of a line in the movie, Freedom Writers. When Erin Grewell’s husband says he is leaving her because she is working so much, she protests that she loves him. His response: you love the idea of me. Wanting to be married to the right man was a noble desire; unfortunately, Erin’s zeal for her career left no time for what a real marriage required. In like manner, Christians who are so wrapped up in worldly pursuits often spend little time nurturing the things that evidence true Christianity.

There was a time when being a Christian was admirable. Being a Christian meant being nice. Being a Christian meant being a moral person. Being a Christian meant having the Bible in public schools and “under God” in the pledge of allegiance. Being Christian elevated one from being pagan, a state once thought to be sub-human. “Christian” became an adjective having little to do with a religion and being more about a certain quality as in “Christian charity.” To be American was to be Christian, according to much popular thinking, as if it were a national distinction. All that has changed.

The divisive political climate in America has made being Christian less popular. Many on the left see Christianity as a scourge to be removed. Christians are now blamed for many of our perceived social ills. First Amendment freedom of religion is not extended to Christian practitioners who hold to doctrine that contradicts leftist ideology. With dwindling church attendance, especially among young people, and the absence of the Bible from the public square, people are left with a warped notion of what it means to be a Christian. This is the perfect ground in which to sow the seeds of distrust and even hate for what it means to be a Christian.

Belief in God is, naturally, a corollary of being Christian. Because the Bible is now absent from what has been called “general knowledge” in America, people are creating their own image of who God is. I agree with the apologist who once said that even he didn’t believe in the God that the atheist claims does not exist. The not-god of modern atheism does not exist. Sadly, knowledge of the true God does not exist broadly either. Many opponents of Christianity are opposed to an idea that is not at all Christian.

In this situation, it is more important than ever that Bible believers who follow Jesus Christ live truly Christian lives. In Jesus’ prayer for His disciples in John 17, He prayed that they might be sanctified in the truth of the Word of God. (John 17:17) Rather than praying that we might be removed from the world, Jesus prayed that we would become beacons of truth in the world. The core meaning of being sanctified is to be set apart. Christians more than ever now need to be set apart from the world. We must re-establish what the idea of being Christian means.

This means loving more than the idea of being Christian; this means being light and salt. This means speaking and living the truth as written in God’s Word. This means following the advice of Matthew Henry’s commentary on John 17:17: “The real holiness [sanctification] of all true Christians is the fruit of Christ’s death…. he gave himself for his church, to sanctify it. If our views have not this effect on us, they are not Divine truth, or we do not receive them by a living and a working faith, but as mere notions [the idea of being Christian]."

I will close with the words of Charles Spurgeon: “What is a Christian? If you compare him with a king, he adds priestly sanctity [sanctification] to royal dignity. The king’s royalty often lieth only in his crown, but with a Christian it is infused into his inmost nature. He is as much above his fellows through his new birth, as a man is above the beast that perisheth. Surely he ought to carry himself, in all his dealings, as one who is not of the multitude, but chosen out of the world, distinguished by sovereign grace, written among “the peculiar people” and who therefore cannot grovel in the dust as others, nor live after the manner of the world’s citizens. Let the dignity of your nature, and the brightness of your prospects, O believers in Christ, constrain you to cleave unto holiness [sanctification], and to avoid the very appearance of evil.” We have to correct the world’s idea of what it means to be a Christian.

Related posts: Bringing the Kingdom; Truth Dysphoria; Truth Matters