Nature of the path of sanctification

(GB Message)

Satan constantly attempts to prevent believers from reaching the heavenly kingdom offered by Lord Jesus Christ. The magnitude of his venomous mischief in this matter is unimaginable. That is why the word of God has warned believers time again about this danger. The enemy’s various attributes described in scripture such as “murderer” (Jn 8: 44), “liar” (Jn 8: 44), “enemy” (Mt 13: 25, 39), “devourer” and “adversary of the believer” (1 Pet 5: 8), an “accuser” (Rev 12: 1o), and many more are sufficient evidence to understand how venomous he is.

The attribute I am most afraid of is with regard to the first of his qualities that I have listed, namely ‘murderer’. Satan has no power to kill a believer. But he is notoriously cunning and a skilled deceiver, causing many to miss the path of sanctification. That is why we are warned: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring (hungry) lion, seeking someone to devour”, (1 Pet 5: 8). Though the believer is ultimately responsible for the transgression leading to death, the devil could have been indirectly responsible for it. More often than not the devil could act through a person or work through one’s own carnality.

Path of sanctification— the only way to heaven:

The glory of heaven is beyond human comprehension because of our finite mind. Only by faith one can grasp it. It is to such a magnificent place that God has planned to take all the redeemed believers after their life comes to an end on this earth. Satan is very jealous and agitated about this glorious future of mankind, a later creation of God. That is the reason why Satan, the devil, the serpent of old, “has come down … having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time”, Rev 12: 12. His objective is to cause the downfall of as many potential believers as possible and cause God great agony, the One who loved them so much that He did not hesitate to give His only begotten Son to die on a cruel cross as an atoning sacrifice for their salvation. It is simply incredible that human beings are so gullible and are attracted to satan, their deadliest enemy, and deluded by his outwardly attractive gestures, in spite of God’s love and His offer to take them into His magnificent kingdom.

Path of sanctification— why:
The path of sanctification is the only right-royal way to fulfill the conditions of God to proceed in our journey and inherit His kingdom. By grace, God has offered this provision to be in His heaven. It is not, as Satan has caused some to imagine, that God has complicated the process so that only some can make it to heaven. As a truth seeker and a committed pilgrim to His kingdom, I do not see any grain of truth in such an assumption.

The Lord Jesus is the only way to heaven, Jn 14: 6. By path of sanctification, we refer to the path laid down by Him in the scriptures by which believers must walk. We need to progress in that path with the help of the word of God as understood with the aid of the Holy Spirit, remaining in a genuine church or in close association with such a church. If we are honest and humble, the Holy Spirit will surely help us to progress successfully in that path since by our own strength we cannot walk in that path.

The fact is that all men sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Paraphrasing it, the fall is so devastating that mankind has lost a glorious chance of attaining immortal life and inheriting God’s kingdom, the place of ultimate joy and tranquility. God had planned to offer this chance to mankind after the fall of Lucifer whom He had loved very much. God created human beings and intended to elevate them to a position on a par with Lucifer if not higher. Today, there is left for us only one way to reach what God has kept for us. This way is through the path of sanctification. It was the way of the churches in the first century and godly churches through ages past. It is the path that EBA has also taken. We can understand the pros and cons of it only in our eternal life. For now, it is enough if we believe it.

God kept the first parents in quarantine at the Garden of Eden, in order to give them a chance to be in heaven with Him. It is there that they disobeyed God’s command, trusting in the word of Satan. So they and all humanity became guilty of sin and fell short of the glory of God. God intended to give humanity a second and final chance to restore them to a position even higher than their original position. It could be done only gradually and step by step and not all at once. This is God’s plan according to His revelation through the Bible, the word of God.

In order to consummate His plan He had set up two preliminary steps. One offering His Son as an atoning sacrifice for the restoration of mankind from their degradation. This He did two thousand years ago and announced this fact to the whole world inviting them to avail this blessing of redemption. This is the good news which is known by various phrases such as the ‘Gospel of salvation’, ‘the Gospel of Christ’, ‘the Gospel in the Bible’, and simply the ‘Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ’.

All mankind ought to have rushed to the Lord Jesus to avail of this rare chance of having their original glorious state restored. Contrary to God’s expectation, very few responded to God’s call but the majority chose to ignore His loving offer. It is an extremely strange predicament for human beings because God does not offer them a neutral position. They have the choice of either accepting God’s offer by grace and be saved or be damned. Those who reject this offer have to be thrown into the lake of fire along with Satan. Perhaps this lake of fire is the molten result after of the dissolution of the entire cosmos by fire. Those who are thrown thus into hell will suffer eternally; they cannot die, since they had been created in the image of God. Satan knows this, and his only consolation lies in drawing as many human beings as possible to experience this torture along with him forever. This is exactly where we left at the beginning of this article and digressed a bit inevitably. Let us now pick up the thread from where we left off.

The next step for those who respond to God’s call for salvation consists in progressing steadily in a discipline set up by Lord Jesus till one’s life in this earth is finished. Such a discipline announced in the Bible is known as the path of sanctification, and is set up by the Lord Jesus. It is one steady non-stop march.

Path of sanctification— five-fold in nature:

This sanctified path is inseparably five-fold in nature:

1. Lord Jesus Christ, the only way.
2. Walking the narrow path
3. Taking it by violence
4. Taking the way of the cross
5. Being poor in spirit.

These five-fold nature of the sanctified path is God-ordained and only He knows why He has to enforce such a discipline. It is here that satan subtly attempts to enter the scene to change God’s commanded pattern in various ways, qualitatively, quantitatively and in innumerable ways unobtrusively. Observing God’s rules in such haphazard manner is as bad as disobedience. Let me explain these facts under each item.

(1) Lord Jesus Christ, the only Way   John 14:6
One can never hope to inherit the kingdom of heaven any way other than through Lord Jesus. This is the lifeline or the essence of the five-fold nature of the path of sanctification. He, as the Word of God, is the author of the Bible, and also the head of the church. He has ordained this path of sanctification exclusively for all those who have taken refuge in Him. This is a crucial area for Satan to meddle with. People may try to deviate from this path on their own or in connivance with the Satanic influence as they have the free will to behave any way they like. Lord Jesus will never admit such people into His unique kingdom. Nominal Christians are one of the categories of people belonging to this group. Many churches, even among evangelical churches have already deviated from the limits of the path of sanctification. Their official statements of faith may be spotless doctrinally but they are merely cosmetic; the average person does not know what those statements mean, and the leaders do not care to look into such details. It is a tragedy beyond description.

Jesus Christ, the word of God, is the author of the entire Bible. The inspired word of God or the verses in the Bible can be understood only with the help of His Holy Spirit. Only some people have the anointing to understand and teach them. That is the reason for the warning, “Let not many of you become teachers”, James 3: 1. The early churches followed this rule strictly. But in later centuries, the Roman church abused this rule, making it mandatory that only so-called clergy can handle the word, and the so-called laity should not have access to the reading of the Bible. Satan has succeeded in making inroads into Christendom and corrupted an important principle. The border line is not easy to find. The other extreme lay in recruiting young men without the calling for Theological training, and making them pastors and teachers. An Indian proverb speaks of entrusting the responsibility of guarding cooked crabs to a fox! Can a flock be entrusted to anyone and everyone?

In one home I heard a conversation that went something like this:

A: What should we do with him. He is an incorrigible undisciplined boy.
B: How about putting him in a theological college. We can use our influence for the admission.
C: But I already had a chat with him; he has an aversion for theological profession.
D: Let me talk to him; I am confident that I can convince him.

The talk between D and the boy went something like this:

D: I heard you disliked joining a Theological school. Listen to me. You can never command so much respect in any other profession. You will look very impressive in the white cassock. Besides, you will get a good house with garden, a church peon whom you can use for your domestic work. You can travel frequently with board and stay in comfortable lodges at the church’s expense. You can never hope to get any job anywhere with your present qualification with such a salary and perquisites. What more do you expect in life?
The boy: OK, in deference to your advice, I agree.
D: I am happy for you, clever chap. I wish you all the best in life.

This is not an isolated case. I also know of many cases where they get a chance to go abroad in the pretext of studying theology and then switch over to some other profession.

Today where do we find a church worth its salt? Suppose babies were bred and reared in industrial units and sold commercially, what would they be like? Today’s churches are like commercial products in various attractive shades and shapes, being pastored by unscrupulous people. Do you think such pastors or their sheep will have access to that unique great kingdom of God?

(2) Walking the narrow path
This phrase could indicate one or more of the following situations that a spiritual pilgrim may have to encounter.
As different from an ordinary once-born person, the born again person faces innumerable new problems:

• Two laws at loggerheads: Proceeding in the narrow path, the person suddenly realizes that there are two laws operating in him, one from the regenerated spirit struggling to please God and the other from his old carnal spirit. The two are at loggerheads with each other. Earlier he would not have experienced such a struggle. But a born-again person determined to progress will certainly overcome the carnal attitude.
• Peculiar antagonism: Another problem that the narrow path involves is the peculiar antagonism to be experienced by genuine Christians from all directions just because they are believers. The world in general hates believers. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world … therefore the world hates you”, (Jn 15: 19).
• Various trials that believers face: The third problem involved is that of the trials peculiar to true believers. If the believer is prepared for it, he will not consider it as anything unusual. Quoting a supporting verse, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven’ ” (Acts 14: 22)
• Temptation to compromise: Yet another hurdle that I consider formidable is, the temptation to compromise with the worldly people and unbelievers at the expense of deviating from the strictness needed to walk in the narrow path. This is most dangerous. If one is not too careful he will unconsciously stray on to the broad path leading to destruction.

(3) Taking it by violence
This is almost another way of saying that the pilgrim’s progress is an uphill task and not one that is smooth sailing. This is one of the most important and extremely valuable hints for believers. This is very much unlike life in traditional churches, where the situation is static, following an order of service that is 200 years old, entirely outward and cosmetic without any sign of spirituality. But according to the word of God “the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent take it by force”, (Mt 11: 12). According to Luke, “Everyone is pressing into it” (Luke 16: 16), signifying the zeal with which sinners were seeking with all their heart. We read in the book of Isaiah “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near;” (Is 55: 6).

The kingdom of heaven is not like an ordinary commodity that you can have at any time you wish, or at anytime when you are ready. The scripture warns repeatedly to call upon Him while He is near, for ‘when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open for us’ and He will answer and say to you ‘I do not know you, where you are from’, (Lk 13: 25).

To me it appears to be like getting into a moving electric train which starts moving with an acceleration. A weak, sleepy, or careless person can never get into such a train. It is not like the old fashioned steam locomotive into which even a sickly old man could manage to get in. The devil tries to mislead us into complacency by suggest to us that we must take it easy for after all, come what may, once saved is forever saved. How precariously some of us escaped from a such an attitude!

(4) Taking the way of the cross
Lord Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”, Lk 9: 23.

The cross here symbolizes the attitude of the believer who is ready to face the worst in life in his spiritual pilgrimage. The word ‘cross’ also stands for one’s readiness to face any situation in life, even death, for the sake of Lord Jesus. To quite a few Christians, Christianity is nothing much beyond the baptism stage. Up to that stage there is vim and vigour. Thereafter we find hardly a difference between them and nominal Christians.

(5) Being poor in spirit
Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his classic book on the “Sermon on the Mount” states with great conviction “This, of necessity is the one which must come at the beginning for the good reason that there is no entry into the kingdom of heaven apart from it. There is no one in the kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit. It is the fundamental characteristic of the Christian and of the citizen of the kingdom of heaven and all other characteristics are in a sense the results of this one”.

“That is perhaps the reason why it is stated in the book of Isaiah. “Heaven is my throne and the earth is My footstool. . . For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist . . . But on this one I will book: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word”, Is 66: 1, 2.

Lloyd-Jones has correctly discovered that this poverty in spirit is the fundamental characteristic in a man who aspires to be in God’s kingdom. This is therefore chosen to be the fifth of the five-fold nature of the path of sanctification. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God ”, Mt 5: 3.  Interestingly the same phrase is used with respect to the children also. “Let the little children come to Me… for such is the kingdom of God ”, Mk 10: 14.  To be in heaven, we understand that we must be poor in spirit (very humble), and innocent like children.  In order to attain the two aforestated characters we need the power of the Holy Spirit, Who alone can import these qualities.  It is very important (1) that we must aspire for it and (2) pray to God to imparting these qualities to us.

The reason I have mentioned it as five-fold instead of merely five characteristics is that these form an inseparable and interdependent unit. They cannot be viewed separately although we have just discussed and analyzed them individually for better understanding. They are like various parts of one and the same unit, the path of sanctification and are its boundaries. We must not deviate from any of them. If one is careful to keep himself well within these boundaries, we can assume that he is progressing well and is sure to reach the goal.