Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 5:3 (NIV) -

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Recap:

- Submitting to God, like submitting a test, means completely giving ourselves to Him to be judged, without taking anything back.

- The Bible is our textbook, which we can study to learn how God wants us to live.

- Jesus, the perfect student, sacrificed Himself to give His friends an answer key so we can properly interpret the Bible.

- Obedience to God's Word is the proof that we are actually one of Jesus' friends.

- Repentance, a complete change of our actions and direction, is absolutely necessary to become Jesus' friends.

- The Holy Spirit acts as our tutor, teaching us what's right and wrong, then helping us live it out so we can be more like Jesus.

- Prayer is a conversation with God. We can talk about Him, us, or others, but we also need to spend time listening to Him. As we do, He will give us His Spirit to help us know His voice and obey Him...

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So many people in the secular world have trouble reconciling an all-loving God with a God who would make people go to hell. That they often forget is that God is also completely just, and the punishment for sin is death. But despite that punishment, God gives us our entire life to make a decision to come into relationship with Him through His Son, promising that if we do we will be made right with Him. We only ever deserved punishment, but God offers us eternal reward - how is that not love?

If you still think that it's unfair that someone should spend eternity in hell for not choosing God in their lifetime, I offer a different situation. We've been talking through the idea of taking a test - imagine that this test is open-book, notes allowed, and you are allowed to take it again every single day for your entire life. At the end of each day, you are given the test back with all of your marks so you can see what is right and what is wrong, and then you can take it to your tutor to help you understand the answers you got wrong. You even know someone who has a copy of the answer key, and if you're willing to become their friend, they'll give it to you for free so you can take it into the test with you.

Imagining that the average person lives for 70 years (for example), that means you're able to sit this test 25,550 times, learning from what you did wrong each time and with the answers right next to you to copy. Is it still unfair if, after all those times, you fail the test because you weren't putting the right answers down?

It doesn't matter what resources you have at your disposal, you are still going to fail if you don't change your wrong answers. If you are being shown what's wrong, don't stubbornly keep filling in that answer! You have to learn what the correct answer is, then actually give it in the test. This is the process which we call sanctification.

Each day, we go through life, doing some things right and some things wrong. Unless you have seared your conscience into complete insensitivity, chances are you'll instinctively know which is which. As Paul says, "They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right." (Romans 2:15 NLT)

When we become friends with Jesus and He gives us His answer key - salvation - we now are even more sure than ever before. But in order to pass the test, we need to learn to put the right answers in - obedience. Our tutor, the Holy Spirit, helps us study for the test using our textbook, the Bible, so we understand the concepts and can apply them in any situation. It is then up to us, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to decide if we will keep giving the wrong answers, or if we will change them to what is right based on the things we are learning.

We get the opportunity to try again every single day. It is never too late to start. But you have to choose to first, then keep choosing to, otherwise it will all go to waste. But for those who do decide, eternity awaits.

It's been a hectic couple of days, hence why I've taken longer than usual to post this. Also, I know I said this would be the last post in this mini-series (not Thought of the Day, just this thread), but I think there is one more thing I'd like to do before I wrap it up. Tomorrow, we will go back to the verse that started it all, James 4:7, and unpack it using the new things we've discussed over the last week and a half. See y'all then!