True confessions: after years of exposure to the doctrine of entire sanctification, I still don’t “get it.” A crisis and a process. Perfection of will but not perfection of behavior. A second work of grace, even though you’ve given your life to Christ already.
Could it be as simple as this one sentence from Oswald Chambers today? “Consecration is our part, sanctification is God’s part.” Consecration–inviting God to investigate each area of myself as it rises to my attention, and to show me the “logs in my eye” that make blockades against him–is my part. When he shows me a log, I choose whether to move it out of the way or not. It’s always a free choice, and sometimes I’m not to the point where I see the cost clearly enough to do the necessary work of moving the log right away. But if I do move it, that place is consecrated (prepared for him), and he is free to sanctify me there–if he chooses. Or maybe he’ll let me wrestle a while longer to develop a spiritual habit, or an awareness of the extent of my sin. It’s his call: microwave holiness or crock-pot holiness. The most I can do is prepare the way.
This goes along with something Boundaries with Kids has helped me to see about myself. God can’t produce his fruit where I’m not submitting to reality–submitting to the boundaries he’s placed around me in his world. I can’t just pray for the result–fruit of the spirit–without meeting the conditions required to make my heart a fit soil for his spirit to take root. He can’t yet indwell me in those places where I’m immature, refusing to accept reality and insisting that it become easier before I face it. His boundaries won’t change. Immaturity=rebellion in those places.
I don’t see how “entire sanctification” is possible in this life, at least for me, because I’ll never be perfectly mature in all areas. (I’d settle for just a few… <sigh>) So I say with Chambers, “Consecration is our part; sanctification is God’s part.” I can’t see how you can make a doctrine out of “entire sanctification” without putting God in a box. But if there’s such a thing as a doctrine of “increasing consecration,” sign me up!
