5 July 2001 Editorial:
Every Day

Larry Kirkpatrick

In Ellen White's precious little book, The Sanctified Life and on page fifteen, we find the following idea: "Every day they will gain self control, until that which is unlovely and unlike Jesus is conquered."

When I thought about this, I asked myself, is everything in me which is unlovely and unlike Jesus, conquered yet? The answer was a definite no. Then I asked myself whether every day I had been gaining in self-control. Again, the answer was no. So I understood that there is a work for me to do that I have not been efficient in accomplishing. I wanted this promise to be true for me.

I'm not sure who among us would claim to be gaining self-control every day. But some of us must be. I think however, that some of us are stuck at the premise: do we really even believe that God will, when we let Him do His work, conquer in us that which is unlovely and unlike Jesus?

Pardon me for saying so, but we have been trained to be a passive generation, and we are the shallower for it. We want to apply the shortcuts where there are no shortcuts. We'd rather that it was done, whether by God or by us, in a magical manner. We'd like God to work some obvious and instant miracle. Our Christianity is of a variety where the words "every day" are unacceptable. Continuous cooperative effort between God and man to save man has been out of vogue for half a century and longer. But to us comes the promise that "every day," in the common Christian experience there will be an incremental increase in Christ-likeness. Perhaps microscopic, nevertheless actual and present, our God has commenced the process of a conquering Christianity in you and in me; but one involving us more actively than we have been culturally imprinted for.

Part of the reason why we are not growing every day is because of a failure to submit to our God every day. We do not naturally humble ourselves before Him, listen for His word. We much prefer our interpretations of His commands to His interpretation of His commands. We are not listening well and so we are not growing well.

We have an attitude problem. This is why sanctification has been pushed aside in favor of justification. Sanctification is undergoing a surgical process right now, which, if successful, will leave it cut-out and lying alongside the road smeared with the blood of a theologically-murdered gospel.

But hear another idea on this:

The most precious fruit of sanctification is the grace of meekness. When this grace presides in the soul, the disposition is molded by its influence. There is a continual waiting upon God and a submission of the will to His. The understanding grasps every divine truth, and the will bows to every divine precept, without doubting or murmuring. True meekness softens and subdues the heart and gives the mind a fitness for the engrafted word. It brings the thoughts into obedience to Jesus Christ. It opens the heart to the word of God, as Lydia's was opened. It places us with Mary, as learners at the feet of Jesus. "The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way" (Ps. 25:9). (Sanctified Life, pp. 14-15).

How is your sanctification going? Would you say that your experience could be described as "a continual waiting upon God and a submission of the will to His"? Is your disposition being molded by the influence of sanctification's grace of meekness? I am learning the truth of this statement, that "True meekness softens and subdues the heart and gives the mind a fitness for the engrafted word." I hope you'll join me in seeking for this rich and precious hope. Perhaps we have never thought that our minds needed a fitness in order to open to the engrafting of the word in them. But I think it is so.

The next paragraph was where our lead quotation arose: "Meekness in the school of Christ is one of the marked fruits of the Spirit. It is a grace wrought by the Holy Spirit as a sanctifier, and enables its possessor at all times to control a rash and impetuous temper. When the grace of meekness is cherished by those who are naturally sour or hasty in disposition, they will put forth the most earnest efforts to subdue their unhappy temper. Every day they will gain self-control, until that which is unlovely and unlike Jesus is conquered. They become assimilated to the Divine Pattern, until they can obey the inspired injunction, 'Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath' (James 1:19)."

At all times? Control at all times? Yes. The gospel changes us. A new day dawns. We become like Jesus. Herein stands the secret of our foe's war against sanctification. Changed people put an end to Satan's claims, for changed people show that there is substance in what God is doing and that there are indeed those who will let Him will and do His good pleasure through them. God grant us the attainment of these rich heights so that He can take us higher still. He is weaving a work and our lives must show it. Now we must bow down before our Lord and receive what He has for so long longed to grant us. And so we must also return to a sanctification emphasis. For too long the world has been subject to this creepy, third-rate justification so-called that hasn't changed anybody because it hasn't been God's justification. Heaven is not fooled. It is when our lives justify God that God's life justifies us.

What kind of people are we? Let us examine ourselves. What kind of people ought we to be? Let us go to Jesus for power. What kind of people will finish the work? Those who have gone to Him and received what He longs to give. This is our work and the work of faith with power. Thus only shall He be glorified through His people. Sanctification is not an add-on, but part and parcel of the very core of what the great controversy is all about. Of all peoples, let us be quick to acknowledge this and defend it, and quicker still to make it a living reality in our own experience.

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