Our Story or God's Story

"Our problem is that we think of ourselves as being at the center of our world. We think of our lives as a story and, if we're Christians, God is one of the characters in our story. We look for him when we need him and expect him to be grateful when we serve him. He's a lovely piece of our story, but we still think of it as our story. But it's not our story. It's God's story... We exist to give him glory"

Tim Chester
You Can Change page 106

"But he said to me,
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

sanctified by faith (part 2)

Just to be clear - the majority of the thought behind this series of posts comes from Tim Chester's book You Can Change. It's a great read and I totally recommend it!

Justification and Sanctification are two words and ideas that are often used together, and perhaps sometimes the lines between the two can be a little blurry. While Chester does a good job of defining both, he appropriately makes sure that we don't try to completely separate the two.

"...we shouldn't separate justification and sanctification. They're joined together so that santification follows where justification leads. Underlying both is our union with Christ by faith. We are justified because we're united to Christ, the Righteous One."

Page 56

Our faith in Jesus' total life and death sacrifice on our behalf is what justifies us in God's sight as well as what sanctifies us. It is truly by faith in what Christ has done and by no other means.

"For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous."

Romans 5:19

Is our faith in your own obedience? Is our faith in your own righteousness? In my head I know the answer to these questions, but sometimes I have to stop and ask myself if my actions show this to be true.

sanctified by faith (part 1a)what is santification?

At the end of Chapter 3 of You Can Change, Tim Chester does a great job of laying out an explanation of justification and sanctification. These next couple posts will relate to those pages (55-57), so that I can absorb what is being communicated and evidenced here.

What's the difference between justification and sanctification? Justification is probably a little easier to define since 'justify' or 'justified' is more commonly used day to day. However, sanctification, at least from my perspective, isn't as well defined and understood. I can't remember the last time I used it in a sentence or conversation.

Chester puts it pretty plainly, so I won't put much effort into redefining it:

• Justification is being made right with God.


• Sanctification is becoming like God.

"God counts me right with him solely because of what Christ as done outside of me without any change on my part. Sanctification, however, takes place within me. It's all about me changing. Justification is a change of my status in God's sight; sanctification is a change of my heart and character"

Tim Chester
You Can Change, pg.56

It would appear that being sanctified is a continual and on-going process. We are never totally like God, and we can only hope to move closer in that direction through the help of the Holy Spirit. I wonder though if justification can be thought of in the same manor - is justification a continual process, or is it a one time occurrence?

repent of our confidence in the flesh

"We need to repent not only of our sin but also of our "righteousness" when we think of it as our righteousness, which we do to prove ourselves and which we think makes us better than other people."

- Tim Chester
You Can Change pg.45

Its a crazy and counter-intuitive idea that I need to "repent of any righteousness of my own that comes from the law, so that in it's place [I] could receive the righteousness from God that depends on faith".