Sanctification cont.

Although I have many reasons why I believe sanctification is God's responsibility, I also believe it could go either way. When I think about topics such as sanctification, it can be so confusing that I really go back and forth on what I believe. I'm sure you get that way sometimes. After my last blog post I thought I had it all understood and I had figured out what I thought about sanctification. Then Mike asked us the question, "If sanctification is God's responsibility, then why don't we see more "sanctified" people around us"? Now I'm wondering if my stance was really correct.

No doubt God blesses us and makes us holy but to a certain degree sanctification must be our responsibility too. That becomes very clear to me when thinking about how many Christians I interact with every day who are so far from holiness that it's obvious they have not received God's sanctification. I'm learning more and more from interactions with elders in my church and also here at Taylor how much Christianity is a constant growing process. We receive the gift of God's grace and holiness when we accept Christ but it is our choice to take that gift and use it. I think it is very common in the believing community to accept Christ as your Savior and then think God will do everything for them. Our responsibility as Christians is to love God and follow hard after him every day. If we are effectively doing that I think then will we receive sanctification through Christ.