Sanctification

"May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through."
-1 Thessalonians 5:23
      Recently I had the pleasure of cleaning my family's trash can. It was nasty and disgusting, but it had to be cleaned because flies were constantly in it and started laying eggs. I wondered what the point of cleaning it was, since it would just get dirty again. After all, a trash can constantly has trash put in it and is always full of trash. Why bother cleaning it? Even though I knew it would get dirty again, it was so disgusting I couldn't just leave it in that state. I know I will probably have to clean again, but I'm willing to do it because I don't want it to have flies in it and stay dirty.
     As I thought about these things, I realized that this is similar to how God "cleans" us. Sad to say, we are like the trash can. We always sin and are full of sin. By nature we are sinful, just like by nature a trash can has trash in it. Despite what most people think, we are not "clean" people. In other words, we are not righteous people, but sinful and dirty. The good news is, just like I was willing to clean the trash can, God is willing to cleanse us.
      Why cleanse us if we are just going to sin repeatedly? Trust me, God knows that we are sinful people and we are going to keep on sinning, but He also doesn't want us to be that way. God cleanses us so that we can do what we have been called to do according to His purpose. He doesn't just clean us once; it is a continual process. He wants to sanctify us everyday. He doesn't want to leave us in the sinful state we are in, but He wants to sanctify us everyday to make us more like Him.
     This brings up another important question. Why did Jesus die on the cross if we are just going to keep on sinning? Jesus died for us once for all. This means His grace covers all our sin- past, present, and future. All of our sins have been taken by Jesus on the cross, and His righteousness has been given to us. Obviously this cannot mean His righteous character because we continue to sin, similar to how Jesus did not have a sinful nature. Rather, we take the consequences or benefits of Jesus' righteousness, just as Jesus took the consequences for our sins. Jesus died so that we might be considered righteous before God.
      Sanctification occurs so that we develop a righteous character. God knows there is no possible way that we can become righteous before Him, which is why He sent Jesus to die for our sins. He sanctifies us to make our character more like Jesus' character. God is not satisfied with our sinful state, and He wants to continually make us more and more like Jesus. The point of sanctification is not to save us, for that is what the cross has done, but to allow us to do good works for God. Let us continually ask God to sanctify us and make us more like Jesus.
-Smart