“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”
Colossians 2:6-7
John and Judas are representatives of those who profess to be Christ’s followers. Both these disciples had the same opportunities to study and follow the Divine Pattern. Both were closely associated with Jesus and were privileged to listen to His teaching. Each possessed serious defects of character; and each had access to the divine grace that transforms character. But while one (John) in humility was learning of Jesus, the other (Judas) revealed that he was not a doer of the word, but a hearer only. One, daily dying to self and overcoming sin, 1 Corinthians 15:31, was sanctified through the truth, John 17:17; the other, resisting the transforming power of grace and indulging selfish desires, was brought into bondage to Satan, Romans 6:16-18.
Such transformation of character as is seen in the life of John is ever the result of communion with Christ. There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet when he becomes a true disciple of Christ, the power of divine grace transforms and sanctifies him. Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed from glory to glory, until he is like Him whom he adores, 1 Corinthians 3:18.
“This is the will of God, even your sanctification….”
1 Thessalonians 4:3
The sanctification of the Church is God’s object in all His dealings with His people. He has chosen them from eternity, that they might be holy. He gave His Son to die for them, that they might be sanctified through obedience to the truth, divested of all the littleness of self. From them He requires a personal work, a personal surrender. God can be honoured by those who profess to believe in Him, only as they are conformed to His image and controlled by His Spirit. Then, as witnesses for the Saviour, they may make known what divine grace has done for them.
Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ. Wrongs cannot be righted nor reformations wrought in the character by feeble, intermittent efforts. It is only by long, persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict, that we shall overcome. We know not one day how strong will be our conflict the next. So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained. Sanctification is the result of lifelong obedience.
Excerpt taken from Acts of the Apostles pg. 558-560
Loud Cry Compendium
Loud Cry Compendium 