The Allure of the Mud

"being confident of this very thing,
that he who began a good work in you
will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ:"

American Standard Version (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), Php 1:6.

The Greek for the phrase "will perfect it until" in the verse above is epiteléō. It carries the idea of something being worked on continually until perfection.

So I was a sinner. I died to sin when Christ came into my heart. God now sees me as perfect (holy) and begins the long hard job of making it true. It has already been declared as true by the work Christ did on the cross. God sees it as true in me now because I am covered by the blood of His Son. It is becoming true as I journey with the Spirit toward holiness and become a new creature in my daily walk. It is the "becoming" part that I struggle with. Its called progressive sanctification because I am moving toward holiness. Progressive sanctification says God started to change me into something perfect when I was born again. But the job is not done yet. He gives me the Holy Spirit to help me choose to be holy and he does not give up on me or leave me in my current state because he will complete what he starts and not give up nor take time off from it.

I often take time off from working on my sanctification. Maybe its because a part of me feels like I do not deserve good things. Or maybe its just that I feel incapable of being perfect and sin is too alluring and seems to have such a firm grip on me. I want very much to just magically be holy. But God chooses to roll up his sleeves and work on me rather than instantly make me perfect. Its like a father helping his kid with a school project. God is not the kind of dad that builds the school project himself. Hes the kind of dad that patiently sits with his child as they craft the project from concept to completion. It is a project I would not do unless He was there guiding me. He teaches me how to accomplish what I envision: a life honoring to him. 

As for sin, I still find it alluring. Much like I found mud alluring when I was a child. My mom often told the story of how, when I was about three, my older brother and I wandered out into dirt road in front of my grandparent's house and both of us wound up naked in a mud puddle. My brother's 5 year old mind very logically knew that we would get in trouble if we got our clothes dirty. His solution worked. My mom was so surprised to find us covered in mud while our clothes were neatly folded on the lawn that she did not punish us, aside from making us take an extra long bath.

In my spiritual walk, sometimes I get tired of trying to stay clean. I give up and walk back to the mud hole that Christ plucked me from. I do it for one reason; so I can wallow in sin.  Like a kid playing in mud. It is quite fun at first. It feels good to let go of propriety and sink your hands or feet into the ooey gooey mud of sin. The problem is that I rarely stop with just my hands or feet, soon I become very dirty, sometimes that's enough to cause me to cry out for cleaning but often it takes more than that. 

Too often I become fully immersed in the mud until there is not a clean spot on me. In this state, even the simple task of walking becomes labored. As I become aware of my filthy state it no longer feels so good to be muddy. Then I look at my hands and body and know that my face and hair are caked in muddy sin. The shock is enough to jolt me back to reality. I see my sin for what it is and I want out. I crave to be clean and mud free again. I gave up on being clean. I failed in my sanctification project and now I regret it.

But God NEVER gives up nor does he see me as a failure. He knew what it would take for me to become fully sanctified long before we started the project together. So he is not surprised by my foolish and evil behavior. He is there to lift me out of the muck (again), hose me down and help me get back to work on the project we started together. The project that He will see to completion. 

Strangely even after so long on the project together when I feel so disappointed by my constant wallowing, Jesus calmly accepts me without disappointment. I cannot disappoint Him because he already knew what I was going to do. He saw my whole life from beginning to end, every victory and every wallowing session. He knew the sins I would commit before I was ever born and before I was ever born he took them all on himself and suffered the consequences of them so that I would not. Yet, even though He sees me as holy because His holiness covers me, He will not stop working on me until He sees holiness complete in me. 

What a great mystery His sanctification is. 

Photo Credits: 1. Farm Kids  2. Donna L. Martin Blog  3. African GRIO (Associate Press)