Sanctification: The Ultimate Renovation

SanctificationSanctification.  The process of being made holy. God is holy, and he wants us to be holy.  The process starts when Jesus buys us back, but then we spend a lifetime having the rough edges sanded off and primed and sealed.

We are doing construction at our house, adding a complete second story, and so these kinds of metaphors are quite at the forefront of my mind.  We’ve reached the stage in this seemingly endless project where the contractor has completed what he so picturesquely termed “the vanilla shell” and left the rest of the job in our hands.  It is now up to us, literally, to do the finish work.  This, my friends, is called sweat equity.  Which is also the only way we could afford to do what we wanted to do, but that is another story.  (Have I mentioned yet that I don’t like to sweat?)

Our contractor, who conveniently happens to be my brother, is not abandoning us altogether, but is now in a strictly advisory role. In this metaphor, the creator has built the house, and we are making it complete.  The house is livable.  We abide in it but are constantly working on it to make it finished.

Get it?  Get the connection?  I want you to know, reader friend, that I have never thought about sanctification being like home building.  Ever.  (Of course, I’ve never built a home before, but whatever.) I had totally intended to go another direction with this post, but God brought this analogy to me right now while I was writing and THAT IS SO COOL!

Please note, I am not saying any of us are God in this scenario.  I am saying that we are LIKE God, to a certain extent, in this story.  And sort of like two of the three persons of the Trinity.  I can’t quite stretch the analogy to include the third in the case of our house.  I’m not quite sure how the Redeemer fits into the word picture.

Anyway. Sanctification. The process of being made holy.

The Bible says that when we are saved, the Holy Spirit starts getting our house in order.  In God’s eyes, ALL of our houses are Fixer Uppers.  Like Chip and Joanna Gaines (for those of you unfortunates who have no access/desire/interest in HGTV, this couple are the stars of a show called Fixer Upper.  They can really do no wrong in the house business, in my fangirl opinion.  Anyway… [Like Chip and Joanna Gaines]) who buy the worst house in a good neighborhood and make it the most beautiful home on the block, Jesus buys back the rundown neglected messy dirty house, that the Creator built, from the tenant that let it fall apart.  The Holy Spirit moves into the house and begins fixing it up. (I guess God let me find a way to fit the third person of the Trinity into the picture.  Or the second.  I’m not sure how or if they are numbered.  God’s ideas are SO COOL!  I effuse.)

It is a broad process at the beginning.  A LOT of demolition happens before reconstruction can begin.  Dumpsters get filled.  Face masks are worn. Sometimes some dangerous stuff needs to be dealt with.  Eventually the debris is cleared, the dust settles, and then the building begins.

IMG_7501I know whereof I speak.  Have I mentioned we have lived in this house during the complete process?  We have lived here through the demo phase and it is messy.  So it is when God clears out the unnecessary detritus of our lived-in lives.  It is not always fun, but sometimes it is.  There is something satisfying about pitching out the things that weigh us down, the needless muck that must go before anything new can be constructed.  As new Christians, we tend to be on a kind of high as our lives change dramatically.  Getting rid of the old is exhilarating.

But that wears off.  As time passes, and the construction process sloooooooowly continues, it is easy to get impatient, and irritable, and bored.  We live in disruption. Things move at a snail-like pace. It seems that nothing is being accomplished.  The Holy Spirit moves in and makes what feels like a mess.  The Spirit moves stuff around and rearrIMG_0823anges priorities and tosses out things we believed to be treasures.  Walls are moved.  Things don’t look the same. This part of the sanctification process is the least comfortable.  This is the time that God gently pries our fingers off trash we hold dear, and politely informs us that we really can’t afford marmoleum and we’d better pick out tile.  That the wall we wanted taken out must stay or the roof will cave in.

Reconstruction is both tedious and exciting.  New framework goes up.  The structure becomes defined and see-able.  Drywall is hung to create new spaces. The once-theoretical plan becomes evident and real. Sometimes it is a little like watching a child grow. You really can’t see any change but suddenly they are taller than you.IMG_1157

Some people live in this phase for a very long time.  Longer than is probably truly necessary.  I may or may not be one of those people.

Eventually, however, the finish work can begin.  Our house becomes far more usable.  There is sanding and painting and laying of tile and installation of sinks. Flooring is laid and doors are hung.  Spoiler alert – the house will never be completely finished as long as we live in it.  But it becomes useful.  God invites people in for intimate dinners and rollicking parties.  He makes it a comfortable and safe place to be. He uses the house to make others welcome and to do his work.  He reveals to the world his “Fixer-Upper.”

So to summarize, as I see this analogy.

God builds a house

That’s you and me. Pretty self-explanatory. We are born.  We live life.

We let it go to pieces by allowing in an unsuitable tenant

That’s sin.  Also pretty self-explanatory but just in case, let’s define sin as anything that separates us from God. This is a list that is too extensive to deal with in a blog post, but basically is anything we have ever done wrong ever no matter how big or small we may think it is.  This makes God crazy sad. We are trashing his house!

Jesus buys back the house

That’s salvation. Big concept.  Basically we have sold our houses to sin.  The wages of sin is death.  Jesus, who carries no debt, agrees to pay off the mortgage. He pays the price to redeem us back at the cost of his own life. He now owns us free and clear.

The Holy Spirit begins reconstruction

That’s sanctification.

First comes demo. The Spirit works at getting rid of the bad gunk in our lives, whatever that may be and it is different for each of us. It could be a nasty habit, an addiction, a toxic relationship, or simple negativity. This is transforming work.  We are pared back to the framework of our house.  Garbage left by the previous tenant (sin) hits the dumpster. A few walls get knocked down which creates the desirable “open floor plan.” The house is given a good cleaning and left fresh and sparkling for the rebuild. Those things that grieve God’s heart get addressed.

Reconstruction. Here the Spirit begins rebuilding our lives by spiritual disciplines.  We dig into God’s word.  We attend church and Bible Studies.  New walls are framed in – new habits and desires. We grow and get to know the new landlord better and better until he becomes a friend as well as the owner of the house. If you want to get really technical, he puts the Holy Spirit in residence as the general contractor to do the work.  We get to stay in the house while it happens.  The general contractor never moves out, because there is always work to be done. (Okay, this stretches the analogy a bit.  If my general contractor, who again, is my brother, were to move in permanently it would probably not be such a great thing.  But the Holy Spirit is different.  My brother, like me, is a sinful human being and that can only lead to dissension.  The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is GOD.  Therefore perfect. Unlike me. No dissension.)

Finish work. Refining us so that we can serve God and others – for me this is constant – finding areas in my life that need to be sanded away so that no one gets slivers. In other words, removing from me those character traits that stand in the way of loving on others as Jesus loves them – traits like impatience, thoughtlessness, etc.  This will go on until heaven.

Once Jesus buys the house, it is his.  If we are wise, we let his tenant, the Holy Spirit, do the renovations necessary to make us the beautiful home on the block.  Then maybe, the neighbors will want to let our contractor reconstruct their dwelling.

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save