Sanctification

Music is an interesting thing.

There are so many types, styles, and preferences in music. It is such a broad creature, known by all. Composers throughout the years have tried to express in notes what they feel in their soul. Their message is lasting. Music written three hundred years ago can still speak to me.

The process of learning one of these songs takes a long time. When I started playing an Invention by J. S. Bach, I knew I was horrible. I am still horrible, but at least my ability to keep going has improved. My fingers are catching up with my brain. Still, it is slow work. It doesn't sound so great in some places. I get a bit mixed up (Bach was a genius when it came to writing things that are mind-exploding complex). I find that as I have practiced, as I have played it again and again and again, it is slowly becoming the beautiful thing it was composed to be. I look forward to the day when I can play it through, start to finish, at the perfect tempo, with every dynamic nuance just right, every slur slurred and every staccato staccatoed.

I'm not there yet, but I will be.

People are interesting things, too. God works in His people to bring out what He created them to be. Sanctification is always called a process: the process by which God makes us holy and we live in holiness. It is the state of purity and of purification.

The elect exiles in the Dispersion were reminded by Peter of the fact that God had them in a process. Their exile was not the end. It was the time between, the practice period. God was leading them more and more toward the fullness of His purpose. In the Spirit, they were being progressively transformed by the Lord into His likeness (biblos.com calls it "similarity in nature").

As I walk through life, I realize that right now I am not what I ought to be. I do not sound exactly correct. The Composer of my life sees that I play some notes incorrectly, that I slur what ought not to be slurred, that I am loud when I ought to be piano, that I am soft when I ought to be fortissimo. 


I look forward to the day when, in Christ Jesus, I will be exactly what God has created me to be. I will be what He has promised. Until that day, I practice.

"Any notion of our own attainments which could lead us for a moment to speak of what we are with any degree of complacency is only rubbish. For my own part, I desire constantly to stand at the foot of the cross, with no other testimony concerning myself than this -


"I the chief of sinners am,
But Jesus died for me." 


Personal holiness is to be sought for with all our hearts, and it can only be obtained by faith in Jesus Christ - by simple faith in him. He gives us power to overcome sin through his precious blood; but, depend upon it, the moment we conclude that we have overcome, and can say what Paul could not say - that he had attained and was already perfect - we are in an evil case. Our pride has overpowered our judgment, and we are fools." ~ Spurgeon