October 21, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
FOR WHICH ‘CAUSE’ HE IS NOT ASHAMED TO CALL THEM BRETHREN. (Heb. 11:1, KJV).
What or which ‘cause’?
“The author [Paul] is speaking of sanctification. Recounting his OWN experience [regarding Biblical sanctification], he says:
“Not as though I had already attained, either were ALREADY perfect: but I FOLLOW AFTER, If that I may apprehend that for which ALSO I and apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:but THIS ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which at behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK OF THE HIGH CALLING of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, AS MANY AS BE PERFECT, be THUS MINDED: and In anything ye be OTHERWISE MINDED, God shall REVEAL this unto you.” Phil. 3:12-15, KJV.
“Paul did not claim to have attained, to be ALREADY perfect, but he did ‘FOLLOW AFTER.’ And Christ was not ashamed of him. Nor will He be ashamed of ANY who are ‘THUS MINDED.’
“It is not how far we have come in the Christian pathway that ALONE counts: it is in the DIRECTION we are facing.
“As Captain [of our salvation], Christ LEADS the way. He is not ashamed of those who FOLLOW HIM. They all have the SAME MIND and are advancing towards the SAME GOAL: some have advance farther than others, but ‘whereto we have already attained,’ let us walk according to the SAME RULE, let us mind the SAME thing.” Phil. 3:16.” (M.L. Andreasen. The Book of Hebrews, pp. 99, 100).
Sanctification is a work of a lifetime of each genuinely converted sinner. It is a process of spiritual growth of moral character. It is the same as the work of perfection. As Jesus said in the Sermon in the mount. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5:!48. The true Christian’s goal, especially in the closing hours of probation, is to “to” press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” In short, this is the work of restoring the original image of God in man which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (See Col. 1:16, 17). Are you still pressing toward this mark, the image or moral character of Christ, our Example? Bless all, NMF.