Never Say Diet

If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit – Galatians 5:25

There are some people making resolutions at the beginning of the year. I find it more useful and probably wiser to make resolutions at the top of the hour, or to follow the pattern of that most entertaining of television, The Weather Channel, and make them on the 8’s. In fact the only official New Year's resolution I will make this year is to make no resolutions. I think I can keep that one. Hmm, wait a minute…

I can sympathize with people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder just as I can sympathize with my Calvinist friends. I like things to be clean and neat, when possible; nevertheless, it is not always possible, and we will waste a lot of time and effort trying to keep things neat when they cannot be. I like the idea that salvation is determined, that I can’t mess it up, and, in a certain sense, that may be true. Even if I am not able to mess it up ultimately and eternally, I can certainly make myself miserable getting to that end – hence, the necessity of sanctification. So, like the cook who lays aside neatness for the sake of culinary satisfaction, we won’t worry too much about the why of sanctification in light of grace. We can sense at the deepest level that sanctification is a requirement, and we can concern ourselves merely with attaining it.

Even as I say “attaining”, I know I am wrong. For as to the spirit, it is not a state but a process. I do not reach a state of having been sanctified; rather I follow a path of being sanctified. If holiness is a status, then every failure, every episode of sin, of pettiness, greed, rage, or smugness self-righteousness is a fall from that state. If, on the other hand, we see it as a process where we are always learning, growing, and moving – you know, like something alive might do – then we can see the occasional eruption of sin for the hindrance that it is, instead of a sign that we have deceived ourselves, lost our salvation, or fallen from grace.

Think of it as a way of life.

“That which is perfect” is a Being, who hath comprehended and included all things in Himself and His own Substance, and without whom, and beside whom, there is no true Substance, and in whom all things have their Substance. For He is the Substance of all things, and is in Himself unchangeable and immoveable, and changeth and moveth all things else. But “that which is in part,” or the Imperfect, is that which hath its source in, or springeth from the Perfect; just as a brightness or a visible appearance floweth out from the sun or a candle, and appeareth to be somewhat, this or that. And it is called a creature; and of all these “things which are in part,” none is the Perfect. So also the Perfect is none of the things which are in part. The things which are in part can be apprehended, known, and expressed; but the Perfect cannot be apprehended, known, or expressed by any creature as creature. Therefore we do not give a name to the Perfect, for it is none of these. The creature as creature cannot know nor apprehend it, name nor conceive It. – Theologia Germanica

Now there’s a lot more to that quote than I’m able to deal with in my limited understanding, but there is this: that we are by the very nature of being creatures “in part” and therefore imperfect. Yet, this is not the end of it. We are, by grace through faith, delivered from the bondage of “creatureness” and able to move toward the Perfect. Of all creatures, we are alone in this ability for the moment, and the destiny of all creation – the ability of all creation to be perfected -- rests with us.

Walking the way of holiness is a way of perceiving the Holy One. To know God we must know perfection and it is impossible for us to know that except by experience. If we are not too proud to admit it, our weakness can instruct us as to the strength of the One who could bear the burden. Even to fail in a thing is to better understand what is required to succeed.

Holiness as a mental exercise is not holiness at all. Sanctification is an everyday practice -- not a theory.