*I challenge you to read until the end.
I have thoughts, a short meditation, and I want to invite you to share in this meditation. It begins first with a question: why does God sanctify us?
Well, first we must confirm through Scripture that God does indeed sanctify us. The following selections do not fail us:
For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:29
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord,[a] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.[b] For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
Sanctified- conformed to the image of Christ, transformed into that image from one degree of glory to another, made pure, made free from the pain of sin. How does this happen? The verse from 2 Corinthians very clearly attributes this to the Lord, who is the Holy Spirit. And anyone who has read Romans 8, which is almost entirely concerned with the Holy Spirit and His works within us and our reliance upon Him, knows that God surely shapes us into Christ-like sons and daughters through the power of His Holy Spirit.
Note that in the 2 Corinthians chapter, Paul makes reference to Moses, who left the mountain of God with a veiled face, a face onto which the shining glory of God had been imprinted upon. Yes, after meeting with God and having fellowship with Him, after beholding Him, Moses was transformed and it was a very visible change. We too, as we behold our Lord as He reveals Himself to us and brings us into warm intimacy, are changed by the Holy Spirit to be holy and blameless and full of love, to be like Jesus. Beholding allows for becoming.
But why does God do this?
There are the Sunday school answers that come immediately into our minds (and they are by no means incorrect)- God frees us from our sin for our own good, because He loves us too much to leave us in the agony and wretched sickness of sin (see Psalm 38: 3-8 to read David's agonizing description of his pain in sin; read all the Psalms for the professed hope of God's rescue for those who are suffering). This is true, and God certainly loves us enough to raise us out of death and its torture into life abundant. Some may also add that God sanctifies us for His own glory, and this is also true and not separate from the previous assertion. His own glory sits, in part, in our recognition of His goodness, of His great love for us. In his book Desiring God, John Piper writes, "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." We glorify God by truly recognizing, in our heart of hearts, that He is Love and has loved us perfectly, and we delight in Him. Henry Scougal famously penned this: "The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love." Piper, in The Pleasures of God as well as in Desiring God, contemplates this phrase and concludes that God's greatest pleasure is in Himself, in being Himself. And this does not mean that God is not for us or that He does not love us; God loves to be Love, and to be perfect Love does certainly include a desire for our greatest good and our greatest enjoyment in what will ultimately satisfy our longings and pleasures- Himself. God loves to glorify Himself, and how is He most glorified? Piper writes to his sons: "Never forget that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him." To be most satisfied in God is know you are fully loved and to acknowledge that He is Love, to acknowledge that He is the crown jewel in all the treasures of the universe, the deepest pleasure. The entirety of this argument is laid out in Desiring God, which contains full Scriptural backing for those interested in it.
I want to add one more reason for God's intention and delight in sanctifying us, and it has to do with that abundant life Jesus talks about in John 10:10- "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." God invites us to enter into His joy; there are things that make God infinitely happy, and He says, "Come, be happy with me in these things." He longs for us to share in it alongside Him that we may enjoy beauty beyond measure with Him, to take what He offers freely to us; this command is given to us through the parable featured in Matthew 25:23:
"Enter into the joy of your master."
"Of" here means "belonging to." Our Master and Lord is certainly enjoying something, very much so, and whatever it is was made available to us through the Gospel. We are heirs with Christ, and therefore God shares His treasures and delights with us that we can all relish in them in a shared joy. Let me say that again: God wants us to experience the very joy that God experiences Himself, the joy reserved for the King, the joy that nourishes and delights His own heart. He wants us to be just as happy and joyful as He is! Though we have heard of the delights of entering fully into these joys at the end of our race, when we finally enter heaven to be in perfect and lasting communion with God and His Church family, we know also that God intends for us to being to share in His blessings and satisfactions here on earth. Psalm 27:13 declares this: I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!
Sanctification changes our heart's tastes: we no longer crave sin and death, but we begin to yearn for what God yearns for. God is the happiest of all beings, and He wishes that we would partake in His happiness by enjoying the best of what He enjoys. This includes many pleasures of His: holy fellowship, justice, the beauty of His creation in nature and in people made in His image, hope, providence, true love, etc. But what does God take the most joy in? According to Piper's meditation on Henry Scougal's statement and according to the truths given by Scripture, God's joy is chiefly in Himself. He loves to be Love. He loves to be Himself, and being Himself includes an overflow of love onto us. And many of us who have been in the church long enough have heard it preached: humans have a gaping hole in their hearts, a ravenous hunger that brings excruciating pain when unsatisfied or when poorly satisfied with cheap and rotten food, and God through Christ is Himself the satisfaction we long for. And He is so glad to satisfy us.
I will say it again: God sanctifies us to change the desires of our hearts, the pleasures of our hearts to match His. As we grow in spiritual maturity, as we are sanctified, we begin to become more like Him by enjoying what He enjoys; we enjoy fellowship as He does, we enjoy generosity and forgiveness and mercy and love as He does- and yes, He shares with us and we share in Him our greatest joy, which is delighting in God Himself who is Love. The holiness that He bestows onto His creation, the beauty of Christ which He lavishes onto us as we are worked on and shaped into conformity with Christ, includes a deep and rich satisfaction which He could have kept solely for His own enjoyment, but by grace in holy love shared with us that we might not miss out. He gives us Himself. The Bridegroom and the Bride. We know the lyrics: "I am Yours, and You are mine." He invites us to feast at His table, to drink of the river of His delights, to enter into His joy as heirs. He greatly desires that we savor and taste that the Lord is good. He yearns for us to know how much He loves us, with all His passion and ferocity and gentleness and affection.
Now, if you will, entertain the following illustration (and it is illustration only, taken from my own heart, not from Scripture, though I pray my heart reflects the Truth God has placed in it).
There is a great hall made of wood, and it smells of the caramel and pine, of redwood and the rich resin of the night. Inside this hall, a banquet table is laid out. It has goblets of thick, spiced cider and honeyed milk, of sweet wine and crisp mountain water. All the delicacies of the nations are piled onto the length of the table: steaming lamb and creamy curries, braised fish and fluffy breads, crispy bacon and pastas laden with herbs and luxurious sauces, fresh fruits dripping with golden juices and even perfectly scooped snowballs of sorbets bursting with berry flavors. Stews, soups, rice wet and dry, noodles and puddings, round cakes and savory porridge- there seems to be more and more and it is a wonder it all fits on the table with room to spare for hands and candles. A fire crackles in the hearth, not too large as to cause obnoxious smoke and not too small to keep its warmth from those seated at the far end of the feast. Lush cushions and soft blankets line the benches and chairs, and a host of neatly wrapped presents sit on the far side of the hall waiting to be opened. Merry reds and greens and creams and even happy yellows dress the multitude of packages. There is a music that sounds like streams of water, and the words are bright, twinkling stars whose nameless wonders begin to shine bright within your heart. You desire to see the mountains and breathe the air of the great forests of the world, you wish to smell the freshness of waterfalls and watch the night sky in the coolness of the evening, to see the beauty of white shores and grey havens. And at the same time, you sense that you can find all that here, hidden within some cupboard or corner within this hall, for you have no desire to leave it. And within the hall, laughter and singing rises into the vast ceiling. And all this is the glory and good pleasure of the Master, who happens to be your good friend and Husband.
And though you have been off doing awful things, and have hurt yourself in the process, and you are ragged and poorly dressed (not fit for any great party such as this), He invites you in as if He were already expecting you. He gives you clean clothes, heals your wounds so that you are not numb but full of good feelings, and warms you in His own arms; He eagerly asks, with tears in His kind eyes, that you come and sit by Him to eat from His table and share in His delights. He hugs you tightly before walking you gently over to join the merriment. And as your face beings to light up with the joy of life, His own face beams and He watches you intently, with a softness that could melt fear and breathe contentment. As your joy increases, as you start to begin to partake in what He has Himself been enjoying long before you arrived, He smiles and you marvel.
You lean into His chest to finally rest, close your eyes, and you know, without doubt, that He loves you.