Christianity, Morality, and Sanctification

Friday, August 26th, In the year of our Lord 2011
My House, Caronport Saskatchewan
Contemplating Morality, 7:52PM
Weather = cloudy and warm but becoming cool
Days are getting shorter


Depending on your spot in the world you may be familiar with the saying

"Real Christians don't smoke, don't chew, and don't hang out with girls who do!"

It's a fun little saying because it rhymes and picks up an interesting property of Christianity in North America. Evangelicalism, being derived from the Puritans with two traditions, the Weslian and the Whitfield, has always striven to worship God by living a 'good life.' As a movement in society we looked at how things like Alcohol and Gambling destroyed lives and tore apart families and said "NO!" We rejected these things as evils of the world to be avoided, unspiritual forbidden fruit of the enemy, and a sin to participate in. The Bible does not condemn Alcohol or Gambling the way that early Evangelicalism did, but it does inform us that our bodies are actually temples of the Holy Spirit (in which case we ought to respect them and not pollute them) and the verses for gambling aren't coming to me right now, but the reasons were derived from Scripture.

There have been many points in history where Evangelicalism has frowned upon certain activities and labeled them a new sin of our age and lumping them in with the great sins of all time: Smoking, Drinking, Tattooing, Piercings, Dungeons and Dragons, Murder, Rape, Sodomy, Incest, Witchcraft, Blasphemy, Molestation, the list goes on. While I think that there have been some very valid reasons why certain things are rejected by Evangelical Churches I also think that we often mistake cultural norm and good principles as "Holy Living."

There are many good reasons for Christians to attempt to live wholly moral lives. First of all it is the nature of all who are enlivened by the Holy Spirit to be obedient to God and to do what pleases Him. Immediately we are confronted with a standard of morality, from our culture, the Church, and our own conscience to do what is good and right and to avoid sin. We seek to be perfect because we love and respect God and so live in reverent fear, the Fear of the Lord as described in Proverbs as the beginning of wisdom. This is a natural tragedy! Natural in that nothing is more natural to the Christian. A tragedy in that the God of Christianity is a God of freedom, who has fulfilled all requirements of righteousness for those who believe, who took the very rules and standards that Christians are still trying to follow today and nailing them to a cross, completely defeating them, making fellowship and community with God possible! Christianity is not about moral living, although it is the only natural thing for a Christian to begin to attempt, but about freedom and love of God. Before almighty God, all Christians are saved by grace, from the fully sanctified saint who craps harps made of pure gold to the self-injuring drug addict murderer! There is nothing, no amount of good living, which puts one above the other.

That is not to say, however, that Christians should not become 'better people' through faith and good works. The Christian doctrine of Sanctification is that God, in his Holy Spirit, moves us to do good and toward perfection. This perfection we move towards does not in any way effect our standing in God's eyes, all are saved by His grace alone. What it does do is free us to further love and know God and serve others. In working through things like anger, distrust, pain, disappointment, addictions, and other spiritual strongholds that are not of God, we are freed from the pain and power these things once had over us and new ways of knowing God (as directed by the Holy Spirit in agreement with all previous Revelation and not our own ideas) suddenly dawn upon us and we are also able to help those who are still under the pain and suffering of what once held us back. God moves us forward, not so that we can justify ourselves, but for his own glory and for our good, because it is better to live wise and righteous instead of foolish and sinful.


All that aside, I also think that we as Christians get confused and label certain activities, like smoking for example, as a something that REAL Christians just don't do. We build a moral framework that is constructed from Biblical roots and applying it to today's time and culture. Suddenly something that the Bible never even mentions is a forbidden sin that will earn you the scorn of the moral church. Sometimes this is indeed a practical and accurate application of the principles and original Spirit of Scripture, and sometimes it is just us reacting to our culture and making rules like the Pharisees which Jesus condemned. Sometimes these rules are very instructive for authentic spiritual and holistic growth, and sometimes they become a quagmire of 'avoiding the appearance of evil' and a condemning finger that is not ever what God intended.

I think that morality and sanctification are not the same thing. The two are related, but they are not the same. Morality has more to do with cultural perspective and a code of do's and do not's. Sanctification is the manifestation of the true freedom in Christ Jesus, not freedom from this or from that, but freedom to do and to move towards the perfection and holiness of God who lives within us whom we seek to emulate and please. So perhaps morality, although it be the most natural thing for a Christian to do, is not necessary, or even a part of what Christianity is. Indeed, morality is the counterfeit to Sanctification, which is a foundation of Christianity.