Monday, July 29, 2013 Victory for me, victory for me. ‘The privilege of all believers’ ‘We believe it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (the Army’s Tenth Doctrine). Note some working definitions of ‘sanctified’: - given to God absolutely and filled with his Spirit; - holy and belonging to God; - a life of victory over sin; - a life free to live for God and not enslaved by sin.
Take the image of a rock in a stormy sea. The saved person has clung on to the rock or is sitting on its edge, half in and half out of the water. The sanctified person is firmly established on the rock and will not be dislodged. Let me pinpoint three words from the Tenth Doctrine: ‘privilege’, ‘all’, and ‘wholly’. Privilege A privileged person is favoured, advantaged, honoured in some unusual way. A privilege is something to be enjoyed, and that is why our former Song Book rightly had a section entitled ‘Holiness Enjoyed’ (now replaced by one headed ‘Praise and Thanksgiving’ for reasons not immediately clear).
Recently I heard a TV presenter talking about a special appeal for charitable funds. She said, ‘The only ingredient we haven’t got yet is fun!’ Now sometimes our view of the holy life is like that. The Bible passage this morning from 1 Thessalonians 5: 1-24 was about being joyful and giving thanks. All In secular society privileges are for the few. In the holy life, and in the great possibility of belonging to God, all are invited and counted precious. This means that holiness can be lived out in the everyday life and in a secular setting, not only in a convent or monastery. It is not only for the General or the Archbishop or the Pope, but for the corps officer and the Home League Tea Server too. It is for the nine-year-old and the ninety-year-old. It is for the highly educated and also for the educationally challenged person with learning difficulties. It is for the literate and the illiterate. Wholly Time and again in speaking or reading of the holy life we come across absolutist words and phrases, like ‘altogether’, ‘entirely’, totally’, ‘thoroughly’, ‘completely’, ‘every inch’, ‘unequivocally’, ‘undividedly’.
The same tone comes through the words of the holiness songs in our Song Book. They deserve to be read and re-read as the testimonies of the writers. We cannot truly worship and honour Jesus Christ if it is a matter of giving half to him and holding back the rest for ourselves. We must recognise, and resist by grace, the pull of the world which tells us to safeguard our status, hold on to our power, and protect our own interests. Instead we go all out for Christ, for victorious living. I recall the testimony of an aircraft pilot who said, ‘It is too dangerous to fly low, hedge-hopping, for eventually you will crash. Fly higher, in free air, and if ever you do dip down, Christ will at once lift you up again.’
I exhort all here tonight, officers and soldiers alike, to give again your lives entirely and without reserve to Christ, asking him for complete victory over the things that would drag you down and despoil your relationship with him. We will sing Song 543 with its repeated ‘Victory for me’. See especially verse 2 where the sacred matters spoken of tonight are expressed: Here, Lord, I yield thee the whole of my heart, Victory for me, victory for me; From all that hinders at last I will part, Victory for me, victory for me. Called to thy service, I gladly obey, Humbly my all at thy feet now I lay, Trusting and fighting till life’s latest day; Victory for me, victory for me. A prayer like this, made sincerely from the heart, cannot leave you unchanged, for all the blessings described in verses 3 and 4 (‘cleansed’, ‘held’, ‘filled’, etc.) belong to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment