Remember
Part of our sanctification is remembering the damage of our sins so that we don’t repeat them. Like touching fire, it burns us, so we remember not to do that again. It would be dangerous if we always forgot that fire hurts us just after touching it.
I heard an illustration years ago; One day a son asked his father to describe God’s forgiveness. His father took him to the shed and started nailing a bunch of nails into a board, saying “these are our sins”. Then he removed them all and said, “this is like God’s forgiveness”. The son looked up and said, ” But dad, the board is now full of scars”. The father replied “exactly”,
Addictive sins become even more dangerous because they alter the state of your mind not only in the moment (releasing high levels of dopamine) making you remember them as pleasurable not as destructive but also by damaging your brain over time, making it harder to remember in the future.
Freedom from sins that so entangle us, is to move more and more toward God’s grace and have His Word renew our mind. This is a work of the Holy Spirit in us as He conforms us more and more into being like Jesus. Here are two similar but different ways to understand sanctification in light of justification and glorification.
A. Justification – releases us from the penalty of sin.
B. Sanctification – releases us from the power of sin.
C. Glorification – releases us from the presence of sin.
A. Justification – God declares us righteous.
B. Sanctification – God conforms us into righteousness over time.
C. Glorification – God makes us righteous.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
Ephesians 4:22-24 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.