Say to a strong healthy servant, ‘Go,’ and he goes; ‘Come,’ and he comes; ‘Do this,’ and he does it; but a bedridden servant must know first how he may be enabled.
-Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, (1.2.1) Kindle Loc. 130-131 (Get a free copy for Kindle HERE)
The reason, Marshall says, that we must study the doctrine of sanctification is not simply that we may know what it is, but that we may know how it is done. If we desire to be sanctified, but do not know how sanctification actually works, then we have set ourselves up to fail. From the very outset, he says, we have to get one major fact straight – this is not something that we can do in our own power. We are powerless, and we must learn, and experience, the source of sanctifying power.
Too many approach the Christian life as if they can rush into obedience with two simple imperatives: ‘Just stop it’ and ‘Just do it.’ Any sane person realizes that indwelling sin makes things much more complicated than this. We have to be a ‘healthy servant’ before we can find strength to obey; and health comes from a right understanding of the gospel (including the fact that it speaks to our weakness) and a right relationship with Jesus Christ, whom the gospel declares. Knowing how to be enabled is just as important as knowing what to do.
It would appear to me that sicknesses of the soul have many similarities to sicknesses of the body.
I think it is imperative to note that as with the body, so with the soul- health involves “prescription” in addition to mere diagnosis. And pertinent to this discussion- we must realize that the prescription often involves a set of instructions. “Eat these foods, or don’t eat these foods. Sleep x amount. Take the medicine x number of times per day, etc.”
Just as many physically ill people have failed to become healthy due to a failure to follow the full program prescribed, so too do many carry forward their sins because although they received a diagnosis from The Great Physician, and desired to be healed by Him, they would not follow His directions. (“I’m sick? Then I will stop being sick, and start being healthy!” declares the fool.)
Some Christians take God’s medicine once, and declare it bunk when they are not instantaneously well. Others only follow the directions on how to use the medicine partially. Still others take the medicine regularly, but refuse to follow the REST of the instructions regarding lifestyle, (perhaps continuing on doing the very thing that made them ill, and hoping that the medicine will cancel-out their continued behavior.)
The grace of sanctification begins when we realize we are ill and need power from outside ourselves. We need the Doctor and His diagnosis, but we also need His prescribed medicine and instructions for use.
Do you think this metaphor accurately portrays what you have commented on from “The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification”?
I do. I would add to it that we need that power that is outside of us to be in us. Interestingly, considering the medical metaphor, medicine actually has to indwell us to make us better.