There is always a battle royal before sanctification, always something that tugs with resentment against the demands of Jesus Christ...."If any man come to Me and hate not his own life, he cannot be My disciple."
The Spirit of God in the process of sanctification will strip me until I am nothing but "myself," that is the place of death. Am I willing to be "myself," and nothing more--no friends, no father, no brother, no self-interest--simply ready for death? That is the condition of sanctification. No wonder Jesus said: "I came not to send peace, but a sword." This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us faint. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus on this point. "But it is so stern," we say; "He cannot wish me to do that." Our Lord is stern; and He does wish us to do that.
Am I willing to reduce myself simply to "me," determinedly to strip myself of all my friends think of me, of all I think of myself, and to hand that simple naked self over to God?.....He will sanctify me wholly, and my life will be free from earnestness in connection with everything but God.
-- Oswald Chambers
We balk at such things don't we? I think Chambers is probably right and I recognize within myself some disappointment, even as I admit the truth of it. But, what would Jesus have otherwise meant if he didn't describe things as taking up our cross and following Him?
