Still Under the Gate

You know the great thing about this outlet, this process, is that it forces my beliefs to become concrete...and then I am forced to deal with them. So often I find that the ideas in my head are very credible, right up and until I articulate them to my wife or to a friend or maybe even to a son or daughter. Saying things out loud (or writing them down or publishing them online) brings them into the light and gives us a chance to view them for what they really are; to test them against reality.

I spent some of my free time today thinking about my post from last night (drive time is my only real free time these days so long as I don't dial the next number on my call list). If you haven't read that, I'd suggest you take a quick look...this post pretty much picks up where that one left off - with Campbell standing under the gate.

Characterizing Campbell's individual struggle to hold up the gate, his self-sacrifice (or near sacrifice) for his brethren and their cause, as a metaphor for sanctification...well, that was pretty dangerous. I'm not shying away from it because I've already wandered all the way around it today only to land back where I started, but I realize after holding it up and turning it left and right a bit that it needs a little more definition so as not to be mistaken for something unintended.

I fear it would be easy to misinterpret my thought as a celebration of Campbell's strength. Within my application of that scene as a metaphor for sanctification that would seem to imply that I believe sanctification only begins at the point where we begin to fail in our own efforts. We work in our own strength, not God's.

Dangerous. And, by the way, very wrong.

But here's the thing: in the case of Campbell his heart is already sacrificed to the cause of Scotland. He is living into the hope of his transformation. Perhaps it is better to say he has been transformed and now has hope that transcends the fear of death. Love (of Scotland) has indeed conquered death...get it? Regardless, the missing link in my metaphor is to point out that Campbell's strength and sacrifice are a direct outpouring of his love, faith, and hope. The result of his changed heart.

Campbell is not working in his own power. He is living transformed.

The whole idea of sanctification has always been relayed to me in the context of "getting out of God's way." Have you heard this before? This message is steeped in the tradition of the sin nature and basically states, "your heart is bad, you will do evil if you can, as a new child of Christ your only hope is to kill your flesh and let Him run the show." There's that guilt again...everything I "do" only gets in God's way. And there is some apparent measure of truth to that message.

But is that really the promise of Christ?

I love this new picture of sanctification, of Campbell standing under the gate, because it illustrates the change that was wrought in my heart by Christ and the reaction that the change demands of me moving forward. I have a heart for Him (like Campbell's heart for Scotland). I am willing to risk for Him (like Campbell risks his life at the gate). I cannot succeed without Him (like Campbell must be rescued from his own self sacrifice).

I do not celebrate my own strength or Campbell's...I celebrate the strength of the One who changed me and the freedom that comes in risking and sacrificing myself for that freedom. Only to be rescued again and again.