Hajja Salesjana July-September 2021

33 H AJJA S ALESJANA “How many books have you read about holiness and the Christian life?” And then, as I was still counting on my mental fingers, “How many books have you read about Jesus himself?” Now, to be sure, the best books on holiness and the Christian life say a lot about Jesus. But the comparison raises a question worth pausing over: Are we most fascinated by the practices of the Christian life, or by the Person of the Christian life? Futility of Self-Sanctification Of course, holiness based on mere tactics and discipline is no holiness at all, no matter how shiny it looks on the outside.  Self- sanctification  is a better name for this pursuit, and for those whose spiritual nerve endings have not been fried, it is as miserable as it is futile. Much of the time, self-sanctifiers simply fall into the same old pits over and again. Powerless as a branch apart from the vine (John 15:4–5), they cannot withstand the allure of the second glance, the third episode, the fourth drink. They are paralytics commanding themselves to walk. Many of us can still feel the ache from the repeated falls and bruised resolves. In fact, there’s only one thing worse than failing at self-sanctification: succeeding. “The only people who can truly kill their sin are those who are preoccupied with Jesus.” Paul gives us one of the most vivid portraits of “successful” self-sanctifiers in Colossians 2:16–23. With an iron will, they carefully keep their list of regulations, most of them self-imposed: “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” (Colossians 2:21). They deal harshly with their own bodies in order to whip their lusts into submission (Colossians 2:23). They seem spiritual, even mystical, talking of angels and “going on in detail about visions” (Colossians 2:18). But then comes the devastating assessment: all of their discipline and self-control is “of no value  in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossians 2:23). Self- sanctification merely trades outward sins for inward sins: pornography for pride, gluttony for greed, angry outbursts for quiet contempt. And why? Because in all their fervor for moral purity, self-sanctifiers nevertheless refuse to “[hold] fast to the Head” — that is, they refuse to trust and love Jesus (Colossians 2:19). The makeup of outward virtue hides the ugly truth: self-sanctifiers are lifeless as a severed limb. to be continued in the next issue