1 Thessalonians 5:23  “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Unfortunately, the lack of teaching within the Christian Church in regards to Christ as our Sanctifier has led to much shallowness of character within the ranks of professing believers. What do I mean by that? When the world no longer can tell the difference between the Church and themselves, then we must ask ourselves what have we done to become so shallow to the point that we are of little or no effect upon the culture. Most secular and theological scholars today would agree that we are now living in what is called a “postmodern” society. Without going into too much detail as to what has brought this on or exactly how it has happened, I will try to define what postmodernism is and what opportunities and challenges face the Church today in a postmodern culture.

Postmodernism is this: It affirms that there can be no absolute truth. Whatever is accepted as truth or envisioned as truth is dependent upon the individual person or the community in which we choose to belong. With a whole society, and possibly the world, headed down the path of relativism which states “If it feels good, do it”, how is the Church going to confront this ideology that there is no truth and at the same time claim to have the only truth?

The fact is, that God’s truth has been attacked over and over throughout human history beginning in the Garden of Eden and it shall remain so until Christ comes. Whether it is Pontius Pilate asking “What is truth” (John 18:38) before the Savior Himself or the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill dismissing Paul as a “babbler” (Acts 17:18), or whether it is the Gnostics that the Apostle John so vehemently opposed or the Nicolatians of Revelation 2, the truth of God has always remained while all the others have faded into history. God’s truth has been attacked by Pelagianism, Darwinism, Marxism, and Humanism. His truth has been attacked by the ranting of Voltaire and Neitzshe and now it is under attack by postmodernism. History shows that the truth of God has always overcome any “ism” man can conjure up in the vanity of his thinking while He Who sits in heaven laughs . God’s truth is not and will never be subordinate to the current spirit of any age.

AW Tozer speaks of a particular “ism” that has infiltrated the modern Church  in his book Paths to Power. He wrote “Fundamental Christianity in our times is deeply influenced by that ancient enemy of righteousness, Anti-nomianism. The creed of the Anti-nomian is easily stated. We are saved by faith alone, works have no place in salvation. Conduct is works and therefore is of no importance. What we do cannot matter as long as we believe rightly. The divorce between creed and conduct is absolute and final. The question of sin is settled by the cross, conduct is outside the circle of faith and cannot come between the believer and God. Such in brief is the teaching of the Anti-nomian. And so fully has it permeated the fundamental element in modern Christianity that it is accepted by the religious masses as the very truth of God. Anti-nomianism is the doctrine of grace carried by uncorrected logic to the point of absurdity. It takes the teaching of justification by faith and twists it into deformity.”

I must say that much of Christendom now preaches an inadequate Gospel message in regards to the Person of Christ and as a result has created many false converts. I do not believe that a postmodernism mindset among Christians or those outside the church is the real problem facing the Church today. The real problem is the preachers. The Bible says that “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pet.4:17) and if the preachers were preaching and living the whole uncompromising message of the Gospel, then I think the impact of the Gospel message upon postmodern hearts would be felt by those within the church and unbelievers alike. The Bible says that “the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). It is only the conviction of sin, through the implanted Word of God and the Spirit of God that can cause a lasting change upon the lawlessness of human behavior.

It has been several decades since Tozer wrote his Paths to Power and unfortunately the problem he wrote of has, in my opinion, only been exasperated. Even so, the Bible is filled with admonitions for the believer to allow their sanctified behavior to speak the truth for them even if the preachers do not.

I would submit that a true disciple of Christ knows that we are called to engage the culture around us, but the fact is that many just do not know how because they find themselves confronted by as many different worldviews as there are people, and truth itself has now been rejected. I believe God has provided an answer for the Christian who does not know how they can make an impact for Christ among a people who possess a chaotic philosophical worldview such as postmodernism or any other “ism”. One answer can be found in sanctification.

It is our behavior toward others and our devotion to God and His Word that is going to cause a skeptical postmodern world to take notice. People are not impressed by our ability to argue God’s existence (although there is a place for argument) they are impressed by someone who is willing to demonstrate the kind of truth they say they possess. There can be no doubt that someone who has been told since birth that there is no truth hungers for it, but the postmodern mindset requires a Church that lives out it’s truth by demonstrating the love of God and by offering them some kind of hope in a seemingly hopeless world. Postmodernists are more able to understand a loving, forgiving and Holy God when they are able to see a loving, forgiving and holy Church. I believe Ravi Zacharias once said something like “This generation no longer looks to the integrity of the message, but the integrity of the messenger”.

We cannot allow the image that unbelievers have of the hypocrisy among Christians to prevail. As I have said, people are hungry for the truth and any hypocrisy or even perceived hypocrisy will push them away from the Gospel. Many people recognize their hunger for truth but do not know where to turn in order to be satisfied. This is a great opportunity for the Church to share the Gospel, but it is going to cost us! It will cost us more than just handing someone a tract. It will cost us more than just telling someone Jesus loves them. It will cost us our time, our energy and our very lives as we pour out Christ into the life of another. Mere words are not going to cut it, this generation requires genuine love in action.

How is the Church to respond to the innate desire in humans “to do my own thing” when a change in personal behavior is touted as being subjective? Again, a lack of biblical teaching within the Church itself accounts for a shallowness among Christians when it comes to a visible witness of their faith. Many have abandoned the truths of the apostle’s doctrines for a more palatable message. We now have “seeker sensitive” churches and have forgotten that there is only one Seeker and that is Christ. The truth is that Jesus Christ seeks repentant sinners and He desires not just to be Savior, but also Lord. Many do preach the message of Christ as Savior, as the One Who died for man’s sin and through Him man can be forgiven, but the apostles preached not just this message but also the message of Christ as Sanctifier Who not only wants to deliver us from the eternal consequences of our sin, but also to deliver us from present sin itself!

This message is so much more than any “self improvement” which the world loves to strive for, it is a total surrender of self to the holiness of God. It is truly allowing for Christ to Lord over the life of a convert and this all begins at salvation. Whenever Christ has been clearly presented not just as a Savior Who provides “fire insurance” for the fearful, but as a Savior Who also requires submission to His ways, then and only then can the hearers of it make a genuine decision regarding the acceptance of Him or the rejection of Him. Either way it must be done on God’s terms not according to the philosophy of the day.

For the one who comes to faith in Christ, and has accepted the fact that they are a sinner and that they need Him to save them from the consequences of their sin, the salvation experience is the beginning of their life as a Christian and not the end. It is the beginning of their call by God to be His witness. Far too many people think that once they are saved then they are “all set” and that there is nothing else that God wants to do in their life. That could not be farther from the truth! Salvation is the beginning of what God wants to do in us, not the end! In regards to sanctification, the sanctification that begins at salvation is promulgated by the Holy Spirit and is the progressive spiritual growth of a Christian as they desire to become more Christ-like. As A.W. Tozer said, “The new birth does not produce the finished product”. We still have a long way to go, but we can be confident that Christ will be faithful in finishing the “good work” which He has begun in the believer (Php. 1:6) to the end.