Sanctified, made holy by the consuming fire

¹⁴ Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; ¹⁶ that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Genesis 25:

¹⁹ Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham became the father of Isaac; ²⁰ and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. ²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. ²² But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why then am I this way?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. ²³ The Lord said to her,

²⁴ When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. ²⁵ Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. ²⁶ Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau’s heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

²⁷ When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a peaceful man, living in tents. ²⁸ Now Isaac loved Esau, because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. ²⁹ When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was famished; ³⁰ and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom. ³¹ But Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” ³² Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die; so of what use then is the birthright to me?” ³³ And Jacob said, “First swear to me”; so he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. ³⁴ Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose and went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

In the text in Hebrews, the writer says there should be no immoral or Godless person who like Esau sold his birthright for a single meal. Esau's birthright was as the oldest son. Even though he and Jacob were twins because he was first born Esau was considered to have more importance, to be the one who would assume the headship of the next generation of the family. We might find it hard to imagine that anyone would give up so much, such an important position and level of authority for a single meal.

Our spiritual birthright comes not from the order of our natural birth. It doesn't  come from our family at all. Our birthright comes from when we are born again, in Christ. Our inheritence then, comes through Christ, not our natural families. How often do we despise the birthright we have been given in Christ for momentary pleasures, seeking to satisfy ourselves rather than esteeming the work of the cross. Thankfully we do live under the covenant of grace and God forgives us when we repent and turn back to Him. Esau was not so fortunate what he despised he lost forever. 

The Hebrews text begins with the exhortation to, " Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." I can attest to the truth that if we are to be at peace with all men we will have to pursue peace. Peace doesn't come to us easily or naturaly. Whether it's in our families, our work places or even in our church it seams that living peacefully is nearly impossible. Still we are to purue that peace, to continue to work for it and toward it regardless of whether it seems attainable. The text links sanctification, or some translations say holiness with our pusuit of peace. It says that without sanctification/holiness no one will see God. We are told that our righteousness is worthless, that it is the righteousness of Christ by which we are restored to relationship with God. So we need to understand the difference between the righteousness we recieve in and through Christ and the holiness or sanctification which we are to pursue.

God's plan and His will for us is that we be more than saved for eternity. If eternal salvation were the only goal He would take us from this life as soon as we recieved Jesus. God wants us to live the abundant life that Jesus says He came to bring. John 10:10 ...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. In order for us to live this abundant life we need to go through this process of sanctification. That is our life long journey of becoming more Christlike. Holiness is not something that we can easily attain in these natural bodies consumed by desires of self satisfaction. Yet we are called to be holy.

1 Peter 1:15-17

¹⁵ but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; ¹⁶ because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

This holiness/sanctification occurs as we daily die to ourselves and let Christ take over more of us. There are two methods we  take toward reaching the goal of sanctification in our lives. First as we recognize, as the Spirit reveals, things in our lives that are unholy, things that hinder us in our relationship with God, we need to work at those things, choosing to lay them aside in order to move closer to God. The problem that we have with this level of sanctification is that normal life expectancy is 80-90 years, not nearly enough time for us to systematically remove all the unholiness from our lives. Still it is something we are called to do when the Holy Spirit reveals things to us. The other aspect of our attaining sanctification comes from the fact that we are finite beings. There is a limit to us. We can only do so much we can only attain so much. God on the other hand is infinite. There is no end to Him. There is no limit to what He can do and He holds all things under His control.

The key for us is to yield our finite selves to the infinite God. Jesus says in John 14:

¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

We have been given the Holy Spirit to abide with us and in us. How much more holy can we be? Since we are finite beings, we can only hold so much, once we reach our capacity we will overflow. We can either focus on the external things we see, cutting away the flesh. Or we can allow the Spirit already inside us to be filled to overflowing. The Hebrews text from today ends with these verses.

²⁸ Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire. 

Our God is a consuming fire. He will burn away all that is impure and unholy in our lives, leaving only that which is holy and sanctified. 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit thank You that You have done the work and made the way for me to be holy. Fill me to overflowing that there would be no room left in me for self. Consuming fire burn away all that is not of You. Thank You that You not only call me  to holiness but You work in me to make me holy.   Amen