Tight Rope

 

Tightrope

     I see the tightrope walker.  The cable is stretched across the rock gorge.  With balancing beam in hand, the walker is tethered to the cable for safety.  His feet positioned one in front of the other are carefully placed.  This is the picture.

     We kick the terms of sanctification and justification around in our Christian mouths on a Sunday morning.  Somehow these great understandings bounce about the adult Sunday school room making our speech somewhat like a private society.  All we miss is the secret handshake at the door welcoming the brothers into another cloaked gathering.  Pondering then working over the problems of the world in context of a Biblical view, we emerge victorious ready for another week.  Having reassured our common identity, confidence is restored again and we face the world having framed it into a workable Christian model.

      Psychology sees its exaltation as we touch base affirming our togetherness in meeting the individual needs of belonging to a whole.  So, our patterns of usual and common speech are shared to arrive at mutual conclusions that bind us into the “I’m ok, you’re ok” motif.  This churched vehicle of encouragement is not wrong, it just happens.  And happens well.

      So sanctification and justification rank up there on the Christian term list, but do we know what they mean? 

     I could say the engine in my car is not right.  To the high school art teacher, the word engine may mean the thing in front of the car that makes the go power.  To the diesel mechanic, he may see inner parts working together to make the whole unit function in its transfer of cyclical power conveyed by a shifted transmission.  The depth of understanding differs.

    The Master storyteller used parables and pictures to get His understandings across.  So effective were they that writers scribed them down for our benefit.  When we tackle justification, we could throw out a number of verses getting lost in translation.  Jesus did not have an educated crowd steeped in Old Testament truth.  He worked with the masses needing pictures like a great Catholic church displaying the works of God on its walls.  Pictures with metaphors still work today to show quick relationships in which we build the rest of the comprehension.

     Jesus is the tightrope spanning the chasm.  The tethered line to the tightrope is justification.  The progress of the walker down the rope is sanctification.

     Jesus joins two worlds, earth to Heaven.  Upon Him, we walk there.  Our safety line, permanently affixed to Him, is our forever position before Him.  He has made us right.  We are His.  Sanctification is in the baby steps of faith trusting the rope as we venture out further over the chasm.

     If we fall off the rope, His justification is there to save.  That is never taken away.  The work of sanctification is regained when we get back in the saddle and walk on.  Upon experience, we veer less and our footing is more sure.  Lifting our gaze, we train our feet to know the rope.  Taking on the trials of life, we use the great balancing beam of scripture to keep us upright.

     Jesus used pictures.  His Spirit still comes to us explaining truths in the modern day.

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