When a person becomes a follower of Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven and they are immediately justified before God. At that moment, the process of sanctification is begun. Sanctification is not only being “set apart for the dedication to God,” as Webster defined it, but it is also the “act of making [a believer] holy.” When we ascribe to the saving grace of Christ, we are instantly set apart for dedication to God. But the act of making us holy is an ongoing process that will culminate in perfection when we go to heaven. A writer for Ligonier Ministries stated, “The goal of progressive sanctification is the conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.”
To be a Christian who is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is to be a human being who suffers. Pastor Eric Mason said, “Suffering [is] one of the prime things that [God] utilizes to sanctify the Christian.” RC Sproul wrote:
We are followers of Christ. We follow Him to the Garden of Gethsemane. We follow Him into the hall of judgment. We follow Him along the Via Dolorosa. We follow Him unto death. But the gospel declares that we also follow Him through the gates of heaven. Because we suffer with Him, we also shall be raised with Him. If we are humiliated with Him, we also shall be exalted with Him. Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.
Suffering drives the believer straight to Christ and catapults him deep into his sanctification. The depths of God’s grace often cannot be known without the affliction he ordains.
Seventeenth century clergyman Thomas Case said:
Affliction is God’s forge where he softens the iron heart. You cannot work with iron while it remains cold and hard. Put it into the fire though, and make it red hot there and you may stamp upon it any figure or impression you please. Melted vessels are impressionable to any form, and so it is with the heart of man. By nature, it is cold and hard, and this is much increased by prosperity and the long-suffering of God towards sinners. The furnace makes the soul pliable to God’s counsel and sometimes God is forced to make the furnace heated seven times hotter to work out the dross that renders men so resistant to the ministry of the word.
But What About Our Children?
When my my firstborn was a baby, though I wasn’t truly a Christ follower at the time, I used to pray over his crib every night. It was actually more of a ritual than a prayer, a sort of verbal talisman meant to ward off something dreadful happening to him in the night. Because my biggest fear was losing him. Fast forward 36 years. Three kids, eight grandchildren, and a solid relationship with Christ later, and my biggest fear remains unchanged. And so I pray for all of them, though the prayers are actual and not ritualistic.
In my prayer journal, my regular prayers are recorded. I pray that our children would “seek Christ daily, be selfless in their marriage and parenting, would find joy in Christ alone, would stay safe and healthy, and would thrive.” For my grandchildren, I included in that list “would be saved, and would grow in ‘wisdom, stature, and favor with God.’” Last year, I added, “would have courage” to both lists. Because, until then, I had prayed for nothing but safety for my children and grandchildren. I lamented their future and worried over what they might encounter should they, God willing, decide to embrace Christ.
When I added “would have courage” to my daily prayer for my children and grandchildren, it was out of a realization that my prayers for them have been selfish and antithetical to serving the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. My prayers were focused on their salvation, but not their sanctification. Did I really think when the core of my prayers for them centered around their safety that it was an accident they have been born at “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)? Who am I to try to stand in the way of their sanctification and potential ministries by praying that they stay safe? Who am I to hinder the Kingdom in that way, praying against what the Lord may have in store for these future saints?
In this life, I want nothing more than for my grandchildren to own their own faith in Jesus. But that prayer must also include a plea for their possession of courage. Because asking that these precious babies cling to Christ as they grow is praying for their suffering (2 Timothy 1:8, Romans 5:3-5, Matthew 16:24-26). It is praying for their self denial, for them to walk through fire for the sake of the lost. It is praying with the knowledge that their future may be filled with persecution, hatred, and rejection. Because the Savior I am asking that they follow has promised that the world hated him first, and so will go his followers (John 15:18).
A Courageous Faith
During the Protestant Reformation, the persecution of Christians was abhorrent. I read one account of persecutors taking young children to the gallows, demanding that their parents deny Christ or watch their children hang. These blessed martyrs, in unimaginable anguish, ignored their tormentors and cried to their children, “We’ll see you soon!” And before they themselves were executed, they watched their children hang. What a joyous reunion that must have been in heaven! Do I have the courage and faith to pray for my children and grandchildren in such a way that I acknowledge what they may have to face? Do I have the courage and faith to cry “I’ll see you soon” while they endure what the Savior has promised? I hope I do. Because while to the world this is absurd, in God’s Kingdom it’s evidence of the embracing of a sure hope of glory and a great joy. It is the solid apprehension of, as John Piper preaches, “future grace.” That glory, that joy set before us, that future grace far, far outweigh any suffering our children might encounter as they follow Christ. This is the kind of faith I will now pray for my grandchildren and their parents. Even as I wish for their safety.
Royal Envoys in Hostile Territory
To pray for our children to follow Christ is to pray for their alien status on this earth. The moment they submit to God’s call, they denounce their citizenship on earth and transfer it to heaven. They will no longer feel comfortable here. They will always live with a sense of danger and rejection, and I suspect as their faith deepens they will encounter much more of it than I ever did in my lifetime. They will become royal envoys in a Kingdom that is adverse to this world, one in which they will be regarded as enemy operatives. They will serve a King who issues the weapons of love, charity, compassion, and grace to contend in a world that will be threatened by them. They will face a formidable enemy who knows his time is short, and will be vicious in trying to destroy them. This is what we are praying for when we implore God for our children to follow Christ.
True Safety
I will still pray for my family’s safety. I will still hope that they never have to experience pain in their life. But my overarching prayer will be for them to follow Christ into the life he has chosen for them, whatever that looks like. Because I want to be with them in eternity, to watch them present their hard earned crown before their Savior, in their real home, where they truly will be safe in a world where love and light prevail in the secure arms of Christ.