Amid the spiritual.....picnic.....of the past several months, one of the most powerful truths I've learned is the "violent" nature of our sanctification. As Christians, we are not called to a life inside a Thomas Kinkade painting. Instead, like the armed man the Interpreter presents in Pilgrim's Progress, we are going to fight our way into Heaven. I always understood this as a battle with the triple forces of the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. And it is. But now I see that our sanctification is not just a fight against enemies. It's also a fight for what has been promised to us. It is both defensive and offensive.
What do you know? Thomas Watson just happened to write a book about this. Here follows a choice excerpt:
3. What is implied in this holy violence? It implies three things: Resolution of will. Vigor of affection. Strength of endeavor.
Resolution of the will. Psalm 119:6: "I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I keep Thy righteous judgments." Whatever is in the way to heaven (though there is a lion in the way), I will encounter it like a resolute commander who charges through the whole body of the army. The Christian is resolved that, come what will, he will have heaven. Where there is this resolution, danger must be despised, difficulties trampled upon, and terrors condemned. This is the first thing in holy violence: resolution of will. I will have Heaven whatever it costs me, and this resolution must be in the strength of Christ.
Resolution is like the bias to the bowl, which carries it strongly. Where there is but half a resolution, a will to be saved and a will to follow sin, it is impossible to be violent for heaven. If a traveler is unresolved, sometimes he will ride this way, sometimes that; he is violent for neither.
Vigor of the affections. The will proceeds upon reason; the judgment being informed of the excellence of a state of glory and the will being resolved upon a voyage to that holy land, now the affections follow and they are on fire in passionate longings after heaven. The affections are violent things. Psalm 42:2: "My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God." The Rabbins note here that David did not say, "My soul hungereth," but "thirsteth," because naturally we are more impatient with thirst than hunger. See in what a rapid, violent motion David's affections were carried after God. Affections are like the wings of the bird that make the soul swift in its flight after glory; where the affections are stirred up, there is offering violence to heaven.
This violence implies strength of endeavor, when we strive for salvation as though a matter of life and death. 'Tis easy to talk of heaven, but not to get to heaven; we must put forth our strength, and call in the help of heaven to this work.
Heaven Taken By Storm, pp. 9-10.
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