Sanctified
When Patrick was still young and tender he was kidnapped by the slavers from Ireland and trafficked back from his Romanesque British nobility background to the livestock pens of Erin. I’m pretty sure those Irish thugs didn’t care how comfortable his accommodations were on the slave ship or how tight his ropes got on the wild ride back over the Irish Sea. Patrick was on his way not just to Hibernia but to personal holiness.
So just what does it take to be considered a “saint?” Well, for starters, it’s more than just what the brethren and sistren think of you. Sanctification is the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. Only the Lord can bestow such a calling and anointing on someone. Simon says to those who had been taken from their homelands and scattered abroad that it was all part of God’s great plan and choosing for their lives “according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit” (1 PET 1:1-2). My guess is that this got Paddy’s attention in his situation far from his hearth and home. Peter went on writing that it was all about obeying Jesus Christ and being sprinkled with His blood, a process that conveyed grace and peace in personal abundance. That young Brit would have remembered HEB 12:2-4’s admonition to think about the Christ and His cross that He carried with bloody footprints up that hill of shame, rejoicing all the while at the sure and certain glory that awaited Him after life and death was said and done.
This is the mindset that God uses when He takes a sinner and makes a saint out of her or him. It is usually in a context of what the crowd is doing to make you suffer and give up your faith as you hold ever tighter to your trust in the One Who is over it all and guarding your life like a treasured trust (1 PET 2:18-25). It’s the way the fisherman reassured the captive herdsman to look to the Carpenter as well as at what was going on worldwide in the lives of fellow sufferers (1 PET 5:6-11). After the woodwork on Golgotha (or “Calvary,” as the Romans called skull mountain), it wasn’t just the darkness that took His life. His Father took Him to Himself and made out of His sanctified Son much more than just a saint, a Savior! (HEB 2:10-11ff; 5:7-10) Hence our set-apartness is bestowed by hands that are marked by nails, our sanctification flowing from His scars (JOH 20:27-29; cf GAL 6:14-17f). Never forget that stricken, yet striking image in REV 5:5-6ff.
Then there’s that apostolic tagline again: “Peace be to you all who are in Christ” (1 PET 5:14). He gives a greeting of holiness and love that is sealed with a kiss. This kind of Christ-following is what sanctifies a life. Make no mistake about it, Patrick’s patronage didn’t include the baggage of self pity or escapistic desperation. His sainthood flows from his wounds that he gave to God for more than healing–for consecrating. Names like Patrick and Francis and so many more who are known only to their Maker should encourage us to “press on” (PHI 3:7-14 ). Never, never, never, NEVER…give up! Patrick didn’t and neither should you. I’m talking to “Saint-you,” God knows who you are and Whom you believe that He is. (2 TIM 2:19) The Great I AM is who we want to be like.
