Markers of sanctification part 2: Songs

By Elizabeth Prata

A few days ago I’d written an essay about how to tell if you are growing, listing some markers of sanctification. (Here). I kept thinking about it. Meanwhile I kept listening to praise songs and hymns.

Songs carry theology, both good and bad. Be careful what you listen to, the ideas and concepts sung in a song go into our mind just as much as a sermon. Here are three songs I realized I respond to differently than I did years ago. I consider these waypoints of growth.

Amazing Grace

I loved that song even before I was saved at age 43. I didn’t ever go to church much, maybe someone’s wedding, or the occasional Christmas service. But I heard the song and liked it. EXCEPT the lyric “a wretch like me”. I firmly clamped my mouth shut when that came around and refused to speak it. I was offended at the thought that I was a wretch. I certainly was not. The rest of the song was nice though.

LOL now on the other side of salvation these years later, if course I’m a wretch. Peeling the veil apart and now seeing behind it I am aware of my sin and Jesus’ holiness, and it’s an apt description of our sinful state.

In the Garden

This one got on my nerves in stages. Here are some of the lyrics-

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known

I used to enjoy thinking about God ‘walking and talking with me’ assuring me personally. It’s a nice scene. But it’s wrong.

OK, first, God doesn’t speak to me. I cannot hear His voice, unless I am reading the Bible out loud (thanks Justin Peters for that great quote).

God doesn’t walk with me in the garden like He did with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. His Spirit IS in me, and Jesus said He would be with us till the end of the age,, but thinking of him personally relating sweet nothings in our ear is not the picture I want in my head.

Finally, after a while this grew large in my mind: “And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known”.

No. Other people, all other brethren in the faith have known the joy of knowing the Lord. But mainly, the joy that Jesus knows with His Father God and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity’s communion with each other, surpasses all joy we could ever conceive.

Far Side Banks of Jordan

But I’ll be waiting on the farside banks of Jordan
I’ll be sitting drawing pictures in the sand
And when I see you coming I will rise up with a shout!
And come running through the shallow waters reaching for your hand

Johnny Cash and his wife June Carter Cash sing this (among other musicians). Initially I felt it was poignant because of the sweetness of the Cash’s love story. Aw, they love each other so much, and would be pining up in heaven till the other gets there!

But wait…as I grew in understanding of what heaven is, I realized the lyrics were completely wrong. No one in heaven will be lax, doing nothing or doodling idly while one’s back is turned to the throne. We won’t be looking back. We won’t be pining, grieving, or waiting. Heaven is busy. (Revelation 4:8). Angels coming and going, the dead in Christ singing, assembling, thronging the throne. (Revelation 5:11). The machinery of God spinning and flashing (Ezekiel 1:14, 17).

We will be fellowshipping with the saints, not mourning a lost marital relationship, one which Jesus told us expires on earth anyway. (Matthew 22:30). Relationships will be different up there, even long term, loving marriages. (Matthew 12:47-49).

I grew to love the hymn Amazing Grace even more after salvation, while other songs I grew to love less. The sentiments in the song Far Side Banks of Jordan In The Garden don’t align with the Bible. You might enjoy these songs, It’s OK. There might be songs I enjoy that you don’t and vice versa.

The point is, allow our conscience to speak to us. As our sanctification grows, we might grow into or grow out of certain songs, or activities, or clothing, or reading material…and that is as it should be. The sanctification process is always ongoing and our tastes change as sanctification grows.

One day our sanctification will be complete. But we will still be growing. In Jonathan Edwards’ essay “Heaven is a World of Love” he wrote that he believed heaven is a state where we continue to progress in love and advance in knowledge, holiness, and happiness. It’s not static, in other words. Heaven itself is busy and our own internal emotional state grows. He said in THE CHRISTIAN PILGRIM; OR
THE TRUE CHRISTIAN’S LIFE A JOURNEY TOWARDS HEAVEN,

God is the highest good of the reasonable creature; and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied.—To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but the enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the fountain. These are but drops; but God is the ocean.

I think it is wise every once in a while to scan our heart and mind to see if we’re growing. To take a fresh look at the bookshelves, podcast bookmarks, song playlist, clothing, etc to see if we have outgrown them or if we have grown more fond of the holy things we have in our lives.

This way we can praise the Holy Spirit for advancing us in our walk. It glorifies God when we praise Him:

He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; (Psalm 50:23a)