Sin, Wash, Rinse, Repeat
I remember an encounter with someone a few years ago that sticks with me still to this day. Standing around in casual conversation, this particular person had been describing some of the temptations she was wrestling with. Unfortunately, she had not been successful in resisting the temptation. She let out a sigh of desperation and said to those of us nearby, “I am so tired of the sin, wash, rinse, repeat.” Immediately, most of those around just shrugged their shoulders in almost a “that’s just the way it is” kind of way and went about their day. I remember walking off, replaying this conversation in my head repeatedly. Later that evening, it hit me like a ton of bricks: she didn’t know the freedom of sanctification. She thought all there was to life was the struggle of sin, then asking forgiveness, only to be caught in the same situation again and again.
John Wesley once described the gift of entire sanctification as a “Grand Depositum.” Well, what on earth does that even mean? In simpler words, it means a great gift has been given to those who have the hope of Christian perfection. In his book, “Perfect Love,” Kevin Watson makes the case that Methodists ought to be the most excited churchgoers in history!! How true this is! Our denomination was founded on Biblical truth that leads to freedom and authenticity. Yet, somehow, along the way, we have drifted from excitement to dread, treating holiness as a burden rather than a gift.
As a student pastor, I see firsthand how the Methodist Church has failed the last couple of generations.
As a millennial myself, I had the opportunity to grow up in the Wesleyan-Arminian tradition. I frequently heard sermons on holiness, sanctification, and consecration, and though I didn’t always understand what those terms meant as a child, I developed a hunger for not just knowing about sanctification but understanding and seeing it in my own life as well. However, I have seen countless friends aim to try and live up to the standards they have created in their minds, thinking they would make them holy rather than receiving this gift and living in the freedom it brings. I have watched friend after friend walk away from the church because they felt more freedom outside of the church than they did inside the body of Christ. Where did we go wrong? Did we misrepresent this gift and allow it to do damage rather than offer hope?
I have had countless encounters with Gen Zers who are so unfamiliar with this term that they couldn’t even begin to tell you what it means, though they have also grown up in the Wesleyan tradition. Talking with students can be crushing; they are stuck in a sin that they so desperately want to be free of, but they don’t know the hope they have. Honestly, they feel as if they are on a hamster wheel with no way to get off.
Life does not have to be stuck on the sin, wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
Paul makes this very clear in Romans 6:22.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
You can be set free, and that freedom, which bears fruit, LEADS to sanctification. Justification isn’t the end of the story. You are not on parole after you leave the courtroom of God stuck in ankle monitors and bound by chains. You are free to experience a new life.
I don’t know where we are headed as the North American Church, but I do know this: If we do not start embracing the gift we have been given, we risk seeing more and more young people walk away from the church.
It’s time to address the elephant in the room. Are we going to embrace our Methodist roots, or are we too scared to talk about them for fear of being canceled, making someone upset, or losing friends or maybe even family members?
The elephant in the room is growing and will soon leave no space for anything else.
