The Upward Anchor

Surviving the Lifelong Grind of Sanctification
Spencer R. Fusselman, D.Min

There is a lethal misconception in modern Christianity that you can hit "pause" on your spiritual growth. We mistakenly believe that as long as we have prayed a prayer of salvation, we can put our faith in neutral and comfortably coast into heaven.

Pastor Steve utterly dismantled this idea with a brilliant, terrifying illustration: Imagine parking a car on a steep hill without setting the brakes. You might feel stationary for a fraction of a second, but gravity guarantees that you will soon be rolling backward. In the Kingdom of God, there is no neutral gear. You are either aggressively pressing forward into maturity, or you are drifting backward into apathy.

Hebrews 6 demands that we stop playing with the elementary principles of the faith and press on to maturity. While our eternal salvation is completely secure in the finished work of Christ, we are called to actively engage in the grueling, lifelong, and glorious process of sanctification.

To understand the mandate of Hebrews 6, we have to understand that salvation operates in three distinct phases:

Justification (Past): The moment you surrender to Christ, you are entirely forgiven. The Great Exchange occurs—He takes your sin, you get His perfect righteousness. Your eternal standing before God is permanently secured.

Sanctification (Present): This is the lifelong, grinding process of making your daily, messy state match your perfect, eternal standing. It is the Holy Spirit continuously burning away your flesh to conform you to the image of Jesus.

Glorification (Future): The moment you die or Christ returns, your mortal body is transformed, sin is eradicated, and you see Jesus face to face.

Pastor Steve pointed out a fascinating truth using the thief on the cross (Luke 23). The thief experienced instant justification, died hours later, and went straight to glorification. He completely bypassed sanctification. But for those of us who do not have an expiration date stamped on the back of our necks, we are commanded to participate in the messy, ongoing work of sanctification.

How exactly do we participate in sanctification? Do we just sit back and wait for God to zap us with holiness? Absolutely not. We do not work for our salvation, but we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13). As Pastor Steve quoted from Warren Wiersbe, "A farmer doesn't reap a harvest by sitting on the porch."

Sanctification requires profound, agonizing submission to the Potter's hand. When God begins to reshape our desires, our spending habits, and our pride, it hurts. It requires us to exercise immense discipline in the Word of God and to actively serve the local church. John MacArthur emphasizes the intensity of this process: "Sanctification is a relentless war. It is the violent execution of your own fleshly desires daily, fueled by the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that the life of Christ might be increasingly visible in you." Furthermore, we must stop comparing our progress to the people around us. As Voddie Baucham rightly warns the modern church, "You do not get to grade your holiness on a curve. You don't look at your neighbor to see how you are doing; you look at the perfect Law of God."

The hardest part of sanctification is trusting God's plan when we cannot see His hand. In hard times, when the promises of God feel a million miles away, how do we maintain our faith?

Hebrews 6 points us to Abraham. God promised Abraham a son, but Abraham had to wait 25 grueling, silent, agonizing years before Isaac was born. During that time, he failed. He tried to help God out. He doubted. But ultimately, he patiently endured and obtained the promise.

Why? Because God swore by Himself. Because it is impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). Your faith during a season of intense suffering cannot be anchored to your feelings, because your feelings will lie to you. Pastor Steve profoundly noted, "Feelings are not facts. God is always listening. God is always there."

This is why we closed the service with the searing truth of James 1:2. We must count it all joy when we face trials, because those very trials are the specific instruments God is using to forge our patience and complete our sanctification.

The chapter ends with one of the most beautiful metaphors in all of Scripture. We are told that this hope is an "anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast" (Hebrews 6:19).
But this is not a normal anchor. A normal anchor is heavy. It is dropped downward into the dark, murky mud of the sea floor to keep a boat completely stationary. Our spiritual anchor is different. It is thrown upward. It passes through the heavens, behind the veil, and is secured directly to the indestructible throne of God where Jesus, our Forerunner, sits. Because our anchor is thrown upward, it does not keep us stationary—it pulls us forward. It pulls us upward. If you are truly anchored to Christ, wherever He moves, you move. Stop coasting. Take your foot off the brake, submit to the fire of sanctification, and let the upward anchor pull you all the way home.

Submit to the Potter's Hand: Read Isaiah 64:8 today. Identify one specific area of your life (e.g., your temper, your finances, your hidden pride) where you have been fighting God's conviction. Consciously yield that area to Him, asking Him to violently reshape it.

Stop Grading on a Curve: Catch yourself the next time you justify a sin by thinking, "Well, at least I'm not as bad as that person." Repent immediately. Shift your eyes off your neighbor and measure your behavior strictly against the holiness of Christ.

Cultivate Your Harvest: Do not sit on the porch expecting spiritual growth. Pick one spiritual discipline to aggressively pursue this week—whether it is waking up 15 minutes earlier to pray or memorizing a chapter of Scripture. Exert the effort.

Labor in Love: Hebrews 6:10 demands that we minister to the saints. Find someone in your local church who is currently walking through a "25-year waiting season" like Abraham. Bring them a meal, send them an encouraging text, and pray with them.

Count the Trial as Joy: Are you in the middle of the "four T's" (Trials, Testing, Tribulation, Temptation)? Write down James 1:2-4 on a note card and place it on your dashboard. Every time you drive, read it aloud and thank God for using this specific pain to complete your sanctification.