There’s this interesting phenomenon in physics, where sound vibrations in one object can cause a nearby object to produce sound, if the original sound is produced at just the right frequency, or pitch.
All material objects have what is called a “resonant frequency,” which is the natural frequency at which it vibrates, and a sound wave oscillating perfectly at the object’s “resonant frequency” will cause it to start vibrating spontaneously.
If, for instance, you were to hold down the G note on a piano, so that the string it is free to vibrate, and then you plunk the G note an octave below it, the vibration of the lower note will cause the higher string naturally to sound, even though you didn’t strike it, simply because the lower note is vibrating at the higher string’s resonant frequency.
A note that is sounded at the resonant frequency of a crystal goblet, if it is loud enough, will cause the goblet to vibrate so much that it shatters.
This is called “sympathetic vibration,” and not only does it make for some fascinating science experiments, it also provides us with a vivid analogy for an aspect of the Christian life that is absolutely vital but often overlooked, something called “Sanctification.”
Sanctification refers to the process whereby Christians become holy; it is about acquiring and living in holiness, and the Bible’s quite clear that this is essential to the Christian life. In one place it says it as bluntly as can be: that without holiness no one can see God.
The challenge here is that often, the language of holiness conjures up for us images of sombre people who have a long list of things they do or don’t do, and who feel they need to impose this list on everyone else.
But this is not the way the Bible conceives of holiness. The Bible continually describes it as something that God does in us and through us, as he claims us for himself and works his holiness out in us; in one place it says, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ... the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” Jesus himself prayed that God would sanctify us in truth, because his word is truth.
In this sense, Holiness is an objective characteristic, or quality that God imparts to those who belong to Jesus, not a subjective quality that we obtain through moral effort.
We are, in one sense, passive recipients of our holiness.
And yet at the same time, holiness is, in fact about a way of life—it is about men and women actively thinking and speaking and living in a way that reflects God’s own holiness. In one place the Bible says we are to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God; in another place, that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
These two pictures of holiness—that it is something we passively receive, but also something we actively pursue and work out—can be brought together perhaps, if we think about it with the analogy of sympathetic vibration.
Because in sympathetic vibration, the sounding note is at just such a frequency that it causes the adjacent object to vibrate spontaneously; and at the same time, there is something about the nature of the object that it will vibrate, if it meets a sound wave at the perfect pitch.
Our holiness is a matter of our sympathetic vibration, so to speak, with God’s own holiness. The sounding note, you might say, is the Holy Spirit, and because this note is indeed a perfect pitch—perfectly conveying, as it does, God’s perfect holiness—when it comes into contact with our hearts, passive though we may be, it causes our lives to begin vibrating in sympathetic harmony with Him—that is to say, our thoughts take on the character and quality of his thoughts; our words and deeds are prompted by and reflective of his words and his deeds.
In this way, we are altogether passive in our sanctification, and yet deeply, deeply active, as we live in harmony with his holiness. Or like the Bible says it: we will be holy, because He himself is holy.
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