Another gem from theologian Gerhard Forde, via one of his responses in Five Views of Sanctification, pg 192:
The language of grace must be a language that comes totally from without. It does not call on the old self, not even the inner life of the old self, to somehow traverse a new way. It announces him who is the Way. It is thus a use of language which does not call on the old self to “surrender”; rather it is a use of language which through its very givenness slays the old by the absolute unconditionality of the gift itself… the Word does not call on our old being to die. It simply announces that we have died, and sanctification occurs to the degree that we get used to that fact…
Love is the source and goal of sanctification, but the only way to bring that about is to simply announce, “I love you.” The word of grace must bring the old unlovely and unloving existence to an end by the sheer strength of the promise, the gift, which breaks into our dreary lives and just announces flat-out that the old has passed away and the new is here.
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Great quote, thanks! I was thinking about this in terms of the start of Lent, and how we practice fasting and other forms of self-denial in hopes of bringing about change, and how fruitless that often is. Maybe there’s something to practicing fasting as a way to acknowledge and demonstrate that the old self is, in fact, already dead?