Are Sanctification and Integration Identical?
In Search of Wholeness
In the midst of our suffering, where do we look? In the midst of our despair, where do we place our trust? Do we look outward to relationships with others? Do we look inward, travelling deep into our minds to find the roots that empower our despair? Do we invite the spirit of God to “bind up our wounds” — do we believe this is even possible? Do we find the rejected parts of ourselves and return them to love? Do we seek numbing or stimulating pleasure to satisfy the emptiness and pain?
These questions reveal our values (what we believe is good) and our faith (what we believe is helpful). Often, they are misaligned.
Why start this conversation about psychological integration vs. spiritual sanctification with suffering? As an instinct. Many of us who are drawn into the depths of psychology do so to mend the fragmentation and the brokenness we have lived.
The Proverbs say that wherever our treasure is, there our heart will be also. I also believe that wherever our answer to the problem of suffering resides, there our deepest belief about reality resides too.
Integration and Sanctification
The project of integrating our psyche might be simply stated (as Jung does), as the integration of our opposing traits. If we tilt toward being a pushover and being too nice, learning to assert boundaries and walk away from bad situations is helpful. If you’re ambitious, unemotional, and intelligent, learning to access the softness and expressiveness of a “gentler” soul will increase your ability to connect with others.
The idea is that this “other” side of us is sitting there in the shadows, ignored, and needs to be attended to and given opportunities to shine. Integration, for Jung, is much of his answer to suffering. Returning rejected parts of ourselves to acceptance not only provides deeper self-knowledge, but it moves us toward unity. How much of our pain is caused by believing we need to be something we are not? The honesty to allow ourselves to be as we are is an essential building block toward integration.
It takes courage to explore why we have an impulse to say something corrosive to a family member. It takes courage to explore why we are possessed by an edgy fantasy that would be easier to push away. It takes courage to admit to ourselves what we really want. It takes courage to make space for the thoughts or feelings we have ignored. It takes courage to look at our own darkness and not amputate it from our awareness.
“Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses,” Jung writes. Do we even know how not to condemn ourselves?
The beauty of exploring our beings is found when our punitive clenched fists relax. Here we experience a dose of grace. It’s not about good or bad; it’s about truth. It's about what is. What is the cost of rejecting ourselves? What good does it do to allow a wound to remain untreated?
Curiosity vs. condemnation is the dichotomy that dictates our relationship with self and others. Condemnation is a spirit of darkness. It is the restrictive hand that seeks to punish and purify through punishment. Curiosity and openness are aspects of grace, and allow light to penetrate our depths, to excavate our souls, and then look to mend the broken pieces that have been abandoned.
Integration looks to improve our relationship with self through ending self-deception, re-integrating our discarded pieces, and expanding our identity to include all that we are (even the parts we wish we didn’t have). There are God-like elements that are required to do integration properly. Grace is among them. How else can we look at our own darkness, insufficiencies, shortcomings, and impropriety and say to those parts, “Come as you are,” without grace?
Many aspects of integration are directly compatible with religious beliefs about our spiritual transformation in God. “Sanctification” as a concept carries emotional and traumatic baggage for many of us. The messaging of many believers is simply, “You’re not good enough.” To have confidence in our goodness is a threat to many religious strongholds. Many of these strongholds are not of God.
But, for this article, let us at least try to move past much of the baggage that this term carries. Because, when put in its proper place, sanctification knows no rival. And what is its proper place? Relationship. Continual, deep, and authentic relationship with our Creator.
This relationship allows us, with time, to develop those aspects of God (the fruits of the Spirit) within us. We present our being — minds, bodies, hearts, souls, instincts, and spirit — to God, and he works on them one by one to heal and sharpen them. Much of this healing occurs when we orient these different parts to the correct places — to the correct pursuits and the correct intentions.
1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” This is the essence of sanctification. We place any and all of the fruits of the Spirit in this verse, and we begin to see the essence of sanctification.
We are joyful because He is joyful toward us.
We are peaceful because He is peaceful toward us.
We are patient because He is patient toward us.
We are kind because He is kind toward us.
We are good because He is good to us.
We are faithful because He is faithful to us.
We are gentle because He is gentle toward us.
We are self-controlled because He is self-controlled toward us.
Another way to say it is that we can embody these fruits not just because He models them for us, but because His Spirit enlivens us with grace to live these attributes. In other words, we love because He IS love. We are gentle because He IS gentle, etc. And when He is brought into relationship with our different parts (mind, heart, body, etc.) His influence shapes those parts that then yield the fruits of His being.
The idea is that, at any moment, when we invite the presence of God into our lives, these fruits become accessible to us. He becomes the vine through which we draw all our nourishment. And our nourishment is deeply experienced by us and then manifested toward others. And we can be nourished continually. This is the meaning of grace.
Many of the technicalities of integration (per Jung’s definitions) are not explicitly reflected in the scriptures. But we see models of self-exploration in several examples. David famously reaches far into his heart and soul to articulate these deep longings and drives of his different parts. Allowing God to “search” us allows Him to set the pace for something comparable to integration.
I believe that integration seeks to accomplish a specific form of sanctification, where love and grace are bestowed into our rejected parts and brought into conscious unity with our being. This is not dissimilar to many attributes in the Christian message. But there is one key difference — and one key problem.
The Fundamental Problem(s)
The problem with integration is revealed through what sets sanctification apart from everything else. It is a single, terrible “A” word: authority.
Integration still relies on our will. It relies on our individuality to come to the forefront and be expanded through a willful embrace of our unconscious parts. This is both noble and effective. But it stands on the conviction that we can “save” ourselves, if we just dig deep enough, become more conscious, and move our unconscious pieces to our consciousness. But despite all our digging and all our consciousness, we cannot save ourselves.
Sanctification is the process of allowing the being of Jesus and the helper, the Holy Spirit, to guide the excavation of depths. One way to picture it is to imagine someone drilling for a gem mine. Taking their drilling equipment and rolling a die to determine the coordinates of their drilling, they dig wherever chance leads them. By chance, they find some valuables, but most of their time will be spent searching for something that they’ll never find.
The conviction of a relationship with Jesus is that He is promoted to the location scout. It is not, as many religious people believe, an excuse not to dig into our being. It is simply that He directs where we dig into ourselves, how deep, and what to do with what we find. One can indeed dig too deep.
But authority is not the only problem. It is a deep problem that combats the deepest nature of man — to be his own God (a fight we share intimately with Lucifer). There is a more practical problem too. A less terrible, single word that begins with an “S”: satisfaction.
If we examine our lives honestly, we will recognize many times where we seized the reins of our future, and wound up driving the carriage off the road. We understand, intuitively, that we cannot save ourselves. But there is an ever-present reality of man’s dissatisfaction. We feel incomplete. Part of us feels missing. As much as we try to fill it or numb it, the gaping sands of our dissatisfaction bury all attempts to remedy it.
Who will satisfy us? How will we deal with this emptiness?
I do not mean to market “God” as the wish-list fulfiller of every want and desire we have. That would be inaccurate, and would invalidate many of the challenges that religious individuals face. The process of sanctification does not make us immune to struggles against giving power to God or placing the fulfillment of our wants and desires in his hands. But it allows us to get back on the road more quickly. And this “road” is the road of grace.
Grace is the total acceptance of our Being. It is the invitation to bring forward all that we are and all that we carry. It is living from the power of God — where our burden is light, and our yoke is easy — because His power is infused into us.
With God, all things are possible. Do we believe this? Do we want to?
Should we not give our authority to that which fills up the emptiness within us? We can look and search all we want, but it is the space filled with grace that gives the satisfaction that nothing else can. Grace satisfies because it lasts. And grace is the most powerful medicine for legitimate transformation.
The psychologist, Carl Rogers, echoes this in his famous quote, "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change."
The pursuit of deep knowledge about healing all reveals the same truth: love heals. Many of the therapeutic techniques, including this "unconditional positive regard” which Rodgers advocated for, are imitations of the Christ-like love that we all seek and yearn for. And where better to find this love than in love Himself?
The Verdict
Sanctification and integration are not identical. But I believe they are correlated. Integration should be a natural byproduct of sanctification. Was Christ not unified? Was Christ not integrated? Was Christ not self-aware — did He not have mastery over his individual parts?
I believe integration is a worthy journey. But the old temptation of regarding ourselves as God will loom large at every turn. But bringing God with you as you descend, is this not the opportunity of a lifetime?
But, for many of us, the obstacle of journeying into our depths is not just about pride or vanity. It is fear. It takes tremendous courage to descend. Who is brave enough to begin this task? Perhaps only those who have been split open by suffering or dissatisfaction. They seek another way to deal with reality. They are ready to seek the roots of reality and identity. They are ready to let go.
By bringing God with us on this voyage, we discover that He is a mystical and mysterious God, who can be entrusted on this perilous journey into the great unknown of our being. And there, we can bring our fragmented parts to His healing hands.
So, if you are ready, descend. Be free from fear and timidity, and cast away doubt. You have permission, for you have been clothed in power, in love, and in self-control. If God is with you, who can stand against you?
