Sanctification

SANCTIFICATION
13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 14 And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14). The word “sanctification” simply means “to make holy.” The words “sanctify” and “holy” and “saint” all describe the same thing. While we have these as separate words in our English language, both the Greek and Hebrew all translates this with a single root word. The greatest picture of holiness is that which is presented by the prophet Isaiah. At the beginning of his ministry, this prophet came face to face with the holiness of God. In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3).

Isaiah was given a rare vision. It was a vision of heaven itself and of the Lord and His glory and His angels. There was a great deal of things that could have been said to describe the character of God. The angels could have pointed to His great power. Or they could have focused upon His wisdom and His knowledge. They could have praised His grace and His lovingkindness. But instead, they focus upon His holiness.

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts!” The royal announcement of the holiness of God is too much for Isaiah. He cannot help but to contrast the holiness of God with His own lack of holiness. Rather than singing with the angels, he finds himself woefully inadequate to speak of the holiness of God.

Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:5).

Coming face to face with the holiness of God will always have this effect. Peter did exactly the same thing when he was first confronted with the reality of the power of Jesus.

You remember the story. Jesus told Peter to let out the fishing nets. Peter had already spent the entire night fishing and had nothing to show for it, but he nevertheless followed the instructions of Jesus. The result was a huge catch of fish. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8).

1. Sanctification in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament Hebrew uses the word vdq (kadash) to refer to the idea of sanctification.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. (Genesis 2:3).

“And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by My glory. 44 And I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar; I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to Me.” (Exodus 29:43-44).

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nation.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5). In each of these cases, the principle of sanctification is seen to refer to something that has been set apart from its normal usage for a special and exclusive purpose.

2. Sanctification in the New Testament.
There are several terms which are taken from the same Greek root word found in the New Testament: Holy, saint and sanctify.

‘Agioj (hagios) - “Holy; a sanctified one (saint).”

‘Agiazw (hagiazo) - “To Sanctify or make holy.” The root word a[gioj literally means, “to set apart for a special purpose.” Sanctification is the work of God in which He sets a believer apart, washing him from his sin and making him into the character of Christ. The Greeks used a[gioj to describe that which had been set apart and consecrated to the gods. It was used this way of temples, altars, offerings, and even of people. ‘Agioj could also be used to describe an offering that would be given at a temple. Money that was given would now be set apart for the use of the priesthood of that temple. When we speak of the holiness of God, we are looking at His transcendence and the fact that He is other than the rest of His creation. This sense of “otherness” is His holiness. But there is also a sense in which we are also set apart from creation. We are a called-out people who have been separated out in order to be a people of God's own possession. In this sense, there is both a negative as well as a positive aspect of sanctification.

Negative aspect of Sanctification|Positive aspect of Sanctification|
We have been set apart from the world and from sin and from the dominion of Satan.|We have been set apart to God and to His good works and to righteousness and purity.| Our sanctification can be seen on three different planes: a positional standing, a progressive experience, and a future culmination.

3. Positional Sanctification. When Paul gave his defense before Agrippa, he made reference to those who have been sanctified by faith (Acts 26:18). Those who have come to faith in Christ are said to have been sanctified. The universality of this position for those who are in Christ is seen in the words of Paul to the Corinthians.

Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours (1 Corinthians 1:1-2).

Note that the words “saints” is merely the noun form of the word “sanctified.” It points to those who have been “saint-I-fied.” When we read through this epistle, we learn some things about the Corinthian believers. They had broken up the church over petty disputes. They had allowed immorality to come into the church. They were hauling each other into court and suing each other. They were dishonoring the Lord's Table. There were even some who were denying the resurrection of the dead. And yet, in spite of all these things, Paul calls them “saints” and says they have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. Their identity was no longer rooted in their sinful condition. They had been given a new identity. They were now in Christ and that position was the source of their new identity.

There is an important implication to this truth. It means my identity is no longer rooted in my performance. Why is this important? Because my performance will always fall short of what it ought to be. I am a sinner and I am going to go on being a sinner as long as I am in this life. My performance as a Christian will always fall short of what it ought to be. What will this do to my self-esteem? If my focus is on my performance, it will drive me to frustration and then I will end up doing one of two things.

I could give up. If I honestly try to build my life on the basis of my performance, I will quickly come to the place where I am defeated. That might be for the best. God often brings us to the place where we are defeated, because only then can we see that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9). Or I might try to fake it. There are many Christians who hide behind a mask of pseudo spirituality. The New Testament has a word for this. It is called a hupokrites. This described the Greek actor who held a mask in front of his face as he played a part in the theater. It is from this word that we derive our term “hypocrite.”

Churches today are full of people who are hiding behind a mask of good works and church attendance, seeking to satisfy their self esteem by impressing other people. The reason for this is that we tend to build our self esteem on the basis of what we think other people think about us. What we need to focus on is what God thinks about us. God sees us with a new identity. He has an image of us that is exactly the same as the image of Jesus Christ.

16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

We are called to see ourselves in the way God sees us. God sees beyond the physical. He sees those things that are eternal. How can we see into those eternal areas? We see through the eyes of faith. We see by reading what God says in His word and by believing it.

4. Progressive Sanctification. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). The Greek text is quite revealing in this passage. The word “sanctified” appears in the present tense and thus refers to “those who are being sanctified.” While it is true that you were completely and totally set apart in an eternal sense when you believed in Christ, there is another sense in which you are experiencing a setting apart of yourself on a day by day basis. This is called growth. The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith gives this definition of sanctification.

Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness. (Shorter Catechism 35).

Progressive sanctification can best be understood as we contrast it to God's work in justification and regeneration. Before we look at the differences between sanctification versus justification, we ought first to see the similarities between these two.

Both come from the grace of God.

Both are a part of the work of salvation that God provides.

Both are to be found in all the converted. There is no such thing as a person who has been justified who has not also been sanctified.

Both begin at the same time.

Both are necessary to salvation.

Justification|Sanctification|
To be declared as righteous.|To be set apart and thereby made holy or consecrated.|
Justification is the reckoning and counting of a man to be righteous on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ.|Sanctification is the making of a man to be inwardly righteous.|
The righteousness of justification is an imputed righteousness received by faith and is not our own.|The righteousness of sanctification is an imparted righteousness brought about in us by the Holy Spirit.|
Justification is an absolute|Sanctification in the progressive sense is relative and in part.|
Speaks of a work done for you.|Speaks of a work done in you.|
You are declared righteous on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ.|You are set apart for God's special use by the work of the Holy Spirit.| Both justification and sanctification...

Come to the believer through faith (Galatians 2:16; Acts 26:18). Are on the basis of the blood of Christ (Romans 5:9; Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 13:12).

Justification|Regeneration|Sanctification|
Delivers us from the guilt of sin|Delivers us from the power of sin|Delivers us from the presence of sin|
It is done for us|It is done in us|It is done for us and in us|
It is a legal declaration|It is a creative act|It is a growing process|
It brings about a changed standing|It brings about a change in your very nature|It brings about a change in your life|
Happens at the point of salvation|Begins with salvation and progresses|
To be declared righteous|To be born again|To be set apart to God|

Regeneration is sanctification begun. Sanctification is regeneration unfolding. In both cases, these involve a work of God. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. (Php_1:6).

It is God who does the work of sanctification. He began the good work in you and He will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. At the same time, you are called to work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Php_2:12-13). Sanctification is a work of God, but it is also a work in which we share. We labor like the farmer who plants and who plows and who waters, but it is ultimately God who gives the growth.

Another important aspect of this growth is that it takes time. God is building for eternity. He is building a work in you that is meant to last. It has been said that when God wants to grow an oak tree He takes a hundred years, but when He makes a squash, He takes only six months. God is building within you the very person of Jesus Christ. Christ is being formed in you. My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19).

Paul speaks to the believers in Galatia and tells them that Christ is being formed in them. This takes time. There is no short cut to maturity. Searching for short cuts will lead you into dead ends and pitfalls as you attempt to use certain experiences and “second blessings” to bring you to maturity. The problem with these is that they lead you to look for the source of your growth within yourself rather than where it should be — in Christ. He is both the source as well as the goal of our sanctification.

14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, (Ephesians 4:14-15). This is our goal. It is that we will be like Jesus Christ in all aspects. This process will continue until the day that we see Him face to face. This brings us to the destination of our sanctification.

5. Ultimate Sanctification: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. (John 3:2).

We have a promise for the future. It is that we shall see the Lord. When we see Him, we will be like Him. Moses asked that he might be permitted to see the glory of God, but he was only permitted to see God's “after glow.” No man has ever seen the full glory of God, but there is coming a day when we shall see Him just as He is. How will that be possible? It is because we shall be like Him. We are going to be changed. The work of sanctification will have its completion. The process of growth will terminate with an eternal summer of glory. We will be like Christ. His character is today being formed in us and one day it will be completed.

Today we are saints in transition. We are never where we were, but neither are we ever where we want to be. We are a walking contradiction. Yet there is hope for the future. We will be changed. This hope for the future has an obligation for the present. This has an effect on how we live today. It gives us a goal for which to attain. This goal is stated in the following verse. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:3). This is a doctrine of comfort, but it is also designed to motivate us and teach us how we are to live today. It moves us to live a life of purity and holiness.