02.03. The Act Of God

Saints are God’s workmanship. Sanctification is the act of God. Concerning this, the Word of God is decisive and emphatic. Saint Paul prays in the Thessalonian epistle -- "The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly." (1 Thessalonians 5:23) It is the Lord who separates the godly unto Himself, and He alone can make that which is separated to be holy in nature and character. There is a cleansing required that is beyond man’s power, and there is a sanctification to be wrought that God alone can do. The carnal mind is rooted in the subsoil of human nature, and man knows that he cannot make himself clean. Sanctification is not by the will of man. Neither prayer nor discipline, Bible study nor fasting, penance nor ordinance, can purify the heart and sanctify the nature. It takes God to do that. He is able. He Himself does that which He wills and commands. The experience of sanctification is variously ascribed to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit. We are sanctified through Christ; our Lord sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified, and we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10). We are sanctified with the blood of Christ (Hebrews 13:12) and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin, (1 John 1:7). We are sanctified through the Word of God. "The word is truth," (John 15:3-17; 1 John 1:7). We are made holy through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2). From first to the last, salvation is of grace through faith. As we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith.