Sanctification
Justification with our standing, what God does for us; Justification puts us into a right relationship with
God. In Sanctification has to do with our character and conduct, It is what God does in us, exhibits the
fruit of that relationship—a life separated from a sinful world and dedicated unto God.
I. THE MEANING OF SANCTIFICATION.
Two thoughts are prominent in this definition: separation from evil, and dedication unto God and His
service.
1. SEPARATION FROM EVIL.
2 Chron. 29:5, 15-18—"Sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God ... and carry
forth the filthiness out of the holy places ... And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the
Lord, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness ... Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and
said, We have cleansed all the house of the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:3—"For this is the will of God, even your
sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." See also Heb.9:3; Exod. 19:20-22; Lev. 11:44.
It is evident from these scriptures that sanctification has to do with the turning away from all that is
sinful and that is defiling to both soul and body.
2. SEPARATION OR DEDICATION UNTO GOD.
In this sense whatever is set apart from a profane to a sacred use, whatever is devoted exclusively to the
service of God, is sanctified. So it follows that a man may "sanctify his house to be holy unto the
Lord," or he may "sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession" (Lev. 27:14, 16). So also
the first-born of all the children were sanctified unto the Lord (Num. 8:17). Even the Son of God
Himself, in so far as He was set apart by the Father and sent into the world to do God's will, was
sanctified (John 10:36). Whenever a thing or person is separated from the common relations of life in
order to be devoted to the sacred, such is said to be sanctified.
3. IT IS USED OF GOD.
Whenever the sacred writers desire to show that the Lord is absolutely removed from all that is sinful
and unholy, and that He is absolutely holy in Himself they speak of Him as being sanctified: "When I shall
be sanctified in you before their eyes" (Ezek. 36:23).
II. THE TIME OF SANCTIFICATION.
Sanctification may be viewed as past, present, and future; or instantaneous, progressive, and complete.
1. INSTANTANEOUS SANCTIFICATION.
1 Cor. 6:11—"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."
2. PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION.
Justification differs from Sanctification thus: the former is an instantaneous act with no progression;
while the latter is a crisis with a view to a process—an act, which is instantaneous and which at the
same time carries with it the idea of growth unto completion. 2 Pet. 3:18—"But grow in (the) grace, and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 3:18—We "are transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
3. COMPLETE AND FINAL SANCTIFICATION.
1 Thess. 5:23, R.V.—"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and
body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Wholly"
means complete in every part, perfect in every respect, whether it refers to the Church as a whole, or to
the individual believer. Some day the believer is to be complete in all departments of Christian character
—no Christian grace missing. Complete in the "spirit" which links him with heaven; in the "body" which
links him with earth; in the "soul" as being that on which heaven and earth play. Maturity in each
separate element of Christian character: body, soul, and spirit.
III. THE MEANS OF SANCTIFICATION.
How are men sanctified? What means are used, and what agencies employed to make men holy and
conform them into the likeness of Christ? The agencies and means are both divine and human: both God
and man contributing and co-operating towards this desired end.
1. FROM THE DIVINE SIDE: IT IS THE WORK OF THE TRIUNE GOD.
a) God the Father.
1 Thess. 5:23, 24, R.V.—"And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly ... Faithful is he that calleth
you, who will also do it." God's work is here contrasted with human efforts to achieve the preceding
Injunctions
b) Jesus Christ the Son.
Heb. 10:10, R.V.—"By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all." The death of Jesus Christ separates the believer from sin and the world, and sets him
apart as redeemed and dedicated to the service of God. This same truth, namely, the sanctification of
the church as based on the sacrificial death of Christ, is set forth in Eph. 5:25, 27—"Christ loved
the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it." Christ is "made unto us sanctification"
(1 Cor. 1:30). See also Heb. 13:12, R.V.
c) The Holy Spirit Sanctifies.
1 Pet. 1:2—"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the
Spirit." 2 Thess. 2:13—" ... Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." The Holy Spirit seals, attests, and
confirms the work of grace in the soul by producing the fruits of righteousness therein. It is the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus who gives us freedom from the law of sin and death
2. FROM THE HUMAN SIDE.
a) Faith in the Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 1:30, R.V.—"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Christ is indeed all these things to us, but, in reality,
He becomes such only as we appropriate Him for ourselves. Only as the believer, daily, yea, even
momentarily, takes by faith the holiness of Jesus, His faith, His patience, His love, His grace, to be his
own for the need of that very moment, can Christ, who by His death was made unto him sanctification
in the instantaneous sense, become unto him sanctification in the progressive sense—producing in the
believer His own life moment by moment. Herein lies the secret of a holy life—the
momentarily appropriation of Jesus Christ in all the riches of His grace for every need as it arises. The
degree of our sanctification is the proportion of our appropriation of Christ. See also Acts 26:18.
b) The Study of the Scriptures and Obedience
c) Various Other Agencies.
Heb. 12:14, R.V.—"Follow after ... the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." To
"follow after" means to pursue, to persecute, as Saul of Tarsus pursued and followed the early
Christians.One cannot become a saint in his sleep. Holiness must be the object of his pursuit. The lazy
man will not be the holy man.
