I. Definition of Sanctification
As we lay our foundation of faith, our stones of remembrance, we have covered everything that should be in the life of the believer and have arrived at how we should go forward from today - the process of sanctification that creates in us Christlikeness. We have come to the part of the application of redemption that is a progressive work that continues throughout our earthly lives as believers. It is also a work in witch God and man cooperate, each playing distinct roles.
Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more and more like Christ in our actual lives. Paul makes this ever clear for us as we pick up in Romans 6:1-2, 11-14; “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
II. Differences between Justification and Sanctification
Justification by grace through faith is a once for all time legal standing. Sanctification is an internal condition that occurs continuously throughout life. Justification is entirely God’s work that is perfectly complete in this life and the same for all believers. Sanctification is a process in which we cooperate with God, and therefore is not perfect in this life and is greater in some than in others!
III. Three Stages of Sanctification
The ordinary course of a Christian’s life will involve continual growth in sanctification, and it is something the New Testament encourages us to give effort and attention to. In the New Testament we find that sanctification has three main stages. Understanding these stages may help us to evaluate where we ourselves and our loved ones are in this process and how we all might grow toward greater spiritual maturity.
A. Beginning at Regeneration - Sanctification has a definite beginning at regeneration.
A definite moral change occurs in our lives at the point of regeneration, for Paul talks about the “washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” in Titus 3:5.
1 John 3:9 implies that once we are converted, we cannot continue to sin as a habit or pattern of life because the power of new spiritual life within us keeps us from yielding to a life of sin. This moral change is the first stage in sanctification. This initial step involves a definite break from the ruling power and love of sin. Paul says, “We must consider ourselves dead to sin, and alive to God in Christ Jesus,” in verse 11. He says in verse 14 that, “sin will have no dominion (or authority) over you,” and continues in verse 18 saying that we have “been set free from sin.” That is God’s part!
In between Paul tells believers to “not let sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” He also says, very poignantly, “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” That is our part!
In a very practical application, we must confirm two things to be true.
1. On the one hand we will never be able to say, “I am completely free of sin.”
2. On the other hand, we as believers should never say, “This sin has defeated me. I give up. This is just the way I am.” To say that is to give sin dominion over you that Christ died to set you free from, by his grace!
This initial break with sin involves a reorientation of our desires, and as Paul indicates in verse 17, it is an “obedience from the heart.” This change of one’s primary love and primary desires occurs at the beginning of sanctification.
B. Increases through Life - Even though sanctification has a definite beginning, the New Testament also sees it as a process that continues throughout our lives as believers. This is the primary sense in which the term is used. Even though Paul has told us that we have been set free form sin and are in fact dead to it, he recognizes that sin still remains in our lives.
He tells us in verse 12-13 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,” do not let it reign and do not yield to it. Our task then is to grow more and more in sanctification.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that throughout the Christian life, “we all . . . are being changed into the likeness of Christ from one degree of glory to another.” We are to be becoming more like Christ! Every day, in every way - Christ!
C. Complete only at Death and the coming of Christ - Sanctification is made complete at death for our souls and at the resurrection for our bodies. Because of the residue of sin in our lives, our sanctification will never be completed in this life. But in the end, it will be complete when our souls are set free from the indwelling sin of the body and are made perfect.
Even more, when we appreciate that sanctification involves the whole person, including our bodies, then we realize that it will not be complete until Christ returns and we are made new by the resurrection. What a glorious day, when he will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil. 3:21) and at his coming we will be made alive with a resurrection body and we shall fully bear the image of the Man of heaven! (1 Cor. 15)
Some may take opposition to this fact and use verses like Matthew 5:48 or 2 Corinthians 7 out of context to teach a perfectionism that holds sinless perfection is possible (maybe in fact necessary) in this life. This is an error that is simply not taught in Scripture, while there are passages throughout the Bible that teach we can not be morally perfect in this life.
Others may take this fact and use it as an excuse to not strive for holiness or grow in sanctification. This is exactly contrary to dozens of New Testament commands and is blatant rebellion.
Still others may take this fact and loose hope of making any progress in the Christian life. This is also in exact opposition to Romans 6 and various other clear teachings about the resurrection power of Christ, and his Spirit, enabling us to overcome sin. Therefore, although sanctification will never be complete in this life, we must also emphasize that it should never stop increasing in this life.
IV. Cooperation between God and Man
The role of the resurrection power of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, along with our passion and discipline, demonstrate that sanctification is a process in which we cooperate with God. We are not saying that the roles are the same, or even equal, but simply that we cooperate with God in ways that are appropriate to our status as creatures. The fact that Scripture emphasizes the role we play in sanctification, makes it imperative that we teach how God calls us to cooperate with him in this activity.
A. God’s Role - Since sanctification is primarily a work of God, as Paul prays in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May the God of peace sanctify you wholly,” we must talk first about the role of God.
1. One specific role of God in sanctification is his process of disciplining us as his children.
2. A second specific role of God is his causing us to want his will and empowering us to do it.
3. A third specific role of God is his equipping us with everything good for accomplishing his will.
4. A forth specific role is that Christ earned our sanctification for us and serves as an example.
5. A fifth role of God is that the Holy Spirit works within us to change us, and produces in us the fruits of the spirit that only come by walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit as we become more and more responsive to the desires and prompting of God in our life.
B. Our Role - Our role in sanctification, then is both a passive role in which we depend on God to sanctify us, and an active role in which we strive to obey God and take steps to increase our sanctification.
1. The passive role we play is seen our trusting God, and our prayers asking him to sanctify us. We can not be sanctified by any of our efforts if we do not first yield ourselves to God and present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God.
2. The active role we play is best characterized in Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Obedience is always the way to work out our salvation. This means that we will work out the further realization of the benefits of salvation as we follow Christ in obedience.
We, like the Philippians, are to work at this growth in sanctification, and it is not a game. We are told that awe and reverence (fear and trembling) are the appropriate manner, for it is done in the presence of God. The reason we are to work and may expect positive results is that it is God is at work in us - our cooperation with God bears fruit because of his prior, foundational, empowering work in us. There are far too many aspects to this active role that we are to play in sanctification to deal with here. The New Testament encourages us to strive, stand, abstain, make effort, purify ourselves, discipline ourselves, train ourselves, and as Philippians 2:14-16 says, “Do all things without grumbling or complaining, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
One thing the New Testament does not encourage is short-cuts. In fact, Scripture gives us none! Scripture simply encourages us repeatedly to give ourselves to historic, tested means; Bible reading and mediation, prayer, worship, witnessing, fellowship, self-discipline and self-control. It is vitally important that we continually grow in both our passive trust in God to sanctify us and our active striving for holiness and greater obedience in our lives. If we neglect the active, we become passive and lazy. If we neglect the passive, we become legalist and proud. In either case, our sanctification will be deficient. That is why the wise old hymn says, “Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
V. Affects of Sanctification
What are the affects of sanctification? Can you remember in your own experience the definite beginning, the clear break from the ruling power and love of sin? Can you look back over the past few years of your Christian life and see a pattern of definite growth? Things you used to delight in that no longer interest you? Things you used to have no interest in that now hold great delight for you?
I believe the affects of sanctification can be discussed in three categories, much like the three stages of sanctification; motivation, transformation, and beautification.
A. Transformation - One of the affects of sanctification is that we see that it affects our whole person, our wills, intellects and emotions.
1. Will - Sanctification will have an affect on our will, our decision making faculty, because God is at work in us, “to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
2. Intellect - Sanctification will have an affect on our intellects, on our knowledge, as Paul says in Colossians 1:10 that a life “worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” is one that is continually “increasing in the knowledge of God.”
3. Emotions - Sanctification will have an affect on our emotions, on what we love, as we find 1 John 15 increasingly true, that we do “not love the world or the things in the world” but instead delight to do God’s will.
Most of all, Sanctification will affect our spirit, the non-physical part of our beings; and our bodies, the physical part of our beings, as we fulfill God’s purpose for our lives to be increasingly “conformed to the image of his Son, in every dimension of our personhood, every fiber of our being.
B. Motivation - One of the affects of sanctification is that we are motivated to obey God when we realize that our obedience produces Christ-likeness in us. We fail to realize the wide range of motivations for obedience to God that are found through sanctification in the New Testament.
1. Our desire to please God and express our love for Him - as we grow in our delight in God.
2. Our desire for a clear conscience before God - as we grow in our awareness of our sin before God.
3. Our desire to be vessels for noble use and have increased effectiveness in kingdom work - as we grow in our appreciation for the work of God.
4. Our desire to see unbelievers come to Christ through observing our lives - as we grow in the grace and mercy of God.
5. Our desire to receive present blessings from God on our lives and ministries - as we grow in our dependence on the power and presence of God.
6. Our desire to avoid the displeasure and discipline of God - as we grow in our awe and reverence for God, as our fear and trembling increases.
7. Our desire for greater heavenly reward - as we grow in our desire for the eternal presence of God.
8. Our desire for a deeper walk with God - as we grow in our fellowship with God.
9. Our desire for angels to glorify God for our obedience - as we grow in our understanding of the spiritual things of God.
10. Our desire to do what God commands simply because his commands are right - as we grow in our delight in the justice of God.
11. Our desire for peace and joy in our lives - as we grow in our distaste for this world and our taste for divine things.
C. Beautification - It would not be right to end our time together without me saying that sanctification brings great joy to me. The more we grow in likeness to Christ, the more we will personally and corporately (as a family and as a church) experience the joy and peace that are part of the fruit of the Spirit, and the more we will draw near to the kind of life we will experience in heaven.
Paul said in Romans 6:22 that as we become more and more obedient to God, “the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.” He realizes that this is the true source of all real joy - not houses or land, not power or popularity. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
As we grow in holiness, we grow in conformity to the image of Christ, and more and more of the beauty of his character is seen in us. The beauty of God’s glorious image in creation, lost in the fall, redeemed for us by Christ, is returned to us by grace, through faith, and shines forth from us. This is the goal of perfect sanctification that we hope and long for and that will be ours, by grace through faith, when Christ returns.
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