Sanctification

Copyright 1998:
William A. Simpson

Sanctification is one of those doctrines that many people misunderstand.  In most Christians' minds, it has to do with moral purity, or right behavior.  So they set about trying to reform the flesh, that old nature that is born after the will of the flesh, and can never be reformed.  Those who do not properly grasp this doctrine of sanctification find themselves trying to become more holy by eliminating this sin or that from their lives, as though, if they work at it long enough, they might finally eliminate all sin and become acceptable before God.

There are several problems with this misinterpretation.  First, such an understanding leads to a doctrine of salvation by works, for our acceptability to God does not depend upon our reformation of the flesh, but upon our faith in the sufficiency of the shed Blood to save.  As Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus,

"For by grace are you saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph 2: 8-9).

If we must become good to be pleasing to God, then salvation can only come after this reformation, and salvation necessarily becomes a matter of man's works, and not of God's grace.

Another thing that is wrong with this understanding of sanctification is that it involves the reformation of the flesh.  This is, according to the Scriptures, not something that even a saved person can do, not to mention one who is not yet saved.  Hear again the Apostle Paul:

"As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one...   They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one" (Rom 3: 10, 12).

Speaking of his own fleshly nature, he says,

"For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do...  But now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells..." (Rom 7: 15, 17-18).

As much as Paul suffered in his ministry, as many miles as he walked on his missionary journeys, as many souls as he led to the Lord, as many churches as he established, as much of the New Testament as he wrote, as much as he was devoted to the care of the saints and the growth of the Church, he still was not able to root evil out of his flesh.  When he died, he was as willful as when he wrote those words. 

Things changed in Paul's life after he was saved, to be sure.  He quit persecuting the Church and began to serve her fruitfully.  He surely stopped doing many things and started doing many others.  But Paul's nature was still Paul's.  He was still himself, with the same sins as he'd always had.  His zeal for Judaism caused him to persecute the Church.  And that same zeal for the Jews caused him to go to Jerusalem, against the warnings of the prophet, where he was put on the road to his final imprisonment in Rome.  It was rebellion that led him to persecute the Church, and it was rebellion that caused him to go to Jerusalem.  More specifically, it was self will in both cases.  Paul was determined to do things his way, no matter what God said.

So it can't be claimed that Paul cleaned up his act, though he did reverse himself in many areas.   However, the areas in which he reversed himself were not in all the little moral areas that we think of today.  Oh, no.  The difference between Saul and Paul was that Paul, though still as sinful as before, had begun to serve God in this world and in this life.  You can bet that he sat around many a campfire on his travels with other merchants and manufacturers (Paul made tents), and swapped yarns with them, and spoke with them of sporting events and cultural events and international events and many other things as well.  He was still a man, with a human nature that was rebellious toward God.   Although he was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Paul remained a sinner.  It is clear that he often walked in the flesh, and not in the Spirit, else he would not have said what he said in the verses above.

But Paul was sanctified.  Hear what the author of the letter to the Hebrews wrote:

"By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb 10: 10, 14).

Every Christian is fully sanctified the moment he believes the Gospel.  Yet, he is also being sanctified throughout his earthly life.  It seems a contradiction.  Until, that is, one comes to a proper comprehension of the meaning of the word sanctification.   Notice that the Scripture is careful not to say that we sanctify ourselves, but that we have been and are being sanctified.  We will see that it is God Himself who sanctifies us, and we shall see how He does so.  May His wisdom and glory be magnified, and not our own!

It is the Greek word hagios that is at the root of sanctification.   It is the same root that is found in the words saint, and holy.   The essence of the word is to be set apart.  In order to be sanctified, one has to be set apart from something, and to something else.  The Christian is set apart by God from the world to Himself.

Paul said that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, set apart to God before we were ever born (Eph 1:4).  Our election to salvation was declared before we ever had a chance to commit any sins at all, for none of us were born before the creation of the world.  Our sanctification was determined then, and was effected when Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  We have nothing to do with our own sanctification.  Jesus said,

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain..." (Jn 15: 16  KJV).

Sanctification is not a thing that we do to ourselves after we are saved.  It is something that God did to us eons before we were ever born.  And it is something that the Holy Spirit does to us throughout our earthly walk.  Let us turn again to the Scriptures:

"But of Him (that is, of God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God; and righteousness and sanctification and redemption;  that, as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the LORD." (1 Cor 1: 30).

God has placed us in Christ.  Because He is sanctified, we are sanctified.  Because He is righteous, we are accounted righteous.  Because He redeemed us, we are redeemed.   That verse is found in a passage where Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth that God does not choose those whom society might choose, but He chooses the derelicts and rejects and the base things of the world to serve Him.  Others might seek to glorify themselves, so God chooses those who can only be glorified in Him.  Certainly, that passage is no argument for the reformation of the flesh in order to achieve sanctification.  Let us see what Paul had to say further on this matter:

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:  That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour..." (1 Cor 4:3-4).

Here, we come to the root of the problem in understanding this doctrine.  It is this word fornication.  It comes to us from the Greek word porneia, which refers to adultery in our modern usage.  From it comes the word pornography.   But it has a more subtle meaning than that, although it also is used in the original language to refer to illicit sexual intercourse.  It means the turning of the heart from that which is good to that which is not.  It can, and is, used to denote spiritual adultery.  Physical adultery is but the end result of spiritual adultery.  It is the fruit of looking to the lusts of the flesh rather than to the things of the Spirit of God.

There is no real reformation of the flesh in the Christian walk (for that old man never walks according to the Spirit), but there are visible and tangible effects of being sanctified.  As we go through our Christian lives, we become progressively more set apart to God as the years go by.  As we lay up treasure in heaven, our hearts turn more and more to the things of heaven.  The closer the mature Christian comes to the final curtain in his earthly walk, the more his heart begins to appreciate that eternal life which will soon be his.  Earthly things mean less and less, even as the things of God become more important.

That is sanctification.  It involves being set apart by the Holy Spirit from the things below to the things above.  It is a progressive growth toward heaven and away from earth.   It isn't about moral purity as much as it is about turning our hearts away from the world and toward God.   Our sanctification is completed judicially already.  Experientially, it begins at the moment of the new birth, and continues throughout the Christian's life.   Though he may remain caught up in the cords of various sins, with which he wrestles during the entirety of his earthly walk, those sins become increasingly repugnant to him even as he practices those things he would not.

Again, let us listen as Paul speaks to the church at Thessalonica:

"But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth..." (1 Thes 2: 13).

Sanctification by the Spirit.  Where is the self reformation in that?  We are not holy because we are good; for there is none good, no, not one.  We are holy because God has made us holy.  But we are not good.  Not yet.  There will come a day, however!  The Spirit of God set us apart and imparted to us the faith that we have.  God did it all, and there is no present glory for any man.

Yet one more passage, this time from Peter:

"...elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied" (1 Pet 1:2).

God has sanctified us, and is sanctifying us.  It is He who has "made us accepted in the beloved" (Eph 1:6).  As He works in us in our earthly walk, turning our hearts away from the world and toward Himself, we find that there are more times when we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, but we are reminded also more and more of our remaining sinfulness by the things that we find ourselves doing.  Were it not for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, we would all be hopelessly lost.  There is a passage related to this one in the tenth chapter of Hebrews, where Christians are instructed to have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.  There, the emphasis is upon looking to God for our righteousness, and not to the works of the flesh, which can only sin.

Paul begins and ends his epistles with benedictions of grace and peace.  Here, Peter does the same.  Because we have peace with God, we do not worry and fret over the things of the flesh.  We do not count every sin and walk backward all our lives in fear.   Rather, the mature Christian has his eyes solidly on the prize, and seeks, not reformation, but opportunity for service.  The former leads to pride; the latter, to fruitful ministry.

It may seem a matter of semantics, but the difference is that between joy and terror, between light and darkness, between an eye on the grave and an eye on eternity, between hope and despair.  Christian, do not try to reform the flesh.  If you eliminate one sin, the devil will trap you with ten others.  Instead, turn your eyes to the only Light there is.  Increase in the knowledge of God and you will cease thinking so much about yourself.  Lay up treasure in heaven, for you heart will soon enough be turned to that treasure and away from earthly treasures.  Let us conclude with another word from the Apostle Paul:

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you"  (Phil 3:13-15).