The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study is now studying the Christian doctrine of sanctification.
Sanctification is a continuing change worked by the Holy Spirit in us, freeing us from sinful habits and developing in us Christ-like desires, attitudes, and virtues.
Sanctification - the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy.
Three aspects to sanctification
1. Positional sanctification received at salvation
2. Progressive sanctification, the daily growth, becoming more and more set apart for God's use
3. Ultimate sanctification attained only when we are fully and completely set apart to God as we become just like Christ.
In today's final session we look at the 6 things every Christian needs to know about sanctification.
- Sanctification takes place in two parts
- Sanctification is hard
- Sanctification happens because we're united to Christ
- Sanctification is different for everyone
- Sanctification is a community projecty
- Sanctification is slow
These are the notes to Session 5 of the study.
For our study we are using the book "Sanctification Alive in Christ" by Lyle W. Lange. You can order a copy by clicking this LINK or the Amazon image at the end of the notes.
For an audio recording of Session 5 click the YouTube link at the end of the notes.
Definitions
sanc·ti·fy - verb - set apart as or declare holy; consecrate; set apart for sacred use: to make free from sin: purify
"Sanctity" is an ancient concept widespread among religions. ... To sanctify is to literally "set apart for particular use in a special purpose or work and to make it holy or sacred."
This work of the Holy Spirit in believers is known as sanctification.
Sanctification is a continuing change worked by the Holy Spirit in us, freeing us from sinful habits and developing in us Christ-like desires, attitudes, and virtues.
Three aspects to sanctification
1. Positional sanctification received at salvation
Acts 20:32 (NKJV) So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
1 Corinthians 1:2 (NKJV)2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
2. Progressive sanctification, the daily growth, becoming more and more set apart for God's use
John 17:16-19 (NKJV)16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
3. Ultimate sanctification, attained only when we are fully and completely set apart to God as we become just like Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 (NKJV) Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is the work of God alone. We don’t have anything to do with it and we can’t earn it. Sanctification is a process. Where salvation comes from outside of us, from God, sanctification comes from God within us by the work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we contribute to sanctification through our efforts. The saved person is actively involved in submitting to God's will, resisting sin, seeking holiness, and working to be more godly or developing growing in the fruit of the Spirit.
Sanctification is the divine process by which Christians become more and more like Christ. It is a divine process because the changes in the life of the Christian are produced by the Holy Spirit
Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
The “fruit” of the Spirit, on the other hand, is the expression of our renewed nature as it is seen by others. Iin order to live your life in a way that is pleasing to God, you must bear fruit.
1 Peter 1:1-2 (NKJV)1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Those changes are not the result of self-improvement efforts or reimaging. They are the result of the power of God renewing the heart and mind of the Christian. In the Christian’s sanctification, God’s resurrection power is at work on a renewal project.
The relationship is that sanctification flows from justification by grace through faith. Justification is based on God’s work in Christ. Sanctification is the new life a Christian lives through faith in Christ.
There are also contrasts between justification and sanctification. The 5 contrasts are:
Contrast 1
Whereas justification involves a change in people’s status before God, Christians’ sanctified lives involve a change in their hearts and lives in relation to God and their neighbor.
Contrast 2
Whereas justification excludes all human works, sanctification of the Christian life consists in the good works God enables the Christian to do.
Contrast 3
Whereas justification is complete and perfect in Christ, the Christian’s sanctified life in this world remains imperfect and incomplete.
Contrast 4
Whereas justification embraces all people, sanctification takes place only in believers.
Contrast 5
Whereas justification gives us complete certainty of salvation, the sanctified Christian life produces evidence of faith but can never give us complete certainty of salvation.
The relationship is that sanctification flows from justification by grace through faith. Justification is based on God’s work in Christ. Sanctification is the new life a Christian lives through faith in Christ.
One of the contrast is that whereas justification embraces all people, sanctification takes place only in believers or saints or Christians.
Last week we looked at the Christian as a person who has both a new self (new person, new man), which desires to do God’s will, and an old Adam (old self, old man, sinful flesh), which wars against God’s will. We will then examine the implications this has for the Christian’s sanctified life.
Sanctification is part recognizing that our redemption has been accomplished by Christ, and part realizing that our redemption is being applied by the Spirit.
Those of us who have been walking with Christ for any length of time recognize that the work of sanctification is slow. There is no insta-sanctification or seven steps to become successfully sanctified. It is slow, with many twists and turns. It’s also deeply personal as we each have different areas of life in which the Spirit is working. Sanctification is also a highly corporate project as well. The “us” of sanctification is just as important as the “I” within the Christian life.
Sanctification takes place in two parts
Sanctification is the cooperative work of God and Christians by which ongoing transformation into greater Christlikeness occurs.
Philippians 2:12-13 NIV Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Such maturing transpires particularly through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Galatians 5:16-23 NIV So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
John 17:17 NIV Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctification is not about perfection, but persistence. Fighting sin is a lifelong endeavor. The believer cooperates with the Holy Spirit working in them, their works being an expression of gratitude for their salvation. Sanctification, therefore, begins at the moment of conversion.
The Bible gives us two ways of understanding this doctrine. First, sanctification is definitive. This is God’s work of setting believers apart from non-believers. Even the newest believer who trusts in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross is considered a “saint”. When we trust in Christ by faith we are set apart in Christ and considered to be saints based on the work of Christ for us.
That is positional sanctification.
1 Corinthians 6:11 NIV And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Romans 6:11-14 NIV In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
Galatians 2:20 NIV I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
But as we have seen in this study sanctification is also progressive. This active growth proceeds from the life we live by faith in Jesus Christ. Continuing to trust in the finished work of Christ, we grow in Christlikeness by cooperating with the Holy Spirit in seeking to live more faithfully in accordance with God’s word.
Sanctification is hard
There is no silver bullet to sanctification. Our sanctification is “simply the art of getting used to justification.
Without a doubt, justification is a beautiful doctrine, but it is not the sum of the Christian life. All biblical doctrines are necessary for understanding our life in Christ. All the Scriptures are vital for the Christian. All of Jesus and his work is necessary, not just a part of him. Thus, the Christian faith, with all its rich theological reflection and truth, is best understood in light of our union with Christ. This essential truth of the Christian faith provides a framework for all of the Christian life.
At every turn of the Christian life, we must remember the distinction between the objective achievement of Christ’s work in redeeming us from sin and death, and the subjective response of such work by faith through the Spirit. Sanctification is one aspect of our union with Christ.
Sanctification happens because we’re united to Christ
Here’s a helpful way to understand our sanctification in light of our union with Christ: sanctification is part recognizing that our redemption has been accomplished by Christ, and part realizing that our redemption is being applied by the Spirit. We are in Christ by faith, and he is in us by the power of the Spirit. Here is what this looks like:
Ephesians 1:3 NIV Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17, 21 NIV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Romans 8:10 NIV But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
Galatians 2:20 NIV I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we understand the profound nature of our union with Jesus, then we begin to see the immense riches available to us for our growth in godliness. Sanctification therefore is multifaceted and meets every one of us exactly where we are on our journey of becoming more like our Savior. Though they may be similar, no two roads of sanctification are alike.
Sanctification is different for everyone
We are unique human beings who have been affected by the fall in unique ways. Though we all suffer from the same disease, our symptoms are often different. Though sanctification is deeply personal, we must remember that the Alpha and Omega of sanctification is Christ himself.
The first spark of justifying faith sets us apart as “holy ones” of God and simultaneously lights the first flame of our growth in Christlikeness. Although we are all different, the objective of progrssive sanctification is the same and flows into one source which is the Holy Spirit’s application to know, enjoy, delight in, and adore Jesus Christ for all time.
Here are five factors at work towards our sanctification:
God.
Philippians 2:13 NIV for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
Truth.
The truth of God’s word taught, sung, preached, studied, and read is one of the surest means by which the Spirit brings about change in our lives
John 8:31-32 NIV To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Wise people.
God mediates our change “through the gifts and graces of brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Romans 12:3-8 NKJV For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
I Corinthians 12:1-12 NKJV Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-15 NKJV And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—
I Peter 4:7-11 NKJV But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers. And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Proverbs 11:14 NIV For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.
Proverbs 15:22 NIV Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
Suffering and struggle.
Though we don’t relish it, suffering and struggles work towards our growth in Christlikeness. Difficulties prompt us to rely on God.
Romans 5:1-5 NIV Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
James 1:2-8 NIV Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Hebrews 13:5 NIV Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
You change.
Scripture calls us to actively believe, obey, trust, seek, love, confess, praise, and take refuge. We are not passive. The mystery of faith is that we are 100% responsible, and at the same time 100% dependent on outside help.
Hebrews 11:6 NIV And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
How these factors play out in each of our lives may look drastically different. The Spirit is at work, applying the objective work of Christ, yet that work touches us all differently. While journeying towards the same goal, each believer will have a distinct path which they will tread.
John 16:12-15 NIV “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 NIV There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
5 Sanctification is a community project
Though sanctification is personal, it is also deeply corporate. Christians are called into a body, a group of other believers, in order to experience the work of the Spirit in our lives together. Christ died for a people. Apart from the body of Christ, sanctification is impossible. This is the way God designed the Christian life.
There is no such thing as a growing Christian apart from an active life in the body of Christ. This is so because a clear evidence of sanctification is that we are thinking of Christ and others more than ourselves. When we are not overly preoccupied with ourselves then we can rest assured that our sanctification is progressing. Our sanctification is intimately bound up in our love for and service to others. Those who are in Christ are forgiven sinners, sufferers who find shelter from life’s storms, and saints in process. And, we are in this together.
6.Sanctification is slow
Sanctification is a slow work. There are numerous reasons for this. I conclude with two. First, we can resist the work of the Spirit. Again, one factor of our sanctification is ourselves.
Therefore, when we defy the Spirit’s work, Scripture calling that “quenching” the Spirit.
Another way to say this is that through our stubbornness we effectively snuff out the flame of the Spirit in our lives. The result of such “quenching” (cf. 1 Thess. 5:19) may lead to a season of spiritual dryness.
Second, there is no part of our human existence unaffected by the fall. Our bodies, minds, emotions, relationships, and more have all been spoiled by the decay of sin. Thus, to find healing and restoration is a lifelong process. Though slow, this process of sanctification is good, because it gives us numerous opportunities to lean upon God and see him consistently glorified in our lives.
Like a spouse for whom our affection grows the more we see their beauty, so too is our relationship with God as we grow in our sanctification.
Bible Study Audio
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