The Biblical Provision For Sanctification
The Practical Question: "Is Sanctification An Experience, A Relationship, Or A Person?"
The answer to this practical question is that
sanctification is all three, but in the reverse order.
Primarily, sanctification finds its source in the Person of
Jesus Christ. He has been made our "sanctification" (1
Corinthians 1:30).
No Christian can cleanse himself from sin and no Christian
can produce holiness entirely by his own effort. Only God
through His grace can do that. Many earnest Christians have
met with great frustration and disappointment in attempting,
through a lack of understanding, to sanctify themselves.
This in no way may be taken as an excuse to live a careless,
carnal, indifferent Christian life. The believer is under
the solemn obligation to live free from sin by learning how
to go to God in confession for cleansing and to live in
holiness of life by learning how to make decisions of faith
in appropriating the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
When these two interrelated truths are learned and practice,
then He Who is our Sanctification will fulfill His will "
... even your sanctification ... " (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Holiness in daily life is not produced, therefore, by
resolutions, self-discipline, or any clenching-of-the-teeth
attitude alone. Determination and committal are important
but are not enough. Holiness is produced by God through His
grace. Sanctification is therefore the result of a
relationship. When Jesus Christ, our Sanctification, is
given His rightful place in our life, the effect of His
presence and grace will be evident.
Sanctification is not automatic. The daily life of many
Christians testifies to that. It is also evident that
sanctification is not a once-for-all decision such as
salvation. It was shown earlier that the benefits of
sanctification must be earned, they are possessed in a
variety of degrees, they are transitory benefits, and they
also depend on our cooperation with God. To summarize, this
would indicate that sanctification is progressive. Our
growth in grace is a daily matter. The basic issues of the
Christian life must be maintained by daily decisions.
What are these daily decisions which we must make?
Christianity, we have seen, is demanding. We have been
commanded to surrender ourselves, as a person, to God. The
issue is not our money, time, pleasures, or even our sins.
We are to surrender ourselves as a living sacrifice (Mark
8:34; Romans 12:1). Sanctification does not pertain
primarily to our money or sins. It has to do with the person
who spends the money and commits the sins. It is the person
who is in need.
We are to surrender ourselves to God. Not to the church, nor
to Christian service, nor to a certain way of life. We have
been commanded to give the control, the authority, the rule
of our persons to Another. It is not enough to mouth a few
words and to shed a few tears.
This surrender to God is the most important decision in
progressive sanctification. Many Christians have done so
only superficially. They have made a hasty, shallow, partial
surrender and have been deceived as a result. In such cases
a Christian may give up some particular sin or habit, he may
yield a certain area of his life to God, may accept some
activity of his church as important, or he may resolve to
live a better life. All of this is important but irrelevant
to the basic issue. The Biblical command is inescapable.
There is no substitute for the total surrender of the self.
To be a sinner means to be one's own authority. It means to
arrogate to ourselves the position of God. This must be
recognized, confessed and reversed. We may no longer play
God in our own lives or the lives of others. For
sanctification to be meaningful in our life it must grow out
of a relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship is
rooted and grounded only in a complete and honest surrender.
Once this decision has been correctly made it must be
maintained on a daily basis. The relationship must now be
translated into a daily practice. To surrender ourselves to
God not only means that we give Him the control of our inner
life, but that all areas of life must be recognized as
belonging to Him. Our surrender to Him must be maintained in
our motives, ambitions, pleasures, thoughts, evaluations,
beliefs, and activities. This is why daily decisions which
acknowledge divine Lordship are so important.
And now it is evident that sanctification is also an
experience. One must accept the authority of God as He has
spoken in His Word and learn how to put the Bible into
practice in daily life. Sanctification must be a part of our
total experience.
The relationship we have is depicted in Diagram 9.
The Key To Success:
Is A Person - Jesus Christ.
This does not mean that we become enslaved to rules. The
opposite is true. The Christian who has surrendered Himself
to God and has learned to practice the principles of
sanctification is under servitude only to God. He is free.
This, on the other hand, does not make him irresponsible to
the Bible, the church, Christian service, and the needs and
feelings of others. In all these ways he will learn to
express his love to God. Love for God and obedience to the
Word of God, as we have seen, are inseparable (John 14:15; 1
John 5:3).
The Doctrinal Question: "How Is Sanctification Related To
The Work Of Christ?"
Every benefit of the gospel, including sanctification,
has been provided for the Christian by Jesus Christ through
His Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and the sending of
the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
It is important to understand that, in each of these
historical deeds, Christ provided for more than the
believer's initial salvation.
In the Crucifixion the believer has been justified,
delivered from condemnation, and reconciled to God (Romans
5:6-11). All of this pertains to the gift of salvation.
Jesus Christ died as the believer's substitute. He took upon
Himself the condemnation and judgment which had been justly
passed upon mankind. He died under the wrath of God so that
the believer may never experience that wrath. Redemption has
been obtained. There is a complete, legal forgiveness of
sins (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 2:13; Hebrews 10:17).
However, Jesus Christ not only died that man may be
redeemed. He died that the believer may be able to live a
successful Christian life. And this is what the Scriptures
call "sanctification."
In His Crucifixion, Jesus Christ has provided a cleansing
from the power, influence, and effect of the believer's
sinful nature. This nature is called in Scripture the "old
man" (Romans 6:6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9). In His
death, as the believer's representative, Jesus Christ
brought the fallen nature of man under the judgment of God
(Romans 6:6). A cleansing has therefore been obtained, so
that the believer may be free from the sinful nature which
he yet possesses and which is the source of so much of his
spiritual defeat (Romans 6:6-22).
In the Scripture some aspects of both salvation and
sanctification are also related to the Resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
In regard to salvation, the believer's justification (Romans
4:25), spiritual birth (1 Peter 1:3), and future
resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-58) are shown to have
their source in Christ's Resurrection.
The sanctification benefits of the Resurrection are also
clearly stated in the Scriptures. The Apostle Paul spoke of
his desire to experience the power of the Resurrection in
daily life (Philippians 3:10). And he prayed for the
Christians at Ephesus that they would know this same power
(Ephesians 1:19, 20). What Paul is referring to is the
enablement which Christ provided through His Resurrection so
that the believer may live with spiritual virtue, grace, and
power in his life. This is described in the Bible as being "
... alive unto God ... " (Romans 6:11).
The believer, therefore, need not live with doubt in his
life. He may have, through Christ's Resurrection, the virtue
of faith. Instead of pessimism and discouragement, he may
have hope. And instead of bitterness, estrangement, and
selfishness, he may have love (1 Corinthians 13; 1
Thessalonians 1:3). Again the list of practical benefits is
endless (Galatians 5;22, 23; Ephesians 4:22-32; Philippians
4:5-8; Colossians 3:10-17).
To the Ascension of Jesus Christ the Bible also attributes
some benefits of both salvation and sanctification.
In the area of salvation Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven
to be the believer's Forerunner (Hebrews 6:19, 20) and
Intercessor (Hebrews 7:25; 8:1; 9:24). The Apostle Paul also
indicated that the believer has been given the position of
legal authority over Satan by means of Christ's Ascension
(Ephesians 1:19-23). He is "seated in the heavenlies" with
Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5, 6).
This position of authority provides daily deliverance from
Satan. This deliverance must now be put into practice in the
believer's sanctification. He is commanded to guard against
allowing Satan some sinful opportunity in his life
(Ephesians 4:27) and to deliberately appropriate all the
benefits of his relationship with Christ so he may be able
to resist the Devil (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 5:8, 9). The
Christian has not only been crucified in and with Christ
(Galatians 2:20); he has been raised from the grave and has
ascended in the Person of His Representative (Ephesians 2:5,
6; Colossians 3:1-3). The spiritual benefits of this
position, when practiced by the Christian, are a part of his
progressive sanctification.
On the Day of Pentecost the ascended Lord Jesus Christ
bestowed the Holy Spirit upon all those who were believers
(Acts 2:33). In a similar way to the other three deeds of
atonement, the believer has a two-fold relationship to the
Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit Who convicts the non-Christian of his
sinful and lost condition (John 16:7-11). He brings the
convicted person into the benefits of the New Birth through
the gift of repentance and faith (John 3:3-5; 2
Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2). The Holy Spirit protects
and preserves the new believer as His indwelling "seal" (2
Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13, 14; 4:30) and makes him a
member of the "body of Christ" (Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians
12:13). The believer becomes the "temple" of the Holy Spirit
(1 Corinthians 3:16, 17; 6:19). As related to sanctification
the Holy Spirit resides in the believer to be his
"Comforter" (Helper) in a continual anointing (John
14:16,17, 26; 15:26; 16:13, 14). While Jesus Christ is the
believer's Sanctification it is the Holy Spirit Who is His
Sanctifier. It is He Who leads the believer in his
progressive freedom from the sinfulness of his fallen nature
(Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:16-18) through an understanding of
the Scripture and its daily practice in obedience to God (1
Peter 1:22). The Holy Spirit witnesses to the believer
concerning the authenticity of the Word of God and assures
him on that basis of his relationship to God (Romans
8:15,16; Galatians 4:5, 6; 1 John 5:9-13). He under girds
the Christian in his prayer life (Romans 8:26, 27) and gives
him spiritual gifts so that he might adequately serve God
(Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Ephesians 4:7-16).
The Christian is commanded not to grieve or quench the Holy
Spirit by resisting His leading (Ephesians 4:30; 1
Thessalonians 5:19) but to be constantly filled with the
Spirit through daily obedience (Ephesians 5:18).
In summary, then, Jesus Christ, through His atonement, has
made an adequate spiritual provision for every area of the
believer's daily life. He has provided a daily cleansing
through His Crucifixion, a daily enablement through His
Resurrection, a daily deliverance through His Ascension, and
a daily anointing through Pentecost. It is very important
for the Christian to understand this.
The Christian who lives and prays in ambiguity is doomed to
failure and disappointment in daily life.
Diagram 10, now, depicts the relationship of salvation and
sanctification to the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the
Ascension and to Pentecost.
The Key To Success: Is To Understand That Sanctification Is Rooted In The Deeds
Of God In History As Well As Salvation.