THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION – Part 1

 ANCHOR OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE For THURSDAY, 18TH MAY, 2023.

TOPIC: THE DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION – Part 1

MEMORIZE: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3.

SCRIPTURE READING: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19).

EXPOSITION: 

What is sanctification? What is the definition of Christian sanctification?

Sanctification is God’s will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3). The word sanctification is related to the word saint; both words have to do with holiness. To “sanctify” something is to set it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.

Jesus had a lot to say about sanctification in John 17. In verse 16 the Lord says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it,” and this is before His request: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (verse 17). In Christian theology, sanctification is a state of separation unto God; all believers enter into this state when they are born of God: “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). The sanctification mentioned in this verse is a once-for-ever separation of believers unto God. It is a work God performs, an intricate part of our salvation and our connection with Christ (Hebrews 10:10 “”). Theologians sometimes refer to this state of holiness before God as “positional” sanctification; it is the same as justification.

While we are positionally holy (“set free from every sin” by the blood of Christ, Acts 13:39), we know that we still sin (1 John 1:10 says “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”). That’s why the Bible also refers to sanctification as a practical experience of our separation unto God. “Progressive” or “experiential” sanctification, as it is sometimes called, is the effect of obedience to the Word of God in one’s life. It is the same as growing in the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) or spiritual maturity. God started the work of making us like Christ, and He is continuing it (Philippians 1:6 reads “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”). This type of sanctification is to be pursued by the believer earnestly (1 Peter 1:15 “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,”; Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:”) and is effected by the application of the Word (John 17:17 “"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”). 

Progressive sanctification has in view the setting apart of believers for the purpose for which they are sent into the world: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19). That Jesus set Himself apart for God’s purpose is both the basis and the condition of our being set apart (“"do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?” John 10:36). We are sanctified and sent because Jesus was. Our Lord’s sanctification is the pattern of and power for our own. The sending and the sanctifying are inseparable. On this account we are called “saints” (hagioi in the Greek), or “sanctified ones.” Prior to salvation, our behavior bore witness to our standing in the world in separation from God, but now our behavior should bear witness to our standing before God in separation from the world. Little by little, every day, “those who are being sanctified” are becoming more like Christ (Hebrews 10:14, “” ESV).

PRAYER POINT: Lord, sanctify me through the blood of your Son Jesus Christ in Jesus name.

DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  Job 13-15.