Sanctification, I. What Does Sanctification Mean I First Meaning
Lev. 27: 14, 16 — “And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall esteem it, so shall it stand.... And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof; a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.”
Num. 8: 17 —” For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.’’’
2 Chron. 7: 16 — “For now have I chosen and sanctified this housct that my name may be there forever: and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.”
Jer. i: 5 — “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and be fore thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
Matt. 23: 17 — “Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold?
Jno. 10: 36 —” Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
FIRST PROPOSITION: To sanctify means to separate or set apart for God. Sanctification is the process of setting apart or state of being set apart for God. This is the primary meaning of the word.
SECOND MEANING:
2 Chron. 29: 5, 15-18 — “And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your Fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy places.... And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came, according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD. And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the un cleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad into the brook Kidron. Now they began of the first day of the first month to sanctify •, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD: so they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and in the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end. Then they went in to Hezekiah the king, and said, We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the shew-bread table, with all the vessels thereof.”
Lev. u: 44 — “For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with -any -manner of creeping things that creepeth upon the earth.”
Lev. 20: 7 — “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.”
i Chron. 15: 12, 14 — “And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites; sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it. ... So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.”
Ex. 19: 20-22 — “And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them.”
i Thess. 5: 22, 23 — “Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Heb. 9: 13 — “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh.”
i Thess. 4: 7, R.V. — “For God called us notforuncleanness, but in Sanctification.”
i Thess. 4: 3 — “For this is the will of God, even your Sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication.”
SECOND PROPOSITION: To sanctify means to separate from ceremonial or moral defilement, to cleanse. Sanctification is the process of separating, or state of being separated, from ceremonial or moral defilement.
The two meanings of the word are closely allied. One can not be truly separated to God without being separated from sin.
THIRD MEANING:
Ezek. 20: 41 — “I wih accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.”
Ezek. 28: 22 — “And I say, Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.”
Ezek. 36: 23 — “And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the LORD God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.”
Ezek. 38: 16 — “And thoti shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter clays, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”
Ezek. 39: 27 — “When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies’ hands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations.”
THIRD PROPOSITION: God is spoken of as being sanctified by the revelation of His own character, not that He is made holy but shown to be Holy.
II, How are men sanctified?
(1) i Thess. 5:23 — “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coining of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jno. 17: 17 — “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
FIRST PR OPOSITION: God sanctifies men.
Sanctification — the separation of men from sin and separating them unto God — is God’s own work.
As it was God who in the Old Dispensation set apart the firstborn unto Himself, so it is God who in the New Dispensation sets apart the believer unto Himself and separates him from sin.
(2) Eph. 5:25, 26, R.V. — “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word.”
SE COND PR OPOSITION: Christ sanctifies the Church. Sancti-Jication is Christ’s work.
By the giving up or sacrifice of Himself, Christ sets the Church apart for God. The sacrifice of Christ puts a difference between the Church and the world, just as the blood of the Pass over Lamb put a difference between Israel and the Egyptians. (Ex. 11: 7; 12: 12, 13.) Heb. 10: 10, R.V. — “By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” By the offering of His own body Jesus Christ has forever set the believer apart for God. The cross stands between the believer and the world. He belongs to God.
(3) 2 Thess. 2: 13 — “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
i Pet. 1:2 — “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.”
THIRD PROPOSITION: The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer. Sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s work.
Just as in the Old Testament type, tabernacle, altar and priest were set apart for God by the anointing oil (Lev. 8: 10-12), so in the New Testament anti-type the believer, who is both tabernacle and priest, is set apart for God by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is also the Holy Spirit’s working in the heart that overcomes the flesh and its defilements, and thus separates the believer from sin and clothes him with Divine graces of character, and makes him fit to be God’s own.
Gal. 5: 16-23 — “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things ye would. But if )7e be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleamiess, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.”
(4) Heb. 13: 12,R.V. — “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people tJirough his own blood, suffered without the gate.”
FOURTH PROPOSITION: Believers are sanctified through the blood.
The blood cleanses us from all the guilt of sin and thus separates us from the mass of men under the curse of the law, and sets us apart for God. (Compare 1 Jno. 1: 7, 9 — ‘’But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have the fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. ... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”)
In the Old Testament the blood of the sacrifice cleansed the Israelites from the guilt of ceremonial offenses and set them apart for God; in the New Testament the blood of Christ cleanses the believer from guilt of moral offenses and sets him apart for God.
(5) Jno. 17: 17, R.V. — “Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.”
FIFTH PROPOSITION: We are sanctified in the truth, the Word of God.
The Word cleanses from the presence of sin, separates us from it, and sets us apart for God. (Ps. 119: 9, 11.)
Jno. 15: 3 — “Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
As we bring our lives into daily contact with the Word, the sins and imperfections of our lives and hearts are disclosed and put away, and we are more and more separated from sin unto God. (Jno. 13: 10 — “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.’’)
(6) i Cor. i: 30, R.V. — “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”
SIXTH PROPOSITION: Jesus Christ was made unto us from
God sanctification.
Separation from sin and separation to God was provided for us in Christ, By the appropriation of Christ we obtain this sanctification thus provided. The more completely we appropriate Christ, the more completely are we sanctified. But perfect sanctification is provided in Him, just as perfect wisdom is provided in Him. (Col. 2:3.) We appropriate each in ever-increasing measure. Through the indwelling Christ, presented to us by the Spirit in the Word, we are made Christ-like and bear fruit.
Jno. 15: 1-7 — “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abidethin me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
As Christ takes continually more and more complete possession of every corner of our being we are more and more completely sanctified.
(7) Heb. 12: 10, ii (Note v. 14.) — “For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
SEVENTH PROPOSITION: We become partakers of God’s holiness through the administration of chastisement by our Heavenly Father.
NOTE. — The word “holiness” in this ‘passage is not precisely the same word as the one translated “sanctification” in other passages, but it is from precisely the same root, and in v. 14, precisely the same word is used, and it is translated “sanctification” in the Revised Version.
(8) Heb. 12: 14, R.V. — “Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.”
EIGHTH PROPOSITION: Sanctification is something that we must pursue, or seek earnestly, if we are to obtain it. While it is Gods work we have our part in it; viz.: to make it the object of our earnest desire and pursuit.
(9) Rom. 6: 19 (last half), 22, R.V. — “For as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. But now being made free from sin, and become servants U God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.”
NINTH PROPOSITION; We attain unto sanctification through presenting our members as servants (literally “slaves “) to righteousness and becoming ourselves bondservants unto God.
(10) 2 Cor. 6: 17; 7: i — “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not. the unclean thing; and I will receive you. Having therefore these promises, dearly be loved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, Perfecting holiness the fear of God.”
TENTH PROPOSITION: We perfect holiness by cleansing ourselves from all defilement of jlesh and spirit. To this end we are to come out from among unbelievers, refusing all alliances with them and touching no unclean thing.
It is, of course, under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we do this, but it is we that do it.
(u) Col. i: 21-23, R.V. — “And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present yoti holy and without blemish andunreproveable’beimQ him: if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister.”
ELEVENTH PROPOSITION: The completion by Christ of the work of sanctification in us — i. e., our presentation be fore God, holy, without blemish and unreproveable — is conditioned upon our continuance in the faith, grounded and steadfast.
NOTE. — If we have a genuine faith we will so continue. Heb 10: 3g — “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”
(12) Acts 26: 1 8 — “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”
TWELFTH PROPOSITION: We are sanctified by faith in
Christ.
Sanctification, just as Justification, Regeneration and Adoption, is conditioned upon faith. Faith is the hand that appropriates this as all other blessings of God.
Ill, When does Sanctification take Place 1
(i) i Cor. i: 2, R.V. — “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that ARE sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours.”
i Cor. 6: n, R.V. — “And such were some of you; but ye were washed, buty<? were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”
FIRST PROPOSITION: All members of the ChmrJi of Cud
already are sanctified in Christ Jesus.
The moment anyone becomes a member of the Church of God by faith in Christ Jesus, that moment he is sancliiied.
QUESTION: In what sense are we already sanctified?
ANSWER:
(a) Heb. 10: 10, 14 — “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.... For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are “anctifieJ.” (Compare v. i.)
By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all we are cleansed forever from all the guilt of sin, we are “perfected forever” as far as our standing before God is concerned. The sacrifice does not need to be re-pouted as the Jewish sacrifices (v. 1). The work is done once for all, sin is put away (Heb. 9: 20. Compare Gal. 3: 13) forever, and we are set apart forever as God’s peculiar and eternal possession. (6) There is another sense in which every believer may be already sanctified. (Rom. 12: 1 — “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”) It is the believer’s present and blessed privilege, and immediate and solemn duty, to present his body to God a living sacrifice — not some part or parts of the body, but the whole body with its every member and every faculty. Such an offering is “well pleasing to God.” (R.V. Marg.) As God in the Old Testament showed His pleasure in an offering by sending down fire to take it to Himself, so when the whole body is thus offered to God He still sends down fire, the fire of the Holy Ghost, and takes to Himself what is thus presented. The believer, then, so far as the will, the governing purpose of his life, the centre of his being, is concerned, is wholly God’s or perfectly sanctified. He may and will daily discover, as he studies the Word of God and is illumined by the Holy Spirit, acts of his, habits of life, forms of feeling, speech and action that are not in conformity with this central purpose of his life. These must be confessed to God as blameworthy, and be put away, and this department of his being and life brought by God’s Spirit and the indwelling Christ into conformity with God’s will as revealed in His Word.
The victory in this newly discovered and unclaimed territory can be instantaneous. For example, I discover in myself an irritability of temper that is manifestly displeasing to God. I can go to God and confess it, renounce it and then instantly, not by my own strength, but by looking to Jesus and claiming his patience and gentleness, overcome it and never have another failure in that direction. And so with everything in my life that I am brought to see is displeasing to God.
(2) i Thess. 3: 12 — “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.”
4: i, 10, R.V. — “Finally then, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as ye received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk — that ye abound more, and more... for indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more.”
2 Pet. 3: 18, R.V. — “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
2 Cor. 3: 18, R.V — “But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.”
Eph. 4: 11-15 — “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
SECOND PROPOSITION: There is a progressive work of sanctification; an increasing in love; an abounding more and more in a godly walk and in pleasing God; a growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; a be ing transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus from glory unto glory, each new gaze at Him making us more like Him; a growing up into Christ in all things, until we attain unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
(3) i Thess. 5: 23, R.V. — “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
i Thess. 3: 12, 13 — “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness be fore God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,”
THIRD PROPOSITION: The complete sanctification of believers is something to be sought for in prayer, to be accomplished by God in the future.
It is at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints that He is to establish our hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, and that our spirit and soul and body are to be preserved entire without blame. (Compare 1 Jno. 3:2.) It is through our Lord making us to increase and abound in love unto one another and unto all men that this is accomplished. It is not in the life that now is, nor is it at death, but at the coming of Christ that we are entirely sanctified in this sense.
IY. The Results of Sanctiflcation.
(i) Heb. 10: 14 — “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”
FIRST PROPOSITION: By the one offering, the sacrifice of Himself for sins, Christ hath perfected forever those who are sanctified.
Their standing before God as guiltless is already forever secured for the sanctified. The sanctification here spoken of is the separation from the guilt of sin and unto God secured by the shed blood.
(2) Heb. 2: ii — “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
SECOND PROPOSITION: Those whom Jesus sanctifies are of oneicith Him, and If e is not ashamed to call them brethren.
(3) 2 Thess. 2: 13 — “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation throitg/i sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
THIRD PR OPOSITION: We are saved through sanctification,
Sanctification results in salvation. The sanctification here spoken of is the sanctification which the Holy Spirit works; and the salvation here spoken of is not salvation in the mere sense of the forgiveness of sins, but salvation in the fullest sense of deliverance from sin’s dominion and presence.
(4) Heb. 12: 14, R.V — “Follow .after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.”
FOURTH PROPOSITION: Sanctification results in seeing the Lord.
The sanctification here spoken of is sanctification in the sense of separation from sin, the sanctification which is the out come of our eager desire for it and God’s chastening. (Compare vv. 10, 11.) Without this cleansing from sin it will be impossible to know the blessed vision of the Lord that awaits those who are purified. The purity that leads to this blessed vision of God is not merely outward purity but heart purity. (Matt. 5: 8 — 11 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”) Even in the life that now is, the more completely we are sanctified the clearer is our perception of God.
(5) Acts 20: 32 — “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified”
Acts 26: 18 — “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”
FIFTH PROPOSITION: Sanctification secures an inheritance.
Son.
Sanctificalion 351
Sanctification by God’s Spirit makes us joint heirs with God’s
Rom. 8: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 16-18 — “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That tile-righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.... Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.... The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”