Sanctification (Part 1)

In my regular Bible reading last week, I came upon this verse:

Hebrews 12:14 "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord."



I knew what I was taught about sanctification, but I was never taught that without it, I won't get to see God, which means I won't be in heaven, which means that I could end up in hell without it. So this is much more serious business than alot of preachers/teachers make it out to be. The way it was taught to me made sanctification sound optional. So I threw out what I was taught and launched into a Bible study to find out the whole truth.



I realize that sanctification is one of those big Bible words that most people, especially those who haven't gone to church all their lives, have no clue about. It doesn't make any sense to most people these days. Sanctify means "to separate from profane things and dedicate to God." Sanctification means "consecration and purification." To consecrate something is to renew or remake it, and to purify something is to cleanse it from all impurities. To sum all of that up, sancitifcation in the Bible sense is the process of cleansing from sin, being renewed and reformed into the image of Jesus Christ, separating our lives from sin, and being dedicated to God.



2 Thessalonians 2:13 says "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." (emphasis added by me)



So, how does that work together with Ephesians 2:8-9, which says that salvation is by grace through faith? So which one is it? Is it by God's grace, or through separating ourselves from sin and being dedicated to God?



There are 2 keys to figuring this out. The first is in the verse above, sancitfication is by the Spirit, which means that this is not something we have to do on our own, in fact, if left on our own it would be impossible for us to separate ourselves from our sin. It is "by the Spirit". The Holy Spirit gives us the power to obey God and dedicate ourselves to Him.



The second key is found in Titus 2:11-14 which says, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds."

The grace of God inscruts us to deny sin, it purifies us, is teaches us to live righteously and godly, so really God's grace produces sanctification in our lives. There is also a warning here. If we say we have God's grace, but we are not learning to deny ungodliness and worldly desires (lust, greed, pride, etc) and if the Lord is not teaching us to live for Him, it is very likely that the Christianity we claim to have is a counterfeit and not the real thing.

In part 2 we will look at how God sanctifies us, it is by His Spirit so He's the one that the bulk of the responsibiliry rests on. Then in part 3 we will look at what our part to play in this process is, although God is the one who is going to do it, there are responsibilities that we need to step up to the plate and take care of.