Contributed by Adam Gillespie

Sanctification

is a progressive work of God and believers that make us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives. This is a process which continues on in someone’s lifetime. We will not completely become like Christ in this lifetime. At the moment of regeneration, a moral change begins in our life. We are beginning to be renewed by the Holy Spirit.

John 17:17 set them apart for holiness by means of the truth-your word is truth

Jesus is speaking here and asks the Father to set apart his children for holiness by his word. As his children for we are to live out his word in our lives to become Christ like.  God’s word is truth therefore we should allow our hearts and minds to be yielded by it.

Romans 6:11 & 14

11: in the same way, consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God, by your union with the Messiah Yeshua

14: For sin will not have authority over you, because you are not under legalism but under grace

To be sanctified on a daily basis you must be dead to sin and no longer be a slave to it. We are under grace, not the law.

Romans 6:17-18

17: By God’s grace, you who were once slaves to sin, obeyed from your heart the pattern of teaching to which you were exposed

18: and after you had been set free from sin, you become enslaved to righteousness.

God’s grace is bigger than our sin.  We are freer from the bondage of sin and are slaves to righteousness which reaps eternal life. Just as we use to offer ourselves to more and more sin, we are now to offer ourselves to more and more righteousness for sanctification.

2 Corinthians 3:18 So all of us, with faces unveiled, see as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and we are being changed into his very image, from on degree of glory to the next, by Adonai the spirit.

As we go on in this Christian life we are becoming more and more like Christ.

Philippians 3:13-14

13: Brothers, I, for my part do not think of myself as having yet taking hold of it, but one thing I do; forgetting what is behind me and striving towards what lies ahead

14: I keep pursuing the goal in order to win the prize offered by God’s upward calling in the Messiah Yeshua

Paul is saying that he is not perfect. He keeps pressing on toward the goal Christ has called him. To become more Christ like we to need to keep pressing forward and not worry about the past. Christ has saved us for a purpose.

Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its creator.

Now that we are new creatures in Christ, we are to put on our new selves daily and look more and more like the Messiah our savior.

God’s Role in Sanctification

Most of the work of sanctification is done by God.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May the God of shalom (peace) make you completely holy-may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless for the coming of our Lor Yeshua the Messiah.

It is God who makes us holy and gives us the desire to become more and more like his son.

Philippians 2:13 For God is the one working among you both the willing and the working for what pleases him.

God’s work in our lives causes us to fulfill his will in our lives to be free of sin and to do what pleases him.

1 Corinthians 1:30 It is his doing that you are united with the Messiah Yeshua. He has become Wisdom for us from God and righteousness and holiness and redemption as well.

Jesus earned our sanctification for us because of who he is we have an example to follow. In him, we have hope of eternal life.

Our Role in Sanctification

We depend on God to sanctify us. We are to take steps to be more like his son and strive to obey God and his word.

Romans 12:1 I exhort you, therefore brothers in view of God’s mercies, to offer yourselves as a sacrifice, living and set apart for God. This will please him; it is the logical “Temple worship” for you.

Since we are brought from death to life, we should offer our lives to God as slaves of his righteousness.

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to your old nature, you will certainly die, but if by the spirit you keep putting to the death the practices of the body you will live.

To become like Christ our old nature must be put to death daily. To practice righteousness on a daily basis produces a life reflecting who Christ is.

Hebrews 12:14 keep pursuing shalom with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the lord.

Becoming sanctified we must become holy turning off the old desires of our sinful nature and produce fruit that pleases God.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 What God wants is that you be holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality.

Sexual sin is one area that entangles a lot of us, but if we continue to pursue holiness and become like his son we will be from that old nature.