Sanctification

 If you’re the parent of an energetic preschooler, you know how much effort it takes to keep that little guy clean. You may start him out with a daily bath, but then throughout the day you have to wipe the food, dirt, goo, and other sticky stuff from his face, his hands, his clothes, and everything he touches. An initial bath is necessary, but there’s also an ongoing need for cleansing. That’s what takes place at the spiritual level as well. We call it ‘sanctification'. At the moment you invited Jesus into your heart you were sanctified. But you also need to be sanctified over and over again as a result of your daily sins. Let’s think about these two aspects of sanctification for a moment.

To be sanctified means to be set apart by God as holy in His sight. It’s related to the term ‘saint’, a holy person, a person who's been set apart from sin to live for God. By the way, the New Testament refers to all true believers as saints in this sense. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we’re sanctified, made into saints in God’s book.

When you asked Jesus to be your Saviour, you were instantly sanctified. Your position of acceptance by God was established. The apostle Paul, having described some of the sinful lifestyles of the people of his day, wrote in 1 Corinthians 6.11, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” This refers to a past, settled event in the life of the Christian. Have you accepted Jesus as your Saviour? Then you have been positionally sanctified, set apart by God from your sinful lifestyle to a new way of life in Christ.

But here’s the rub. We don’t always act so holy. Even as Christians, we fail to measure up to God’s holy standard in the way we live our lives. So, having received our initial cleansing, we need to be sanctified daily, hourly, even moment by moment. This progressive aspect of sanctification means we, by God’s grace, need to live in growing obedience to His holy standard. First Peter 1.15 says, “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” In other words, act in accordance with your position. Live a holy lifestyle because you’re a holy person in God’s eyes.

But how can we live holy lives? Only by the power of God at work in us. First Thessalonians 5.23 says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.” When we accepted Jesus, we entered immediately into a sanctified position with God. Now, we need to live up to that position, setting ourselves apart from sin daily to live in harmony with God’s holiness.

Invite Jesus into your heart today, and then begin living for Him.