In the Bible, Sanctify generally relates to a sovereign act of God whereby He "sets apart" a person,
place, or thing in order that His purposes may be accomplished.
In the book of Exodus, God sanctifies a place of worship.
"And there I will meet with the children of Israel,and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory," (Exodus 29:43)
Even a day can be sanctified as seen in Genesis 2:3 where the seventh day is "set apart" as a holy day of rest.
"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which
God had created and made."
"Sanctification holiness (hagiasmos) is a word that stresses the process of being made holy.
It is a word unique to Christianity & is used 10 times by Paul, once in Hebrews & once by Peter.
"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely: and may your whole spirit, soul and body
be preserved blameless at the coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it". (1 Thes. 5:23-24.)
Salvation is a free gift from God. When a person becomes born-again (saved), the Holy Spirit enters into
the new believer's human spirit and the two spirits join together.
"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all". (1 John 1:5).
The Holy Spirit is God and God is light,
when light shines into darkness, darkness has to flee.
At new birth the Holy Spirit cleans out all darkness in the new believer's repentant heart (spirit),
and God the Holy Spirit dwells in the spirit of the new believer.
The new believer has been justified by faith in JESUS CHRIST and received eternal life. Praise God.
His spirit has been changed (given new life) but very little change has taken place in his soul and body.
God said in His word, " May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless."
At new birth the spirit of the believer is renewed, but the believer still has to be made like JESUS.
"Sanctification is the process of actually becoming holy, becoming like JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD."
In the Bible, Sanctify generally relates to a sovereign act of God whereby He "sets apart" a person,
place, or thing in order that His purposes may be accomplished.
In the book of Exodus, God sanctifies a place of worship.
"And there I will meet with the children of Israel,and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory," (Exodus 29:43)
Even a day can be sanctified as seen in Genesis 2:3 where the seventh day is "set apart" as a holy day of rest.
"Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which
God had created and made."
"Sanctification holiness (hagiasmos) is a word that stresses the process of being made holy.
It is a word unique to Christianity & is used 10 times by Paul, once in Hebrews & once by Peter.
"Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely: and may your whole spirit, soul and body
be preserved blameless at the coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it". (1 Thes. 5:23-24.)
Salvation is a free gift from God. When a person becomes born-again (saved), the Holy Spirit enters into
the new believer's human spirit and the two spirits join together.
"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you,
that God is light and in him is no darkness at all". (1 John 1:5).
The Holy Spirit is God and God is light,
when light shines into darkness, darkness has to flee.
At new birth the Holy Spirit cleans out all darkness in the new believer's repentant heart (spirit),
and God the Holy Spirit dwells in the spirit of the new believer.
The new believer has been justified by faith in JESUS CHRIST and received eternal life. Praise God.
His spirit has been changed (given new life) but very little change has taken place in his soul and body.
God said in His word, " May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless."
At new birth the spirit of the believer is renewed, but the believer still has to be made like JESUS.
"Sanctification is the process of actually becoming holy, becoming like JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD."
Jesus when He walked the Earth around two thousand years ago, was 100% man and 100% God.
Jesus Christ came to earth to save the people from sin, to show us how to live like God in our human body.
He showed us that it is possible for a man (or woman) to live a sanctified and holy life here on earth.
Jesus Christ is the second Adam. "The last man Adam became a life-giving spirit". (1 Cor. 15:45)
Jesus is the second Adam, a new person in the image of God, man as God meant him to be and those
who belong to Him, who are in JESUS CHRIST, have to be changed & re-shaped into His likeness".
The work of changing the believer to the likeness of Jesus Christ is carried out by the Holy Spirit.
" For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son". (Rom. 8:29).
Jesus Christ Himself is our sanctification. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us
wisdom from God, righteousness & sanctification, & redemption". (1 Cor. 1 :30 N.A.S.B)
Sanctification is God's will for us. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification;
that you should abstain from sexual immorality. (1Thessalonians 4:3 KJV)
God has made man in His image (Gen, 1 :26) men are not machines, God has given us a free will.
In order for the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit to work in a believer's life, he or she need to
consciously yield their mind, soul & body to God.
There is a war going on in the believer between the old sin nature (flesh) & the new nature (spirit).
Before the believer was saved, we were in bondage to sin. “I speak in human terms because of
the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness,
& of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness
for holiness. (Romans 6 : 19)
The believer needs to offer up his whole spirit, soul & body as a living sacrifice, (Romans 12:1)
renew his mind by reading & meditating on God's word. (Bible)
...to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (Ephesians 5:26)
"Delight in the law of the Lord & in His law meditate day & night". (Psalm 1 : 2)
Sanctification is a free gift, it should not become a task.
As the Holy Spirit shines His Light on areas in our lives that He does not want us to have within us ,
the believer need only to acknowledge that area as being a sin if it is, repent & ask the
Lord Jesus to forgive them of the sin (Verbally). If we confess our sins, He is faithful & just to forgive us our
sins & to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1 : 9)
The new believer should allow the Holy Spirit to start the sanctification process as soon as they
become born-again (Saved, said the sinners prayer), the process will not be fully perfected until we see
our LORD JESUS CHRIST face to face. You need to listen as the Holy Spirit talks to your conscience.
He may ask you to stop doing certain worldly activities. Listen & obey your conscience if you stumble
verbally ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you. If you confess your sin to Jesus there is no condemnation.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...(Romans 8:1-3)
Sanctification is an on-going process, Jesus says, "if anyone desires to come after me,
let him deny himself, & take up his cross daily, & follow Me, for whoever desires to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it". (Luke 9 : 23-24)
Sanctification - Different Than Salvation
It is important to differentiate between justification and sanctification.
Justification is another word for salvation. Jesus gave his life on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.
His blood washes away our sins and frees us from an eternity of suffering and condemnation.
Believers are saved because of what Christ has already done. We can do nothing to earn salvation,
it is the gift given to every child of God regardless of race, age, maturity, or merit.
Sanctification occurs as a result of salvation. At the moment of conversion, the Holy Spirit enters our life.
We are no longer held hostage by death, but are free to live the life God desires for us.
We are thus sanctified simply because of our standing as lost souls saved by grace.
Sanctification does not stop with salvation, but rather it is a progressive process that continues in a
Christian's life. Unlike the things and places that are sanctified by God in the Bible,
people have the capacity to sin. Even though we have been "set apart" as God's children,
we continue to behave in ways that are contrary.
As Christians, we realize shortly after we have been saved that there is a new inner battle being waged
within us - a battle between our old sin-lead nature and new Spirit-lead nature.
Paul in Galatians best describes this inner struggle in Galatians 5:17:
"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another,
so that you do not do the things that you wish."
Like Paul, our heart's desire is to please and obey God, but our flesh is weak making sin difficult to resist.
Yet, it is in our continual struggle with sin and obedience to God that sanctification does its work.
This is the working process of sanctification in the life of every believer.
Though the process is personal for each individual, the end goal is to prevent sin and produce spiritual growth.
Note that sanctification has nothing to do with living in sinless perfection.
We will still sin in this life. In fact, the Bible warns against false teachings in 1 John 1:8:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
The father God has made away for us through Jesus Christ, when we sin we need to confess our sin
to the Lord Jesus Christ & believe that he has forgiven us.
Hold you head up & keep walking on the narrow path Jesus said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Sanctification is not about trying to be sinless in order to earn the favour of God.
Rather, sanctification is for our own benefit.
God commands us to pursue sanctification so that through it we may be blessed.
...Faith Hope & Love. But the greatest of these is Love.(1Corith 13:13)
