Sanctification
By Sharon Amari
What is sanctification?
How closely is it tied to the believer’s justification, and what are the points
of contact between the two? Can Christians achieve a state of perfection on
this earth?
Sanctification comes from
the Greek word Hegiasmos which means to be set apart or made fit for
service.
Sanctification has a “moral
dimension” (1 Thes. 4:3-7). It involves turning away from immorality and
turning towards God and living a pure and holy life as we read in 1Thes 4:3: “God has not called us for
impurity, but in holiness.”
Sanctification is also an
accomplished event. We read in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “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.” It is also
an ongoing process as we read in Ephesians 4:15: “We
are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” We are
sanctified in our position in Christ but our condition is still in progress.
The believer’s justification
precedes his or her sanctification; sanctification is the fruit of
justification. We read in Romans 6:22:
“But now that you have been set free from sin and have
become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end,
eternal life.”
To
reverse this order and make sanctification the cause of justification, Mueller
notes, leads us to compromise a central article of the Christian faith and to
base salvation on works instead of on faith alone. He points out “Justification and sanctification are indeed
indissolubly joined together; yet the two must not be mingled with each other.
Justification is the source of sanctification.” We read in Titus 3:7-8:
“So that being justified by his grace we might become
heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
8 The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on
these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote
themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.”
Paul is
very clear here in addressing those who believed in God to devote themselves to
good works. There are off course major
differences between justification and sanctification. Grudem very nicely outlines these differences:
|
Justification |
Sanctification |
|
Legal Standing |
Internal condition |
|
Once and for all time |
Continuous throughout life |
|
Entirely God’s work |
We cooperate |
|
Perfect in this life |
Not perfect in this life |
|
The same in all Christians |
Greater in some than in others. |
Sanctification and Perfection
John
Wesley taught that it is possible for a Christian to achieve a state of
perfection, i.e. without sin. This
Wesleyan doctrine is known as the doctrine of entire sanctification. But is it possible for a Christian to reach
such a state? To answer this question
we need to learn what does the Bible says about sin and about the old and new
nature of the believer.
Sin is any word, thought or
deed that falls short of God's perfect standard and holiness. We read in Romans 14:23: “For whatever
does not proceed from faith is sin.” When King David prayed, he asked God to
cleanse him from unknown and hidden sins.
“Distinctions between ‘deliberate’ and ‘unconscious’ sins, or ‘willful’
sins and ‘mistakes,’ are not made in the New Testament,” notes Mike Sullivan.
No Christian is without sin.
James wrote in James
3:2: “For we all stumble in many ways.” We read in Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any
transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of
gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”
In addition, there is a
struggle between the flesh and the Spirit inside every Christian. Sometimes
Christians lose this struggle and fall into sin. We read in Galatians 5:17 “For the
desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are
against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing
the things you want to do.”
Christians are new creatures
(2 Cor. 5:21) who have been freed from sin (Rom. 6:6-7). Freed from sin here
simply means that we are not under the bondage of sin anymore. Before coming to
Christ, we lost the freedom to do his will and became enslaved to sin. After
becoming a new creation, our freedom is restored back to us and therefore we
are free from sin’s bondage and dominion. But the problem is that sometimes we
do not abide in this new freedom. Paul writes in Galatians 5:1:
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
The old self is laid aside
when a Christian is put into Christ but our habits and ways of thinking are
unfortunately still present problems Therefore, I do not believe that the old
self was destroyed as Wesley claims. We still have our body of sin to reckon
with. We read in Ephesians
4:22: “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner
of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the
spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of
God in true righteousness and holiness.” As a result, the habits of the old self need to be put aside daily as
we learn to act consistently with our new identity in Christ.
Christians
will never reach a sinless state on
this side of the grave (1 John 1:8-9: “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us.” I reject the Wesleyan doctrine of entire
sanctification. “Claims to perfection
are fertile ground for self-deception and rationalization,” writes Sullivan.
God accomplishes our
sanctification. We read in Hebrews 13:21 the following: “May
the God of peace… equip you with
everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which
is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen.” Through the Holy Spirit we grow and become
more in the image of Christ.
I like
very much the way Mueller summarizes our role in the sanctification process.
Mueller writes that the believer does indeed cooperate with the Holy Spirit in
his sanctification, however, “this cooperation must be rightly understood. It is not coordinate with the operation of
the Holy Spirit, but subordinate to it.”
Sanctification therefore occurs in the believer in this manner, that
after his conversion, man has to fight the flesh with its affections and lusts
on daily basis. We read in Galatians 5:24
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires.” The means by
which the old man is “mortified and the new man is strengthened” adds Mueller,
is the Word of God. Jesus prayed to the
Father and asked Him in John 17:17 to “Sanctify them in the
truth; your word is truth.”
References:
Mueller, John, Christian
Dogmatics, Concordia Publishing House, 1934.
Grudem,
Wayne, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity Press.
Sullivan,
Mike, “Five Views on Sanctification: An In-Depth Analysis.”