Sanctification… by Faith or by Works? (Part I)

By Pastor Jacob Doran
The Church of God, in Flathead Valley (MT)

It has long been one of the failings of Christian holiness doctrines that a great disparity exists between our teaching on Justification and our teaching on Sanctification. While some have taught that Sanctification occurs at prior to Justification and others that it occurs simultaneously as a work of the Holy Spirit, still others have taught that it is a progressive work or achieved by works of self-denial and obedience to the law of God.

Scripturally, none of these teachings regarding sanctification is entirely correct, although Sanctification may occur simultaneously (while, yet, a second definite work of Grace) with Justification, since both are accomplished in the very same way, in the absence of any works rendered by the penitent.

How can Bible believing Christians stress that, according to scripture, we are justified by Grace alone through Faith alone, and then assert that we are sanctified by works, as we “crucify” or “mortify” the flesh in obedience to the commandments of Christ?

Although Paul does boast that he is “crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20) and that they that are Christ’s have “crucified the flesh” with it’s affections and lusts—mortification is also mentioned in Romans 8:13 and Col. 3:5—these are often misunderstood apart from the context in which they occur.

Let us consider, briefly, the CONTEXT of Galatians 2:20, wherein the Paul states, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

The context is FAITH. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, on the merit of HIS FINISHED WORK.

Likewise, Paul’s admonition to crucify the flesh (in Galatians 5:24) is immediately followed by the instruction, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (verse 25), and is preceded by the insights provided in verses 16. Here, we find that if we walk in/are led by the Spirit we (1) will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh and (2) are not under the Law. Walking/living in the Spirit is not achieved through works but through faith in Christ, thereby allow HIS righteousness to be worked out in us in the same way that it is imputed unto us … BY FAITH. Walking in the Spirit is an act of faith or TRUST in the perfect, completed work of Christ.

Paul, in Hebrews 10:10, puts it this way: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”; and, in verse 14, he adds, “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

That is a finished work. By faith in that work, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to me, the same way that it was imputed unto Abraham. (See Romans 4:11, 4:20-25, and James 2:23.) Paul explains, in Romans chapter 4:24-25, that we who believe are justified because we accept the work of God in Christ Jesus by faith.

Those who preach Philippians 2:12 must both understand and teach that the command to work out our salvation in fear and trembling is incomplete without a firm grasp of verse 13, which states, “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Even the willing to do good and to please God—or the removing of the desire to sin and subsequent enjoyment of sin—is the gift of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, which is what God told the Apostle Paul to preach to the Gentiles (in Acts 26:18):

Act 26:18
(18) To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

The bottom line is that we are “SANCTIFIED BY FAITH” in Christ. That faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

In I John 5:4, the Beloved Apostle stresses that, “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

So essential is faith in the equation of acceptance with God based upon the iputed righteousness in Christ Jesus that Hebrews 11:4 tells us, “without faith, it is impossible to please Him.”

I’ll close this portion of this discourse with a couple of excerpts from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest:

The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He "became for [me] . . . sanctification . . . ." Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life. The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh.

Chambers concludes:

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness that is exhibited in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy— it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is something altogether different. The perfection of everything is in Jesus Christ, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfect qualities of Jesus are at my disposal.

1Co 1:30-31
(30) But of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
(31) That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.