Sanctification by Faith (Part III): A Perfect Work

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

According to Webster’s, Sanctification is “1. The act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God. 2. The act of consecrating or of setting apart for a sacred purpose; consecration.”

Century Dictionary puts it this way: “In Theology, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified and the soul is cleansed from sin and consecrated to God; conformity of the heart and life to the will of God."

John and Charles Wesley, who were instrumental in recovering the Biblical teaching of Sanctification asserted these four things:

1. That Christian perfection is that love of God and our neighbor, which implies deliverance from all sin; for Christ stated that all the commandments are fulfilled in these two, and the Apostle Paul also wrote extensively of this same truth.
2. That such perfect love, which perfects the soul of man, is the gift of God—the divine nature. We cannot produce it in and of ourselves. It is the life of Christ, in the believer, which we accept by faith.
3. That entire sanctification is instantaneous, rather than a gradual process.
4. That we are to expect it sanctification, not at death, but every moment, as we live and walk in the Spirit, allowing the Christ-life to direct our thoughts and actions.
   

Luther Lee, a nineteenth century reformer, ordained minister and co-founder of the Wesleyan Movement (known as Methodism), proclaimed that: "Sanctification is that renewal of our fallen nature by the Holy Ghost, received through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood of atonement has power to cleanse from all sin; whereby we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, which is justification, but are washed entirely from its pollution, freed from its power, and are enabled, through grace, to love God with all our hearts, and to walk in His holy commandments blameless."

In a nutshell, Sanctification must be viewed as something more than spiritual growth or “growth in grace.” It is the necessary second step that should result from faith in Christ and repentance and should be understood as the perfect work of Christ in response to the believer’s faith that Christ can and will change both the heart and nature of sinful man—from sinner to saint, from carnal to spiritual, from fallen to restored, from earth-like to Christ-like, “conformed to the image of His Son.”

Simply put, Sanctification is deliverance from sin. It is the purging of carnal desire from within the Adamic heart and the transplanting of the divine nature, imputed in response to our faith.

We have often been told by psychologists that if I child is told he is stupid or that he is incapable of doing something for long enough—sometimes just once or twice—he is likely to believe it and be limited by those thoughts for the rest of his life, unless he is retrained to believe that the opposite is true. Even after being taught differently than what he first believed, he must ACCEPT it in order to be liberated from the old mindset and live accordingly.

That is the simple truth about Sanctification. We cripple Christians by telling them that even though they have believed on and accepted Christ for salvation, they cannot—nor is He able to MAKE them—live free from sin in the present life. If that is what they are made to believe, they are kept in bondage and will never rise above it until they are both taught the truth from the Bible and ACCEPT it by FAITH.

When they truly believe that “this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3*), that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2) and that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13), they will live accordingly because if we “walk in the Spirit”—the agent of the divine nature, according to the promise of God in Christ—we “shall not shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

Faith unto salvation is incomplete, if it does not lead to deliverance from sin. We must believe that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to CLEANSE us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.” (I John 1:9)

The book of I Thessalonians was obviously written to believes, as is evident from the first few verses and is reinforced throughout the epistle. Yet, the Apostle Paul entreats them to be sanctified, as though they yet lacked some important aspect of their faith.

He concludes with, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (I Thes. 5:23-24)

In our next message, we’ll consider Sanctification as a second definite work of Grace, versus to Sanctification as part of Justification. Who’s right, and why does it matter?

*see also verses 4 and 5.