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What is sanctification?

Sanctification, according to the dictionary, can mean the following:

set apart as or declare holy; consecrate.
make legitimate or binding by a religious ceremony.
free from sin; purify.
cause to be or seem morally right or acceptable.

It is a confirmation of what we have become in Christ and also a continual process in a Christian. It is mentioned in many cases as being something that has already been done. This is true in that God has set us apart and consecrated us for His pleasure and to serve Him. However, there are many scriptures that refer to a Christian or the Church being sanctified indicating that this is an ongoing process. This is true in that we, while still in a condemned yet sinful body, need to become free from the effects of sin to be purified in our lives here. Our sins our gone, but we still need to recognise that sin continues to dwell in us and seek to learn not to sin and to live a sanctified life as a sanctified person. So the purpose of sanctification is that we will be holy and blameless before God, not only in having our sins removed, once and for all, but also in our daily lives on earth.

Sanctification applies to persons, objects and feasts (see Isaiah 30:29). The tabernacle and all the objects associated with it was sprinkled with the blood of a sacrifice and it was thus sanctified to be used in the service and worship of God. Therefore, sanctification involves every believer in the Lord Jesus but may extend wider that believers. Indeed, 1 Corinthians 7:14 and Hebrews 10:29 show that persons can be sanctified by being with believers and that there is a purifying effect on their lives. However, this is not the same as being saved.

Who sanctifies?

“Now, harden not your necks, as your fathers; yield yourselves to Jehovah, and come to his sanctuary, which he has sanctified for ever; and serve Jehovah your God, that the fierceness of his anger may turn away from you” (2 Chronicles 30:8). God sanctified the sanctuary in the tabernacle.

“And I will magnify myself, and sanctify myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am Jehovah” (Ezekiel 38:23). God would show Himself to be holy and the nations, having seen it, will know God.

“Do ye say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am Son of God?” (John 10:36). God sanctified the Lord Jesus setting Him apart for the service He would complete on the cross. He was consecrated for this service because He was sinless.

“I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth. And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word” (John 17:13-20). The Lord prayed that God would sanctify His disciples and all of us who have believed through their words.

“And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

“Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly: and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

From these scriptures it is clear to see that the only person who can sanctify anything is God. We can’t sanctify a single part of ourselves, never mind another person or a piece of land. “They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one in the midst; that eat swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall perish together, saith Jehovah. And I,-their works and their thoughts are before me” (Isaiah 66:17-18). God knows our works and hearts. Mankind has no ability to sanctify anything except through God’s will.

The Lord prays that God might sanctify us and we know that He has and is doing so. We are to be sanctified wholly (or completely) by Him so that we might be blameless. We have been set apart and consecrated for service towards God by God Himself and thus He is now purifying us from all that is sinful so that we might, even now on earth, be able to worship and serve Him.

“For me to be minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, carrying on as a sacrificial service the message of glad tidings of God, in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:16). Here we find that it is God in the person of the Holy Spirit that is sanctifying us. It is one of the services that the Holy Spirit is actively working in at the present time – sanctifying us so that we might be acceptable to God.

“Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). We can see that God is sanctifying the church/assembly in the Lord Jesus. He is using the scriptures to purify, cleanse and feed the church/assembly. How important it is to read the scriptures!

"Thus therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in the heavens, let thy name be sanctified” (Matthew 6:9). Our desire is that God would declare Himself and that He would cause His named to be hallowed and revered on earth and in heaven. We also are to seek to do this in our hearts and deeds. We are to reverence the holiness of God so that His name might be revered by our own hearts and by others with whom we are in daily contact. “Jehovah of hosts, him shall ye sanctify; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” (Isaiah 8:13).

“Fools and blind, for which is greater, the gold, or the temple which sanctifies the gold? … Fools and blind ones, for which is greater, the gift, or the altar which sanctifies the gift?” (Matthew 23:17 & 19). Anything given to God is sanctified, i.e. set apart, for His service. Our gift of money or our sacrifice for God is not Holy and sanctified in itself. It is God that sanctifies our gifts. Thus, as we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and as the church is “being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) then only what is done by a saved person and offered in Jesus name will be sanctified in God’s sight. Jesus is the priest, the temple and the sacrifice (see Hebrews 4:14, John 2:21 and Ephesians 5:2).

We have been sanctified …

Someone who has been saved has been washed in the blood of Jesus, had their sins removed, been made righteous and been justified. As a result of this it is evident that they have been set apart for God and consecrated as a priest (see 1 Peter 2:5 & 9). Sanctification in the sense of being chosen, set apart, consecrated and declared holy by God has already happened. In the following verses we can see that sanctification is something that has already happened to a Christian:

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

“And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

“For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11). The Lord Jesus sanctified us as a result of His death and resurrection.

“By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

“Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Jesus suffered for this very purpose – that He might sanctify us by his own blood. “For by one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). We have been sanctified and through His work we have been made perpetually perfect in Him.

We are being santified ...

We have been sanctified. However, the scriptures are clear that sanctification is ongoing. God has set us apart and made us holy – this has been done and thus we are sanctified. Yet we need to live as sanctified persons. Our lives need to reflect the fact that we are now here for the worship of God. We need to set ourselves apart just as God has already done.

At this point it may be necessary to point clarify our need for being active in our sanctification. It is not the case that we simply sit back and presume that this requires no effort from our side. While we have been saved from our sins, we still have sin dwelling within us. If this were not the case then there would be no need for scriptures like “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts … For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12 &14). Here, we are told that sin is still dwelling in us but that we are not to let it reign in us. In other words, it is a fact of our Christian lives that our sinful flesh is not dead yet and is still attracted to all its old pleasures, however we are not to let it rule over us in the way that it did formerly. The power for overcoming the flesh is in Christ through the Holy Spirit. “For if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live: for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14). A sanctified person has put to death the deeds of the body by the Holy Spirit and is now led by Him in every aspect of life. As one person put it “but if by the Spirit (God's part), ye put to death the deeds of the body (our part) ye shall live (the having life more abundantly promise)”. We and the Holy Spirit must both be active in our sanctification. (See the studies on “The Old man and the New Man” and “Christ: Our Deliverer”).

“I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil. They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth. And I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word” (John 17:13-20).

Therefore, the Lord prays that the Father would sanctify us through His word. How important it is to continually read the scriptures! It is through daily meditation on God’s word (the truth) that He causes our lives to purified and become more like Him. The more contact we have with God, then the more our lives will be distinct as demonstrating that we have been consecrated to Him. So too will it be easier to resist sin so that our lives will become purer. The Lord has also sanctified Himself for us. This means that He has set Himself apart to serve us in causing us to be sanctified. The Lord is always ready to purify us when we desire to live for Him as sanctified person.

“And now I commit you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified” (Acts 20:32). This appears to show that the inheritance is yet to be given, however that is not what is being said. God is able to give us this inheritance now and the more we are built up, then the more of this inheritance we will enjoy. We are sanctified, but we need to enjoy the inheritance among the sanctified. God brings us into wonderful blessings through the “word of his grace”.

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, (not in passionate desire, even as the nations who know not God,) not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7). This demonstrates our need to be sanctified in our lives. In other words, we need to be purified and free from sin. In God’s sight this has been done through the Lord’s sacrifice, but we are to be seeking to be purified from sin on earth too. We have a ‘vessel’ (our bodies) and we need to conduct ourselves towards others in a manner that is completely commensurate with being sanctified. This will enable us to live ‘blameless’ and be ready for the Lord’s coming. “Now the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly: and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

“If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, in separating himself from them, he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). We are to separate from anything that is of dishonour, even in Christendom, so that we might be truly serviceable to the Lord and not tied up in things that distract us or restrict us in being committed fully to Him. This is the sense of the passage below from Hebrews 9 which shows that, while God sanctified the tabernacle, the priests, the book of the Law covenant, etc. through the blood of animals to symbolise their purity, the blood of the Christ will purify our conscience to enable us to worship God. “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer's ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship the living God?” (Hebrews 9:13-14). This introduces the main reason behind present sanctification. We need to have a purified conscience just as we have been baptised to be able to live with a good conscience before God (see 1 Peter 3:21). We can’t have a good conscience if we are continuing to live in sin. The blood of the Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit is continuing to purify our consciences for it is only in a free conscience that we will be able to truly worship God.

“But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, that God has chosen you from the beginning to salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). As we are purified and sanctified by the Holy Spirit we will be saved from the influences of the world. Salvation here is present salvation (see the study on “Baptism and Salvation” for more on this).

Sanctification is both done and being done

So sanctification is both done and being done. We have been set apart, purified and consecrated for God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, sanctification is ongoing as God with the active and purposeful participation of the Spirit-filled believer sanctifies us. We are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit so that with a pure conscience and free from the influences of sin we can give free and full worship to God. It requires us to aim to be sanctified as we receive help from the Holy Spirit. We are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2). It is done, yet our apprehension of it and the effect of it is being developed in us to enable us to worship in spirit and truth.

This is not just happening to us as individuals but also to the whole Church/Assembly as the Lord prepares it in its affections for being with Him eternally. “Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27).

There is an effect of this in our lives and that is that we will give the Lord the central place in our hearts. The more we become like Him, the more special He will become to us and we will set Him apart in our hearts as absolutely unique and worthy of our adoration and worship. This will then enable us to be able to tell others about Him – the hope that is in us – with reverence and meekness knowing the holiness of the person of the Lord Jesus and what is worthy of His presence while dwelling in the fullness of His love. “But sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts, and be always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15).

One last point to make is that sanctification will be finally completed in the future. I quote here from someone else:

“When believers die, their spirits go to be with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). Since nothing unclean can enter heaven (Revelation 21:27), we must be made perfect at that point. The sanctification of the whole person—body, soul, and spirit—will finally be complete when the Lord Jesus returns and we receive glorified bodies (Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:35-49)”.