What Is Sanctification?
After I became a Christian, I struggled for a long time to understand just what should happen next. I knew that Jesus had forgiven me and saved me from a life of sin. At the same time, much to my trepidation, I still found myself struggling with the same sin I struggled with before. With a lot of anxiety and fear, I agonized before the Lord in prayer, in hopes that my salvation “worked.” I wanted to make sure that God knew just how much I wanted to live for Him, how much I loved Him and believed in Him—how much I wanted to be holy.
What I know now is that I had a weak understanding of sanctification. I knew it had some connection to my relationship with Jesus, but I didn’t know what that connection was or how to make it. I grew up in church, so I was familiar with the term, but more than a vague awareness, I needed to know, “What is sanctification in the Bible?” As it turns out, the answer to this question was the answer to my longing for holiness and intimacy with the Lord.
What is the meaning of sanctification?
-
Our walk
Sanctification is the process by which we are made more like Jesus (2 Corinthians 3:18). For me, the word “process” was revolutionary. It switched the lens through which I viewed my walk with the Lord. For so long, I thought that my faith in Jesus should have “fixed” me. I thought that I should be perfectly righteous near instantaneously. To understand sanctification, we must understand that it is an ongoing journey of faith that will not be complete until we see Jesus face to face. Only then will it be perfect, just like He is (1 John 3:2).
-
Our work
Sanctification requires us to be willing participants in the process. As believers, we are to be continuously putting off sin and putting on righteousness—taking intentional steps and making pointed decisions to conduct ourselves as members of God’s kingdom (Ephesians 4:22). Scripture refers to our sanctification as our “working out” our salvation (Philippians 2:12). We should examine ourselves, looking closely at our lives to discern whether or not we are truly living as a Christian should. Just as our salvation requires repentance and faith, so does our sanctification.
-
God’s work
However, our sanctification requires that we place our faith in a Person—Jesus Christ. While we should be making the deliberate choice to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of Christ, we must remember that behavior modification alone is not what pleases God and does not in itself lead to change in our hearts. Just after we are told to work out our salvation, we are also told that God is the one who is working our salvation in us (Philippians 2:13). We cannot save ourselves and we cannot sanctify ourselves. God knows this. The Apostle Paul cautioned the churches of Galatia about this very truth—the same way we are saved is the same way we are sanctified—by grace, as a gift of God through faith in Jesus.
Therefore, sanctification is two-fold—it is both our work and God’s work completed over time as we faithfully walk with Him through the Christian life. Ultimately, our goal is to become more like Jesus. This takes place as we are led by the Holy Spirit into obedience (Galatians 5:22–23). Remember that the desire to be holy did not originate with you. Take comfort in the fact that your desire to be holy will never be greater than God’s desire to make you holy. God is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The Spirit’s indwelling in us is our assurance that God will complete the work that He started in us (Philippians 1:6).
Verses About Sanctification
2 Corinthians 3:18
“We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
1 John 3:2
“Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.”
Ephesians 4:20–24
“But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”
Philippians 2:12
“Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Philippians 2:13
“For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.”
Galatians 5:22–23
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”
Hebrews 12:1b–2
“Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Philippians 1:6
“I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
