Gospel Words: Sanctification
You can also watch a video that deals with this topic: Sanctification.
Before we look at the idea of sanctification, we will just mention justification. This should probably have been included in the previous class about righteousness because to justify someone is to declare them to be righteous. It is used sometimes of someone declaring themselves to be righteous (Job 32:2) and sometimes it is used in the sense of God declaring someone to be righteous (1 Kings 8:32).
But when we look at the word sanctification, we are seeing not just a declaration of righteousness but rather a process through which someone actually becomes holy in the sight of God.
Strong’s Greek says that hagiasmos means “consecration, sanctification” and that it’s usage is “the process of making or becoming holy, set apart, sanctification, holiness, consecration.”
This is clearly important when we talk about the gospel as we cannot have our relationship restored with God unless we are holy. As sanctification is the process of making us holy, we need to understand this idea in order to better understand the gospel.
There is a related word to sanctification and that is consecration. There are some who make a distinction between these ideas.
Consecration is a human act, whereas sanctification is a divine act. (https://lcoggt.org/Ruth/es37_consecration_and_sanctificati.htm)
I cannot find any real distinction in how they are used in the scriptures however. They are both used of man and God. They are simply synonyms–words that have the same meaning. It may be that today some people use them to mean different things but as far as the scriptures use these words, they are just the same thing.
Setting Apart
When we see the idea of sanctification, it does not always mean that something that was unholy is being made holy. Sometimes it is the demonstration of holiness which sets something apart in the minds of others.
Ezekiel 38:23
Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.
Here we see that God was going to sanctify Himself. This certainly does not mean that He was not holy in the first place. What He was going to do was to set Himself apart in the eyes of many nations.
1 Chronicles 23:13
The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses; and Aaron was set apart, he and his sons forever, that he should sanctify the most holy things, to burn incense before the Lord, to minister to Him, and to give the blessing in His name forever.
The word used here for “set apart” is not the same word as used for “sanctify.” It is the same word as that used of God separating the light from the darkness in creation. But you can see that idea here that Aaron and his sons were set apart to do something special–even sanctifying the most holy things, which means that they were designated and kept separate from any other use than the most holy uses they were made for. They were not sinful things that were then made holy in the sense of removing their sins.
In Matthew 6:9, when we read, “Hallowed be Your name,” that word Hallowed is the same word as sanctified. God’s name is set apart from all others. He is the only one to whom we pray.
Exodus 13:2
“Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.”
The NASB and some other translations translate this “consecrate” as “sanctify.” As God is telling the Israelites to consecrate something and it involves animals as well as people, this clearly cannot be a removal of sin in order to make holy. This is the idea of setting them apart for God’s ownership and use. They were not even allowed to plow with a firstborn cow or shear a firstborn sheep.
John 10:36
do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
Again, Jesus was never unholy. In this case, the Father set Him apart for a special purpose and sent into the world to accomplish the purpose. Sanctification means to set apart for a special purpose.
Set Apart from Sin for God’s Purposes
As far as the gospel is concerned, what we are most concerned about is being separated from sin and being joined to God. We want to be set apart from anything unholy so we can be used for the purposes our holy God has for us.
Sanctification as something that has already happened
1 Corinthians 6:11
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Here Paul writes about some terrible sins that people like us used to be part of. But he says that they were washed (having their sins washed away), sanctified (made to be holy), and justified (declared to be righteous) in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. This is something that had already happened to them. They were already made holy. They were sanctified.
Hebrews 10:29
Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Here again sanctification is something that happened at some point in the past but now this person is not behaving in a holy way. This is important to understand when someone starts claiming that sanctification is a process in which the Holy Spirit is cleaning up our lives and changing our hearts and we become more and more holy all the time as something the Holy Spirit is doing to us. This passage shows that sanctification is something that happens at the point of salvation and that even someone who has been sanctified can fall into terrible sin and be punished for rejecting the blood of Christ that sanctified him.
Sanctification is an ongoing process for those in Christ.
After we made the previous statement, it is important to realize that there actually is another way in which sanctification is used. This is why people sometimes get confused–they see this usage and think that is all there is to sanctification. They forget that there is a sense in which it is already accomplished for those in Christ.
It is something God is involved in.
John 17:17-19
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Hebrews 2:11
For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
It is something we must be actively involved in.
Romans 6:19-22
I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Romans 6:19-22 (NASB)
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-4,7
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness.
Hebrews 12:14
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:
2 Timothy 2:21
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.
The way the scriptures talk about sanctification demonstrate that while it certainly cannot be done separate from God’s work, we are personally responsible for becoming sanctified as well. This is not something that will simply happen. We must work to be sanctified–to become more holy.
God has sanctified us and made us holy by the blood of Christ. But our holiness in behaviour is something that we must continually work on. This is why we have so many reminders such as that found in Colossians 3:1-11:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.