THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #47 | THE LIFE OF MOSES #29
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3729
THE LIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS #47
THE LIFE OF MOSES #29
3 REVELATIONS OF YHVH'S NAME GIVEN TO MOSES #17
YHVH M'KADDESH ( PART 8 )
THE THREE PHASES OF HOLINESS (SANCTIFICATION)
To “sanctify” something is it apart for special use; to “sanctify” a person is to make him holy.
Prior to salvation, our behavior bore witness to our standing in the world in separation from God, but now our behavior should bear witness to our standing before God in separation from the world.
Little by little, every day, “those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14, ESV) are becoming more like Christ.
Thus we come to realise that sanctification is God’s will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
1. Positional Sanctification
In Christian theology, sanctification is a state of separation unto God; all believers enter into this state when they are born of God: “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV).
The sanctification mentioned in this verse is a once-for-ever separation of believers unto God.
It is a work God performs, an intricate part of our salvation and our connection with Christ (Hebrews 10:10).
It is similar to the theological concept of justification - where we are declared righteous in the eyes of God with the imputed righteousness of Christ whom we have accepted by faith as our Lord and Saviour.
2. Progressive Salvation.
While we are positionally
holy (“set free from every sin” by the blood of Christ, Acts 13:39), we know that we still sin (1 John 1:10).
That’s why the Bible also refers to sanctification as a practical experience of our separation from God.
“Progressive” or “experiential” sanctification, as it is sometimes called, is the effect of obedience to the Word of God in one’s life. It is the same as growing in the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) or spiritual maturity. God started the work of making us like Christ, and He is continuing it (Philippians 1:6).
This type of sanctification is to be pursued by the believer earnestly (1 Peter 1:15; Hebrews 12:14) and is affected by the application of the Word (John 17:17).
Progressive sanctification has in view the setting apart of believers for the purpose for which they are sent into the world: “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John 17:18–19).
That Jesus set Himself apart for God’s purpose is both the basis and the condition of our being set apart (see John 10:36). We are sanctified and sent because Jesus was.
Our Lord’s sanctification is the pattern of and power for our own.
The sending and the sanctifying are inseparable. On this account, we are called “saints” (hagioi in the Greek), or “sanctified ones.
This may be an honorific title but it comes with a lifetime of obedience, submission, and ultimate humility when we die to ourselves.
That is why we are constantly exhorted by our pastors and teaches to adopt a lifestyle of repentance for our daily sins - for this is an integral part of our progressive sanctification to be holy as God is holy.
3. Ultimate Sanctification ( Glorification )
There is a third sense in which the word sanctification is used in Scripture—a “complete” or “ultimate” sanctification.
This is the same as glorification.
Paul prays in 1 Thessalonians 5:23, “May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV).
Paul speaks of Christ as “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) and links the glorious appearance of Christ to our personal glorification: “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4). This glorified state will be our ultimate separation from sin, total sanctification in every regard. “We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
CONCLUSION
“Sanctification” is a translation of the Greek word hagiasmos, meaning “holiness” or “a separation.”
In the past, God granted us justification, once-for-all, positional holiness in Christ.
In the present God guides us to maturity, practical, progressive holiness.
In the future, God will give us glorification, permanent, ultimate holiness.
These three phases of sanctification separate the believer from the penalty of sin (justification), the power of sin (maturity), and the presence of sin (glorification).
