Simple Theology: Sanctification
How would you describe sanctification in one word? Is this one of those words limited to Bible college students, seminarians, pastors, and YouTube “experts”? No, every Christian is living it, whether they know it or not.
Transcript
SERIES REVIEW
I’d like to start with a comic strip from one of my favorites—Peanuts.
Lucy and Linus are sitting by the window. Lucy says, “Boy, look at it rain… what if it floods the whole world?”
Linus responds, “It will never do that… In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.”
Lucy replies with a smile, “You’ve taken a load off my mind.
“Great theology has a way of doing that!” responds Linus.
That’s why it’s important to understand ideas like:
God as other
The Trinity as unity
Sin as rebellion
The Gospel as the journey from unfaithfulness to shame to restoration to loyalty to honor.
That’s what we’ve covered so far in our Simple Theology series.
DEFINING SANCTIFICATION
And this week, we’re tackling the biggest theology word yet: sanctification.
How would I define this with 1 word? Christlikeness.
Let’s expand to 5 words: Growth in likeness to Christ.
And now, how about 20 words: An ongoing partnership between God and people to become increasingly free from sin and more Christ-like in our daily lives.
However you define it, sanctification is all about Christlikeness.
To explain this, I want to talk about four things:
The direction of sanctification
The stages of sanctification
The result of sanctification
1. THE DIRECTION OF SANCTIFICATION
The direction of sanctification is always toward Jesus. If you are a Christian, your life should be one continuous walk toward Christ, getting closer and closer to him in your character and behavior.
Romans 8:29 describes it like this,
“29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
In 2 Corinthians 3:18 it says,
“18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The Christian faith is not a standstill. It’s an ever-increasing journey toward everything Jesus.
Here’s how Alliance founder A.B. Simpson described sanctification.
It’s possessing… “the thoughts of Christ, the desires of Christ, the will of Christ, the faith of Christ, the purity of Christ, the love of Christ, the unselfishness of Christ, the single aim of Christ, the humility of Christ, the submission of Christ, the meekness of Christ, the zeal of Christ, and the works of Christ… manifest in our mortal flesh so that we shall say, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’”
That is the direction of sanctification.
2. THE STAGES OF SANCTIFICATION
Now, the stages of sanctification. There are three of them.
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology
1. POSITIONAL sanctification begins at conversion when you are saved. This is called positional because you are immediately set apart as holy to God and you’re no longer a slave to sin. This sanctification is a one-time event, not a process. This is one-and-done and completely the work of God.
We see this in Paul's letters as he often refers to sanctification in the past tense. A good example is 1 Corinthians 6:11 says, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
2. Next is PROGRESSIVE sanctification. This is the ongoing process of moral and spiritual transformation that makes you more and more like Christ. It involves you actively partnering with the Holy Spirit to grow in holiness, resist sin, and live a life pleasing to God. It’s an up-and-down process, but you should be growing in holiness with each passing year.
We can see this in Romans 6, where Paul says we are:
“Dead to sin and alive to God” (v. 11)
“Set free from sin” (v. 18)
And yet, he commands them:
“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (v. 12)
“Do not offer any part of yourself to sin” (v. 13)
This explains why everyone in this room, can be in such different places in our faith maturity. Some of you are growing, others have plateaued, and some of you haven’t really grown at all for years or even decades.
3. Lastly, there is COMPLETE sanctification, which refers to the state of perfect holiness that will be realized after we die and are glorified in the presence of Christ. This is the culmination of the sanctification process when believers will be free not just from the penalty and power of sin but also from its presence.
3. THE EVIDENCE OF SANCTIFICATION
Lastly, let’s talk about the evidence of sanctification. How do you know whether you’re becoming more Christlike or just staying the same? Since “spiritual maturity” is a pretty vague term and we are notorious for overrating ourselves, what tangible evidence can we look for to measure our sanctification?
Would it surprise you to know that the Bible has a list?
“22 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control… 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25)
“Keeping in step with the Spirit” – that’s sanctification!
Some of you might be thinking, “But wait, I thought the definition of sanctification was “Christlikenes” but now it’s “fruit”? It’s the same thing. This list is the character of Jesus.
Being more like Jesus in your life means more of these 9 qualities.
Are you more loving today than you were last year?
Do you have more peace or less peace in your life?
Have you grown in your self-control over the years?
As we grow in our faith and relationship with God, these qualities should increasingly characterize our lives.
CLOSING
Let me close with some hard truth.
If you’ve been a Christian for a long time and people don’t use those words to describe you, then you’re not allowing the Holy Spirit to sanctify you. You might be saved, but you are stubbornly stagnant. Your sanctification line is just going straight across.
The goal of the Christian life isn’t just to be saved and then live however you want.
The Father is calling you to be conformed to the Son by the power of the Spirit.
How are you going to respond? Are you going to stubbornly stay where you’re at or are you going to take your next step?
