Sanctified. This word is used two different ways in the Bible.
Literally it just means "set apart". But it is also used in the context of "being cleansed".
I personally don't believe our salvation necessarily depends on it, but it is something we SHOULD do as believers.
Sanctified.
Hi BAC. The way I see it is that Sanctification is indeed a part of the salvation process, but it isn't something
we do. Any attempt on our part to change ourselves and make us righteous or holy will end in inevitable failure. We were justified by the blood of Jesus. When we come to God in faith God accepts us as we are, but He will never leave us as we are. God accepts the death of His Son as ours, and He looks upon us as if we had never sinned. We are justified, we no longer are under condemnation, because of the cross. But if you remember the OT sanctuary services, the death of the innocent lamb on the altar took place outside in the courtyard. The blood was then taken into the sanctuary and the Priest ministered there. This took place every day, thus it was an ongoing process. Thus the sacrifice was just the beginning of the process of salvation. Sanctification is impossible without the blood, but is the inevitable result of our faith in the blood, or the cross. As we look daily to the cross of Christ in faith, trusting in the death of Christ as our redeeming sacrifice we enter grace which once declaring us righteous, proceeds to make us righteous.
Romans 5:1 ¶
Therefore being justified (
past tense, established fact) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.....
.....9 Much more then, being now
justified by his blood (past tense, established fact),
we shall be (
future tense and promise) saved from wrath through him.
10 For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son (
past tense), much more, being reconciled,
we shall be (future tense and promise) saved by his life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous.
6:1 ¶ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin
(past) , live
(present and furue) any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (past)
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life. (future).
Notice the repetitions and parallels. Having been...shall be. Because of the death of Jesus, such and such will happen. That such and such is a life lived in victory over sin. It is a sanctified life made confom
5
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
In the context of Heb 10:10; we are sanctified from the point that if we die tomorrow, we are saved.
The Bible has many verses about a maturing and growing process, and it talks a lot about the things "you used to do". But as a maturing Christian, should not do any longer.
1Co 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
1Co 6:10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
So the question here is did the sanctification happen instantly, or as a result of a period of time where people no longer did the things they did before.
The timing of the shedding of various habits and sins which afflicted us before we came to Christ, differs I believe from one indivdual to another. For some, cursing disappears almost overnight. For me, cursing was a major problem and complete deliverance from that habti took a long time. But it finally came down to faith. I used to depend on my own strngth to stop cursing...and failed miserably. It wasn't until I gave up trying to do it myself and surrendered the whole process to God, trusating in His grace and power based on what Jesus accomplished at Calvary, that His resurrection life freed me from that sin. Again, others may have ongoing problems with any number or variety of sin; be it gambling, cursing, fornication, drugs, theft, whatever, while with others these things vanish it seems overnight. Those Corinthians didn't all shed sin immediately, the process will continue for all of us until we die. I do not believe there will ever be a point when anyone could say, I am now living the perfect sinless life. However, I do believe it is possible, because with God all things are possible.
Rom 6:19 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.
Rom 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
It seems that by doing righteousness, we can become "more sanctified". (More clean, more mature)
I think you are in danger here of depending on your own works to become 'more sanctified'. I really do prefer the KJV of your quote above:
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye
have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so
now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What
fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But
now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your
fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Notice again how the fruit of righteousness and holiness is dependant utterly on something already accomplished in the past, that is Christ's cross, which
made us free from sin. It is as we look daily upon the cross and trusting in Christ to graciously grant us the benefits thereof, we are then sanctified. This is what Romans 5:17 (and others) refers to as righteousness by faith.
A life lived in righteousness is a fruit, a result of yielding to God, and trusting and believing in Christ. Not a result from doing righteousness.
1 Cor 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
1 Thes 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
1 Thes 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
1 Thes 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.
It would seem that doing impure things is the opposite of being sanctified.
2 Thes 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
We are told to pursue sanctification.
Here BAC you see the absolute neccessity of sanctification for salvation. "...
without which no-one will see the Lord".
2 Tim 2:19 Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, "The Lord knows those who are His," and, "Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness."
2 Tim 2:20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
2 Tim 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
If we cleanse ourselves, obviously this isn't entirely us. The Holy Spirit (whom we must submit to, because we can resist him) does most of this.
(Eph 4:30; Acts 7:51)
The above quote from 2Tim 2:21 ..
.cleanses himself...appears to contradict what I have said previously, that it is solely the work of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. I think though that what Paul is saying here is that it is us who must make the initial decision to turn away from sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us of the sin, but it is we ouselves who make the decision whether we shed or retain it. If we choose to shed it, then the only way to do so is by faith in Christ,through yielding to Him, again based on what He has already accomplished, and on what He is now accomplishing through His heavenly ministry as Mediator.
1 Thes 5:22 abstain from every form of evil.
1 Thes 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hmm.. "entirely", is not the same as "partially", does that mean some of us are in a state of partial sanctification?
To be declared righteous, is justification, to be made righteous, is sanctification. We were declared righteous the moment Jesus died. Being made righteous is ongoing. But you know what? God doesn't see a partially sanctified life. He doesn't see you and I when appraising us...He sees His Son's life. "By the obedience of One many were made righteous" It is the righteousness and obedience of Christ that God accepts as our own. It is never ours, it is Christ's. He owns it, not us. The truth is that Christ's death, and obedient life, have been accepted by the Father as the basis for my being declared righteous and made righteous. So the life I will live tomorrow, has already been lived in the past!! It isn't my life that I will live tomorrow, for I am dead...it is Christ who lives in me!!!! It is His life of perfect obedience that I, by faith, will wear not just tomorrow, but throughout my life so long as I am trusting in His grace and not in my own works, and it is that righteousness of Christ's that I will wear as a wedding garment at the great supper of the Lamb in heaven.
Heb 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
Heb 13:16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
1 Tim 2:15 But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint
This verse seems to put a condition on sanctification. It even says "IF" they do this....
Faith in what? The already established fact of our justifcation through the cross of Christ
