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Sanctification
Resources
- Carl B. Hoch, Jr., All Things New, (Baker Books, Grand Rapids; 1995), pp. 169ff
- J. I. Packer, Hot Tub Religion, (Living Books, Tyndale House Publ., Inc., 1987), pp. 171ff
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Perfect and Progressive
Perfect and Once for all, the work of the cross the result of the sacrifice of Christ 1 Cor. 6:11; Acts 20:32; 26:18; Heb. 2:11
Progressive and continuous, the work of the Spirit through the Word in the believer 1 Thess. 5:23; John 17:17
From the Book of 750 Bible and Gospel Studies, 1909, George W. Noble, Chicago
To be Set Apart for Holy Use
To sanctify means to be set apart for a holy use. God has set us apart for the purpose of sanctification not impurity (1 Thess. 4:7) and being such we are called to do good works (Eph. 2:10).
Christians are to sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts (1 Pet. 3:15). God sanctified Israel as His own special nation (Ezek. 37:28). People can be sanctified (Ex. 19:10,14) and so can a mountain (Ex. 19:23), the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:3), the tabernacle (Ex. 20:39), and every created thing is sanctified through the Word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:4).
Sanctification follows (See Justification). In justification our sins are completely forgiven in Christ. Sanctification is the process by which the Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ in all that we do, think, and desire. True sanctification is impossible apart from the atoning work of Christ on the cross because only after our sins are forgiven can we begin to lead a holy life.
Source unknown
We Can Have as Much of God as We Want
The great Scottish Bible expositor Alexander MacLaren once wrote: ‘We may have as much of God as we will. Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want. If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
Today in the Word, October, 1997, p. 24
Developing Holiness
The process of developing holiness. God said to Israel, “Be holy, because I am holy” (Lev. 11:44-45). Because God wants us to become like him, it is necessary that his people be a special kind of people, holy men and women. The basic idea in sanctification is “being set apart for God”; those thus set apart live in a way that is pleasing to God. They have no power of their own to do that, but God enables them (2 Cor. 3:17-18). Sanctification is not an option. God requires it of all his people (1 Thess. 4:3).
The Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook, Walter A. Elwell, Editor, (Harold Shaw Publ., Wheaton , IL; 1984), pp. 357-358
Conversion of Sam Houston
From Texas history comes the story of the conversion of Sam Houston. At one tine, the Texas hero was called “The Old Drunk.” While he was governor of Tennessee, his wife left him. In despair he resigned as governor and tried to escape his problems by going to live among Cherokee Indians. He stayed drunk much of the time. It is said that the Indians, as they walked through the forest, would have to move him out of the path where he lay in a stupor.
Later, he went to Texas, where he became the great hero of the Texas revolution when he routed General Santa Ana’s Mexican army. Houston’s battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!” helped win independence for Texas. He carried the daughter of a Baptist preacher and later trusted Christ, but he still had some of his old tendencies. One day as he rode along a trail, his horse stumbled. Houston spontaneously cursed, reverting to his old habit. Immediately he was convicted of his sin. He got off his horse, knelt down on the trail, and cried out to God for forgiveness. Houston had already received Christ, but God was teaching him to live in fellowship with him moment by moment. And as soon as the Holy Spirit made Sam Houston aware of his sin, he confessed it.
Darrell W. Robinson, People Sharing Jesus, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), p. 17
The House of Prayer Mark 11:17
Thy mansion is the Christian’s heart,
O Lord, Thy dwelling-place secure!
Bid the unruly throng depart,
And leave the consecrated door.
Devoted as it is to Thee,
A thievish swarm frequents the place;
They steal away my joys from me,
And rob my Saviour of His praise.
There, too, a sharp designing trade
Sin, Satan, and the World maintain;
Nor cease to press me, and persuade
To part with ease, and purchase pain.
I know them, and I hate their din;
Am weary of the bustling crowd;
But while their voice is heard within,
I cannot serve Thee as I would.
Oh! for the joy Thy presence gives,
What peace shall reign when Thou art there;
Thy presence makes this den of thieves
A calm delightful house of prayer.
And if Thou make Thy temple shine,
Yet, self-abased, will I adore:
The gold and silver are not mine;
I give Thee what was Thine before.
Olney Hymns, by William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
My Soul Thirsteth for God
I thirst, but not as once I did,
The vain delights of earth to share;
Thy wounds, Emmanuel, all forbid
That I should seek my pleasures there.
It was the sight of Thy dear cross
First wean’d my soul from earthly things;
And taught me to esteem as dross
The mirth of fools and pomp of kings.
I want that grace that springs from Thee,
That quickens all things where it flows,
And makes a wretched thorn like me
Bloom as the myrtle, or the rose.
Dear fountain of delight unknown!
No longer sink below the brim;
But overflow, and pour me down
A living and life-giving stream!
For sure of all the plants that share
The notice of thy Father’s eye,
None proves less grateful to His care,
Or yields him meaner fruit than I.
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
Love Constrains to Obedience
No strength of nature can suffice
To serve the Lord aright:
And what she has she misapplies,
For want of clearer light.
How long beneath the law I lay
In bondage and distress;
I toil’d the precept to obey,
But toil’d without success.
Then, to abstain from outward sin
Was more than I could do;
Now, if I feel its power within,
I feel I hate it too.
Then all my servile works were done
A righteousness to raise;
Now, freely chosen in the Son,
I freely choose His ways.
“What shall I do,” was then the word,
“That I may worthier grow?”
“What shall I render to the Lord?”
Is my inquiry now.
To see the law by Christ fulfill’d
And hear His pardoning voice,
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
Hatred of Sin
Holy Lord God! I love Thy truth,
Nor dare Thy least commandment slight;
Yet pierced by sin, the serpent’s tooth,
I mourn the anguish of the bite.
But though the poison lurks within,
Hope bids me still with patience wait;
Till death shall set me free from sin,
Free from the only thing I hate.
Had I a throne above the rest,
Where angels and archangels dwell,
One sin, unslain, within my breast,
Would make that heaven as dark as hell.
The prisoner sent to breathe fresh air,
And blest with liberty again,
Would mourn were he condemn’d to wear
One link of all his former chain.
But, oh! No foe invades the bliss,
When glory crowns the Christian’s head;
One view of Jesus as He is
Will strike all sin for ever dead.
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
Quotes
- It is easier to cry against one-thousand sins of others than to kill one of your own. - John Flavel
- When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die. - Addison Leitch, quoted in Passion and Purity, Elizabeth Elliot, Revell, 1984, p. 72
- What hindereth thee more than thine affections not fully mortified to the will of God? - Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ
- “May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love and joy of God’s presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of my self as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love.” - Andrew Murray
- Quarterback cum ESPN commentator Joe Theismann, allegedly explaining to his soon-to-be-ex second wife why he had an affair: “God wants Joe Theismann to be happy.” - Joe Theismann
- “God, make me good, but not yet.” - St. Augustine
- D. L. Moody once said, ‘I’ve had more trouble with D. L. Moody than any other man I’ve ever known.’ Thomas a’ Kempis said, ‘Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish yourself to be.’ - Harold L. Myra, “The Back Page,” Leadership, 1987, p. 146.
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Looking Back
Looking back, [my wife] Jan and I have learned that the wilderness is part of the landscape of faith, and every bit as essential as the mountaintop. On the mountaintop we are overwhelmed by God’s presence. In the wilderness we are overwhelmed by his absence. Both places should bring us to our knees; the one, in utter awe; the other, in utter dependence.
Dave Dravecky in When You Can’t Come Back
Nothing Stands Still
The focus of health in the soul is humility, while the root of inward corruption is pride. In the spiritual life, nothing stands still. If we are not constantly growing downward into humility, we shall be steadily swelling up and running to seed under the influence of pride.
J.I. Packer in Rediscovering Holiness, quoted in Christianity Today, November 9, 1992, p. 37
He Knows Me and I Know Him
Phillips Brooks, former minister of Boston’s Trinity Episcopal Church, is perhaps best known as the author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” He was a very busy pastor, yet he always seemed relaxed and unburdened, willing to take time for anyone in need.
Shortly before Brooks died, a young friend wrote to him and asked the secret of his strength and serenity. In a heartfelt response, Brooks credited his still-growing relationship with Christ.
He wrote, “The more I have thought it over, the more sure it has seemed to me that these last years have had a peace and fullness which there did not used to be. It is a deeper knowledge and truer love of Christ.....I cannot tell you how personal this grows to me. He is here. He knows me and I know Him. It is the most real thing in the world. And every day makes it more real. And one wonders with delight what it will grow to as the years go on.”
Our Daily Bread, October 14, 1994
Saloon Keeper Comes to the Lord
“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death” (Rom. 6:21).
Many years ago, when I was a young Salvation Army officer, it was my privilege to participate in a most unique service at a wide street intersection in the heart of the city of San Diego, California.
We had among our adherents a lovely Christian girl, who was saved out of a very ungodly family. Her father was a saloonkeeper and, while kind to his family and in many respects an admirable character, he had no use for “religion,” as he called it, nor for the church. But, through the consistent life of his daughter, he was at last awakened to see his need of a Saviour. He realized that she had something of which he knew nothing, and one night we were all surprised to see him in our audience.
At the close of the service, he came forward, weeping, to confess his sins and seek Christ as his Saviour. We pointed him to the Lord and before the meeting closed, he was rejoicing in the knowledge of sins forgiven.
At once he was faced with the fact that the business in which he was engaged was utterly inconsistent with the Christian life. Some suggested that he should sell out and put the proceeds into some other business. He indignantly spurned the suggestion. Realizing that the saloon was a detriment to humanity, he said he could not, since he had accepted Christ as his Saviour and his Lord, allow himself to profit in any way from the stock of what he afterwards called “liquid damnation.” Instead of this, he went to the city authorities and got a permit for what some might have thought was a rather fantastic service.
At the intersection of four streets, near his saloon, he rolled out all the beer barrels and made of them quite a pyramid. The Salvation Army surrounded this rather remarkable spectacle and with band playing and Salvationists singing, soon attracted an immense crowd. The converted saloonkeeper had boxes full of liquor piled up by the pyramid, to the top of which he climbed. “Praise God,” he exclaimed as he began his testimony, “I am on top of the beer barrel. For years I used to be under its power, but now I can preach on its head.” Then he told the story of his own conversion and pleaded with sinners to come to his Saviour.
As the liquor bottles were passed up to him, he broke them and spilled their contents over the barrels. Then descending, he set fire to the whole pyramid which went up in a great blaze as a the song of the Lord continued. What a remarkable testimony to the power of the gospel of Christ to completely change a life! No longer a saloonkeeper, our friend went into a legitimate business, where his life was a bright testimony to the reality of God’s salvation.
Illustrations of Bible Truth by H.A. Ironside, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 29-31
Eliminate the Little Sins
When a person becomes a Christian, he usually undergoes some radical life changes, especially if he has had an immoral background. Through the first steps of spiritual growth and self-denial, he gets rid of the large, obvious sins. But sad to say, many believers stop there. They don’t go on to eliminate the little sins that clutter the landscape of their lives. Gordon MacDonald, in his book Ordering Your Private World, told of an experience in his own life that illustrates this truth. “Some years ago, when Gail and I bought the old abandoned New Hampshire farm we now call Peace Ledge, we found the site where we wished to build our country home strewn with rocks and boulders. It was going to take a lot of hard work to clear it all out....The first phase of the clearing process was easy. The big boulders went fast. And when they were gone, we began to see that there were a lot of smaller rocks that had to go too. But when we had cleared the site of the boulders and the rocks, we noticed all of the stones and pebbles we had not seen before. This was much harder, more tedious work. But we stuck to it, and there came the day when the soil was ready for planting grass.”
Our Daily Bread
Running from Sin
The story is told of a young girl who accepted Christ as her Savior and applied for membership in a local church. “Were you a sinner before you received the Lord Jesus into your Life?” inquired an old deacon. “Yes, sir,” she replied. “Well, are you still a sinner?” “To tell you the truth, I feel I’m a greater sinner than ever.” “Then what real change have you experienced?” “I don’t quite know how to explain it,” she said, “except I used to be a sinner running after sin, but now that I am saved I’m a sinner running from sin!” she was received into the fellowship of the church, and she proved by her consistent life that she was truly converted.
Our Daily Bread
Sanctification
The Bible teaching on sanctification - Largely misunderstood and abused, sanctification (a setting apart for God’s worship and service), as taught by the Scripture, is in three aspects: past, present, future. The following chart will illustrate.
Three Aspects of Sanctification
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Past aspect of sanctification |
Present aspect of sanctification |
Future aspect sanctification of |
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Positional (1 Cor. 1:2, 30). All believers were so sanctified as saints, the youngest as well as the oldest, the most carnal as well as the most spiritual. |
Experiential. Depends upon our knowledge of and faith in our position in Christ (Rom. 6:1-11), converting our position into experience. Progressive, changeable, depends upon yieldedness, & God’s will (Rom. 6:13), |
Final. When we see the Lord and are made like Him sinless, sickless, deathless (1 Cor. 4; 15:54; 1 Jn. 3:2). Static, unalterable, Will result in our state in eternity (Phil. 3:21). |
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As God sees us in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2 with Phil 1:1, etc.) |
As we are in our conduct (2 Thess. 2:13) |
As we shall be in glory (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49). |
The New Unger’s Bible Handbook, Merrill F. Unger, Revised by Gary N. Larson, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984, p. 481
Resources
- Christian Personal Ethics, C. F. H. Henry, Eerdmans, 1957, pp. 459ff
- Desire, as the vehicle through which indwelling sin operates in the believer’s life, J. Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, pp. 65ff.
- The Fight, J. White, IVP, pp. 180ff
- C. Swindoll, Questions Christians Ask, p. 26
- Power for Living pp. 71-2. Story of barnyard geese. Content to live comfortably rather than fly.
- Between Two Truths, Klyne Snodgrass, Zondervan, 1990, p. 41
- Charismatic Chaos, J. MacArthur, Jr., Zondervan, 1992, pp. 246ff
- Contrasting Views on Sanctification, C. Ryrie, Walvoord: A Tribute, Donald Campbell, ed., Moody, 1982, p. 189.
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Still Munching Candy
On February 11, 1962, Parade Magazine published the following brief account—itself a commentary on artificial motivation.
At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it. The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
As this anecdote illustrates, the “why” behind memorization is fully as important as the “what.” The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God’s Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent—because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
Source unknown
Let Him that Stole Steal No More
Professor Drummond once described a man going into one of our after meetings and saying he wanted to become a Christian. “Well, my friend, what is the trouble?” He doesn’t like to tell. He is greatly agitated. Finally he says, “The fact is, I have overdrawn my account”—a polite way of saying he has been stealing. “Did you take your employer’s money?” “Yes.” “How much?” “I don’t know. I have never kept account of it.” “Well, you have an idea you stole $1,500 last year?” “I am afraid it is that much.” “Now, look here, sir, I don’t believe in sudden work; don’t steal more than a thousand dollars this next year, and the next year not more that five hundred, and in the course of the next few years you will get so that you won’t steal any. If your employer catches you, tell him you are being converted; and you will get so that you won’t steal any by and by. “My friends, the thing is a perfect farce! “Let him that stole, steal no more,” that is what the Bible says. It is right about face.
Take another illustration. Here comes a man, and he admits that he gets drunk every week. That man comes to a meeting, and wants to be converted. Shall I say, “Don’t you be in a hurry. I believe in doing the work gradually. Don’t you get drunk and knock your wife down more than once a month?” Wouldn’t it be refreshing to his wife to go a whole month without being knocked down? Once a month, only twelve times in a year! Wouldn’t she be glad to have him converted in this new way! Only get drunk after a few years on the anniversary of your wedding, and at Christmas, and then it will be effective because it is gradual! Oh! I detest all that kind of teaching. Let us go to the Bible and see what that old Book teaches. Let us believe it, and go and act as if we believed it, too. Salvation is instantaneous. I admit that a man may be converted so that he cannot tell when he crossed the line between death and life, but I also believe a man may be a thief one moment and a saint the next. I believe a man may be as vile as hell itself one moment, and be saved the next.
Christian growth is gradual, just as physical growth is; but a man passes from death unto everlasting life quick as an act of the will—“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”
Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 99-100
Why Would Christians Choose to Sin?
Why would Christians choose to sin rather than choose what they know God wants them to do? Four answers are commonly given today.
1. Some would point to Romans 8:16 and explain that Christians who willfully sin have forgotten their true identity as “children of God.” While it is true that Christians can forget who they are and sin as a result, Christians can also be well aware of who they are and sin anyway.
2. Some say Christians choose to sin because they have lost sight of what God has done for them. 2 Peter 1:9 indicates that Christians can be “blind or short-sighted, having forgotten
3. [their] purification from [their] former sins.”
4. Some wisely state that Christians consciously choose to sin because they have forgotten that God will severely discipline disobedient believers.
5. Some have said that Christians who consciously sin have lost their focus on the future. These Christians have forgotten that God will reward in heaven only those who have lived faithfully for Him here on earth (1 Cor 9:24). Christians who fail to keep eternity in mind often sin in the here and now.
Why Christians Sin, J. Kirk Johnston, Discovery House, 1992, p. 31
Must Reach Down
A man once testified in one of D.L. Moody’s meetings that he had lived “on the Mount of Transfiguration” for five years. “How many souls did you lead to Christ last year?” Moody bluntly asked him. “Well,” the man hesitated, “I don’t know.” “Have you saved any?” Moody persisted. “I don’t know that I have,” the man admitted. “Well,” said Moody, “we don’t want that kind of mountaintop experience. When a man gets up so high that he cannot reach down and save poor sinners, there is something wrong.”
The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 202.
Sanctification
Sanctification means intense concentration on God’s point of view. It means every power of body, soul, and spirit is chained and kept for God’s purpose only. It will cause an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God. Are we prepared for God to do all in us that He separated us for? The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized its meaning from God’s standpoint. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. Jesus has prayed that we might be one with Him as He is one with the Father. The one and only characteristic of the Holy Spirit in a person is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ and freedom from everything that is unlike Him.
Oswald Chambers
I Am Not
I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
John Newton
Converted Drunkard
Jesse Pullen was a converted drunkard. One day, as he tried to lead an old companion to Christ, the man expressed a fear that he would not hold out. Pullen said to him, “I’m the engine man on a little steam boat in the summer. I don’t wait until I get up enough steam to carry me across the lake before I start. I would blow the boat all to pieces if I did. When I get about twenty pounds of steam up, I call out to the captain, ‘All right, go ahead!’ Down in the hold I have plenty of coal. As fast as we use up the steam, we make more, and so we go across the lake.” His friend saw the point.
Source unknown
The Lord Is Like the Dentist
The late C. S. Lewis once remembered, “When I was a child, I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother, she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist the next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like the dentists. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if you once call him in, he will give you the full treatment.”
Source unknown
Eagle Acted Like a Chicken
The Scottish preacher John McNeill liked to tell about an eagle that had been captured when it was quite young. The farmer who snared the bird put a restraint on it so it couldn’t fly, and then he turned it loose to roam in the barnyard. It wasn’t long till the eagle began to act like the chickens, scratching and pecking at the ground. This bird that once soared high in the heavens seemed satisfied to live the barnyard life of the lowly hen. One day the farmer was visited by a shepherd who came down from the mountains where the eagles lived. Seeing the eagle, the shepherd said to the farmer, “What a shame to keep that bird hobbled here in your barnyard! Why don’t you let it go?” The farmer agreed, so they cut off the restraint. But the eagle continued to wander around, scratching and pecking as before. The shepherd picked it up and set it on a high stone wall. For the first time in months, the eagle saw the grand expanse of blue sky and the glowing sun. Then it spread its wings and with a leap soared off into a tremendous spiral flight, up and up and up. At last it was acting like an eagle again.
Source unknown
The Emu and Kangaroo
The Australian coat of arms pictures two creatures—the emu, a flightless bird, and the kangaroo. The animals were chosen because they share a characteristic that appealed to the Australian citizens. Both the emu and kangaroo can move only forward, not back. The emu’s three-toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backwards, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving in reverse by its large tail. Those who truly choose to follow Jesus become like the emu and kangaroo, moving only forward, never back (Luke 9:62)
Steve Morrison
A Tree
A man once bought a home with a tree in the backyard. It was winter, and nothing marked this tree as different from any other tree. When spring came, the tree grew leaves and tiny pink buds. HOW WONDERFUL, thought the man. A FLOWER TREE! I WILL ENJOY ITS BEAUTY ALL SUMMER. But before he had time to enjoy the flowers, the wind began to blow and soon all the petals were strewn in the yard. WHAT A MESS, he thought. THIS TREE ISN’T ANY USE AFTER ALL. The summer passed, and one day the man noticed the tree was full of green fruit the size of large nuts. He picked one and took a bite. “Bleagh!” he cried and threw it to the ground. “What a horrible taste! This tree is worthless. Its flowers are so fragile the wind blows them away, and its fruit is terrible and bitter. When winter comes, I’m cutting it down. But the tree took no notice of the man and continued to draw water from the ground and warmth from the sun and in late fall produced crisp red apples. Some of us see Christians with their early blossoms of happiness and think they should be that way forever. Or we see bitterness in their lives, and we’re sure they will never bear the better fruit of joy. Could it be that we forget some of the best fruit ripens late?
Misty Mowrey
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