Salvation Thoughts Part 3

SANCTIFICATION
When a believer is justified, he is made right with God and stands in a position of holiness.  This justification leads to a new standing before God, and it provides an incentive for holy living.  However, actual holiness is not yet achieved.  Sanctification is the progressive partnership between the believer and the Holy Spirit where they work together so that the believer can become that which God has declared him to be.  Mark Driscoll states that “Importantly, this is not merely something passive that God does for us, but something that, by his grace through his Spirit, we have the honor of participating in as an act of mirroring him.”

There are two main themes connected with sanctification and the process of becoming holy.  The first has to do with being called to be set apart for God and his purposes.  The second has to do with moral goodness or spiritual worth.  In recent years, the second theme has come to dominate the attention of theologians.

Sanctification carries the idea of being set apart or holy.  In the Old Testament, the image is drawn from Jewish religious practices, where the sacred rites and utensils have become so by their having been sanctified unto God, that is, set apart solely for God’s holy purposes.  After being called and justified by God, the believer is now set apart for God.

Over the centuries of church history, there has been differing ideas on what it means to be a people set apart for God.  Some groups of Mennonites and the Amish interpret set apart as living apart from the rest of the world.  Others, like certain Baptist groups, see the need to live in the world but abstain from certain practices that are not strictly spoken against in Scripture but which they see as evil: practices like drinking alcohol, dancing, gambling, and going to movie theaters.

The second theme of sanctification has to do with living a holy life.  Through the work of Christ on the cross, the believer has been declared holy and in right standing before God.  Through Christ, the believer is called to reflect that standing by being holy in daily life.  Joel Beeke, author of the book Holiness: God’s Call to Sanctification says it well: “You are called to be in life what you already are in principle by grace.”

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7&8 states “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.”  For Paul, there was an obvious connection between living a holy, sanctified life and the work of the Holy Spirit.

N.T. Wright, in his book Justification, makes a compelling case when he states that many current theologians who identify themselves in the Reformed camp seem to stress the work and person of Christ to such an extreme so as to push the work of the Holy Spirit in regard to salvation to the periphery or as merely a footnote in their Gospel message.  Wright affirms the importance of the substitutionary atonement and the work that Christ accomplished on the cross but reminds his readers that the salvation story does not end there (or in fact start there).  The Holy Spirit helps sanctify the believer who has been declared to be in right standing with God the righteous judge.

Stanley M. Horton, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Bible and Theology at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, believes that the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirt is much grander is scope than simply helping individuals become holy.  He states “God’s plan of sanctification includes the whole world- everything- animate and inanimate.  What he could not achieve through the old covenant, the Holy Spirit is now achieving powerfully in the new covenant.  We have the great privilege of  being not only the objects of this sanctification process, but assistants in it, for the glory of God.”

In regard to living a holy life, Jesus taught a very high moral standard and was concerned not only with outward actions but with right attitudes and thoughts.  Jesus in Matthew 5:48 commands “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Jesus would often start his teaching with the phrase “you have heard it said” and then go on to give another way to look at the law that actually raised the standard of holy living required by God.

Although the Apostle Paul wrote a great deal about justification he did not ignore the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.  Philippians 2:12-13 states “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

As the believer works out his salvation with fear and trembling, there has been differing opinions on whether or not it was possible to complete the work of sanctification during one’s lifetime.  Those that believe it is possible are known at perfectionists and teach that it is possible to come to a place of holiness where an individual no longer sins.  The individual will continue to struggle with temptation and will still have areas in their life where they can grow spiritually but they have come to the place where their walk is blameless.  Nonperfectionists maintain that the work of sanctification is never finished while here on earth.  They teach that holiness is an impossible standard to strive after until the day we meet Jesus face to face and he completes the good work that was started within us.

Millard J. Erickson sums it up well: “The Christian life, as we have seen, is not a static matter in which one is saved and then merely reposes in that knowledge.  It is a process of growth and progress, lived not in the Christian’s own strength, but in the power and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  And it is a process of challenge and satisfaction.”