Not too long ago I was speaking with a group of college-age Christians when I brought up the topic of sanctification. There was dead silence. “What’s sanctification?” one boy asked. “It’s being set apart for God, or as belonging to God,” I said. “It means growing in holiness.” Since they still looked a bit confused and didn’t totally understand the term holiness, I said: “You know, like growing to be more godly or coming to reject sin more and more. Seeking to do what Christ wants and resisting the things of the world.”
Yet,
try as I might to explain it, it was a topic they found hard to grasp.
And these weren’t unbelievers or non-churched people, they were churched
people, one young man being a pastor’s kid. So, I figured that if they
struggled with the concept of sanctification, maybe others do as well.
And if so, to help remedy that lack of understanding, I offer these quotes on
sanctification from well-known Christians. I trust they will help!
Enjoy!
"There
are three things which the true Christian desires in respect to sin:
Justification, that it may not condemn; Sanctification, that it may not rein;
and Glorification, that it may cease to be." Richard
Cecil
"I
asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something
like this: If I was saved by my good works – then there would be a limit to
what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with
rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of
life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – at
God's infinite cost – then there's nothing he cannot ask of me." Tim
Keller
"Associate
with sanctified persons. They may by their counsel, prayers, and holy example,
be a means to make you holy." Thomas Watson
"The
Christian life requires hard work. Our sanctification is a process wherein we
are co-workers with God. We have the promise of God's assistance in our labor,
but His divine help does not annul our responsibility to work (Phil.
2:12-13).” R. C. Sproul
"Some
Christians overlook the blessing of sanctification, and yet to a thoroughly
renewed heart, this is one of the sweetest gifts of the covenant. If we could
be saved from wrath, and yet remain unregenerate, impenitent sinners, we should
not be saved as we desire, for we mainly and chiefly pant to be saved from sin
and led in the way of holiness.” Charles Spurgeon
“Is
my wife more like Christ because she is married to me? Or is she like Christ in
spite of me? Has she shrunk from His likeness because of me? Do I sanctify her
or hold her back? Is she a better woman because she is married to
me?" R. Kent Hughes
"The
one marvelous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting
the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification
is "Christ in you."... Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the
power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in
Him, and He manifests it in me." Oswald Chambers
"The
sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on
them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark
of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every
occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man." A. B. Simpson
"Those
who have been justified are now being sanctified; those who have no experience
of present sanctification have no reason to suppose they have been
justified." F.F. Bruce
One
of God’s primary purposes in the life of everyone He saves is to restore His
sin-damaged and sin-fractured image within us.
This
is one of the three primary aspects of “salvation” which includes: 1st) JUSTIFICATION or being “saved” from
the wrath of God against our sin, and brought into a pardoned, reconciled, or
right standing with God, by grace, through atonement and faith in Christ or His
blood (Rom. 3:21-26). 2nd) SANCTIFICATION or being “saved” from
the power and personality-distorting effects of sin in two ways: In an
immediate way at the time of our conversion (definitive sanctification), and
then in a gradual way for the remainder of our lives (progressive life-long
sanctification) where God conforms us more and more into the likeness of Jesus, who is “the
radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His being" (Heb.
1:3). And 3rd) GLORIFICATION or being “saved” from
the indwelling presence of sin within us all together at the time of our
death and/or resurrection.
So,
"salvation" is to be saved from sin’s
penalty (justification) and power (sanctification)
and presence (glorification). It's one of the reasons
you can't really speak about salvation from a biblical perspective without
speaking of sin! It also explains what Richard Cecil means in the first
quote, and why F.F. Bruce can say what he says in the last quote. "God
chose us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in
Him" (Eph. 1:4) and "predestined us to be
conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). That was
His eternal purpose for us, and it always involves sanctification!
In
the Bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff
