Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke
Eaaias I appreciate the Finney quote but what in your opinion is accomplished in sanctification?
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I can't believe I didn't respond to this post, and the thread just died off. Weird.
I know Luke isn't posting here anymore, that I know of, but I'm going to give a short answer, maybe get everyone's gears turning.
Sanctification has multiple aspects, and essentially is a synergistic, two-fold thing.
By synergistic, I mean there is what God does, and there is what we do.
The Bible clearly declares that sanctification is an act of God (
Ex 31:13), yet it also declares it is something we are to do (
Lev 11:44).
It also clearly identifies sanctification as both a positional relationship, and yet also a practical and experiential reality. We are sanctified, or holy, by virtue of being in covenant with God (
Psalm 50:5). Yet, we are sanctified or holy by actual conformity to the will of God (
Deut 28:9).
Sanctification, or holiness, includes the idea of separation. Something is sanctified when it is segregated from other things. In a moral sense, the separation is a separation from the profane and a separation unto divine service. An offering, say, of a lamb, was "holy" when it was singled out and separated from the other lambs and devoted to or appointed to use as an offering to God. A Nazarite was "holy" during the time of their vow (
Num 6:5), because during that time they were separated unto God in a special sense. Israel is holy because they are separated from the heathen unto the service of God (
Lev 20:26).
Sanctification also includes the idea of purging or cleansing (
Lev 16:19). This is a corollary to separation. That which is sanctified, or separated from the profane to the divine, has had the profane purged out of itself, as when gold is purged of dross through refining. It is a separating process. Persons are sanctified by a cleansing from the impurity of sin and guiltiness, which is to say, they are separated from sin and guilt. Holy and clean have a parallel relationship (
Ezekiel 44:23), and therefore sanctification and cleansing likewise has a parallel relationship, they go hand in hand.
From this we can see there is a close relationship between sanctification, or holiness, with justification, or righteousness. Both have to do with our standing in God's sight, that is, our relationship to God. Both have to do with freedom from sin, in both the positional or legal sense as well as the actual experiential sense. Both are imputed to us by God (that is, both are the result of a positive decree of God towards and concerning us). Yet, both are things we must do (being made righteous results in a lifestyle of righteous living, being made holy results in a lifestyle of holy living). Both are accomplished, made available, and received, on the basis of the Atonement of Jesus Christ (
1 Cor 6:11).
In this we see that sanctification and justification are really two terms for the same thing. That is, each term describes the same thing but from a slightly different perspective. We can make distinctions intellectually, but truthfully they are just different aspects of the same reality. Much as the terms separation, cleansing, purging, and washing describe the same reality, but under different perspectives and in different aspects. Or as redemption, purchase, deliverance, salvation, and election (choosing) describe the same basic truth but in consideration of different aspects.
So then, sanctification really includes everything in salvation, because salvation is nothing else than being separated (or, sanctified, or hallowed) from sin, guilt, condemnation, death, the flesh, and the world, and being cleansed (washed, as with water, or purged, as with fire) of those things, and being separated to God, to righteousness, to holiness, to Christ, and to His Kingdom.
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