The promise and purpose of sanctification – Part 1

Christ promised and made provision for the believer’s sanctification for a purpose. Sanctification is the believer’s cleansing or purging from the nature of sin. This experience is not for sinners, but for people who, through grace, are saved and reconciled to God. This second work of grace makes the believer to be holy, have the nature of God and reflect the life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The words “sanctify” and “holy” are synonymous and used interchangeably to mean “without blemish”. After salvation, which helps the believer to live a victorious life over outward sins, Christ wants every believer to go a step further to be sanctified. Sanctification is not obtained by struggling or human effort; God does the work in the heart. He declares emphatically: “…I am the LORD which sanctify you”. In the same vein, the Lord Jesus Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, so that He “might sanctify and cleanse it… (and) present it to himself a glorious church… holy and without blemish”.

Depravity is the root and origin of sin, which remains after salvation. At salvation, the outward sins, the things people do that others consider to be ignoble, offensive, and even criminal, are cleansed by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Yet, the tendency in the heart, the inner disposition is left intact. This inner corruption remains in the heart before sanctification. This is the reason Jesus Christ prayed for the sanctification of His disciples after their salvation.

Though their “names are written in heaven”, yet He prayed for the depravity in their heart to be removed. He also extends the prayer of sanctification to other believers who would come into the Kingdom in the years that followed. (John 17:17,20). It was the Father’s will to send Jesus Christ to the world to die for us. When the heart is not cleansed, it drives a wedge between a person and the Lord. For instance, the depravity within did not allow Peter to see as Christ saw or be united with Him on His purpose.

When the heart, mind and thought do not line up with the mind of Christ, or when one does not have total identification with Him, it is an indication of depravity on the inside. Place seeking, not preferring others above oneself, self-interest, self-promotion and division are evidences of depravity.

It makes the believer not to think, act or behave like Christ. The spirit of wanting “to command fire to come down” on one’s enemies to destroy them is removed at sanctification through cleansing, purification and removal of the nature of Adam, which all men inherited, with the propensity to sin. And the believer is given a new heart that is righteous, holy and pure.

Further reading (King James Version): Leviticus 20:7,8; Ephesians 5:25-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24; John 17:2,6-9,14-17,20; Luke 10:20; Matthew 16:15-17,21-23; Mark 10:35-43; Luke 9:49-54; Ezekiel 36:25,26; 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; 2 Corinthians 7:1; John 17:9,10,16,17,19,20; 1 Thessalonians 5:22-24; Psalm 51:6-8,10; Isaiah 6:1-7; Ezekiel 36:25,26,36,37; Jeremiah 29:10-13; James 1:6-8; Psalm 24:3,4; Matthew 5:8; 1 John 3:1-3; Titus 2:11-14; Colossians 3:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:19,21,22; Hebrews 2:9-11; 12:14-17; 13:12-14; John 17:17,21-26.