Project Description

2013/11

SANCTIFICATION

When did you last have a conversation about sanctification or holiness? Perhaps you are already about to turn the page and see what else is in this magazine? But this is a vital issue!    I may surprise many by stating that the decline in evangelical circles in our nation is largely due to a failure in sanctification. Well, that is the clear teaching of the Scriptures. Many theories have been advanced as to the ineffectiveness of the gospel today. Some blame the undermining of the authority of the Bible by liberalism, or by Darwinism and evolution. These things have played their part but the Old Testament teaches that when the children of Israel were separated unto the Lord, He defended them and their borders increased – but when they went into spiritual decline their enemies invaded and defeated them. In 1 Peter 1:16 God’s command is: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” There is an urgent need for that holiness of life to be seen among the people of God.

So what is sanctification? The Shorter Catechism summarises the scriptural teaching with this classic definition, “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”  Sanctification, then, starts with God. Paul could say of the Lord Jesus in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” He took on human nature in the likeness of sinful man (Romans 8:3) so that he could live a holy life for those who are united with him (Hebrews 2:11). In Romans 6:6 Paul states that the old man has been crucified with Christ. Being in Christ means being part of a new humanity. In light of what God has done, the Christian should live in ‘radical holiness’. But we can only do that in the power of God. Paul prayed, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).  Sanctification is a work of God.

But while this is so, there are clear indications that the believer is not inactive in sanctification. The catechism says that we “are enabled more and more to die unto sin” (emphasis mine). In many scriptures God commands us to ‘yield our members’ or ‘present our bodies’ or ‘mortify our deeds’.  There is a sense in which God and man cooperate in sanctification. Some theologians –John Murray included – would not say that God and man cooperate in sanctification because they want to insist that God’s work in this is primary. They have a point! We have to say that Christians can no more sanctify themselves by their own efforts than sinners can justify themselves by their own efforts. However, if we define the roles clearly we can say that there is cooperation. And we cooperate in two ways, passively and actively.

Our passive role in sanctification is indicated in texts that encourage us to trust God and yield to God. In Romans 6:13 Paul says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, …” Romans 12:1 continues, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” This passive ‘presenting’ and ‘yielding’ is vital. The problem is that in some circles this passive aspect of sanctification is so strongly emphasized that it has become pre-eminent. The popular phrase is, ‘Let go and let God’. Sadly, those who over-emphasise ‘leaving it all in the hands of God’ lead people to think that in so doing they are ‘sanctified’ and have attained ‘the higher-life’. The problem with this is that it leads many to become lazy, forgetting to actively resist sin and to battle the old nature.  That really is a fatal flaw because if the old nature is not resisted it will certainly assert itself sooner or later. Some would even argue this is the reason for much of the spiritual decline throughout most of the twentieth century.

The active responsibility of the believer is indicated by scriptures like Colossians 3:5, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth”. There is something we must do. Perhaps you open a magazine in a doctor’s waiting-room and are confronted with an article or image that is unedifying. You cannot expect an angel from heaven to come down and take the magazine from you. You need to close it and put it down. We have to pursue holiness. Hebrews 12: 14 directs us to “Follow peace with all men, and holiness.”  That means ‘strive’ for it. We need to abstain from some things and avoid some things. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “abstain from fornication.”  And 1 Thessalonians 5:22 adds, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.”  We are to continually build up patterns and habits of holiness.

Remember that sanctification is a work or, more precisely, a process. The catechism says we “are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness” (emphasis mine). Some believers have the notion that sanctification can be received in a moment. We are assured that we can receive ‘entire sanctification’ in the same way in which we were saved.

This view not only contradicts Scripture, but also experience. The only way anyone can ever think he is living without sin is to have a low view of sin! One Ulster preacher, with a following among young people, objected to the statement, ‘we sin daily in word, thought and deed’. He asserted that if we believe this, our theology is, to use his own colloquial expression, ‘up the creek’! But, addressing Christians, the apostle John said, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 2 Corinthians 7:1 issues this challenge, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”  Notice that there is an on-going process of “perfecting holiness”.

God will certainly sanctify us wholly, but that will be, as the passage says, at, “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Solomon reminds us, “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” There is a perfect day, but not in this life.

Do we need holy Christians? We certainly do! Indeed it is imperative if we are to see our land and our communities transformed. Believer, we should want to be in the place where we have victory over sin and temptation, and where we are really living for God and for His glory. This can only be done as we learn to walk with Him day by day.

Rev Gordon Dane