Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 1:2 | Date: July 31, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Meaning of Sanctification

1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we continue our studies in the doctrine of salvation. We are into the section where we’re dealing with redemption applied. We’re looking at the broad categories there, at least. We’ve seen that coming to faith in Jesus Christ and united to him, we have righteousness. We are justified in union with Christ. We are with him, sons of God. We’ve seen the doctrine of adoption.

Today, we come to the doctrine of sanctification. First Corinthians chapter one—will be in a few different verses today, elsewhere as well, but I’d like to begin here. “Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with those who are in every place, call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, our hearts rejoice in all that you have done for us in Jesus Christ. It has been enriching to us to review the vastness of the great work done in us and for us through your Son, Jesus. We pray that you’ll give us now today a clearer understanding of this doctrine of sanctification, and may we be encouraged by it to live lives that are godly in Christ Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen.

The message today will be largely one of instruction as I try to clarify for you the meaning and then some of the implications of the doctrine of sanctification and the meanings of the words involved. Sanctification is a term that is not often understood as it is used by the biblical writers. And I’ll say that again because that’s going to be the focus point of a lot of what I have to say this morning. Sanctification is a term that is not often understood very well as it is used by the biblical writers.

The word “to sanctify,” of course, means to make holy. And therefore, it has something to do with becoming holy. But the question now this morning is in just what sense does this doctrine of sanctification tell us that we are holy or that we should be holy? Which is it? And there’s just lots of—there are a lot of differences of opinion around this. And in fact, many various denominational groups and various Christian circles have their distinctive models of sanctification.

So in the Wesleyan tradition, for example, and various denominational groups, various followers associated with that tradition, sanctification is a second work. It’s seen as something subsequent to salvation, a subsequent work that is done. In Pentecostal circles, holiness groups, sanctification is often associated with becoming sinless. It is a crisis moment that’s experienced in which we are so overcome with God’s grace that now we become sinless. Many years ago, a pastor’s wife in one of these denominational groups told me that it had been 20 years since she had sinned. Sensitive soul that I am, I just remarked that it was odd that I hadn’t noticed that. That’s one model of sanctification.

There are other groups that are sort of stemming from that. They don’t have a doctrine of perfectionism, that we have become perfect or become sinless or anything like that. But still, it emphasizes some notion of second after salvation, something subsequent to conversion, some moment of surrender. And you surrender over to God. And this is true of wide swaths of evangelicalism. There’s still sort of a crisis moment. You surrender over to God and somehow now you become more godly. They won’t say necessarily sinless, but you become more godly. And the reason you struggle with sin is because you struggle too hard. You need to give it over to God and surrender and “let go and let God” is one of the phrases associated with that. Give it over to him and then he takes over and then you become more godly in Christian living.

In fundamentalist circles, sanctification is tied more pointedly to certain markers, certain standards that must be kept. So a sanctified person, a holy person, is known by the fact that he doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to movies, he doesn’t play cards, he doesn’t dance. And there are a number of these markers and that shows you to be holy. And sanctification is tied to these kinds of usually largely external kinds of markers. That’s how sanctification is first understood.

In Reformed circles, sanctification is almost entirely understood in terms of progress. In Reformed theology, you turn to the section on sanctification in the Reformed systematic theologies. The largest emphasis, almost exclusive emphasis, is on becoming holy, progressively more holy, struggling against sin to become more godly. And that’s the focus. Now in many of those, there is some aspect of truth and many of them are helpful in various ways. And many Christians have been helped by them in different kinds of ways. I’m not here to just trash on them.

Sanctification Is Something We Are and Something We Have in Christ

But despite—and I do want to point this out—despite all of the differences and all of those models of sanctification, they all hold one point in common. And that is that sanctification is something that you strive to obtain by God’s grace, however it might be said. Sanctification in all of those models is something you strive to obtain and it is subsequent to conversion. In all of those models, sanctification is something that you strive to obtain, and it’s something that becomes true in more or less degree after conversion. Whether it’s perfectionism, whether it’s some crisis experience, a moment of surrender, or if it’s progress in godliness, in all of those, sanctification is something we do. It’s something we pursue.

And by contrast—and I’m not saying that’s wrong to pursue godliness, we’ll get to that a little bit later—but in contrast to all of that, the New Testament writers, when they employ this word group of sanctification or holiness, overwhelmingly, the point of this terminology is not what we do or what we pursue or what happens after conversion. Consistently in the New Testament writers, sanctification has to do with something we are and something we have in Christ. It’s not subsequent to conversion. It’s something that becomes true of us at conversion. It is a certain status that we enjoy because we are in Christ. It is something that’s common to every believer. We have become in Christ, consecrated to God, made holy in Jesus Christ, and now we have in Christ become God’s possession. We are His and we are set apart now for His use.

And I want you to see how that’s, for example, the point here in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 2. “To the church of God that is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Notice Paul here is not writing to a subgroup in the church. He’s addressing the church. And the church is described as those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus. They are not sanctified because of a certain progress. They are not sanctified because of some subsequent experience they have had or some subsequent attainment they have had. They are sanctified because they are in Christ Jesus.

And then next notice in the verse: “to the church of God that’s in Corinth to those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints.” Well, the word means “holy ones,” and that’s the way the New International Version, those of you who have that, it’s the way it’s translated there: “holy ones.” I really wish they had preserved the translation “saints.” I asked one of the men on the translation committee of the New International Version one time, “Why in the world did you guys drop ‘saints’ for ‘holy ones’?” He said, “Well, it’s because of the confusion with Roman Catholicism. You become a saint when you’re canonized sometime after death and the church recognizes you. You know, we don’t want to have confusion.” It’s just that usage here that fixes that misunderstanding. But they didn’t ask for my opinion.

But notice again, it’s the church itself. It’s not some subgroup in the church. It’s the church itself. These people, all of them are saints. They’re sanctified in Christ Jesus. They’re called to be saints. And it’s the whole church. It’s not just some superior godliness. We often use the word that way: “He’s a real saint.” Okay, we know what we mean. But according to the usage here, the whole church.

And notice here, this is one reason I began with Corinthians. This is the Corinthian church. They’re known for all of their problems. Divisions in the church, there are sexual problems, there’s immorality, there’s divisions of various kinds, even doctrinal divisions. And Paul says they’re saints, sanctified in Christ Jesus. And all of that we can see already that the biblical usage of the term describes not a pursuit—not something we pursue. It’s not a later experience. It’s not something later that we become. This is the common status of every believer in Jesus Christ. We are saints. You might not have thought of me that way before, but it’s true. I am a saint, sanctified in Jesus.

If you’d like another example, glance down to the end of the chapter in verse 30. “Because of Him, that is God, because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God.” That is, and here he explains what it is for Christ to be made wisdom to us: “righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” Now we’ve already seen that in Jesus Christ, joined to him and in union with Christ, we have righteousness—the righteousness that God requires of us—because Jesus is righteous. And because we have righteousness in Jesus, Paul can say here, in Christ, we are righteous. Christ is made to us righteousness, or we might say justification. So also in that same sense, Christ is made to us sanctification. Does God require that you be holy? Yes, he does. And here’s the glory of sanctification: in Christ, I am holy. I am joined to Him, and because I am joined to Jesus Christ, I am sanctified.

Sanctification in the biblical usage, then, is not, first of all, something that we do. It is a status that we enjoy because of our union with Christ. We are sanctified simply because we are in Christ. If you’d like, turn over a few pages, we’ll see it again. Chapter six, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 11. Now in this chapter, Paul is dealing with some immorality on the part of some of the people in the congregation. He has to confront it. And he makes the statement in verse nine and following—well, let’s start there. “Do you not know, verse nine, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you but you were washed. You, and here it is, you were sanctified.” Notice past tense, you were sanctified. “You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is a past experience. And notice here, and we’ll see more about this later in the message, but Paul points to their sanctification as a reason why they shouldn’t sin. You can’t do that. Why can’t you do it? Well, because you’ve been sanctified. That’s why you can’t sin. Which is exactly the reverse of the way the word is used today. We’ll see more of that in a little bit. So Paul is saying here simply, you can’t give yourselves to sexual immorality because of not keeping with who you are in Jesus.

Now notice again, nothing in these verses say anything about what we do, what happens to us later, or some subsequent experience. In all of these verses, sanctification is something we have. It’s something we are. Holiness is something we are because we are in Jesus Christ. And that is consistent. Get a concordance if you’d like. It’s consistent with the use of this word and this word group in the New Testament in the way the biblical writings understand it.

Now in Reformed theology, I mentioned that because, well, let’s us Reformed, let’s pick on us. Sanctification, that term and that doctrine in the theology books largely, focuses on—the discussion focuses on—becoming more godly. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against becoming more godly. That’s not what I’m saying. Make sure you get that. What I am saying is that’s not the focus of this language in the New Testament. Sanctification does not focus, first of all, on what we do or something that happens to us afterwards; sanctification has to do with what we are in Jesus Christ in the usage of the New Testament.

Now, I think it’d be helpful at this point to back off and look at the bigger picture in terms of the usage of this sanctification holiness terminology in the Old Testament. What’s sanctified? What is holy in the Old Testament? Well, of course, God is holy. What else is holy? Well, you have holy days. Why are those days holy? Because they’re set apart to God for worship and celebration. They’re consecrated to him. You have holy people. You have holy places. You have holy things. You have a holy place, the temple. Why is the temple holy? Because it’s consecrated to God, set apart to his service. Why are the priests holy? Because they are set apart to God, devoted to his service, consecrated to him. Why are the various articles of furniture in the Old Testament tabernacle holy? Why are they holy? Because they’re consecrated to God, set apart to his service, to be used for him and by him in his service. Why are the people holy? Why are those places holy? Those things holy? They are all holy because they are consecrated to God and set apart to his use.

That was the distinctive of Israel, by the way. Israel was called a holy people to God. That should be interesting to you because no one ever accused ancient Israel of being particularly godly. But they were holy people to God. That is, they were set apart in God’s purpose, set apart to him and consecrated to his use. We come to the New Testament, it’s the same usage of the words. We come to the church, the church is a holy people. There we were running our way, our own way, pursuing sin. And we’re taken up in grace, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and made to belong to God. And now we are His, and being His, we are holy, set apart to God, consecrated to Him in Jesus Christ.

If you’d like some more examples of this, look back at Acts, Acts chapter 20. I may belabor this a little. I hope you’ll forgive me if I do, but it’s kind of a paradigm shift to focus, and I hope you’ll see why I’m doing it before I finish. Look at Acts chapter 20. Paul here is speaking to the Ephesian elders. It’s his farewell address to them. “Now I commend you to God,” this is verse 32, I’m sorry, Acts 20:32, “Now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” Who are all those who are sanctified? It’s the redeemed, those who are saved, those who have been converted. This is a status obtained by the gospel, the word of his grace. Back in verse 28, it’s the church which he obtained with his own blood. These are the ones who are sanctified, holy, set apart to God. It’s the saved, the redeemed.

If you’d like to turn a few pages, look at Acts chapter 26, verses 15 and following. In the context here, we have Paul—one of the occasions where he gives an account of his conversion. Verse 15, “And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?'” You remember Christ confronted him on the Damascus road, and he’s recounting that. And Paul responded, “Who are you, Lord?” And the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those who—those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people, from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”

Paul describes, or Jesus here for him describes, his evangelistic enterprise as bringing men to faith in Christ so that they will be in Christ and thus sanctified. And it’s true of all of them. Now, I’ve jotted down other passages here. I think I’ve done enough. I’m not going to turn to more if you’d like to write them down. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 10. We won’t go there now. But there we have a very clear statement of the same. We have been sanctified through the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We have been sanctified through the offering of Christ once and for all. That’s the status of all who are in Christ. The sacrifice there in Hebrews chapter 10 accomplished things that the Old Testament sacrifices could not obtain, but now in Jesus it has actually sanctified us, made us holy in Christ.

If you’d like to write down 1 Peter 1 verses 1 and 2, the Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification. If you’d like 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, you find it again. Sanctification in all of these passages is a prominent aspect of what salvation is. Not something we do, not something we become later. Sanctification describes what is true of us because we are saved. It is what we are and what we have because of our union with Christ. Just as I am justified because of my union with Christ, and have his righteousness mine, so I am sanctified because I am in Jesus Christ, and his holiness is mine.

Now again, sanctification in most Reformed discussions, they will, in the theology books, in Reformed theologies, they’ll often start off with a paragraph or two, maybe, that give a nod to what I’ve just been saying. But the whole discussion to follow then, for page after page, focuses on personal godliness, pursuing progressive godliness, and things like that. And as important as that is, I just want you to see that that’s not the connotations of this word group in the usage of the New Testament writers. If they want to talk about progress in godliness and becoming godly and pursuing that, they’ll use terms like renewal, pursuing glory that has become ours. They’ll use terminology like godly. But the sanctified holy language primarily, and first of all, has to do with what we are and what we have in Jesus Christ.

In fact, in Reformed theologies, because they have so confused that and not followed closely the usage of the biblical writers and what their connotations of sanctification is, Reformed theologies have had to develop further terminology to explain what they mean. And so they speak of positional sanctification or definitive sanctification. And by that, they mean what I’ve been describing here. But then they quickly pass from that to what they call progressive sanctification, and then they talk about that. But when they talk about definitive, positional sanctification, that’s just what the biblical writers mean when they talk about sanctification. We don’t need the extra terminology.

All right. Why is that important? Why do I have to take 10 minutes to tell you that? Is this just splitting theological hairs? No, it’s not. It is entirely right to talk about personal godliness. It’s entirely right and important to talk about pursuing godliness in practical experience. All of that’s important. The question here is, are we doing it in the New Testament under what terminology? When we use biblical terminology in a way that’s different from the way the New Testament writers use that terminology, then we inevitably fail to appreciate what the New Testament writers mean by that word. And I think that’s what’s happened with this doctrine of sanctification.

In just the last 30 years, perhaps, or four, there’s been a little bit more to be said on that. I’m not the only one doing this, but there’s been a recognition that we’ve missed that. And the difficulty is that if when I speak of sanctification, I think in terms of what I must do, or when I speak of sanctification, I think in terms of what I must obtain, then what becomes of what I am and what I have in Jesus? That gets lost. It gets overlooked. If sanctification is something that I must achieve, then what in the Bible will remind me that in Jesus Christ I am holy? In fact, isn’t it important for us to know, in order to be godly, isn’t it important to know, first of all, that in Jesus Christ, I am holy, and I’ve been made holy by my union with him? Sanctification, holiness, is not, first of all, something that we strive to obtain. Sanctification or holiness is something that we have. It’s a blessing that we have in Christ, and it’s meant to be appreciated. It’s meant to be enjoyed by His saving work through Christ. God has made us His. He’s consecrated us to Himself, and He has made us holy.

Folks, we are meant to understand this. We’re meant to know it, rejoice in it, to be encouraged by it, that the holiness that God requires of us, he has given us in Jesus. You might wonder when you sin if sanctification is something that has eluded you. And you may not really believe that you’re a saint. But holy is precisely what we are if we are in Jesus Christ, and we need to know that. All right, pounding that to death. I was accused by a friend of driving a tack with a sledgehammer. That’s how I preach. I drive a tack with a sledgehammer, he said. Well, I’ve done that now. Holiness, sanctification, that terminology in the New Testament has to do with what we are and what we have in Christ. In Christ, we are holy.

Be What You Are in Christ

But now then, does that mean that we are not responsible to be godly? No, in fact, our sanctification in Jesus Christ, our holiness in Christ, has massive implications with regard to Christian behavior. It’s just that we must not put the cart before the horse. Once we’ve said, we are holy in Christ Jesus, in Christ we have been sanctified—once we’ve said that, we might well expect that there ought to be some evidence of that in practical living. And that’s exactly how the New Testament writers treat it.

New Testament writers at times refer to this or use this holiness or sanctification language in reference to personal conduct, godliness, but it’s not quite like you might think. They don’t speak of it in terms of progress. They speak of it in terms of the outworking of what we are in Christ. “Pursue holiness,” Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 10, we’ve already been told we’re sanctified by the offering of Christ once and for all. Chapter 12, “pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” That’s often taken in terms of progress, progressive godliness. Well, just how much godliness do you have to obtain in order to see the Lord? You see, it’s not about progress in holiness. It’s about working out what has been given to us in Christ. You’ve been made holy in Christ. That must be evident. And apart from that, you show yourself to be lost.

Now, there are plenty of passages that speak of it that way. Hebrews 10, Hebrews 12 fills that in for us. I’m not going to go there. But let’s go back to 1 Corinthians since we started there. Often in the New Testament, the ethical commands are grounded in this: that we are holy in Christ. All right, if I confuse things further, at least get this: the New Testament commands reduce to this—be godly or be holy because you are holy. You’ve heard me say it a thousand times. You be what you are. Be what you are in Christ. Live that out. That’s the way this terminology is used in the New Testament.

So look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 again. Told you we would be back there. 1 Corinthians 6. Verse 9 again, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” and so on. And then verse 11 is a reminder of their conversion, what they’ve become in Christ. “Such were some of you, that is, sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.”

Now here, notice this, this is very important. Paul points to our sanctification as a reason not to sin. He is saying here, you can’t sin. That’s just not in keeping with who you are. You’re holy. Let me say it this way: Paul here is not saying resist sin in order to be sanctified. He is saying resist sin because you have been sanctified. Do you see the difference? Be what you are. You’ve been washed. You’ve been cleansed. You’ve been made holy in Jesus. You can’t be a drunkard. You can’t be in immorality. That’s not who you are anymore. You’ve been sanctified. So live that out and make sure it’s evident in the way that you live.

Now you’ve heard me say this many times—that the ethical commands of the New Testament telling us how to be godly and in all of its specifics, the ethical commands in the New Testament are grounded in the realities of Christ’s work in us. Those of you who like the grammatical terminology: the imperatives are grounded in the indicatives. The commands are grounded in the realities of what’s happened. That’s consistent all the way through the New Testament. Every command that God gives us concerning how to behave, it is grounded always in terms of what God has already done for us in Jesus.

Let me give you some examples. 1 Corinthians 6 here: be holy. Why? Because you’re holy. Work that out. 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 7: you are unleavened, therefore throw out the old leaven. There he deals with it on a corporate level. Romans chapter 6: you have been raised to new life in Christ, therefore live the new life. Romans chapter 6, again: sin does not reign any longer in your mortal bodies. Sin no longer reigns. That grip has been broken. Therefore, don’t let sin reign in your mortal bodies. You see that?

Romans chapter eight: you’re led by the Spirit. We’ll see that next time, what that terminology means. You’re led by the Spirit. Therefore, by the Spirit put to death the sins of the body. Romans chapter 12: you have this new life in Christ, therefore be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Ephesians chapter four, Colossians chapter three: you’ve been made in Christ a new man, therefore put on the new man. You see how it works. Ephesians chapter five: you are light, therefore walk in the light. Colossians chapter 3: you’ve been exalted with Christ and seated in the heavenlies with him. Therefore, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

Paul deals with this at some pointed length in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. There he deals with the problem of sexual immorality and he commands restraint and godliness. And he says, control your body in holiness. Why? He says, because God has called us in holiness. Be holy. Be godly. Why? Because that’s who you are now in Christ. Be what you are, or more specifically, be what you are in Christ. There’s the context of grace and enablement of inward transformation. In Christ, we have been set apart, consecrated to God, and therefore, that must be evident in the way we live.

And this is where the New Testament finds its deepest motivation for godly living. It doesn’t just give you a bare command and leave you on your own. But it tells us that in Christ we’ve undergone a deep, radical change. We’ve been consecrated to God, set apart to him. And having enabled us, he commands us to live for him. And we are now called to be holy because we can. God calls all the world to be holy. Slavery to sin that every man in Adam has prevents him from it. In Jesus Christ, we’ve been made holy. And God cleanses us now to be holy because that’s what we are in Christ. We were lost. We were running our own way to sin. But now in Christ, we’ve been made holy and able to follow him.

So on the one hand, the doctrine of sanctification emphasizes this glorious reality: the holiness that God requires of me, I have in Jesus. I need to know that. Christ is made unto us sanctification. And that’s a great encouragement to every sin-bothered soul. The holiness that God requires of me, I have in Jesus Christ. Every aspect of my salvation is rooted, not in my performance; it’s rooted in Christ. And joined to him, I have everything that God requires of me.

So on the one hand, this doctrine of sanctification emphasizes this wonderful reality: what God requires of me, I have in Jesus. On the other hand, this doctrine of sanctification also gives us the deepest kind of encouragement in our pursuit of godliness. Because what God requires of me, he’s given to me in Christ. God calls me to be holy, and so he makes me holy in Jesus. And having made me holy in Jesus, having consecrated me to himself, he enables me to pursue godliness and to live for him as he has called us. Both of these are needed. I’ve spent a long time belaboring the order today because it is so basic to it. The holiness required, I have. And therefore, when God now calls us to be holy and godly, we can, because we are in Jesus Christ. Amen. Let’s pray.