What Is Sanctification?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

The word: separation — pursued holiness, in two aspects

• The starting text is the verse the episode opens with: 'this is the will of God, even your sanctification'. The question: what does the word sanctification mean, and how does it work in the life of a believer — and, as a bonus, a brief run through church history, and how the Pentecostal view of sanctification developed. His answer starts with the word: sanctification, in its basic meaning, is separation. The concept is separation from sin, and living a holy life. In most cases sanctification is a synonym for holiness, but it emphasizes the concept of being separate. The Hebrews passage says: follow, or pursue, peace with everyone, and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord — so the pursuit of holiness is what we call sanctification. Theologically speaking, there are two aspects: there's an instant sanctification, when you're born again, and there's an ongoing sanctification in your Christian life. We're already sanctified — but we're called to be sanctified.

Scriptures: 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Hebrews 12:14

Instant at the new birth — then a lifelong process

• What does he mean by that? 1 Corinthians first lists various forms of sin, and says people who live in these sins will not inherit the kingdom of God — then verse 11 says: but you are washed, you are sanctified, you're justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. He thinks that's a reference back: you are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and you are filled with the Holy Spirit. So when a Christian is born again, according to Acts 2:38, immediately they're sanctified — in other words, they're separated from sin; they have a new life. It's conversion, it's initiation: you are translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of life. That's instant — well, that's positional. However, that new convert may not really know a lot of things about living a holy life: they may not understand about being faithful in church attendance, tithes and offerings, modesty of dress, appropriate Christian speech, and on and on. It's a process of learning, growing, developing — so that's also sanctification: the ongoing sanctification. In that sense, sanctification is a lifelong process. We still have a sinful nature, so we still have temptations and desires that are not merely external but also internal. However, we can have a life of victory over sin, where we can resist temptation and live a holy life — we see this in Romans chapter 8; we see this in Galatians chapter 5. There's this ongoing process of sanctification, where we're not perfect yet: we still have temptations; sometimes we may fall; sometimes we may sin, and then immediately we repent. There's this ongoing process of becoming mature, becoming more like Christ — gradually learning how to develop spiritual disciplines and habits, and getting rid of sinful or detrimental habits, and learning to live a holy life on a daily basis. All that is the process of sanctification, and it will culminate when Jesus Christ comes back for his church: we will be resurrected, or transformed if we're still alive; the sinful nature will be eliminated, and we will be perfect in holiness. So you might say sanctification begins at the new birth, but it's a process that continues until the resurrection — we regard that ongoing process of becoming holy, becoming like Christ, progressively being separated from sin and the world's values and progressively dedicated to God and his will: we call that process sanctification.

Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Acts 2:38; Romans 8; Galatians 5

Church history: a system to cover sins, justification by faith — and Wesley's revival

• Now, it's interesting, in church history as it developed: the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages pretty much gave up on the concept that the average Christian could be sanctified. Basically, the average Christian has sin every day — and they developed a theology, a sacramental system: go to mass every week to get rid of your lesser sins; go to confession and do penance to get rid of more significant sins; before you die, get last rites, extreme unction, to cover the last sins since your last confession or your last mass. They tried to have a system to cover all of your sins that you're going to keep committing. Well, the Protestant Reformation began to emphasize justification by faith, rather than this works system and all the sacraments. However, the original Protestants — such as Martin Luther and John Calvin — had this concept of predestination: God picks who's going to be saved before they're even born, and your life doesn't actually change: you're still a sinner, but you're a justified sinner. You're justified by faith, but in a practical sense you're going to keep on sinning. (Calvin and the early Presbyterians did try to institute rules for holy life, such as modesty of dress — actually much stricter than Pentecostals today.) But it was John Wesley — from the Church of England, an Anglican priest — who began to think more about this: there should be this ongoing work, where you actually become holy. The Reformers like Luther and Calvin emphasized: you're justified by faith; you're positionally righteous, even though your actual nature remains the same. Well, Wesley said: no — that doesn't seem to be full salvation. It seems like, according to the Bible, there should be a change in your nature. And so he began to revive this doctrine of sanctification, and his group became known as the Methodist, because they had a method of spiritual disciplines to try to implement holiness in their everyday life. So sanctification and holiness became their goal: it's not enough just to repent of your sins — now you need an ongoing work of being changed.

The Holiness movement, three works of grace — and the finished work of Calvary

• Wesley talked about being sanctified; with Wesley, while it could be a definite experience, the emphasis was a whole life. But under some of the later Wesleyan — which became known as the Holiness movement — they began to emphasize: you could have a second work of grace, where at a particular moment in time, usually in prayer at the altar, you would be entirely sanctified: your heart would be purified from inward sin; some even said your sinful nature will be taken away; but at least you would have pure desires, so you'd want to live a holy life, and you would have subdued the sinful nature. So they said: well, first you repent — or, they would say, you get saved, or justified — and then second, you keep praying and seeking till you get the second experience, where you're sanctified. (Some of them even began to say — in the Bible there's plenty of teaching of being sanctified as a process, as he's described, but it's hard to identify a second experience called getting sanctified — so some of them saw: well, receiving the Holy Spirit — that's when you're sanctified; it's called the Holy Ghost. Well, then that led people to ask: what's the evidence? Well, that led to tongues; that led to the Pentecostal movement.) Some of the early Holiness people — in fact, in the early 20th century, most of the original Pentecostals came from the Holiness movement — but instead of getting rid of sanctification, they added the Holy Ghost. So some of them thought you would have three different experiences, three different works of grace: first, you pray, you repent of your sins, you get saved, or justified, or converted; but then you keep on praying, repenting, living a holy life, seeking God, asking God to purify you, take away your evil thoughts — and one day you get sanctified; and then you keep praying, believing, seeking God, asking for power — and one day you receive the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues. In fact, you still occasionally hear the testimony — it's very common for people to say, 'Thank God I'm saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost' — that originally meant: I got all three experiences; it may have taken me a few years, but I got all three.
• Well, they started teaching that — but as early as Aza Street (the name as the captions hear it), when the Pentecostal message was really promoted worldwide, people would come in off the streets — as drunks, as prostitutes, as just sinners, as unbelievers — and they would come, and before you know it they receive the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, as if it was conversion — which is, of course, what we believe. And so some people were saying: wait a minute — they got saved, sanctified, and the Holy Ghost all at the same time; what's going on? And so then there developed this thought of what's called the finished work of Calvary: that you don't have to have this second experience of sanctification; but when you have a true conversion, immediately sanctification begins — and of course you're supposed to pursue holiness, and develop holiness, and live a holy life, but you're not waiting for this second experience; you already have it. That's why it's called the finished work of Calvary. So the early Pentecostal movement split over this idea. Those groups that still taught a definite experience of sanctification as a separate work of grace, like the Holiness movement — they became known as people like the Church of God in Christ, the Church of God of Cleveland Tennessee, the Church of God of Prophecy (the other groups were formed before the Pentecostal movement: basically, they kept their Holiness theology and added the Holy Ghost to it). But the groups that accepted this teaching of the finished work of Calvary — usually formed after the Pentecostal movement began — such as the Assemblies of God, and the United Pentecostal Church International. And of course we have modified that again, to say: well, you can't separate repentance and the new birth, as if they're two different, and receiving the Holy Ghost — but really, a comprehensive understanding of the new birth would include repentance, water baptism, and the Holy Ghost. For us, conversion — initiation, the full experience of salvation — will include not only repentance, but also receiving the Holy Ghost. However, we have basically adopted what you call the finished work of Calvary, in that we believe that from the new birth on, there's this ongoing process of sanctification, or the pursuit of holiness. And that's what we believe today.

What it is — and what it is not: God's grace molding us into the image of Christ

• So when we say sanctification, we mean the process of becoming holy. Now, we understand it's not by our works: we don't make ourselves holy. We pursue holiness; we have a personal responsibility — but actually, it's God's grace working in our lives: as the Hebrews passage says, we are partakers of his holiness. So sanctification is not our making ourselves holy, or our doing good works, or our following a list of rules and regulations, or our keeping the law to save ourselves. But it's a process of God working in us: to change our thoughts, our attitudes, our relationships; help us bear the fruit of the Spirit; change the way we think, the way we dress, the way we talk, our social media, our involvement with entertainment and amusements — you know, it changes all aspects of our lives. But it's the workings of God's grace in us. So sanctification is the process by which God works, from the new birth to the resurrection, to mold us into the image of Christ.

Scriptures: Hebrews 12:10

Scripture index: 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Acts 2:38; Romans 8; Galatians 5; Hebrews 12:10.