Introduction
If every other nation in the world, and all the states in the union, declared war on the State of Idaho, you would quite suddenly alter all your plans and priorities. That summer vacation would have to wait. Luxuries would be set aside in favor of necessities. Idleness would be replaced with desperate and determined industry. Being in a state of war would change everything. Wouldn’t it?
The Text
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
John 17:17-19
Defining Sanctification
To briefly review, justification is a legal declaration from God about you, which you appropriate by faith, and God decrees you to be not only forgiven but also righteous. Justification recategorizes you from enemy to friend, from saboteur to servant. This change of status doesn’t just come about by accident. Rather, God determined to save you out of allegiance to sin, Satan, and the world, and thus set you apart for service in His campaign of victory. The Ordo Solutis puts justification before sanctification in order to underscore the logical necessity of having your charges of treason overturned before you are handed any weaponry.
This logical flow needs to be reiterated before moving on to discuss sanctification because you cannot be sanctified without also being justified, for that would be like expecting the residents of the local cemetery to weed our gardens. Follow me closely here, dead people do nothing. Thus, while justification deals with our legal standing before God (once dead in sins, now alive unto righteousness), the logical follow up question is, “What do I do now?” Sanctification is the answer to that question.
Sanctification can be laid out into three sequential aspects. First, you are sanctified by God’s electing grace where He calls unto you effectually and regenerates you, begetting new life in you. We refer to this as initial sanctification. This is what Paul describes when he says, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1Co 6:11).” This is a large part of what our baptism signifies: the washing that cleanses us and marks us out for future service to God. The word sacrament even carries military connotations of being enlisted and swearing oaths of service to a particular General. Consider what David also says, “The LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself (Ps. 4:3a).” He’s not godly and thus the Lord sets him apart, it is by the Lord’s foreordination that brings about both positional and practical godliness in the saint.
This then, is why the WCF says, “They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified.” God gives you a new heart, by faith you apprehend all the promises that are held forth to you in justification, and then follows a further sanctification. You are not made immediately perfect, but there is a progression of sanctification through your earthly life. This is what we most commonly think of when we discuss sanctification.
Third, there is a future sanctification that awaits you. Your end state is to serve God without any taint of sin in your service. “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever (Rev. 22:3-5).”
Further Sanctified
Let’s look more closely at how the WCF tells us we are to be further sanctified: “They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them; the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified, and they more and more quickened and strengthened, in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (WCF XIII, Sec. 1).
So, what does this further sanctification entail? The prepositions here are really important. You are further sanctified really and personally through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by His Word & Spirit dwelling in you. Christ made your sanctification possible by His death & resurrection, but it is effected by His Word & Spirit dwelling in you. Again, military imagery is useful here. You were an enslaved mercenary, and by Christ’s redeeming work you have been liberated from that enslavement (that’s through), and then by the Word and Spirit dwelling in you by faith, you are made a useful soldier of the cross.
The result of that reality is threefold. First, sin no longer has dominion over you. Second, wherever sin still lingers in you it grows weaker, like bacteria in the presence of antibiotics. Lastly, sanctification is not like chemo which is a race to kill all the cancer before the chemo kills the patient. In other words, we often focus our efforts on killing sin, but sanctification is actually the process where the soldier rids himself of that which will weigh him down, and trains for that which is absolutely necessary.
Inward & Outward Means
We often get bogged down and discouraged in seeing how far away we are from godliness and how often we are “prone to wander.” How can you become more like Jesus? We need not blaze a new trail here, there are old paths which we can follow. If we want to grow in godliness, there are inward and outwards means of doing so. The inward means, quite simply, is faith in Christ. There are four outward means of sanctification: the Word, the sacraments, prayer, and God’s paternal discipline of us (conviction & church discipline).
Becoming More Like Jesus
Consider Jesus’ prayer which we began with. Jesus prayed that the Father would sanctify His disciples by the Truth. Then He grounds your sanctification in terms of your union with His sanctification. He was sent by the Father to bind Satan and take his kingdom, and now Jesus sends us out to preach the tidings of His conquest to a world that thought it could kill God.
Now, what did God set you apart for? You were set apart to be kings and priests of God. In Deuteronomy 23, the army of Israel is given very similar instructions regarding their conduct while at war as the priests were in their temple service. The church is in the midst of a holy warfare, and thus the conduct of the individual soldier is to live accordingly.
Think of what this implies about your own battle with remaining corruption. If you have trusted in Christ by faith, you are fighting a victorious battle. You are not simply trying to modify your behavior. One Bible teacher used to ask, “When is a liar no longer a liar?” Many of us would say, “When he stops lying.” But that is not the whole picture. He’s no longer a liar when he both ceases to tell lies and then becomes truth teller. In other words, it isn’t just quitting the sin, but it is living in the new desires which arise from the new birth which God has brought about in you through Christ’s work and the work of the indwelling Word & Spirit.
You are living as what Christ prayed you would be and what by faith you are and what by grace you will be: perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Thus, since you are by grace a soldier of Christ, look at your salvation as the extraordinary free and undeserved gift that it is, look at your sin like a sniper with license to kill, and look in faith to what awaits you when you shall serve the Lord without any deficiency.
Charge and Benediction
Think of whatever sin you struggle with the most––whether it be anger, lust, sloth, or envy––you have permission to kill that sin. Not only that, but the Spirit dwells in you to adequately light things up in you, so that you can take clear aim.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
2 Corinthians 13:14
Leave a Reply