Te Doctrne of

Sanctification

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An Extended Study Guide from the Reformed Perspective

WCF: What is sanctification? 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 is the complete renewal of our natures by the Holy Spirit, by which we are changed into the image of God, through Jesus Christ. [It] is the cleansing of our natures from the pollution of sin. -John Owen, The Holy Spirit, p105. Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives. -Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p746 Sanctification may be defined as that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit by which, He purifies the sinner, renews his whole nature in the image of God, and enables him to perform good works. -Louis Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine. It is a principle of grace savingly wrought, whereby the heart becomes holy, and is made after Gods own heart. A sanctified person bears not only God's name, but His image. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity
Justification is God declaring His people free from the guilt and punishment of sin. Regeneration is God setting His people free from the power of sin. In sanctification, God is cleansing His people from the pollution of sin. As one brother explains:
In justification, a sinners legal state is changed. Before justification, he was guilty and worthy of eternal condemnation; after justification, he is free from guilt and is an heir of eternal life. However, while he is declared free from the guilt of sin, he is not made free from the power of it. Justification changes the sinner's state, but not his condition. It delivers from the guilt of sin, but not from the pollution of sin. Justification pardons, but it does not cleanse the sinnerit does not make him holy. God's continual work of making the believer holy in daily living is termed sanctification. Sanctification is the divine process by which the moral condition of a child of God is continually being conformed to his legal status before God. -James Beeke, Bible Doctrine, book 2, p283.

The Doctrine of Sanctification

I. Sanctification is both once for all AND a life-long process:

A. Definitive sanctification: once for all John 15:3, You are already clean because of the Word which I have spoken to you. 1 Corinthians 1:2, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus... 1 Corinthians 6:11, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. Hebrews 10:10, By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Old Testament Picture: The sons of Israel taking the land of Canaan under Joshua:

Joshua 11:23, So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war. B. Progressive sanctification: a life-long process

Old Testament Picture I: Though Israel took the promised land under Joshua, they still were not able to completely drive out all the Canaanites from the land:
Joshua 17:12-13, But the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these cities, because the Canaanites persisted in living in that land. It came about when the sons of Israel became strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely. (see also Judges 1:27-36). So it is in sanctification. When Christ frees us from the power of sin there is a very real victory over sin, as when Joshua and Israel took the land of Canaan. Before, the Canaanites had power over the land. After, there was no question Joshua and Israel had dominion over Canaan. But still there were remaining, indwelling enemies within the land, enemies that could cause great harm to Israel if God's people let them thrive, but would be held in check if they were put to forced labor. The day that the sons of Israel let their guard down was a dangerous day because the Canaanites were still living in the land. The day we stop fighting against our sin, the day we stop becoming watchful; the day we stop putting to death our sin is that day that our sin will begin to put us to death.

Old Testament Picture II: The construction of the temple under Solomon a picture of progressive sanctification:
1 Peter 2:4-5, And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Holiness is like seed sown in the ground. It grows gradually into a full plant...The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov.4:18). -John Owen, p105, 108-9.

1. The Christian life is a war and will be a struggle.

For Christians, salvation is the beginning of a life-long battle. Before, the world, sin, and Satan were friends. Now they hate us and desire to destroy us.
William Gurnall said the conflict between the saints and Satan's forces was a war that made all the bloody battles of mankind look like 'sport and child's play.' -Joel Beeke, A Puritan Theology.

1. The WORLD: a. The world hates us: John 7:7, The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil. b. The world would choke us and lead us away from Christ: Matthew 13:22, And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

2 Timothy 4:10, for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica

Illustration: Vanity Fair in The Pilgrim's Progress:

Then I saw in my dream, that when they were got out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them, and the name of that town is Vanity; and at the town there is a fair kept, called Vanity Fair: it is kept all the year long. It bears the name of Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity; and, also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. Almost five thousand years agone, there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, as these two honest persons are: and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair; a fair wherein, should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long. Now these pilgrims, as I said, must needs go through this fair. Well, so they did: But...these pilgrims set very light by all their wares; they cared not so much as to look upon them; and if they called upon them to buy, they would put their fingers in their ears, and cry, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and look upwards, signifying that their trade and traffic was in heaven. [Ps. 119:37, Phil. 3:19-20].

2. The FLESH:
*Paul's description of the Christian life in Romans 7: NOT the struggle of an unconverted man NOT the struggle of an immature Christian (quite the opposite) NOT the battle between a natural man and his conscience:
Have you experienced this warfare? It is a clear mark of Gods children. Most of you, I fear, have never felt it. Do not mistake me. All of you have felt a warfare at times between your natural conscience and the law of God. But that is not the contest in the believers bosom. It is a warfare between the Spirit of God in your heart, and the old man with his deeds. -Robert Murray McCheyne, The Inward Experience of Believers

Rather, the struggle of the Christian man who longs to know and follow Christ with all his heart, yet struggles with his remaining sin and corruption.
A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience but war within. He may be known by his warfare, as well as by his peace. . .freedom from conflict we shall doubtless have in Heaven but we shall never enjoy it in this present world. The heart of the best Christian, even at his best, is a field occupied by two rival camps, and the "company of two armies" (Song 6:13). -J.C. Ryle

3. The DEVIL:
1 Peter 5:8-9, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

a. The devil attacks believers through temptation. We see this perhaps most clearly in Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. Satan comes to our Lord and tries three times to tempt Him into sin. And as with the Master, so with His servants. b. The devil attacks believers through deception (Jn.8:44; Rev.20:3,8,10). This is what he did in the beginning with Eve. He lies about who God is, about what God has said, about what God has promised to do, and about the destructive consequences of sin (it won't be that bad!), but temporal and eternal.

c. The devil attacks believers through accusation: *He is called the accuser of the brethren (Rev.12:10), and is found doing just this in the account of Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3:1-7.
*The Spirit convicts us of sin, leading us to repentance; but Satan condemns us for our sin, leading us to despair. He tells half truths. He is right that we are guilty for our sin. But he won't remind us of Christ's work on the cross.

2. Through the struggle, every believer will be more and more conformed into God's likeness. *NT Scriptures:
2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Colossians 3:10, ...and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.

Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Old Testament Picture: The war between the house of David and house of Saul. 2 Samuel 3:1, Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; and David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.
So it is for believers. It is a long war, a hard battle. It won't end until we reach glory. But God is gradually conforming His children to Himself, transforming them through His Spirit, making them more and more after His own image.
Sanctification is a progressive thing. It is growing; it is compared to seed which grows: first the blade springs up, then the ear, then the ripe corn in the ear; such as are already sanctified may be more sanctified. 2 Cor 7:7: Justification does not admit of degrees; a believer cannot be more elected or justified than he is, but he may be more sanctified than he is. Sanctification is still increasing, like the morning sun, which grows brighter to the full meridian. . .Sanctification is progressive; if it does not grow, it is because it does not live. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

The clothing of the OT priests: The priests in the law were not only washed in the great laver, but adorned with glorious apparel. Exod 28:8; so sanctification not only washes from sin, but adorns with purity. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

*NOTE: You may not always FEEL like you are growing in grace. As Owen says,

The Christian may be like a ship tossed in a storm. Nobody on board may be aware that the ship is making any headway at all. Yet it is sailing on a great speed. -The Holy Spirit, p110.

*OT Examples:
*God's work of grace in ABRAHAM: From fearful unbelief to faith: Abraham is the father of our faith, and he certainly possesses saving faith beginning in Genesis 12, but that doesn't mean he has great faith. He believes in chapter 12, but seems to keep lapsing in faith over and over againbeginning in the same chapter as his conversion (Genesis 12)! There he uses his wife Sarah as a shield for his own protection. Later in chapter 16 he gives in to unbelief, listens to Sarah, and commits adultery with Hagar Sarah's made. Again in chapter 20 we see him stumble into unbelief, again using his wife as a shield to protect himself, letting her go into the house of a pagan king. It is only much later, in Genesis 22, after many years, that Abraham's faith seems to be unshakable. For here he

puts on the alter that which was most precious to him in all the world, with a sure faith in God's promises that the Messiah would come through Isaacthat though he offer up his own son on the mountain, God would still fulfill His Wordfor He was able even to raise the dead (Hebrews 11:19).

*God's work of grace in JACOB: From stealing blessings to giving them: Chapters 29-31

cover a 20 year period that is the most formative of Jacobs life. Jacob arrives in Paddan Aram fresh from an encounter with God. He had the wonderful vision of the stairway to heaven. Which was nothing less than an Old Testament revelation of Christ. Hes heard Gods promise to bless him no matter what. There is no doubt that Jacob was more confident and sure of self than ever before. But that confidence was not balanced with humility. It was not balanced with a spirit of love and gratitude and submission to God. You can see Jacobs nature in the way he ordered these shepherds around. He asserted himself proudly. He was contemptuous of their way of doing things. He wanted to make a big entrance for himself. This stone that it took several of them to move, he moved himself. We almost wish he had struggled to move it, grunted and strained and given up, while all the shepherds laughed at him. That would have been good for Jacob. God did his work of sanctification in Jacobs life through his Uncle Laban. He used a tricky, dishonest, money-loving man to humble Jacob. Thats how God still works. He often uses challenging people to shape us. This switcheroo that Laban pulled, giving Jacob Leah instead of Rachel, and then trapping Jacob into another seven years of service. Think how that must have slapped Jacob in the face later when he realized how he had done the same thing to his father Isaac. Just as Laban covered Leah up so she wouldnt be recognizedso Jacob covered himself with Esaus clothes, and goat skins so Isaac wouldnt. Just as Laban feasted Jacob before the deception to make him unsuspecting, so Jacob feasted his father to put him in a good mood to get the blessing. And when Jacob he complained to Laban and said: Why have you deceived me? It must have been another slap in the face when he remembered that was the very same word Esau used when he found out Jacob had gotten the blessing. [The Lord's] main concern was Jacobs sanctification. And so it is with each one of us. - Andrew Siegenthaler, sermon on Genesis 29, The epic of sanctification

*God's work of grace in JOSEPH: From self-glory to tender love. There is an incredible change that had happened to Joseph somewhere between chapter 37 and 45/50. When his brothers come to Egypt 15 years later Joseph is a different man. Before Joseph seems more concerned about his own honor and glory. At the end he doesn't care about his own honor or glory (50:18ff). At first Joseph is mostly self-centered. But by the end he truly possesses a deep love for those who betrayed him; he is a servant who is seeking the interests of his brothers (45:7; 50:18ff). At the beginning Joseph is more or less Josephcentered but at the last, Christ-centered, wholly promise-saturated and set on seeking the joy and upbuilding of his brothers, even to the point, that in the last chapter of Genesis he is encouraging his brothers in the grace of God from his own deathbed: Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here (50:24-25). It was God's gracious work of sanctification in Joseph. *God's work of grace in MOSES: From ambitious pride to broken meekness. Moses had to be much humbled before he was ready to lead God's people. He wanted to lead them at age 40, and he thought he was ready then. But God thought otherwise, and he is humbled so much that 40 years later when God sends him back to deliver His people, Moses feels himself so insufficient and incapable that we attack him for being so hesitant. What had happened? God had broken Moses in the desert. Moses' seminary was the wilderness. Now we see Moses the meek. And now he was ready to be the Lord's instrument, though he now thought otherwise.

3. This growth in grace can take place in varying degrees in different seasons.
As there are both seasons of summer and winter, so too there are seasons of summer and winter of the child of God:

Illustration: Not like a straight 45 degree anglerigid like the top of a key (but gradually upward).
Sanctification is a thing which admits of growth and degrees. A man may climb from one step to another in holiness, and be far more sanctified at one period of his life, than another. More pardoned and more justified than he is when he first believes he cannot be, though he may feel it more. More sanctified he certainly may be because every grace in his new character may be strengthened, enlarged and deepened. This is the evident meaning of our Lord's last prayer for His disciples when He used the words, "Sanctify them," and of Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians: "The very God of peace sanctify you" (John 17:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). In both cases, the expression plainly implies the possibility of increased sanctification, while such an expression as "justify them" is never once in Scripture applied to a believer, because he cannot be more justified than he is. -J.C. Ryle

4. Still, this growth in grace does not only increase in believers over time, but affects their whole person.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
He will sanctify us completely, that is, entirely. No part of us will be left sinful or under the power of sin. Our whole nature is the subject of this work. He will make holy every part of us. -John Owen, The Holy Spirit, p99. Repentance works a change in the whole man; as wine put into a glass where water is, the wine runs into every part of the water, and changes its color and taste. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole man. The God of peace sanctify you wholly. I Thess 5:53. As original corruption has depraved all the faculties - the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, no part sound, as if the whole mass of blood were corrupted - so sanctification goes over the whole soul. . .

After the fall , there was ignorance in the mind ; but in sanctification, we are light in the Lord. Eph 5:5. After the fall , the will was depraved; there was not only impotence to good, but obstinacy. In sanctification, there is a blessed pliableness in the will; it symbolizes and comports with the will of God. After the fall , the affections were misplaced on wrong objects; in sanctification, they are turned into a sweet order and harmony, the grief placed on sin, the love on God, the joy on heaven. . .
Thus sanctification spreads itself as far as original corruption; it goes over the whole soul: the God of peace sanctify you wholly. He is not a sanctified person who is good only in some part, but who is all over sanctified; therefore, in Scripture, grace is called a new man, not a new eye or a new tongue, but a new man. Col 3:30. A good Christian, though he be sanctified but in part, yet in every part. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

Application: A great comfort and encouragement. God WILL do this. He will not leave any area of our lives untouched by His purging grace. He WILL finish that great work He has started (Phil.1:6). 5. Yet, believers will never reach perfection in this life.
There are no perfect Christians friends! There is no perfection this side of glory. We will be struggling with and fighting our sin til the day we die. Those who say otherwise must have very little knowledge of their own hearts. *The testimony of the Scriptures: *1 John 3:6 carries the continual/habitual sense: keeps on sinning. The meaning of this is found a few verses later in 3:9 (practices sin), and earlier in 1 John 1:6-8: .....If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us (v8).

*Romans 7:21-25: The struggle of the Christian man with indwelling sin. *Philippians 3:12, Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. *Matthew 6:11-12, forgive us our sins; is a prayer that we are to pray continually. *A few examples: *Noah. Abraham. Job. David. Solomon. Asa. The disciples. Reflecting again on the life of Jacob:
[Jacob] was a believing man who had much to learn. We might have thought that the stairway to heaven vision would have changed Jacob into a completely different man. But as wonderful as that vision was, it was just one tiny step. It was just one little piece in Gods work to transform Jacob from an ambitious, self-reliant man, into a believer with true humility before God. Mountaintop spiritual experiences dont translate into overnight spiritual change. Sanctification is a work of Gods grace. Its a long-term project. It is a difficult and often painful work of transforming us into holy people. And the details of this chapter show us how the Lord sanctifies. He puts his finger on the very spots where we most need change. He shows us our sins, he shows us our idols. He breaks us down so we must rely on him. -Andrew Siegenthaler

The best of [Christians] are still confessing sin, Job 9:3, 20; Ps. 32:5; 130:3; Prov. 20:9; Isa. 64:6; Dan. 9:7; Rom. 7:14; I John 1:9, praying for forgiveness, Ps. 51:1, 2; Dan. 9:16; Matt. 6:12, 13; Jas. 5:15, and striving for greater perfection, Rom. 7:7-26; Gal. 5:17; Phil. 3:12-14. -Louis Berkhof *Indeed, one healthy sign of sanctification is seeing more and more of your sin:
*Hence our Saviors words: Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn

Illustration: The more light in a room, the more dust you can see. So too the more Christ shines on and in a person's soul, the more they see their sin.
*Paul's own journey through the epistles: 1 Corinthians 15:9, least of the apostles, AD 53-55 Ephesians 3:8, least of all the saints, AD 62 1 Timothy 1:15, I am foremost of all [sinners], ~AD 65

Illustration: William Carrey's tombstone: A wretched, poor and helpless worm, on Thy kind arms I fall.

Illustration: John Calvin's self-estimation: In a letter to Falais in 1546: "Apart from the sermons and the lectures, there is a month gone by in which I have scarce done anything, in such wise I am almost ashamed to live thus useless. ( A mere 20 sermons and 12 lectures in that month!)
Indeed, the more sanctified the person is, the more conformed he is to the image of his Savior, the more he must recoil against every lack of conformity to the holiness of God. The deeper his apprehension of the majesty of God, the greater the intensity of his love to God, the more persistent his yearning for the attainment of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, the more conscious will he be of the gravity of the sin that remains and the more poignant will be his detestation of it. -John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p.145.

6. Sanctification is made perfect in us only at death when we receive our new resurrected bodies (this can also be called glorification).
Philippians 3:20-21, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory... 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 12:23, ...and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect

II. Sanctification cannot save us, yet without sanctification we cannot be saved:
Matthew 7:16-20, You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. *Sanctification is a necessary and vital mark of true, saving faith in Christ. You know an apple tree by its apples; so too the fruit of a man reveals his true nature. God doesn't justify all Christians but only sanctify a few of them. The Scriptures are clear: you cannot be saved from the punishment of sin in the next life, if you will not be saved from the power of sin in this life. The Bible teaches that our sanctification is the proof of the reality of our conversion. Sanctification is thus the proof of our justification; it is absolutely necessary for salvation. Romans 8:13, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Hebrews 12:14, Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 1 John 1:6-7, If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 3:10, By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. John 15:2, Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

This sanctifying work of Christ in us cannot save us, yet, without this sanctifying work of Christ in us, we cannot be saved. It is the mark that we truly have been saved.
The branch which bears no fruit is no living branch of the vine. The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. The faith which has not a sanctifying influence on the character is no better than the faith of devils. It is a "dead faith, because it is alone." It is not the gift of God. It is not the faith of God's elect. In short, where there is no sanctification of life there is no real faith in Christ...Simply put, the lack of sanctification is a sign of non-regeneration. Where there is no holy life there has been no holy birth . This is a hard saying but a Biblical truth; whomever is born of God, it is written, "cannot practice sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). -J.C. Ryle Without sanctification there is no evidencing our justification. Justification and sanctification go together. But ye are sanctified, but ye are justified. I Cor 6:11. Pardoning iniquity, Mic 7:18; there is justification. He will subdue our iniquities, 5:19; there is sanctification. Out of Christs side came blood and water, John 19:94; blood for justification; water for sanctification. Such as have not the water out of Christs side to cleanse them, shall never have the blood out of his side to save them. . .There is no going to heaven without sanctification. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Heb 12:14. God is a holy God, and he will suffer no unholy creature to come near him. A king will not suffer a man with plague-sores to approach into his presence. Heaven is not like Noahs ark, where the clean beasts and the unclean entered. No unclean beasts come into the heavenly ark; for though God suffer the wicked to live awhile on the earth, he will never suffer heaven to be pestered with such vermin. Are they fit to see God who wallow in wickedness? Will God ever lay such vipers in his bosom? Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

III. Sanctification is a work God does AND a work He calls believers to take part in:
Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. It is vital to keep these two truths in tension:

1. God does this work in us. 2. This is a work God also calls us to take part in, through the power of the Spirit. We cannot sanctify ourselves, but we are commanded to BE sanctified: to BE renewed (Eph.4:23), to BE transformed (Rom.12:2), to BE made holy, through the blood of Christ, applied to our souls by the Holy Spirit (Heb.9:13-14; 10:19-22).
A. The work God does in believers: Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2:11, For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father... Hebrews 6:1-3, Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God permits.

Hebrews 13:20-21, Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ...

1. What does this work entail? *A work wherein believers are cleansed from the pollution of sin:
2 Corinthians 7:1, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Sanctification is a supernatural thing; it is divinely infused. We are naturally polluted, and to cleanse, God takes to be his prerogative. I am the Lord which sanctify you. Lev 21:1. Weeds grow of themselves. Flowers are planted. Sanctification is a flower of the Spirits planting, therefore it is called, The sanctification of the Spirit. I Pet 1:1. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

Old Testament Picture I: Cleansing of sanctification pictured in the OT cleansing rituals. The animal sacrifices forepictured Christ's work of atonement; the purifications of Leviticus forepictured the Spirit's work of sanctification:
There is a spiritual defilement in sin. Sin in Scripture is compared to blood, wounds, sores, leprosy, scum, loathsome diseases and such evil things. From sin we must be washed, purged, purified and cleansed...By the sacrifices of atonement, God taught his people the guilt of sin. By the ordinances for purification, God taught his people the filth of sin. By these levitical laws, sacrifices and purifyings, internal and spiritual things were symbolized. They foreshadowed Christ and his work, which brought real and actual spiritual cleansing (Heb.9:13-14). So the whole work of sanctification is pictured by 'a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness' (Zech.13:1). -John Owen, The Holy Spirit, p121. Sin is compared to leaven, which sours; and to leprosy, which defiles. Sanctification purges out the old leaven. I Cor 5:5. Though it takes not away the life, yet it takes away the love of sin. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity

Old Testament Picture II: Cleansing of sanctification pictured in the consecration of the OT priests:
Exodus 28:41, You shall put [the holy priestly garments] on Aaron your brother and on his sons with him; and you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve Me as priests. Exodus 40:12-13, Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door way of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. You shall put the holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and consecrate him, that he may minister as a priest to Me. *The washing represents REGENERATION *The putting on of the holy garments represents JUSTIFICATION *The anointing and consecration represents SANCTIFICATION

Old Testament Picture III: Cleansing of sanctification pictured in the OT prophets:

Ezekiel 16:9-14, 'Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. . .

*The washing represents REGENERATION *The putting on of the holy garments represents JUSTIFICATION *The adorning of precious ornaments represents SANCTIFICATION

*A work wherein believers are renewed after God's own image:

2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 4:4, . . .Christ, who is the image of God. Colossians 3:10, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him
Sanctification is an immediate work of the Spirit of God on the souls of believers, purifying and cleansing of their natures from the pollution and uncleanness of sin, renewing in them the image of God, and thereby enabling them from a spiritual and habitual principle of grace, to yield obedience unto God, according unto the tenor and terms of the new covenant, by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ. Or more briefly ; it is the universal renovation of our natures, by the Holy Spirit, into the image of God, through Jesus Christ. -John Owen, The Holy Spirit [Adam] was created in the image of God, and that he had an ability to fulfill all God's commands, and that in himself, and no more shall be desired. This was lost by the fall. . .In our regeneration, there is a renovation of this image of God in us -John Owen, The Holy Spirit

Man was made in the image of God. In the fall, the image of God was not lost completely, but was greatly degenerated, as a ruined castle after hundreds of years of neglect still retains the image of a castle but without its former glory. But through the Spirit's work of sanctification in a believer, that image is being restored to its former glorymore than thatto a greater glory than the first Adam in his pre-fallen state, for we are being conformed to the very likeness of Christ, who is the image of God. Thus, as those who have been made new creatures in Christ, we are being conformed to His image. Just as before regeneration we bore the likeness of fallen Adam, so now in Christ we are being changed more and more into His likeness.

2. What are some of the characteristics of this work of God in believers? *A work God PROMISES to do in all believers.
Jeremiah 32:40-41, I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. Philippians 1:6, For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 1Thessalonians 5:23-24, Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

*A work God DELIGHTS to do in all believers.

Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in

my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

*And thus a work God ALWAYS DOES in all believers.

Matthew 7:16-20, You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Romans 8:29, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. *The implication here is that everyone who is glorified has been sanctified. So too, sanctification is the proof of a man's justification. No exceptions.

3. WHY does God do this work?

*God does this work in believers FOR HIS OWN NAME and glory 2 Samuel 7:23-24, Who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? *Remember, the sons of Israel taking over the land of promise is typical of sanctification, as we have illustrated above. Psalm 23:3, He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Psalm 31:3, For You are my rock and my fortress; for Your name's sake You will lead me and guide me. Isaiah 48:10-11, Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another. Ezekiel 36:22-25, Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God, 'It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,' declares the Lord God, 'when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. . . *God does this work in believers FOR THEIR OWN GOOD and JOY Psalm 1:1-2, How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night

Psalm 16:11, You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 81:16, But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. God has been pleased to bind together our holiness with our happiness! Satan lies to us and tells us that to indulge in the pleasures of sin is what will bring us joybut he is a liar sin only leads us to misery. We see this evidenced in the Garesene demoniaca man pathetically miserableyet so deceived by the lies of sin that at first he pleads with Jesus not to cast the demons out!!

4. HOW does God do this work? *BY the Holy Spirit...

1 Peter 1:1-2, . . .To those. . .who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood. . . 2 Thessalonians 2:13, But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

*...working in and through the Word...

John 17:17, Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. Ephesians 1:25-26, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word Ephesians 5:25-26, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word 1 Peter 2:2, Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation

*...applying the atoning blood of Christ to our souls:

Hebrews 9:13-14, For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 13:12, Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Our holiness comes from the spring and fountain of all grace that is in Christ Jesus, the head of the body (Col.3:3). As the whole body derives strength and ability from the head, so by the Holy Spirit all the supplies of holiness in our head, Jesus Christ, are brought to every member of his body (Col.2:19). As the branch is nourished by the vine out of which it grows, and by that nourishment is able to bear fruit, so we, being grafted into Christ, receive from him all necessary supplies of holiness to bear fruit to his glory. And these supplies of holiness are brought to us and made

effective in us by the Holy Spirit. So God warns us not to become proud, but to remember that we were grafted into Christ by grace, and from him we receive all necessary supplies of grace (Rom.11:20). -John Owen, The Holy Spirit, pp107-108.

. . .More on this later. . . *God also especially uses OUR AFFLICTIONS for our growth in Christ:
"You cannot, you must not have a more pleasant or more easy condition here, than he had, who 'through afflictions was made perfect' [Heb.2:10]. We may indeed think, Cannot God bring us to heaven with ease and prosperity? Who doubteth but he can? But his infinite wisdom thinketh and decreeth the contrary" -Samuel Rutherford

Scriptures:
Psalm 119:67, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. Psalm 119:71, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. Psalm 119:75, I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Isaiah 48:10-11, Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another. John 15:2, Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit.

Illustrations:
*JOSEPH made fruitful in the land of his affliction (Gen.41:52). And that he was truly sanctified through his afflictions is proven by the way he deals with his brothers in Genesis 45 and 50, as we have already shown above. *DAVID seems to have sung in the caves like he never did in the palace (Ps.119:67, 71, 75)

*JOB was refined from 14 karat to 24 karat gold through his sufferings (23:10) *CHRIST Himself, who learned obedience through that which He suffered (Heb.5:7-8; cf. Mk.1:12, ekballo, a violent casting forth, the same word used in the gospels to describe Jesus casting out demons). Quotes:
"Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister's library." -Charles Spurgeon When spices are bruised, then they send forth a sweet savour. -Thomas Watson Afflictions are God's refinings. The purer the gold, the hotter the fire; the whiter the garment, the harder the washing. -Thomas Moore Great winds and storms help fruit-bearing trees. So also do corruptions and temptations help the fruitfulness of grace and holiness. The storm loosens the earth round its roots so the tree is able to get its roots deeper into the earth where it receives fresh supplies of

nourishment. But only much later will it be seen to bring forth better fruit. So corruptions and temptations develop the roots of humility, self-abasement and mourning in a deeper search for that grace by which holiness grows strong. But only later will there be visible fruits of increased holiness. -John Owen, p111.

B. Sanctification is also a work God calls believers to do, through the Spirit. Thus, Sanctification is not only a promise but a command for believers. Leviticus 20:26, Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I have set you apart form the peoples to be Mine. 2 Corinthians 7:1, Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Ephesians 6:17, And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God Philippians 2:12-13, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. 1 Thessalonians 4:7, For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. Hebrews 12:14, Pursue. . .the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. 1 Peter 1:15-16, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'
A man who professes to be a true Christian, while he sits still, content with a very low degree of sanctification (if indeed he has any at all), and coolly tells you he "can do nothing," is a very pitiable sight, and a very ignorant man! Against this delusion, let us watch and be on our guard. The Word of God always addresses its precepts to believers as accountable and responsible beings. If the Savior of sinners gives us renewing grace and calls us by His Spirit we may be sure that He expects us to use our grace and not to go to sleep. It is forgetfulness of this which causes many believers to "grieve the Holy Spirit" and makes them very useless and uncomfortable Christians. I can find no warrant in Scripture for the doctrine of " imputed sanctification." It is a doctrine which confuses things that differ and leads to very evil consequences. Not least, it is a doctrine which is flatly contradicted by the experience of all the most eminent Christians. If there is any point on which God's holiest saints agree, it is this: that they see more, and know more, and feel more, and do more, and repent more, and believe more as they get on in spiritual life, and in proportion to the closeness of their walk with God. In short, they "grow in grace," as Peter exhorts believers to do; and "abound more and more," according to the words of Paul (2 Peter 3:18; 1 Thessalonians 4:1). -J.C. Ryle

*Old Testament Picture: The Feast of Unleavened Bread:

1 Corinthians 5:7-8, Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. *What feast? The Feast of Unleavened Bread! The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted 7 days, symbolizing a complete cycle of time: there was a solemn assembly on first and last day of the feast (Exodus 12:16): thus, believers look back to their conversion on the first day and the glory awaiting them on the last day. As believers, we live in the feast of unleavened bread. Our lives are to be unleavened; that is, sanctified, set apart, holy for Christ.

1. HOW do we grow in sanctification as believers? *By GRACE alone, through FAITH alone, in CHRIST alone:
Colossians 2:6, Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him We are thus sanctified the exact same way that we are justified. Looking to His finished work on the cross, His resurrection victory, His blood, His merit, and His promises, by faith laying hold on Christ and what He has done for us. 2 Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. *It is thus in beholding Christ that we are changed more and more into His image
If we would grow in holiness and become more sanctified we must continually go on as we began, and be ever making fresh applications to Christ. He is the Head from which every member must be supplied (Ephesians 4:16). To live the life of daily faith in the Son of God, and to be daily drawing out of His fullness the promised grace and strength which He has laid up for His people this is the grand secret of progressive sanctification. Believers who seem at a standstill are generally neglecting close communion with Jesus, and so grieving the Spirit. -J.C. Ryle

INVOLVING. . . A. RENEWAL: Believers are commanded to continually be renewed in the inner man:
Romans 12:2, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Ephesians 4:22-23, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Colossians 3:10. "And have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created him." 2 Timothy 2:1, You therefore my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
"No real good can come to thee, no healing to thy spirit, no fruitfulness to thy soul, from a perpetual living upon convictions of sin, legal fears, or transient joys: the Divine life can derive no aliment from these. But live upon the atoning blood of Jesus. Here is the fatness of thy soul found; this it is that heals the wound...It is the blood of Jesus, applied by the Spirit, that moistens each fibre of the root of holiness in the soul, and is productive of its fruitfulness; this it is that sends the warm current of life through every part of the regenerate man, quickening the pulse of love, and imparting a healthy and vigorous power to every act of obedience. And when the spiritual seasons change--for it is not always spring-time with the soul of a child of God--when the summer's sun withers, or the autumnal blast scatters the leaves, and the winter's fiercer storm beats upon the smitten bough, the blood and righteousness of Christ, lived upon, loved, and cherished, will yet sustain the Divine life in the soul..." -Octavius Winslow

Hebrews 9:13-14, For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Hebrews 10:19-22, Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 12:1-2, Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus. . .
Our holiness comes from the spring and fountain of all grace that is in Christ Jesus, the head of the body (Col.3:3). As the whole body derives strength and ability from the head, so by the Holy Spirit all the supplies of holiness in our head, Jesus Christ, are brought to every member of his body (Col.2:19). As the branch is nourished by the vine out of which it grows, and by that nourishment is able to bear fruit, so we, being grafted into Christ, receive from him all necessary supplies of holiness to bear fruit to his glory. And these supplies of holiness are brought to use and made effective in us by the Holy Spirit. -John Owen, p108.

Old Testament Picture I: Trimming the lamps in the tabernacle (Ex.30:7-8). Aaron and his sons the priests were commanded to trim the lamps in the tabernacle every morning and evening. So too, we are called as believers to continually be trimming the lamps of our hearts by the Spirit. Old Testament Picture II: Constantly going back to the words that Samuel spoke to the people after they had sinned by asking for a king: Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. . .For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself. (1Sam.12:20-22). Old Testament Picture III: Joshua the High Priest before the Angel of the Lord in Zechariah 3. Our own garments are indeed filthy. But we need to be renewed constantly in the truth that on the cross, Christ has taken away our iniquity and clothed us with the festal robes of His own righteousness and merit (Zech.3:4).
2 Peter 1:5-9, For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.
"We are only poor for this reason, that we do not know our riches in Christ. In time of temptation, believe Christ rather than the devil. Believe truth from truth itself. Hearken not to a liar, an enemy, and a murderer. -Richard Sibbes I am persuaded that I shall obtain the highest amount of present happiness, I shall do most for God's glory and the good of men, and I shall have the fullest reward in eternity, by maintaining a conscience always washed in Christ's blood, by being filled with the Holy Spirit at all times, and by attaining them most entire likeness to Christ in mind, will, and heart, that it is possible for a redeemed sinner to attain to in this world. -Robert Murray McCheyne In all true prayer, great stress should be laid on the blood of Jesus...All prayer is acceptable with God, and only so, as it comes up perfumed with the blood of Christ...never do we place a brighter crown upon his blessed head, than when we plead his finished righteousness as the ground of our acceptance, and his atoning blood as our great argument for the bestowment of all blessing with God. If then, dear reader, you feel yourself to be a poor, vile, unholy sinner; if a backslider, whose feet have wandered from the Lord, in whose soul the spirit of prayer has declined, and yet still feel some secret longing to return, and dare not, because so vile, so unholy, so backsliding; yet you may return, 'having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.' Come, for the blood

of Christ pleads; return, for the blood of Christ gives you a welcome: 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. -Octavius Winslow

Illustration: Dying of thirst on the Amazon: There is a story about an early exploration voyage in the Americas. The ship had been sailing in the ocean for many days and the drinking water started to run out on board. Soon it ran out completely. The explorers couldn't drink the salt water underneath them, and not long after they died of thirst. But they didn't have to. They had sailed right in to the Amazon Basin, the largest fresh-water reserve in the world. Ironically and tragically, as they died of thirst, underneath them lay billions and billions of gallons of fresh water. How often do we live this way as believers, upheld and sustained by the merit of Christ, yet starving ourselves to death, neglecting to appropriate Christ's blood to our guilty souls? B. MORTIFICATION: Believers are commanded to constantly put to death their indwelling sin by the Spirit:
Romans 8:13,for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Galatians 6:24: "And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof." Colossians 3:5, Therefore, put to death the members which are upon the earth; immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

I. What this mortification is NOT: *A mere external morality or civility:

Men may be angels outwardly who are devils inwardly. Mortification does not consist in mere outward pleasantnessbut a holy war declared on their own sins both outward and secret. The man who has not yet truly declared war against his sin is yet at war with God. Civility is but nature refined; there is nothing of Christ there, and the heart may be foul and impure. . .A hypocrite may leave sin, yet love it; as a serpent casts its coat, but keeps its sting; but a sanctified person can say he not only leaves sin, but loathes it. -Thomas Watson

Illustration: The rich young ruler, for though, according to his estimation, he had kept God's commandments, yet he had never truly even kept the firstfor he had never mortified his heart-idol of greed.

*A giving up of some sins in exchange for others:

Someone may change an obvious sin for a hidden one. Mortification is not just the substitution of one sin for another. He may simply have changed from one road to hell to a safer path than he was on before. -John Owen.

Illustration: Simon Magus: Even though he had made a profession and had given up his sorceries, his lust was as powerful as ever; it was the same lust, only the streams of it were diverted in a different direction. (Owen).

*A giving up of only certain (convenient) sins:

Some may gladly give up the sins that are convenient to give up, while clinging on to others. As a comet may shine like a star, a luster may shine from their profession that dazzles the eyes of the beholders. Having a form of godliness, but denying the

power. 2 Tim 3:3. . .like pictures and statues which are destitute of a vital principle. Clouds without water. Jude 12. They pretend to be full of the Spirit, but are empty clouds. . .the most counterfeit saint deceives others while he lives, but deceives himself when he dies. To pretend to holiness when there is none is a vain thing. What were the foolish virgins better for their blazing lamps, when they wanted oil? What is the lamp of profession without the oil of saving grace? What comfort will a show of holiness yield at last? -Thomas Watson

Illustration: Jehu, king of Israel, who eradicated Baal worship completely, yet still clung to the sins of Jeroboam, the calfs at Dan and Bethel.

*A mere outward restraining of sin:

As men may give up some sins for others, so too they may restrain themselves from sin in general, in order to earn a religious reputation. But this is not true mortification. [This is] when men forbear vice, though they do not hate it. This may be the sinners motto, Fain I would, but I dare not. The dog has a mind to the bone, but is afraid of the cudgel; so men have a mind to lust, but conscience stands as the angel, with a flaming sword, and affrights: they have a mind to revenge, but the fear of hell is a curb-bit to check them. There is no change of heart; sin is curbed, but not cured. A lion may be in chains, but is a lion still. -Thomas Watson

Illustration: Ahithophel, the Pharisees, and Judas; for though they outwardly appeared very religious, in the end it was made evident that they had never truly put their sin to death, but only pretended to be holy men.

*A temporary resolve to give up sin:

A mere renouncing of sin and resolving to do away with it, is no true mortification unless the resolve is from the Spirit of God and leads to more than wordsan actual putting it to death.

Illustration: Saul in his hunting of David.

II. What this mortification IS: The actual and continual putting to death of our sin by the Spirit.
Romans 8:13, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

III. What are the ways we are to mortify our remaining sin? *We are to mortify our sin by WALKING by the SPIRIT:
Galatians 5:16, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

*We are to mortify our sin by HATING it:

Psalm 97:10, Hate evil, you who love the Lord Psalm 119:128, Therefore I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way. Romans 12:9, Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

Till sin be hated, it cannot be mortified.

*We are to mortify our sin by CUTTING it OFF:

Matthew 18:8-9, If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feed and be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell.

*We are to mortify our sin by STARVING it to death:

Psalm 119:101, I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Your word. 1 Peter 2:11, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.

*We are to mortify our sin by FLEEING from it:

1 Corinthians 10:14, Therefore, my beloved brethren, flee from idolatry. 1 Timothy 6:11, But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 2 Timothy 2:22, Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace. . .

Old Testament Picture: Joseph from Potiphar's wife, Genesis 39. *We are to mortify our sin by KEEPING WATCH against it:
Proverbs 4:23, Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Acts 20:28, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock. . . Ephesians 6:18, With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance. . . 1 John 5:21, Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

*We are to mortify our sin by LAYING it ASIDE:

Ephesians 4:22, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit. . . Colossians 3:8, But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

*We are to mortify our sin by DENYING it:

Titus 2:11-12, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. (For Greek verb here compare to disown in Acts 3:14 and 7:35).

*We are to mortify our sin by FIGHTING against it:

Ephesians 6:13, Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. . .

*We are to mortify our sin by PUTTING it to DEATH:

Romans 8:13, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Colossians 3:5, Therefore, put to death your members that are on the earth: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

Old Testament Picture: Again, fighting the remaining Canaanites in the land of promise under Joshua:
Deuteronomy 20:10-18 makes clear that when they fought other nations outside the boundaries of the promised land, they were to first offer terms of peace (that is, the gospel, which is God's peace terms for humanity). However, in fighting the Canaanites dwelling within the boundaries of the promised land, they were to offer no terms of peace, neither were they to show any mercy. This is the way we are to deal with our remaining indwelling sin. The day that the sons of Israel let their guard down was a dangerous day because the Canaanites were still living in the land. The day we stop fighting against our sin, the day we stop becoming watchful; the day we stop putting to death our sin is that day that our sin will begin to put us to death.

Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. -John Owen Application: Do you have present habitual or secret sin? Cut it off. Don't mess around; don't play games. Do whatever it takes. Ask help of brothers if you need it; humble yourself. *We are renewed in our minds and mortify our remaining sin especially as we make use of the MEANS of GRACE:
Sanctification depends greatly on a diligent use of Scriptural means. The "means of grace" are such as Bible reading, private prayer, and regularly worshiping God in Church, wherein one hears the Word taught and participates in the Lord's Supper. I lay it down as a simple matter of fact, that no one who is careless about such things must ever expect to make much progress in sanctification. I can find no record of any eminent saint, who ever neglected them. They are appointed channels through which the Holy Spirit conveys fresh supplies of grace to

the soul, and strengthens the work which He has begun in the inward man. Let men call this legal doctrine if they please but I will never shrink from declaring my belief that there are no "spiritual gains without pains." Our God is a God who works by means, and He will never bless the soul of that man who pretends to be so high and spiritual, that he can get on without them. -J.C. Ryle

2. WHY we should labor and strive to pursue sanctification as believers: a. Because it is the desire of God (1Thess.4:3). b. Because it is the command of God (Heb.12:14). c. Because without it we cannot ourselves be saved (Heb.12:14; Rom.8:13). d. Because it glorifies and pleases our heavenly Father (Jn.15:8). e. Because, as a corollary, sin and sloth lead to the loving but painful discipline of our heavenly Father (Samson, Solomon). f. Because it will in great measure determine the extent of our growth in Christ. g. Because it will in great measure determine the extent of our fruitfulness for the kingdom of Christ (Mal.2:6; Jn.15:4). h. Because it will in great measure determine the extent of our joy in Christ. i. Because, as a corollary, sin and sloth lead only to our own emptiness and misery. j. Because to the extent that we pursue Christ in sanctification, our gifts and graces will increase and multiply exponentially (Matt. 13:12).
He who values and improves the gifts with which the Lord has endowed him, is thereby putting himself in the sure way of having these gifts still further increased. -Robert Buchanan

Illustration: Our gifts (as our faith) is like a muscle. The more they are exercised the more they grow and increase, but the opposite is also true: when not exercised they atrophy: k. Because, as a corollary, sin and sloth lead to the decline and deterioration of our gifts and graces.

IV. Sanctification and other aspects of salvation:

A. Sanctification and election/predestination: 1. Sanctification was one of God's grande purposes in electing a people. He chose us in order that He might sanctify us. Romans 8:29, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His son... 2. Election is the cause of our salvation, sanctification is our evidence. Without sanctification we can show no sign of our election. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity 2 Thessalonians 2:13, But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. B. Sanctification and the atonement: Sanctification was also one of Christ's purposes in shedding His blood:

Hebrews 13:12, Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Ephesians 5:25-26, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. (see also Titus 2:13-14).

Illustration: When a young man wants to marry a girl, he makes a marriage proposal to her. And he is excited. But he doesn't get excited about the proposal itself. The proposal is just a means to an end. He proposes to her so he can marry her. He wants to make her his, and there is only one way to do that. The proposal is a means to an end.
The cross, for Jesus, was in many ways a means to an end. He gave himself up for his bride in order that he might sanctify her. He was zealous to cleanse and purify his bride, and for this reason he went gladly to the cross, if only thereby he might sanctify her.

Application for marriage: This should change our whole paradigm for marriage. We are as husbands commanded to love our bride as Christ has loved his, and Christ gave himself up for his bride, why? In order to sanctify her. So what applications does that carry for us men? We are called to likewise join together in marriage with the special bride God has given usfor the supreme purpose of sanctifying our bride the rest of our lives. This must be our goal as husbands. We become united in marriage in order that we might, through the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and by the Word of God, cause our bride to grow exponentially in holiness with Jesus. So biblically, we do not marry our bride because she is beautiful. Rather, we marry her to make her beautiful.
C. Regeneration and Sanctification: In regeneration, a believer is once for all set free from the power of sin; in sanctification, a believer is gradually being set free from the pollution of sin.
Regeneration is instantaneous. It is one single creating act, whereas sanctification is progressive. It is begun at the moment of regeneration and is continued gradually. -John Owen, The Holy Spirit, p105.

Old Testament Picture: Creation and the new creation: In Genesis 1 we read that the Lord created plants and animals that brought forth fruit after their kind (Gen.1:12, 21). This language our Lord hints at in Matthew 7, teaching: every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit (vv17-18). Thus, we see that the FRUIT is governed by the ROOT. The good or bad ROOT brings forth good or bad FRUIT. The good root is regeneration. The good fruit which regeneration brings forth is sanctification.
D. Justification and Sanctification: *How are they ALIKE?1

1. Both proceed originally from the free grace of God. It is of His gift alone, that believers are justified or sanctified at all. 2. Both are part of that great work of salvation which Christ, in the eternal covenant, has undertaken on behalf of His people. Christ is the fountain of life, from which pardon and holiness both flow. The root of each is Christ. 3. Both are to be found in the same people. Those who are justified are always sanctified; and those who are sanctified are always justified. God has joined them together, and they cannot be put asunder. 4. Both begin at the same time. The moment a person is a justified person he also begins to be
1 From J.C. Ryle on Sanctification

a sanctified person. He may not feel it but it is a fact. 5. Both are alike necessary to salvation. No one ever reached Heaven . . . without a renewed heart as well as forgiveness; without the Spirit's grace as well as the blood of Christ; without a fitness for eternal glory as well as a title . The one is just as necessary as the other. *How do they DIFFER?2 Justification Legal standing Once for all time Entirely God's work The same in all Christians Perfect in this life A finished work Sanctification Internal condition Continuous throughout life We cooperate Greater in some than in others Not perfect in this life An ongoing, progressive work

Application: You will never be more justified in heaven than you are now...an incredible truth
James Beeke adds, Concerns pardon from the guilt of sin Concerns cleansing from the pollution of sin

Imputes Christ's Infuses (imparts) Christ's righteousness, declaring the righteousness; making the person righteous person holy Ryle adds, The act of God's free grace FOR us Cannot be seen by men E. Sanctification and Glorification: Sanctification and glory differ only in degree: sanctification is glory in the seed, and glory is sanctification in the flower. -Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity The work of God's grace IN us Can be discerned by men

V. Final Applications:
PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS, J.C. Ryle:
1. For one thing, let us all awake to a sense of the perilous state of many professing Christians.
Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord; without sanctification, there is no salvation (Hebrews 12:14). Then what an enormous amount of so-called religion there is, which is perfectly useless! What an immense proportion of church-goers and chapel-goers are in the broad road that leads to destruction! The thought is dreadful, crushing and overwhelming! Oh, that preachers and teachers would open their eyes and realize the condition of souls around them! Oh, that men could be persuaded to "flee from the wrath to come"! If

2 From Wayne Grudem's Systematic

unsanctified souls can be saved and go to Heaven the Bible is not true. Yet the Bible is true and cannot lie! What must the end be!

2. Let us make sure work of our own condition and never rest until we feel and know that we are "sanctified" ourselves. What are our tastes and choices and likings and inclinations? This is the great testing

question. It matters little what we wish and what we hope and what we desire to be, before we die. What are we now? What are we doing? Are we sanctified or not? If not, the fault is all our own.

3. If we would be sanctified, our course is clear and plain: we must begin with Christ. We must go
to Him as sinners, with no plea but that of utter need, and cast our souls on Him by faith for peace and reconciliation with God. We must place ourselves in His hands, as in the hands of a good physician, and cry to Him for mercy and grace. We must wait for nothing to bring with us, as a recommendation. The very first step towards sanctification, no less than justification, is to come with faith to Christ. We must first live and then work.

4. If we would grow in holiness and become more sanctified we must continually go on as we began, and be ever making fresh applications to Christ. He is the Head from which every member must
be supplied (Ephesians 4:16). To live the life of daily faith in the Son of God, and to be daily drawing out of His fullness the promised grace and strength which He has laid up for His people this is the grand secret of progressive sanctification. Believers who seem at a standstill are generally neglecting close communion with Jesus, and so grieving the Spirit. He who prayed, "Sanctify them," the last night before His crucifixion is infinitely willing to help everyone who by faith applies to Him for help, and desires to be made more holy.

5. Let us not expect too much from our own hearts here below. At our best, we shall find in ourselves
daily cause for humiliation and discover that we are needy debtors to mercy and grace every hour. The more light we have the more we shall see our own imperfection! Sinners we were when we began and sinners we shall find ourselves as we go on! Renewed, pardoned, justified yet sinners to the very last. Our absolute perfection is yet to come, and the expectation of it is one reason why we should long for Heaven.

6. Finally, let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification, and contending for a high standard of holiness. While some are satisfied with a miserably low degree of attainment, and others are not

ashamed to live on without any holiness at all, content with a mere round of church-going and chapel-going but never getting on, like a horse in a mill; let us stand fast in the old paths, follow after eminent holiness ourselves and recommend it boldly to others. This is the only way to be really happy. Let us feel convinced, whatever others may say, that holiness is happiness; and that the man who gets through life most comfortably is the sanctified man. No doubt there are some true Christians who from ill health, or family trials, or other secret causes enjoy little sensible comfort and go mourning all their days on the way to Heaven. But these are exceptional cases. As a general rule, in the long run of life, it will be found true, that "sanctified" people are the happiest people on earth! They have solid comforts which the world can neither give nor take away. "The ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness." "Great peace have those who love Your law." It was said by One who cannot lie: "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." But it is also written, "There is no peace unto the wicked" (Proverbs 3:17; Psalm 119:165; Matthew 11:30; Isaiah 48:22).

Appendix: Errors regarding Sanctification

*The Catholic or Legalist: Makes sanctification the grounds of our justification/salvation, declaring that we are only justified to the degree that we are sanctified. So when our personal holiness goes up and down like the waves of the sea day to day, so goes our standing with God. This is a false gospel. Scripture teaches instead that though we are never sanctified perfectly in this life, our righteousness before God is Jesus Christ himselfthat though our sanctification goes up and down as believers in this life, we have assurance of a steady, enduring, perfect righteousness in heaven. This is not only the doctrine of the Catholics, but the functional belief of many evangelical believersmany of us live functionally as Catholics. Richard Lovelace says it well: "Only a fraction of the present body of professing
Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. . .Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justificationdrawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. . ."We all automatically gravitate toward the assumption that we are justified by our level of sanctification, and when this posture is adopted it inevitably focuses our attention not on Christ but on the adequacy of our own obedience. We start each day with our personal security resting not on the accepting love of God and the sacrifice of Christ but on our present feelings or recent achievements in the Christian life. . ."[Yet, Christians] cannot proceed to grow in sanctification unless they are sure that they are accepted by God through the righteousness of Christ.

*The Keswick or Pietist: Neglects to come to grips with the reality that believers still struggle with remaining sin, declaring that through a second blessing experience, Christians may become fully surrendered, attaining to a higher life that has become free from the troubles and struggles of sin. But this is not what Scripture teaches. Rather, God's Word teaches that every true believer IS completely surrendered to Christ, YET every true believer still struggles deeply with remaining sin, and will until glory.

*The Antinomian: Says sanctification isn't important or necessary for salvationall that matters, according to them, is that we are saved. But they fail to realize that sanctification, though never the grounds of our salvation, is indeed always a vital mark of true saving faith (Matt.7), and that Scripture teaches that the man who is not being sanctified has never truly been saved (Heb.12:14). Indeed, Scripture teaches that though sanctification is never the basis of our justification or salvation, it is certainly the necessary mark of true saving faith.
*The Hyper-Calvinist: Makes God's sovereignty and man's responsibility oppose each other, as if we had to pick between one or the other, failing to hold with equal force God's role in our sanctification with the command God has given us in the Scriptures to actively pursue holiness by the Spirit. *The Intellectual: Makes sanctification into a matter of mere intellectual assent, thinking wrongly that sanctification is a matter of merely believing right doctrines, or even, believing the gospel, but failing to realize the vital role of the Spirit in sanctification, that we can never grow in sanctification merely by assenting to certain truthseven if they are right truthsapart from the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:13).