Jesus Christ purchased our redemption and salvation upon the cross. When we accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and receive the new birth, we receive all that was done for us at Calvary. We are declared righteous in God's sight because our sins have been forgiven. We were released from all condemnation and passed from death to life. But, this is where much of Christianity stops the story. This is where the confusion in doctrine and practice enter the picture. Salvation is not just about receiving the new birth and legally being declared righteous. There is "the rest of the story" and that is wrapped up in the Biblical term "sanctification".
The word "sanctification" simply means to be "set apart". Wrapped up in the word are words such as "purity" and "holiness". Sanctification is the daily experience a believer lives as he walks and grows in the faith. The gospel not only gives us the righteousness of Christ to deliver us from the condemnation of the law; it gives us the righteousness of Christ as a personal experience in order that we may become and reflect HIS character. Sanctification is the other half of the "good news" that the gospel brings regarding salvation.
When God justified us, He did not intend for our Christian life to turn out like many of the criminal cases in our court system. How often do we see a person "escaping judgment" for crimes committed. It is all too often, the person "given a new lease on life" simply goes out and commits the same crime again and ends up in the courtroom over and over again. This is NOT how God intended the life of a believer to be.
Once we have received from God the grace and forgiveness of our sins, we are to seek to please God through a holy and righteous lifestyle. Why on earth would we take the amazing freedom granted in the courtroom when God wiped all charges off the books against us as a license to go back out and sin again? This makes no sense and is a slap in the face of our defense attorney, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to set us free… and the righteous judge, God, who by His mercy acquitted us. And, understand…this has nothing to do with "forced legalistic conformity to rules of behavior.”
Sanctification and holiness are the part of the awesome privilege of reflecting Christ's image through the renewing of our minds to His Word. Sanctification should be something believers WANT to achieve in their walk, and are empowered to do so through the Holy Spirit. It is not something equivalent to a forced labor camp. Sanctification is simply "setting yourself apart" from the pollution of this world. Sanctification is simply the state of being transformed, by the renewing of your mind, to the point you think as Christ would think if He were here…You would live, act, think, and BE holy…as He is holy. Sanctification is only desired by those who view Christianity as a lifestyle and not a religion. Sanctification is only diligently pursued by those who want to "put on the mind of Christ" and think, speak and live as He is. Sanctification will never be sought by the lukewarm believer who is satisfied with Jesus as Savior instead of Jesus as Lord.
- Sanctification is the natural desire that springs from an intense and burning love for Jesus.
- Sanctification is not a set of prescribed laws and rules that wrap a person under the suffocating blanket of oppression.
- Sanctification is not about rules, it is about LIFE.
- Sanctification is about living life as Christ would live it… if He were living in you.
- Sanctification is being able to boldly say; "He who has seen me, has seen Jesus".
- Sanctification is what the love in our hearts for Jesus wants more than anything else.
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