What does it mean to be sanctified?

In a word I want to say something about sanctification, which is almost, though not perhaps exactly, the same as holiness. God is inherently, intrinsically holy. He is pure, He is clean, and He is different to every other person. He is apart from all else and from all other persons and we need to bear that in mind. Anything or anyone else that can be deemed to be holy in the sight of God must take on in measure this particular characteristic that God Himself has totally, and be clean, pure, and altogether apart from any pollution or contamination. Then, having considered that, we shall look at positional sanctification; what God has made all those who are believers on the Lord Jesus. We will look at Scriptures where God says that He has set such apart for Himself. Then, finally, we shall consider the third element, what we know instinctively to be true, that those whom God has set apart positionally as to status before Himself, He requires to be sanctified, practically set apart (morally) from others in the world who are not His. This is practical sanctification.

The sanctification of believers means to many people, perhaps to most, a process by which they are made more and more holy and pleasing to God; whereas its primary meaning is that by an act of God they have been set apart for Himself, and according to this their growth in holiness becomes a necessity.

I learn that we are sanctified, or set apart to God, by God the Father, through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all, and by the operation and power of the Holy Ghost through the truth, so that all Christians are saints,14 and that in our practical state we have to follow after holiness,15 and grow up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, being changed into His image, to whom we are to be perfectly conformed in glory.16

The same is true in the sanctification of the believer. We find that the Spirit comes as the representative of our absent Lord. He takes up His abode in us, leads our hearts out to share the thoughts of God as to Christ, sets us apart as belonging to Him, and enables us to walk as glorifying Him. Here, again, it is Christ whom the Spirit exalts.

I want to speak now of the sanctification of believers. God has set us apart for Himself and has put us in a position which we were never in before that we might serve Him. When we examine Scripture we find that everything that is for the glory of God and the honour of the Lord Jesus, and everything that is for our blessing, is attributed distinctly and severally to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. The Godhead is seen to be completely at one in everything that it does and this is as true of sanctification as it is of anything else. The opening verse of the epistle of Jude tells us that we are sanctified by the Father. And as well as being sanctified by the Father we are set apart to God by the work of the Son. The salutation to the Corinthians in the first epistle says we are "sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor. 1: 2) and in verse 30 of the same chapter we read that He "is made unto us... sanctification." We are sanctified in Him. Chapter 6 underlines this when it says: "ye are sanctified... in the Name of the Lord Jesus."

Let us apply this to believers. The moment we were born again, God sets us apart for Himself. In that sense we are holy. We do not have to wait for a number of years to be declared holy by someone. No; Christians are holy by the calling with which they have been called. So we are here for Him, and for His interests. Do we apply this to our daily circumstances? Are we really devoted to His interests? What a wonderful and perfect example we have in the Lord Jesus; what a challenge and encouragement we find in Him!

You might be surprised to find this expression used in the New Testament about Christians. Listen to it: 'Our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works' (Titus 2:14). If we think of Israel as a nation, they were to be a sanctified people. This is equally true of believers in Christ. Much is said in the New Testament about sanctification. The word means 'set apart'.

Sanctification signifies literally a setting apart to God - like a vessel for the use of God in his temple. (See 2 Tim. 2:21.)

So, too, when sanctification is connected with us believers, it has just this primary meaning. The above-quoted scripture, Exodus 13:2, shows that sanctification is God claiming for Himself those whom He has sheltered by blood. We are thereby separated, or set apart, for the pleasure and service of God.

We must carefully note, however, that for us sanctification has two aspects. The first positional and absolute - an act of God with which we start our Christian career; the second practical and progressive - continuing and deepening through all our pathway upon earth.

Holy is said both of God and of the Father. The primary idea of holiness I judge to be, not purification, but separation in principle and fact to God and the Father. Put apart for God and the Father first, and then that position ruling every thing. (John 17:19.) "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth," is the verse which settles this. He could not have purified Himself, the One who knew no sin, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, apart from sin. But He did separate Himself, and went and sat down on the throne of the majesty in the highest, the accepted Sin-offering, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. And the new display made in Acts 2:33-36, abides still, and the knowing of it was the separation of believers down here, and is so now to Him who is their anchor and forerunner fixed within the veil.