Active Sanctification
“Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1
Justification, sanctification, and glorification are three words used to describe the unfolding of the Christian experience. Justification describes that time when we initially place our faith in Jesus Christ. At that moment all of our sins–past, present, and future–are forgiven, never to be counted against us. We are justified before God. When we die, or if we are still alive when Christ returns, we will be glorified. All Christian growth that happens between justification and glorification is called sanctification.
To be sanctified means to be set apart for divine use. “In one sense,” says commentator William MacDonald, “all believers have been set apart from the world to the service of the Lord; this is known as positional sanctification, and it is perfect and complete. However, in another sense, believers should sanctify themselves, that is, they should separate themselves from all forms of sin; this is known as practical or progressive sanctification.”
This progressive sanctification requires our active cooperation and participation. That’s the focus of the verse above. Because we have God’s promises to be with us and to watch over us, we should be determined to “purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit.” Conforming to our culture and participating in the pagan practices it promotes will contaminate us physically and spiritually, putting us out of fellowship with God and making us ineffective and unproductive in our witness for Christ.
The fruit of sanctification is Holiness and that’s what God has called us to. “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (2 Timothy 1:9). God doesn’t call us to be separate from the world but to be separate in the world.
Are you an eager, active participant in your sanctification?
Having begun as a guest speaker in 2005, Dan was appointed Interim Pastor in 2008 and has been serving Maple Root Baptist ever since. As a small group leader and Chaplin for the Connecticut Tigers, Dan has a heart for the lost and the God that saves them.