This morning we come to the last response to the Gospel in our walk down the road of life. We’ve seen already that we should repent, confess, be baptized, and be a member of a local church. There is one last step in responding to the Gospel, and that is a step that takes us through the rest of our lives. Today, we consider the work of sanctification. We will consider three passages today as we understand what it means to be sanctified: 1 Cor. 6:9-11, Phil. 2:12-13, and John 15:1-8. There are three points I want you to understand about sanctification: it is granted by God, gained through effort, and it grows as we mature in Christ.
First, understand that sanctification is granted by God. To see that, let’s read 1 Cor. 6:9-11. The topic of sanctification has been muddled by Christians for centuries. The Roman Catholics believe that you are saved by Christ plus your own merit. The way they would explain it is to imagine a treasure box of merit that would buy your way into heaven. Should you die and face the judgment with an empty treasure box, God won’t accept you into his heaven. But, through the mercy and sacrifice of Jesus, you can have your treasure box filled up. According to the RCC, if you believe in Jesus, you receive the full dose of Jesus’s meritorious grace. So, now your treasure box is full… great. But, then you neglect the mass or commit a sin. What happens to your treasure of merit then? Well you lose a little bit. You can come back to the church, confess your sins, and gain some of that merit back. Or, you can do good works that add to your treasure box. But, according to the RCC, very few if any Christians have ever had a full treasure box when they get to heaven, and that is what purgatory is for - working off that debt of merit. The RCC understands this work of storing up merit as both justification and sanctification. The Church of Christ holds a similar view. They believe that Jesus gets you started down the road of salvation, and he is always ready to forgive you, should you sin, but it is your duty to grow in holiness. And, should you fail to do that, you lose your salvation through your moral failing. So, the CoC would say that sanctification is the work of living in holiness.
What does it mean to be sanctified? And, if we fail in our pursuit of sanctification, does it mean that we have lost our salvation? To answer that, we need to distinguish between two concepts: justification and sanctification. For this distinction, we need to focus on the Greek words for each. I also want to explain each by using the OT story of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. So, to understand sanctification, we have to first understand justification. When you find the word “justified” in the NT, it almost always comes from the Greek word, diikaio. For example, Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Dikaio was a legal term used in the courtroom, and it means “to declare righteous.” It is the idea of a judge standing in judgment over a defendant and declaring, “not guilty”. When a judge does that, does it necessarily mean that the defendant is truly blameless of a crime? No, it doesn’t. It means that, as far as the legal system is concerned, the person has no guilt. In a similar way, to be justified before God is to be declared righteous, regardless of our own merit. We are justified, not based on what we’ve done, but based on what Jesus has done for us. As Paul says in Romans 5, we are justified by faith through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have an OT example of this concept of justification in the story of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Think of the ten plagues that God brought on Egypt. In all of those plagues, Israel was not called on to lift one finger, save for the 10th plague, where they were called to splatter the blood of a lamb on the doorpost of their house so that the death angel would pass over them. In that case, they were called to believe in God’s sacrifice, but the death angel didn’t pass over them because they were good people. It passed over because of the blood of the lamb. In the same way, we are justified before God and escape the penalty of our sin, which is death, because of the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. Because justification is something that God does for us, not something we earn, it cannot be taken away. When we are justified through faith in Christ, we have peace with God.
Now let’s define “sanctification”. Most of the time, when you see the word “sanctify” in the NT, as we have in our text from 1 Cor. 6, it is the Greek word hagiazo. We often wrongly read this to mean, “to make morally holy”, as if sanctification is the human work of becoming more and more holy. But, that is not what hagiazo means. Instead, it is the idea of being consecrated or set apart for God’s purposes. In Matt. 6:9, when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name”, the word “hallowed” there is the Greek word hagiazo. But, God doesn’t need to make himself morally holy. He is holy and set apart. He is consecrated. So sanctification is not first a work we do to make ourselves more holy. It is a work God does, and we participate with God in that work. Again, the Israelites serve as an example. After God delivered the Israelites from Egypt, he took them to Mount Sinai and gave them the law. They went through a ceremony where Moses “sanctified” them, which meant that they were set aside for God’s work. That work involved a purification of everything: their lives, the land, the tabernacle. As they entered the promise land, God went before them, aiding them as they conquered and purified the land. Did they do work? Sure, they fought battles. But, even the battles were won because God empowered them.
We can see that in our text from 1 Cor. 6. People often get discouraged when they read the list of sins that Paul gives in verses 9 and 10. Some of these sins are easy enough to avoid. We might be able to stick up our noses and say, “I’m not sexually immoral or idolatrous or adulterous or homosexual or a thief, so I’m good.” But, then Paul begins to mettle by including the greedy and drunkards and backbiters and swindlers. Every kind of sin is lumped into this list, and Paul says that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Oh no! That means that none of us will make it. But thank God he included verse 11, where he says, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified.” Notice what Paul does not say here. He does not say, “you all used to do all those things, but now you don’t anymore, so you’re righteous.” In fact, if you read back up in verse 1, you’ll find that Paul just scolded them for suing each other. No, Paul’s point here is that they have been sanctified. When they came to Jesus in faith, God washed them clean by the blood of his son. He declared them righteous through the work of Jesus. And, he sanctified them, which is to say that he set them apart as holy vessels to be used for the glory of God. He changed their purpose. They used to live for pleasure. They used to serve false gods. They used to pursue money at any cost. Now, those desires have been replaced with a love for God, and God has set them apart for his work. That is what sanctification is.
This brings me to my second point: Sanctification is gained through effort. For this, look with me at Phil. 2:12-13. This text is another example of a passage that isn’t saying what you think its saying. It’s often read to say that you must work for your salvation. Now, I do want to use it to show that our sanctification requires our work. As I just said, you are not saved so that you are now free to go do what you want. You were saved so that you might be set apart. So, Paul here says that we should obey and work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In Eph. 2:10, he says that we were saved to good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in. God has called you out of sin, given you understanding, indwelled you by his spirit, so that you might do work that he’s gifted you to do. Every one of us in this room has work that God has set aside for us. For some of us, it is being a good father or mother who disciples our children. For others, it is being a loving grandparent who supports and nurtures. Some are engineers who invent things. Some are farmers who grow food to bless others. Some are builders who provide shelter. Some are educators who equip the next generation. And, we all have gifts for the good of the church as well. As Jesus says, in Matt. 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Yet, this passage isn’t saying that Jesus got us started on the road of salvation, and now we have to work it out. It’s not even saying that Jesus has saved us, now we have to add to it. Again, thank God for verse 13. Paul says, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Recognize that even the work of sanctification is God’s work. It is God who gives us the will to work, and it is God who gives us the power to work. This connects with our next passage from John 15. In John 15:5, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.”
So, with that in mind, consider my last point: Sanctification grows as we mature. For that, let’s read John 15:1-8. In this passage, Jesus gives one of the most helpful analogies of his ministry, especially as it concerns sanctification. He compares our life in him to a vine and branches. He is the vine, and we are the branches. As branches, we are called to grow and bear fruit, but we can’t do that without the vine. Branches cannot grow without the vine. In fact, if they become disconnected from the vine, they are good for nothing but to be cut away and thrown in the fire.
Understand that sanctification is a lifelong process of growth in Christ. Your salvation was not a transaction. It’s not as though you gave Jesus your belief and he gave you heaven. Rather, you were saved to something. You were united to Christ, grafted into his vine. You get your life from him, and in order to sustain this life in Christ, you must abide in him. That means that you rest in the graces that he has given you, in the fellowship of his church, in the ministry of the preached word, in the prayers of his people. And, God will continue to sanctify you by pruning you. There will be trials, pains, conflicts, valleys, temptations. All of those are meant to drive you back to the vine that is Christ.
When you come to Jesus in faith, this is what you receive. You receive a declaration of righteousness through the blood of Jesus. You are consecrated for God’s purposes. You are grafted into the vine of Christ. So may we pursue sanctification through him, and may we work till Jesus comes.
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