Life Under Grace: A Sanctified Life

Grace and Sanctification go together. The life under grace is characterized by a holy and godly life (Titus 2:12). It is sad that so many Bible teachers and students failed to see the power of the grace of God in sanctification. And this is a precious truth too few have apprehended.

Most Bible students know that in the Authorized Version of both the Old and New Testament Scriptures the words “holiness” and “sanctification,” with scarcely any exceptions have the same meaning.

Sanctification simply mean “to set apart” or “to separate.” Now it is true that this is the basic meaning in both cases, but very often the basic meaning of a word falls far short of expressing its true significance in actual usage. As used in the Scriptures they mean much more than this.

In Bible usage, both in Old and New Testaments to make holy, or to sanctify, means “to set apart as sacred,” “to consecrate,” “to dedicate.” The following passages are but a few that bear out this fact:

• Gen. 2:3: “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.”

• Ex. 3:5: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

• Ex. 4:3: “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself:”

• Matt. 6:9: “Hallowed be Thy name.”

• II Cor. 11:2: “…I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

• Eph. 5:25,26: “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word”

In the above which rendered “sanctified,” “holy,” “hallowed” and “espoused,” cleanse” but in each case the meaning is, “set apart as sacred,” “consecrated,” “dedicated,” “devote.” Thus Jerusalem is called “the holy city” (Matt. 4:5) and the sanctuary of the tabernacle, “the holiest of all” (Heb. 9:3,8); the Bible is called “the holy Scriptures” (Rom. 1:2) and the Spirit of God, “the holy Spirit” (Eph. 4:30). So also a life under grace, a life of holiness, a life whom God made pure, solely devoted, consecrated, and dedicated to God and for God’s exclusive use (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Some Scriptural Thoughts about Sanctification

• We have been sanctified (1 Cor. 6:11; Jude 1)

• We are sanctified in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2)

• We are sanctified by Christ’s blood (Heb. 9:13-14; 13:12)

• We are sanctified by the Spirit of God (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2)

• We are sanctified by God’s word (John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26)

• Those who are sanctified are one with God (Heb. 2:11)

• Those who are sanctified must sanctified God in their hearts (1 Pet. 3:15)

• Those who are sanctified must possess their bodies in sanctification (1 Thess. 4:4)

The Blessedness of Sanctification

How it would touch the hearts of many believers if they realized that both in our salvation and in our walk it has been God’s purpose, not merely to set us apart from sin and the world, but to set us apart as sacred to Himself! Sanctification speaks of God’s love to us more than of ours to Him. This truth, to many, would cast an entirely new light on the doctrine of sanctification.

Sanctification is not a negative matter, but a positive one. God wants us for Himself. He considers us His hallowed possession much as a bridegroom considers his bride his very own, sacred to himself. This shows how precious the believer is to the heart of God and makes our separation from the world and sin the natural result of our consecration to Him. “Ye turned to God from idols,” says the apostle, not “from idols to God” (I Thes. 1:9). True Scriptural sanctification, or holiness, then, does not consist in “dos” and “don’ts,” nor is it to be confused with sinless perfection. It is rather a consecration to God which results in a closer walk with Him.

POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION

In a very real sense every true believer has already been sanctified, or consecrated, to God.

This phase of our sanctification is not the result of our conduct or behavior.  In Ephesians 5:2,3 the apostle declares that believers should “walk…as becometh saints [sanctified ones]” but this in itself implies that some who are saints do not walk so. Even the carnal Corinthians are addressed as “saints”—”sanctified in Christ Jesus” (I Cor. 1:2). Naming sins which some of them were even then committing, he goes on to say:

“And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Cor. 6:11). Thus believers, whatever their state, are called: “…them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32; 26:18). “…the elect of God, holy and beloved…” (Col. 3:12).

All this, of course, pertains to our position and standing before God. It was He who, in infinite love and grace, set us apart as His own, declaring us righteous before all. But how can a righteous God justify a sinner? How can a holy God embrace a fallen son of Adam? The answer is, through the glorious, all-sufficient work of Christ on the sinner’s behalf.

“We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10). “For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).

PRACTICAL SANCTIFICATION

The Apostle Paul never teaches positional truth without applying it in a practical way. If God in love and grace set us apart as His own, should not our love respond to His? Should it not also be our heart’s desire to be His, wholly His, in experience and conduct? Should not our hearts be touched with gratitude and wonder at His condescending love and result in spontaneous and eager consecration to Him?

It is this that the apostle has in mind as, by the Spirit, he writes that God—

“…hath chosen us in Him [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children…” (Eph. 1:4,5).

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification…” (I Thes. 4:3).

Sanctifying Grace is according to various relationships:

(1) In relation to sin – The child of God may so comply with every condition for true spirituality in life under grace as to be experiencing all the provided deliverance and victory from the power of sin. A sanctification through constant reckoning to be dead indeed to sin (Romans 6).

(2) In relation to the flesh  – Nowhere in Scripture are we instructed to sanctify the “flesh” to God. The Scriptures teach that the “flesh,” the old Adamic nature, is totally bad and experience bears witness that this is so. The “flesh” cannot be improved, or reformed, or converted, and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). It is for this reason that God sent His own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” to “condemn sin in the flesh” at Calvary (See Rom. 8:3).

We are not, then, to seek to improve the old nature or dedicate it to God, but to reckon it as condemned by God and crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6).

But while the believer’s “flesh” cannot be sanctified to God, his body can and should be.

• “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).

• “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:19,20).

• “That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor” (I Thes. 4:4).

• “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (I Thes. 4:7). 

• “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thes. 5:23).

(3) In relation to Christian growth – This aspect of practical sanctification in every case is progressive. Its meaning is that the knowledge of truth, devotion, affection, and experience are naturally subject to development. By virtue of their present development, as Christians, believers progressively are set apart unto God. That development should be advanced with each passing day.

• “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:” (Eph. 2:21)

• “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:” (Eph. 4:15)

• “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1 Pet. 2:2)

• “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18)

• “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;” (Col. 1:10)

(4) In relation to the believer's yieldedness to God – By presenting his body a living sacrifice, the child of God thereby is set apart unto God and so is practically sanctified (Romans 6:13, 16, 19).

THE “HOW” OF PRACTICAL SANCTIFICATION

As we consider how to be sanctified to God in walk and experience of this life under grace, we must again place the emphasis where God has placed it: upon His blessed Word.

It is accomplished by the power of God through the Spirit and through the Word.

• “ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

• “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy Word is truth” (John 17:17).

• “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26).

In his very last epistle, Paul declares that while “the Lord knoweth them that are His,” all who name the name of Christ should “depart from iniquity,” and goes on to explain that—

“…in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (II Tim. 2:20,21).

The Church is indeed “a great house,” and in it there are all sorts of vessels. Most of these, it is to be feared, are dishonoring to the Lord and unfit for the Master’s use. God grant that we may not belong to this number, but may rather be vessels which will bring honor to God, “sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use.”

Evangelist Rodgie Quirante

The Workman's Treasure Study Series