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I. Sanctification
II. The two aspects of sanctification
А. Before justification
B. After justification
1. Positional sanctification
2. Dispositional sanctification
III. Sanctification by the Word and the Spirit
Sanctification is the process by which something is made holy. Many people would say that this means that we should not sin and that we should stay away from evil things. That, however, is only a small part of sanctification.
[God's eternal purpose is to work Himself into us that He may be thoroughly mingled with us and expressed through us. When God is born into us, He begins this mingling process. But this is only the start! There must be the growth. If we have the birth, but not the growth, we could never enjoy the birthright. God is born into our spirit, which is the very center of our being. Then His desire is to spread from our spirit to transform all the parts of the soul, and eventually to transfigure our physical body. By this process our whole being will be saturated and permeated with the essence of God Himself. This is the real holiness and the real sanctification: to be completely mingled with God.]
Second Thessalonians 2:13 says, "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." [The Spirit is sanctifying the believers, separating them entirely for God's eternal purpose; from the day we first heard the gospel the sanctifying Spirit sanctifies us by dispensing the Triune God into us.]
[The sanctification of the Spirit is of two aspects: the sanctification of the Spirit before justification, the first aspect, and the sanctification of the Spirit after justification, the second aspect. With the second aspect of the Spirit's sanctification there are two sides — the positional side and the dispositional side. After God justifies us and regenerates us, immediately the sanctifying Spirit continues His separating work upon us and within us. First, the sanctifying Spirit separates us positionally from things that are common and worldly. This positional sanctification is objective. Simultaneously, the sanctifying Spirit also begins to sanctify us dispositionally. This means that the Spirit is sanctifying our disposition. This is the subjective side of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. The subjective sanctification is what we mean by the work of transformation. Subjective sanctification involves the transformation of our disposition and our inward parts. Therefore, this transformation of our disposition is the dispositional sanctification of the Spirit.]
First Peter 1:1-2 says that we were chosen "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
[Peter says that sanctification comes after the Father's selection and before Christ's redemption. According to this verse, the sanctification of the Spirit is unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Surely, this indicates that the sanctification of the Spirit precedes the redemption of Christ....
In eternity past God selected us. But how could this selection be applied to us? In order for it to be applied, there is the need of the Spirit's application. We all can testify of this from our experience. We were wandering on earth, perhaps as those who never had a thought concerning God. But one day the "wind" of the Spirit "blew" us to a place where we heard the preaching of the gospel. While we were listening to the preaching of the gospel, faith was infused into us. In this way God's selection was applied to us. The next thing to be applied was the redemption of Christ. In this sense the sanctification of the Spirit preceded our experience of Christ's redemption.]
[I can use my own experience to illustrate this aspect of the Spirit's sanctification. I was born into the religion of Christianity, but, of course, I was not born into Christ. As a young person, I became quite rebellious, having seen some things in Christianity that I did not agree with.
But one day, at the age of nineteen, I was arrested by the sanctifying Spirit. A young woman evangelist came to our town, and out of curiosity I went to listen to her. As I sat in the meeting, the Spirit asked me, "What are you doing here? I have been pursuing you for a long time, and now is the time for Me to catch you." I was indeed caught for the Lord at that time. I repented and I began to obey Christ and accept what He did. No doubt, at the same time I received the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, and I experienced the first aspect of the sanctifying work of the Spirit. From that time onward, the Spirit has been continually sanctifying me. Even now this sanctifying work, the second aspect of the Spirit's sanctification, is still going on.
The sanctifying work of the Spirit began before God's justification and it continues afterward. Before justification, we are separated unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ.]
[In order for us to be holy, we first need to be separated unto God positionally. With respect to our family, neighbors, colleagues, and friends, we need to be separated.] This does not necessarily mean to be separated physically, but it means that we are different in the way we think, the things we speak, and the things we do.
Romans 6:19 says, "I speak humanly because of the weakness of your flesh. For as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification."
[Many Christians, however, are saved, but not separated. Normally, once a person is saved, he should also be separated. This is the reason a believer is called a saint. Consider the majority of Christians today. They are virtually the same as the worldly people. With them, there is no separation. Many of their relatives and friends do not even know that they are Christians. But to be holy is to be separated unto God. This, of course, is a matter of position.]
[Admittedly, separation is not a very deep matter; it is merely positional. But do not think that position is unimportant. It means a great deal. We have a position as saints, as separated ones, and we need to keep it.]
[In subjective sanctification we are saturated with God dispositionally. Separation can take place rather easily and in a very short time. But to be saturated dispositionally takes a long time. If we are faithful to the Lord, we shall be saturated with the nature of God day after day. God intends to saturate us with Himself, and we need to soak up God in our being. This requires time. This is the process of being made holy.]
[In order to accomplish this God has been processed into the available Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). Before being processed He was not available to perform this subjective work of sanctification. Before He was processed He was able to create the world, but He was unable to enter into His creature. Although He could do many things outside of us, He could not come into us until He had passed through the complete process of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Since being processed, He has become and still is the available Spirit of life. Now, like the air for breathing (John 20:22), it is so easy for Him to enter into us. As the available Spirit of life, God has come into our spirit, making it life. Since Christ, the life-giving Spirit, is in us, our spirit is life because of righteousness (Rom. 8:10). The Lord has made our spirit life by regeneration. Now, as the Spirit of life in our spirit, He is spreading Himself from our spirit into our soul — into our mind, emotion, and will. Eventually, He will even expand into our mortal body. In such a way God saturates us with Himself. This saturation is called sanctification. Through this saturation God works Himself with His holy nature into our entire being, into our spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). Thus, our whole being will be fully permeated, sanctified, with His holy nature. We are presently undergoing this process of sanctification.]
This sanctification takes place by the Word, which is truth, and by the Spirit, which is the Spirit of truth. In the Gospel of John the Word and the Spirit are mentioned often. In 6:63 the Lord said, "The words I speak unto you are spirit and are life." In 17:17 He prayed, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."
[Actually, the Word and the Spirit are one. I thank the Lord that so many of us have come back to the Word and are getting into the Word every day. As we come to the Word every morning, outwardly we touch the Word, but inwardly the Spirit touches us. By the Word and by the Spirit, both of which are the reality, we are sanctified.]
[Suppose the young people touch the Word with the Spirit in morning watch and then go to school. Throughout the day at school, this word of truth will work within them to separate them and make them different from their classmates in their behavior, actions, work, thoughts, and feelings. Something is working within them to sanctify them, to make them holy.
By taking the Word in this way, we have the clear conviction that something of the Lord has been wrought into us. This is not the mere knowledge of the Bible or of things concerning the Lord. It is the reality of the Triune God living, moving, working, and separating us. This makes us different from the worldly people. I can tell by the faces of the young people that they are graced by the Lord's presence. What a blessing! Every morning we can touch the living Word and have the divine reality infused into our being. In this way the Triune God is transfused into us.]
After regenerating our spirit, God desires to saturate our entire being with Himself. This is the Spirit's work of sanctification. The sanctification of the Spirit is of two aspects: before justification and after justification. Before justification, the Spirit works to bring us to repentance. After we repent and are justified, the Spirit continues to sanctify us on two sides, positionally and dispositionally. A practical way to be sanctified is by being touched by the Spirit in the Word.
