Sanctification-Introduction (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday September 20, 2023

Sanctification Series: Introduction to the Doctrine of Sanctification

Lesson # 1

In the Greek New Testament, the adjective hagios (ἅγιος), “saints” describes church age believers from the perspective that they have been sanctified or set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification in order to order serve God exclusively.

This word is related to sanctification which is the direct result of the baptism of the Spirit.

It is a reminder to the Christian community as to what God has done for them through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at their justification and it denotes His viewpoint of them.

It summarizes the doctrine of positional truth and the justified sinner’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore, it speaks of the believer’s intimate, eternally secure position because of their union and identification with Christ.

The Christian’s “position in Christ” refers to the fact that at the moment they believed in Christ, the omnipotence of the Spirit caused them to become identical and united with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session, and which ministry of the Spirit is called in Scripture, the “baptism” of the Spirit.

This means that when Christ was crucified, God crucified the Christian with Him and when Christ died and was buried, God considers them to have died and been buried with Christ.

It also means that when Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of the Father (the session of Christ), God raised and seated the Christian with Him.

So therefore, the church age believer’s sanctification is directly related to the baptism of the Spirit.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But now, each one of us are obligated to always make it our habit of giving thanks to the one and only God on behalf of each and every one of you brothers and sisters, who are divinely loved by the one and only Lord. For this God for His own glory chose each one of you as firstfruits for the purpose of experiencing salvation by means of sanctification through the personal agency of the Spirit and correspondingly, by means of faith in the truth. (Pastor’s translation)

“Sanctification” is a technical theological term for the believer who has been set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification in order to serve God exclusively and is accomplished in three stages: (1) Positional (2) Experiential (3) Perfective.

The baptism of the Spirit results in positional sanctification and the potential to experience sanctification in time and the guarantee of perfective sanctification at the resurrection of the church.

All three stages of sanctification refer to the process of conforming the believer into the image of Jesus Christ, which is the Father’s plan from eternity past (Romans 8:28-30).

Therefore, sanctification deals with conforming the believer to the holiness of God and reproducing it in the believer.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV84)

1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (NIV84)

The moment the believer was declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit caused the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, His spiritual and physical death, His burial, resurrection and session.

It also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Greek New Testament, there are at least eight different analogies that express the justified sinner’s union with Christ:

(1) The last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 5:17a).

(2) The Head and the Body (Col. 1:18a).

(3) The Great Shepherd and the Sheep (Heb. 13:20).

(4) The True Vine and the Branches (John 15:5a).

(5) The Chief Cornerstone and the Stones in the building (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-6).

(6) The Great High Priest and members of the Royal Priesthood (Heb. 4:14a; 1 Pet. 2:9a).

(7) The Groom and the Bride. (Our wedding occurs at the Second Advent) (Rev. 19:7).

(8) The King of Kings and the Royal Family of God (Rev. 19:14-16).

The prepositional phrases “in Christ, in Christ Jesus, in the Lord, in Him, in Whom” are in some way or another reference to the Christian’s union with the Christ.

“In Christ”: Rom. 8:1; 12:5; 16:3, 7-10; 1 Cor. 3:1; 4:10, 15, 17; 15:18-19; 2 Cor. 2:14, 17; 3:14; 5:17, 19; 12:2, 19; Gal. 1:22, Eph. 1:3, 10, 12, 20; Eph. 2:10, 13; Col. 1:2; 1 Thess. 4:16; Philemon 8; 1 Pet. 3:16; 5:14.

“In Christ Jesus”: 1 Cor. 1:2, 30; 15:31; 16:24; Gal. 2:4; Gal. 3:26, 28; Phil. 1:1, 13; 2:1, 5; 3:3, 14; 4:21; Eph. 1:1; 2:6; Eph. 2:10, 13; 3:6, 11; Col. 1:4, 28; 1 Thess. 2:14; 5:18; 1 Tim. 1:14; 3:13; 2 Tim. 1:1, 9, 13; 2:1, 10; 3:12, 15; Philemon 23.

“In Him”: 1 Cor. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:4; Eph. 1:4; Phil. 3:9; Col. 2:7, 10.

“In the Lord”: Rom. 16:11-13, 22; 1 Cor. 1:31; 4:17; 7:39; 9:1-2; 11:11; 15:58; 16:19; 2 Cor. 10:17; Eph. 2:21; 4:17; 5:8; 6:1, 10, 21; Phil. 1:14; 3:1; 4:1-2, 4, 10; Col. 4:7, 17; 1 Thess. 3:8; 5:12; 2 Thess. 3:4, 12; Philemon 16, 20.

“In Whom”: Eph. 1:11; Col. 2:3, 11.