Sanctification Series: Experiential Sanctification

The second stage of sanctification is “experiential,” which is the function of the church age believer’s spiritual life in time through obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the communication of the Word of God (John 17:17; Romans 6:19, 22; 2 Timothy 2:21; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-4, 7; 1 Timothy 2:15).

“Experiential sanctification” is the post-justification experience of the believer who is in fellowship with God is accomplished by obeying the Spirit inspired Scriptures, which reveal the Father’s will for their life.

It is only a potential since it is contingent upon the church age believer responding to what God has done for him at the moment of justification, therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.

The believer who experiences sanctification is walking in “newness of life” appropriates their union and identification with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

The believer can experience victory and deliverance over enslavement to the sin nature, Satan and his cosmic system by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that they have been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ (Romans 6:11-23; 8:1-17; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-17). This is what Paul did.

The believer’s faith in the teaching of the Word of God that they have been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ will express itself in obedience, which results in the believer experiencing sanctification.

The believer who appropriates by faith the teaching of the Word of God that they have been crucified, died and buried with Christ will experience deliverance from the lust patterns of the old sin nature.

Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (NASB95)

The believer is to consider the members of his body to be dead to these lust patterns of the old sin nature since they were crucified at the cross and he has died with Christ.

Colossians 3:1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. (NIV84)

The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified so that the believer might not live for the lusts of the old sin nature but for the will of God (See 1 Peter 4:1-3).

Prior to their justification, the believer was enslaved to the lust patterns of the old Adamic sin nature since he was under spiritual death meaning he had no capacity to experience fellowship with God (See Ephesians 2:1-3).

At the moment of justification, through the baptism of the Spirit, the omnipotence of the Spirit identified the believer with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session (See Romans 6:4-7; Ephesians 2:4-6).

Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (NIV84)

Also, at the moment of justification, God gave the believer a new divine nature that gives him the capacity to experience deliverance from the lust patterns of the old Adamic sin nature (See 2 Peter 1:4).

Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were identified with Christ have clothed yourselves with the nature of Christ. (Pastor’s translation)

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new spiritual species; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (NASB95)

2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (NASB95)

The new Christ nature functions when the believer is obedient to the voice of the Spirit, which is heard through the communication of the Word of God and constitutes putting on the new man or the new self or new nature.

Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. (NASB95)

Fruit bearing, i.e. Christ-like character is the result of experiencing the holiness of God, which is synonymous with “experiential sanctification” since the believer cannot experience fellowship with a holy God unless he himself is holy.

The believer who is experiencing sanctification is experiencing the holiness of God or in other words manifesting the character of God through one’s thoughts, words and actions.

Since the believer has been crucified with Christ and has died with Him, he is commanded to consider himself dead to the sin nature.

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)

Therefore, since the believer has been crucified, died and buried with Christ and has been raised and seated with Him and has been given a new divine nature, he is commanded to abstain from the various lust patterns of the old sin nature, which wage war against the believer’s soul and is to flee them (cf. 1 Pet.2:11).

The believer’s sin nature will not be totally eradicated until he physically dies or when the rapture of the church takes place when the believer will receive a resurrection body to replace the body he now has, which contains the old sin nature (See 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20-21).

In the meantime, the believer has a battle raging within him since he has two natures, which are diametrically opposed to one another and he must choose between the two since the old sin nature wars against the Spirit (cf.Gal.5:17).

Having died with Christ and being raised with Christ and possessing the new Christ-nature sets the Christian free from the old Adamic nature.

We utilize the new Christ-nature by obeying the Word of God, which constitutes experiencing fellowship with God (1 John 2:3-5) and walking by means of the Spirit since the Spirit speaks to the believer through the Word of God (Gal. 5:16).

The believer loses fellowship through obeying the sin nature and committing personal sins but they are restored to fellow through the confession of sin (1 John 1:9).

This fellowship is maintained by bringing one’s thoughts into obedience to the teaching of Jesus Christ, which constitutes obeying the commands of Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit and Colossians 3:16 to let the word of Christ richly dwell in one’s soul.

Therefore, obedience to the Word of God will enable the believer to experience fellowship with God, which is synonymous with experiencing sanctification.

1 John 2:5 But, whoever, at any time does observe conscientiously His Word, indeed, in this one, the love for the one and only God is accomplished. By means of this we can confirm that we are at this particular moment in fellowship with Him. (Pastor’s translation)

This obedience constitutes loving the Lord.

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will observe conscientiously My commandments. (Pastor’s translation)

So this battle rages between the flesh, the sin nature and the Spirit.

The believer’s soul is a battleground.

The battle in the soul is related to whether they will live for self in the old sin nature or live for God in the new nature.

Paul relates this battle in his own life as a believer in Romans 7:14-25.