Experiential Sanctification

Please turn in your Bibles to John 17:13.

“Experiential sanctification” 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; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Tim. 2:21; 1 Pet. 3:15; 1 Thess. 4:3-4, 7; 1 Tim. 2:15).

John 17:13 “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” (NASB95)

“Experiential sanctification” is the post-conversion experience of the church age believer who is in fellowship with God by confessing any known sin to the Father when necessary followed by obedience to the Father’s will, which is revealed by the Spirit through the Word of God (1 John 1:9; cf. 1 John 2:5).

Sanctification is experienced by the believer who submits to the desires of the Spirit, which constitutes being filled with the Spirit, which is commanded of the Christian in Ephesians 5:18 (cf. Romans 8:5-6).

This obedience also constitutes obeying the command to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul (Colossians 3:16).

This obedience enables the Spirit to reproduce the character of Christ in the believer (Galatians 5:22-23).

Experiential sanctification 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 conversion.

Therefore, only believers who are obedient to the Word of God will experience sanctification in time.

The believer experiences sanctification by obeying the teaching of the Word of God, which states that the believer has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ and which teaching is inspired by the Holy Spirit (See Romans 6).

Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NASB95)

The will of the Father is for the believer to obey the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that he has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ, which constitutes experiencing sanctification.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality, 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God. (NASB95)

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. (NASB95)

The believer who experiences sanctification is walking in “newness of life” and he does this by obeying the teaching of the Word of God, which states that the believer has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ and which teaching is inspired by the Holy Spirit (See Romans 6).

The believer can experience this victory and deliverance by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that he has been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ (Romans 6:11-23; 8:1-17; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-17).

The believer’s faith in the teaching of the Word of God that he has 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 he has been crucified, died and buried with Christ will experience deliverance from the lust patterns of the old sin nature (Galatians 5:24).

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 (Romans 6:11-12; Colossians 3:5).

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

However, at the moment of conversion, through the baptism of the Spirit, the omnipotence of the Spirit freed the believer from the sin nature.

He did this by identifying the believer with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session (See Romans 6:4-7; Ephesians 2:4-6).

This identification set up the potential for them to experience this deliverance from the sin nature and provided a guarantee of experiencing this deliverance permanently in a resurrection body at the rapture of the church.

Also, at the moment of conversion, 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).

The believer is prohibited from obeying the lust patterns of the old Adamic sin nature and is commanded to appropriate by faith his new position in Christ in order to experience his deliverance from the sin nature.

This constitutes walking by means of the Spirit (See Romans 6:12-13; 13:14; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 4:17-24).

The believer sins because he chooses to disobey the teaching of the Word of God that his sin nature was crucified with Christ at the Cross and thus allows the sin nature to control and influence his soul so that he produces mental, verbal and overt acts of sin (See James 1:13-15).

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 (Galatians 5:17).

Appropriating by faith one’s position in Christ constitutes walking by means of the Spirit since the Spirit teaches in the Word of God that the Christian has been crucified with Christ, has died and has been buried with Him and is raised and seated with Him (Galatians 5:16).

The believer loses fellowship through obeying the sin nature and committing personal sins.

However, he is restored through the confession of sin (1 John 1:9).

This fellowship is maintained by bringing one’s thoughts into obedience to the teaching of the Spirit, which constitutes obeying the command of Ephesians 5:18 to be influenced by means of the Spirit.

Obeying the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God which constitutes being filled with the Spirit is synonymous with the command in Colossians 3:16 to let the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul since both produce the same results and the Spirit inspired the Scriptures.

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).