Our Biblical Sanctification

God's Word mentions the words sanctification, sanctified and
sanctify many times. In the Old Testament more than 100 times and in the New
Testament more than 30 times. Jesus himself mentions it 4 times. Three times in his
prayer for us in John chapter 17. Therefore there is no doubt that the Lord want
us to know and understand this doctrine of sanctifIcation. I am sure that
Satan recognizes the importance of this doctrine. Because He seems to exhort a
lot of effort in order to distort it and make it in~effective to the believer .

I am refering here to the wrong doctrine of ENTIRE sanctification,
which some denominations and evangelical Christians seem to hold. They add the
word ENTIRE on the basis of mainly one verse, which is actually a salutation on
the end of the first epistel to the Thessalonicans. 1 Thes.5-23 " Now may the
God of peace Himself SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLy and may your whole Spirit, Soul and
Body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ "
Although this verse shows that there is such a thing as being
sanctified wholly, or as you will entirely, it also shows that this entire
sanctification will not take place until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I read
this scripture, as I remember may be 62 years ago, I understood it as Pauls
Salutation and blessings, actually meaning to express his desire that they were
going to make until the end . This understanding has been confirmed the rest
of my life by studying Gods Word and the conformation by the Holy Spirit.

By adding this word ENTIRE to the doctrine of sanctification, the
evil One is creating a lot of confusion, double talk and pride in many
Christians. He does that by suggesting that we can lead a complete sinless life. That
fills us with guilt when we find that we can not obtain it, or with pride, when
we imagine that we are perfect sinless already. So let us take a good look at
biblical sanctification.

The word sanctification [from the greek word Hagiasmos] according to
Webster means, "the state of growing in divine grace as result of christian
commitment, after baptisme or conversion." The verb sanctify[hagiazo] means;
"set appart for a sacred purpose". The word Saint comes from the greek word
Hagios. These are very good definitions, underwriten by God's word.


The complete picture, which the New Testament gives, is that
sanctification is both an instantanious happening at conversion and an ongoing drawn
out process, which comes to completion " in the twinkling of an eye " , when
Jesus takes us at our death or at the time of our rapture. At our true
conversion to Jesus Christ we all become Saints . And the bible calls us so. [ I
Cor.1-2 and Rom. 1-7 ] This is accomplished by Jesus shedding his blood and dying
on the cross for us to wash away our sins. And from then on God looks at us as
forgiven Saints.
However, there is no biblical support for the idea that we actually
reach a complete sinless state during our life. Our sins are continually
forgiven because when we remain in Jesus, He make intercession for us with the
Father. Beside Jesus Christ Himself, there never has been and never will be a
human who is perfectly sinless. God's word teaches us that " there is no one who
does not sin"[2Cr. 6-36]. And " there is not a just man on earth that does good
and does not sin" [Ecl.7-20]. Apostle Paul states in Romans that we all are
falling short and in Phil.3 he declares that he has not already been
perfected. If Paul had not reached that perfect state yet, who are we that we should
claim that we have, or even that we can obtain that state ?
We are exhorted by the word to continually pray for forgiveness of
our sin. lt would be useless if we did not commit any sins any more, would it
not ? That sanctification is a life long process is made clear by God's word.
For instance in Hebrew 10-14 it says; " for by one offering [Christ death on
the cross], He has perfected those who are BEING SANCTIFIED. Being sanctified by
the Holy Spirit is also is used in Romans 15-16 and it clearly indicates a
on-going process.
I must indicate that that process can be interupted by us. The Lords
stern warnings rings out loud and clear in Hebr .10-29. " We are worthy of
much more punishment, if we trample the Son of God under foot, counting the blood
of the Covenant [Jesus's blood] BY WHICH HE WAS SANCTIFIED, a common thing".
From verse 26 to verse 29, the Lord gives the most severe warnings to us. It
is awsome and very direct language. I recommend for all Christians to read this
over and over.

Because although we are new creatures ln Chrlst and have HIS promise
that He will hold us, we remain prone to sin. Those sincere Christians, who
are reading into GOd'S Word that one can lead a complete Sinless life, are
coming to a very eroneous and dangerous conclusion. It has shown to lead to all
kinds of wrong Interpretation of the Word. A presldent of an conservative
christian college wrote me one time, that they were holding the view that the
doctrine of entire sanctification was just another wording for the Baptisme with the
Holy Spirit ! I think he did not realize that he rejected this one time
instantanious event for today and the terminology that Jesus Himself used for it.
It also seems that they get fortified in this wrong thinking about
sanctification by mlsreadlng scriptures about Christian perfection and Holiness.
Specially the writings of John Wesley on Christian perfection seem to have
confused many Wesleyans. Although I think, that Wesley did not go so far as to
say that we can lead a sinless life and that he or anyone else was completeley
sinless. Some other writers in the past and contemporary, have gone through
great effort to explain away the scripures, which are sayIng that there are no
slnless human belngs on earth.


The word perfect comes from several different Hebrew and Greek words
used in the Bible. It shows how complex this concept is. In English it can and
is translated sometimes with mature, completed, finished and improved. The
way I see the word perfect, is that the bible shows that only God is perfect and
that Jesus was the only one who had lead a perfect live. That has to make the
word perfect rather relative to us.

The bible show us in different states of perfection. Babes, children,
young people, adults and elders. Therefore I believe that when we are in that
stage of christian Iive, in which our Lord has lead us, we can be perfect at
that level. In other words, a person who is born anew in Christ is perfect at
the level our Lord has brought him and there is no difference between a babe
in Christ or an elder, or vice versa. Each human being in a class at a certain
level is not better or higher rated than any other.


When a person is reborn, he is a new creature and made perfect by
the blood of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will grow him or her into more maturity
until he/she is called up . That is why the Lord is not unfair demanding from us,
when he said in Math.5-48, for us to be perfect. In 2 Tim.3-17 it says that
the man of God; may be perfect(complete] thoroughly equiped for every good
work. He also commands us "to be Holy ,even as I am Holy says the Lord". He knows
we can be Holy and perfect as long as we remain in His son Jesus Christ and are covered by his blood . In Him we are perfect and Holy ! AMEN