What Is Sanctification?

by Richard Phillips

1. Sanctification is necessary, not optional, to salvation.  According to the Bible, it simply is not possible to be a Christian without sanctification.  Jesus said that in the final judgment, he will reject those who claimed to serve him but who continued in lives of flagrant sin: “I never knew you,” he will say, “depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Mt. 7:22-23).  This is not to say that we are saved by our sanctification.  Rather, we are saved to a life of growing holiness and good works (see Eph. 2:10).  Sanctification is not perfect in this life – no Christian is perfectly holy (see Phil. 3:12), but it must be present in our lives.  Jesus said that sanctification is the necessary evidence of salvation: “Thus you will recognize them,” he said, “by their fruits” (Mt. 7:20).
2. Justification and Sanctification, though different, are inseparable graces of salvation.  The commonly held idea that we may trust Jesus as Savior without submitting to him as Lord is utterly contrary to Scripture.  In saving faith, we embrace the whole Christ: prophet, priest, and king; Lord and Savior.  To be sure, we must distinguish between justification and sanctification.  One common error is to base our justification on our sanctification.  This will poison our spiritual lives, for the simple reason that our sanctification is never good enough to justify us.  Thank God that we are justified by Christ’s performance, rather than by our own performance!  But while justification and sanctification are different, they always go together.  In saving faith, we receive the once-for-all act of justification – God declares us righteous in Christ forever – and the life-long work of sanctification begins at the moment when we are born again. 
3. Whereas faith is passive in justification, faith is active in sanctification.  In justification we are saved as our faith receives and rests upon the perfect work that Christ did for us.  In sanctification, our faith enters into the work that Christ is now doing in us.  Paul said to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13).  Therefore Christians are to work hard at sanctification.   Through prayer and practical obedience, we are to mortify our sins: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” (Col. 3:5).  Likewise, we are actively to cultivate good works: “present… your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Rom. 6:14). 
4. Sanctification relies on God’s grace, received through God’s Word, prayer, and the sacraments.  God’s grace in our lives has the goal of making us holy.  Paul wrote: “For the grace of God has appeared… training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit. 2:11-12).  Our primary resource in sanctification is God’s Word.  Jesus thus prayed to the Father: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (Jn. 17:17).  Paul’s classic call to sanctification centered on mind renewal through the Word: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rom. 12:2).  Prayer is also vital to our sanctification, since the power we need to turn from sins is received from God in prayer.  Jesus was especially talking about our sanctification when he promised: “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you” (Lk. 11:10).  Finally, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is intended to focus our faith on the all-sufficiency of Christ’s death for us and to turn our eyes to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith.  Paul thus wrote: “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16).