Sanctification is that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus Christ does in a man by the Holy Spirit, when He calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart and makes him practically godly in life.

The instrument by which the Spirit effects this work is generally the Word of God, though He sometimes uses afflictions and providential visitations “without the word” (1 Peter 3:1). He who supposes that Jesus Christ only lived and died and rose again in order to provide justification and forgiveness of sins for His people has yet much to learn. Whether he knows it or not, he is dishonoring our blessed Lord and making Him only a half Savior.

The Lord Jesus has undertaken everything that His people’s souls require: not only to deliver them from the guilt of their sins by His atoning death, but from the dominion of their sins, by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit; not only to justify them, but also to sanctify them. He is, thus, not only their righteousness, but their sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Let us hear what the Bible says: “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified” (John 17:19). 

“Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it” (Ephesians 5:25-26). 

Christ “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). 

Christ “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). 

Christ has “reconciled [you] in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:21-22).

Let the meaning of these five texts be carefully considered. If words mean anything, they teach that Christ undertakes the sanctification, no less than the justification, of His believing people. Both are alike provided for in that “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure” (2 Samuel 23:5),  of which the mediator is Christ. In fact, Christ is called “He who sanctifies,” and His people “they who are sanctified” (Cf. Hebrews 2:11).  

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.

This article is taken from Holiness, by J.C. Ryle (1816-1900). Work is in the Public Domain. 

Photo: Alamy