We Are Being Sanctified
The Text
Romans 8:29–30 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
The Devotion
Isaiah 48:9–11
9 I will delay my anger for the sake of my name, and I will restrain myself for your benefit and for my praise, so that you will not be destroyed.
Look, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
I will act for my own sake, indeed, my own, for how can I be defiled? I will not give my glory to another.
So, God saved us. Some of you might be asking the next logical question: Now what?
What do we do now? This life I was living before: lying, sexual deviances, pride, foolishness, rage, gossip—these are sins that I was dwelling in before, and I know how they are not pleasing to God. So, do I go back to the way I was living?
Or maybe you are saying that I don't want to go back. The deal I received is much sweeter than the one I had. I have dealt with abuse, addiction, disease, and sickness. I can't go back.
For both of the newly minted Christians and everyone else in between, let us never forget that when God saves us, we are most certainly changed, but we are not instantly perfect. Like, my circumstances are still the same, and it takes so much effort and energy just to react differently than I did previously. And for some who suffer and have suffered from mental health issues like PTSD (like myself), your circumstances are maybe good, bad, or neutral, but God didn't instantly heal you of your past trauma. So the triggers might still happen. For me, I was saved for several years and was in an unhealthy marriage where triggers were not stopped.
And just because God saved me didn't mean everything magically got better. For some of us, it got a whole lot worse.
Now, I can throw the following verse at you, and take a moment to highlight the key phrase in the verse to make sure you understand the nuance in the text:
Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
I think most of us get that. All things mean all things. All means good and bad. But exactly what does that mean, and what does it mean for me?
In other words, I signed up to be a Christian. What should I expect from God now that I am predestined, called, justified, clean, protected, regenerated, and adopted?
What we should expect from God is to bank on his absolute promise that we will be perfect in every way. Not "saved but still do some light sinning on the side". No, we will stand before God, we will look like his Son.
How?
We have a two-fold process. One, it is the wrath-absorbing death of Jesus Christ that produces a spotless robe so that God covers your sin. But it is the blood-drained body of that same Jesus that cleanses you from the inside—yes, even those wicked, sinful thoughts you have in your mind and heart. When you stand before God, you are going to be covered by Christ's work, and you are going to be perfected by the work of the Holy Spirit.
And this will take a lifetime.
For some I know who got saved, they were immediately broken free from crippling addictions. It happened to me. The moment I got saved from a decades-long addiction to porn. But what I learned later is that it doesn't mean the temptations don't come after you. And it doesn't say you won't fall. I certainly did. But was the difference between my old self and new self? I got right back up. By the grace of God, I kept getting back up after every fall.
Proverbs 24:16 Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin.
Let us rejoice in the fact that this is not some absolute limit of how many times a Christian can sin before he is let go by God. What does it mean that the righteous ones of God will always get up one more time, even after all the times they have fallen? That is because of the strength, love, and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:17, tells us that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." Which is indeed true, but I think we need to flip back over to his previous letter to get a stronger point:
Romans 6:1–14
1 What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,
7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,
9 because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.
10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
13 And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
14 For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
In other words, that old self is dead. When God saves you, Christ took your old self with him when he died. However, unlike Christ, who is holy and righteous, your sin, your old self, wasn't raised from the dead. It remains dead. You are alive in Christ. Live in that!
Ezekiel takes it one step further and declares a complete heart transplant by God, the Good Surgeon:
Ezekiel 11:19-20 I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
Notice the order. First, he gives us a new heart. Next, a new spirit. He does so by removing our stony, hard, cancerous, sin-filled hearts and replacing them with a soft, healthy, fleshy heart. But it is only now that we have this new heart; we get to walk in his statutes, keep his rules, and obey them.
So you see, this is the work of God in your active obedience: that He will transform you into the image of His Son.
But we just established that this process doesn't often happen overnight; rather, it happens over a lifetime. I think we know our part: we see it in the Bible. But what is God's part in all of this?
To know God's part, we have to look at the promises he has for his children when it comes to molding, transforming, shaping, growing, and renewing us to look like His Son.
First, he will sanctify, or that is, make us holy by our faith. Look at what Paul says when he gives a testimony of God saving him on the road to Damascus:
Acts 26:15-18 “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
It is your faith, which is a gift from God, that makes you holy. Not only are you declared holy because God is holy, but you will be holy because of your faith in the God who the angels in heaven declare is "holy, holy, holy!"
You are declared and made righteous because of your faith in God. If you believe in his word and trust his promises, you will live as though you believe. Not to do so is hypocrisy.
It is this very idea that separates the theologies and doctrines of the Roman Catholics and the Protestants: It is not that the little things we do that have no heart and no meaning behind them in order to pay for our sins, but it is that we, Protestants, believe that Christ took care of all of my sins once and for all and now, he sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. We contend that the righteous shall live by faith.
Second, he will continue to refine us by putting us in certain situations or allowing us to experience certain afflictions so that we can grow and mature. God gave Paul a messenger of Satan to harass him so that "it would keep him from being conceited."
We might think that is insanity or even cruel. I am going to use a phrase that only the most serious gym-goer would understand: progressive overload. Progressive overload is the idea that, to be faster, stronger, and more endurance-focused, you need to keep increasing your weights, reps, and time. In other words, you cannot keep going to the gym and keep doing the same thing over and over again. In fact, if you do, you will become weaker because the body is exceptionally terrific at being efficient.
Likewise, whatever God sends our way, even suffering, will produce not only endurance and godly character, but ultimately a hope that does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Third, when we mess up, He will discipline us as a good parent would.
Hebrews 12:5–6 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.
When we mess up, we are given the strength to get up once more. But our Father does not want us to suffer the sins that we keep committing. So sometimes, discipline is involved.
I hesitate to share this story, but I know it's the clearest example of my Father disciplining me. I was dating a gal I shouldn't have been dating. I just knew I shouldn't be seeing her. Despite all of that, I made the mistake of telling God, "Do your work in me". And I cannot begin to tell you the immense amount of suffering that I endured, including loss of job and losing a place to stay until we finally broke up.
So, what will all of this sanctifying confirmation look like?
Some of it will look like suffering. To be heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, we will have to suffer with him so that we may be glorified with him. But we are not to consider the sufferings of this present time to be worthy of comparison to the glory that will be revealed to us.
Some of it will look like Israelites wandering in the desert (see the book of Exodus), but know it is God who drew you out into the wilderness; He is also the same God who will be closer than a whisper and will never leave your side.
Some of it will look like death, as though we are walking through the valley of the stench of death, but never forget that Jesus Christ is the lily of the valley whose wonderful fragrance gives life!
The Scriptures
Exodus 29:43 I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by my glory.
Exodus 31:13 “Tell the Israelites: You must observe my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you will know that I am the LORD who consecrates you.
Leviticus 10:3 Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has spoken: I will demonstrate my holiness to those who are near me, and I will reveal my glory before all the people.” And Aaron remained silent.
Leviticus 20:8 Keep my statutes and do them; I am the LORD who sets you apart.
Leviticus 21:8 You are to consider him holy since he presents the food of your God. He will be holy to you because I, the LORD who sets you apart, am holy.
Leviticus 21:22–23 He may eat the food of his God from what is especially holy as well as from what is holy. But because he has a defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar. He is not to desecrate my holy places, for I am the LORD who sets them apart.”
Leviticus 22:9 They must keep my instruction, or they will be guilty and die because they profane it; I am the LORD who sets them apart.
Leviticus 22:15–16 The priests must not profane the holy offerings the Israelites give to the LORD by letting the people eat their holy offerings and having them bear the penalty of restitution. For I am the LORD who sets them apart.”
Leviticus 22:31–33 “You are to keep my commands and do them; I am the LORD. You must not profane my holy name; I must be treated as holy among the Israelites. I am the LORD who sets you apart, the one who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the LORD.”
Psalm 57:2 I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
Psalm 138:8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me. LORD, your faithful love endures forever; do not abandon the work of your hands.
Isaiah 29:23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands within his nation, they will honor my name, they will honor the Holy One of Jacob and stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Ezekiel 7:24 So I will bring the most evil of nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their sacred places will be profaned.
Ezekiel 20:12 I also gave them my Sabbaths to serve as a sign between me and them, so that they would know that I am the LORD who consecrates them.
Ezekiel 37:28 When my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel.’ ”
John 17:17–19 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify myself for them, so that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Acts 20:32 “And now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.
Acts 26:15–18 “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Romans 6:19–23 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:28–30 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans 15:14–16 My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. Nevertheless, I have written to remind you more boldly on some points because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the gospel of God. God’s purpose is that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:2–3 To the church of God at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord—both their Lord and ours. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:30–31 It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption —in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 6:9–11 Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Do not be deceived: No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God’s kingdom. And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 15:10–11 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed.
Ephesians 5:25–27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.
Philippians 1:6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:12–13 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 For this is God’s will, your sanctification: that you keep away from sexual immorality, that each of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God. This means one must not transgress against and take advantage of a brother or sister in this manner, because the Lord is an avenger of all these offenses, as we also previously told and warned you. For God has not called us to impurity but to live in holiness. Consequently, anyone who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:24 He who calls you is faithful; he will do it.
2 Thessalonians 2:13–15 But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, whether by what we said or what we wrote.
Hebrews 2:11–13 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying: I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters; I will sing hymns to you in the congregation. Again, I will trust in him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave me.
Hebrews 9:13–14 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?
Hebrews 10:10 By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
Hebrews 10:14–18 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Hebrews 13:12 Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.
Hebrews 13:20–21 Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—through the blood of the everlasting covenant, equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 1:1–2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.