Concept

Sanctification

Intro

What does it mean to grow in Christ after you are saved?

The Bible answers with one word: sanctification. It means being set apart for God and slowly becoming more like Jesus over time. Salvation makes a person right with God at one moment. Sanctification is the long, daily work of being changed from the inside out.

The New Testament shows this happening in three steps. The moment a person trusts Christ, God already calls them holy in His sight. Then, all through their life, the Holy Spirit works in them to shape their thoughts, desires, and habits to look more like Jesus. Finally, when Christ returns or the believer dies and sees Him, the change will be complete.

Christians do not all agree on how much change to expect in this life. Some traditions teach that sin keeps fighting back until death, and the Christian life is a long battle. Others teach that the Spirit can give a deeper victory now, freeing the believer from the pull toward sin. Both sides read the same Bible and reach different conclusions. This page presents both fairly.

What every tradition agrees on: God is the one who changes us, but we are not passive. We pray, read Scripture, gather with other believers, fight temptation, and walk in step with the Spirit. The Spirit does the deep work; we cooperate.

In full

The work of God by which the believer is set apart (Hebrew qadash; Greek hagiazō) and progressively conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18). The Reformation traditions sharply distinguish sanctification from Justification by Faith: justification is the once-for-all forensic verdict received at conversion, sanctification is the lifelong inward work of the Spirit. Sanctification has a triple structure across the New Testament, positional (already accomplished, 1 Cor 6:11), progressive (ongoing, 2 Cor 3:18), and ultimate / final (consummated at glorification, 1 Thess 5:23; 1 John 3:2).

Core claim

Sanctification is what God does in the believer (regeneration's continuation) and what the believer is called to work out by the Spirit (Phil 2:12-13). It is the gospel's answer to the question, "If we are saved by grace through faith and not by works, why does the New Testament demand obedience?" The answer: because grace is not a license to sin (Rom 6:1) but the power that breaks sin's reign and grows the believer into Christlikeness.

The three tenses

The same word covers three different works because the underlying reality, being made God's own and conformed to Christ, has these three temporal phases.

Biblical foundation

• 1 Corinthians 6.11, "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." (Positional)
• 2 Corinthians 3.18, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." (Progressive)
• Romans 6:11-14, "Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus... sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace." (Mechanism)
• Romans 8:13-14, "If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." (Mortification by the Spirit)
• Philippians 2.12-13, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Cooperative structure)
• Philippians 3.12-14, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on..." (Progressive)
• 1 Thessalonians 5.23, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete..." (Ultimate)
• 1 John 3:2-3, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him..." (Ultimate)
• Romans 12.2, "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Means)
• John 17.17, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." (Means)
• Galatians 5:16-25, Walking by the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit. (Means and evidence)
• Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue... the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." (Necessity)

Spread of positions

The hardest question across traditions is the mechanism and expected outcome of progressive sanctification, how much victory over sin can the believer expect in this life?

• Reformed / Lutheran (classical Protestant). Sanctification is real and progressive but never complete in this life. The believer remains simul iustus et peccator (simultaneously righteous and sinner, Luther's phrase). Indwelling sin (Rom 7:14-25) persists as a battle until death. Sanctification proceeds by the Spirit applying the gospel to the heart (mortification of sin and vivification in righteousness, Owen, Calvin). Reading of Romans 7.14-25: Paul describes the normative Christian experience of struggle with indwelling sin.
• Wesleyan / Holiness. Sanctification can in principle reach entire sanctification ("Christian perfection") in this life, a state of perfect love in which the believer no longer wills sin, often received as a "second blessing" or "second work of grace" subsequent to justification. Wesley distinguished perfection-in-love from sinless-in-every-particular; later holiness teachers sometimes claimed more. Reading of Romans 7: addresses the pre-Christian or pre-Spirit-baptized condition; a Spirit-filled believer transcends Romans 7 into Romans 8.
• Keswick / "Higher Life" / Victorious Life. Mid-late 19th-century British movement (Keswick Convention from 1875). Distinguishes carnal Christians from Spirit-filled Christians; victory over sin comes by surrender and abiding in Christ rather than by struggle. "Let go and let God." Critiqued from the Reformed side as a quietism that under-realizes the believer's active mortification.
• Pentecostal / Charismatic. Often inherits Holiness or Keswick frameworks, with "Spirit baptism" (subsequent to conversion, evidenced by tongues in classical Pentecostalism) as the empowering event for holy living and ministry.
• Roman Catholic. Sanctification largely overlaps with what Catholics call justification (intrinsic transformation by infused grace, principally through the sacraments). The pursuit of holiness is universal (Lumen Gentium §39-42); some attain heroic virtue (the saints). Purgatory completes any remaining purification.
• Eastern Orthodox. Theosis, deification, participation in the divine energies, is the encompassing soteriological category; what Protestants distinguish as sanctification is integral to theosis. Acquired through the sacramental life, ascesis, and prayer (esp. the Jesus Prayer in the Hesychast tradition).
• Anabaptist / Free Church. Often emphasizes discipleship and visible community holiness over inward forensic justification; tends toward strong sanctification expectations and church discipline.

Tensions

Romans 7 is the central exegetical battleground.

• Reformed reading. "What I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do" (Rom 7:15) describes the Christian's ongoing experience of indwelling sin warring against the new nature. The Spirit gives victory, but the war is lifelong. Texts: 1 John 1:8 ("if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves"); Gal 5:17 ("the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit"); Phil 3:12.
• Wesleyan / Holiness reading. Romans 7 describes the unregenerate person under the Law, or the immature believer not yet sanctified wholly. Romans 8 ("there is therefore now no condemnation"; "the law of the Spirit of life... has set you free") describes the normal Spirit-filled Christian life. Texts: 1 John 3:9 ("no one who is born of God practices sin"); Rom 6:14 ("sin shall not be master over you"); Gal 5:24 ("those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh").

ris3n's note **** takes the Wesleyan / Holiness side explicitly, "we do not have both the Holy Spirit and the flesh nature. We only have one or the other... Jesus cuts away the flesh when we receive the Holy Spirit, and we lose sinful desires" (citing Col 2:11; Gal 5:24; Rom 8:9, 13; 1 John 3:9; Acts 5:32). The note characterizes the Reformed reading as a false-church teaching that "denies the power of the Holy Spirit." This is a substantive theological position with serious biblical warrant, and it directly contradicts the Reformed reading of Romans 7. The codex records both as positions: the Reformed Protestant tradition (Calvin, Owen, the Westminster divines, modern figures like Sinclair Ferguson and Kevin DeYoung) reads Rom 7 as a description of the believer's ongoing struggle with indwelling sin; the Wesleyan / Holiness / Pentecostal tradition (Wesley, Phoebe Palmer, holiness teachers from Asbury and Wheaton's earlier years, modern Nazarene and Wesleyan Methodist confessional positions) reads Rom 7 as describing the unregenerate or pre-sanctified state. Both can cite the relevant texts; both are well-developed historical Christian positions; the codex does not adjudicate.

Other tensions:

• "Already / not yet" balance. How much victory should the believer expect now? Over-realized eschatology produces perfectionism and despair when it fails; under-realized produces complacency and antinomianism.
• Means of sanctification. Reformed: Word, sacraments, prayer, fellowship, suffering. Catholic: above all the sacraments (especially Eucharist and confession). Wesleyan: classes, bands, accountable discipleship, sanctifying experiences. Pentecostal: Spirit baptism and gifts.
• Active vs passive frames. "Mortify... by the Spirit" (Rom 8:13), active. "Let go and let God" (Keswick), passive / surrender. Reformed traditions tend to integrate (active in dependence on the Spirit); each side critiques the other for distortion.
• Sanctification and assurance. Lordship-salvation (MacArthur): genuine faith necessarily produces visible sanctification, its absence is evidence of false profession. Free-grace (Hodges, Ryrie): assurance rests on the bare promise of Christ; sanctification varies and may even fail badly while salvation remains. See Repentance for the broader dispute.

See also

• Justification by Faith (distinguished from sanctification)
• Sola Fide (justification's instrument; sanctification is its fruit)
• Repentance (initial turning; lifelong reorientation)
• Grace vs Law (sanctification mechanism varies with the law/grace position)
• New Covenant, Mosaic Law
• Passages: Romans 6.14, Romans 7, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 3.18, Philippians 2.12-13, 1 Thessalonians 5.23, 1 John 3:2