SANCTIFICATION
Sanctification means holiness or the image or likeness of Christ. God’s whole plan of redemption is that people might be molded and shaped into His image. We know that Adam was created in the image of God. (Gen. 1:27) He was holy, and walked and talked with God in the garden. But through transgression, that likeness was lost. Sin came in and destroyed the image.
For that reason, God set forth the great plan of redemption, by which the image should be restored, and man should be brought into that holiness that was lost through the fall. Sanctification is the means God has ordained by which the divine nature of Jesus Christ should be fully imparted to our lives. This is set forth in the Old and the New Testaments.
The Word tells us that Jesus died not only for our justification, but that He also suffered and shed His Blood for our sanctification. (Hebrews 13:12.) We read that the “sin offering,” that typified sanctification, was always burned without the camp. (Heb.13:11.) It pointed to the complete destruction of the sin principle, the inbred nature. It had its fulfillment when Jesus was led outside the gate and was crucified on Calvary’s brow, “that He might sanctify the people with His own Blood.” And the apostle says, “Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” There is a reproach attached to any grace of God, but especially to sanctification.
You do not have to be sanctified in order to live above sin. A child of God does live above sin. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.” I John 3:9. If you are living in sin, you are not a child of God. Many claim to be saved and have lost the experience out of their soul and have gone back into sin. You must seek salvation and be restored to God in order to go on into sanctification, for it is impossible to receive sanctification unless the soul is born again and living without sin.
The true disciple of Jesus hungers and thirsty after righteousness. If you are in fellowship with Christ, there is a hunger and thirst in your heart for the deep things of God. You are walking in all the light God has shed on your pathway. You are hungering and thirsting after sanctification which purifies and cleanses the heart, takes out the old inbred nature and makes you pure and holy.
“If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:7.
Sanctification is the very hub of the Christian experience. It is the preparation of the Bride of Christ, the cleansing from all sin-“not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Ephesians 5:27. It is the “fine linen, clean and white,” (Rev. 19:8) that makes us ready for the coming of the Lord. It is that “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14. That holiness of heart puts within us the blessed hope of being ready when Jesus comes. Therefore it is necessary, above all things, that we be sanctified wholly, through the Blood of Christ.
It is an instantaneous deliverance. Paul said, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Romans 6:6. “Destroyed” literally means annihilated, and that word is never applied to the soul. So God has provided a means by which the inbred sin may be utterly destroyed-- not a remnant left. “Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17.
The question is: Has the supreme consecration been made? And do you believe it is for you today? Believing this in the heart, the work is half done. The soul hungers for it; and Jesus said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6.
If souls only know what the experience really means they would search for it as a hidden treasure! It puts a holy fear of God in the heart; it shuts the soul in with God. The fire of God is burning on the altar of the heart continually, as in the temple of old. God said, “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.” Lev. 6:13. It comes through consecrating your life, your time, ambition---everything to God. And in order to retain the blessing, you must keep your consecration.