“As you come to him, a living stone, rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:4-5
I love the picture Peter paints in this verse. He refers to us as living stones that are being BUILT UP, to be a holy priesthood. God is calling his saints to be sanctified, to be built up to fulfill our holy calling. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Let me start off by defining what sanctification is. Sanctification, according to Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and more like Christ in our lives. The word sanctified comes from the same Hebrew root word that holy and consecrated come from, quodesh, which denotes something separate that contrasts with the profane.
Our sanctification is so important, in fact as 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says it is God’s will for his children to be sanctified. Charles Spurgeon does a fantastic job of explaining the significance of sanctification.
“Justification without sanctification would be no salvation at all. It would call the leper clean and leave him to die of his disease; it would forgive the rebellion and allow the rebel to remain an enemy to his king….Remember that the Lord Jesus came to take away sin in three ways. He came to remove the penalty of sin, the power of sin, and last, the presence of sin.”
While sanctification is utterly important I want to be sure to note that this should not cause us to be legalistic. Personal holiness is the effect of redemption, not the cause of it. No matter what we do our best efforts will never merit our salvation without the Spirit’s enabling.
What then is our role in the process of sanctification if it is only by the Spirit’s enabling? As Grudem noted sanctification is a combined effort between God and man. In the next couple posts I will explore the vital role God plays in our sanctification as well the specific role that we play.
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23
When’s the next post?