Q. 35. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God,

Q. 35. What is sanctification?

A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

--Westminster Shorter Catechism

Sanctified by the Trinity

The Trinitarian Structure of Sanctification

[In] the confession of the Trinity we hear the heartbeat of the Christian religion: every error results from, or upon deeper reflection is traceable to, a departure in the doctrine of the Trinity.

--Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics

1. The Work of the Father


i. In God the Father we behold the nature of holiness and hear the call to holiness.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

--1 Peter 1:14-16

As his power is the strength of [his perfections], so his holiness is the beauty of them. As all would be weak, without almightiness to back them, so all would be uncomely without holiness to adorn them . . . [holiness] is the rule of all his acts, the source of all his punishments. If every attribute of the Deity were a distinct member, purity would be the form, the soul, the spirit to animate them. Without it, his patience would be an indulgence to sin, his mercy a fondness, his wrath a madness, his power a tyranny, his wisdom an unworthy subtlety. It is this gives a decorum to all.

--Stephen Charnock, Existence and Attributes of God


ii. The character of the Father sets the moral and ethical standard to which our character must be conformed.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

--1 Peter 1:14-16


ii. The character of the Father sets the moral and ethical standard to which our character must be conformed.

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

--Matthew 5:48


iii. The Father is the great architect of our salvation, and therefore, of our sanctification.

[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began

--2 Timothy 1:9


iii. The Father is the great architect of our salvation, and therefore, of our sanctification.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

--Ephesians 1:3-4

2. The Work of the Son


i. In Christ we see “fully realized human holiness,” the perfect model of incarnate holiness, the one truly sanctified human being.

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

--Hebrews 7:26


ii. We are, therefore, to imitate Christ, to seek to conform the contours of our character to his holy image.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

--2 Corinthians 3:18


ii. We are, therefore, to imitate Christ, to seek to conform the contours of our character to his holy image.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. --1 Corinthians 11:1


iii. The Son is the source of our sanctification. In fact, he is our sanctification. We are sanctified in him, the supremely sanctified One.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

--John 17:17-19



And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

--1 Corinthians 1:30-31



For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…

--Hebrews 2:9-11

Christ is our sanctification. In him it has first come to its fulfillment and consummation. He not only died for us to remove the penalty of our sin by taking it himself; he has lived, died, risen again, and been exalted in order to sanctify our human nature in himself for our sake… Jesus lived his life of perfect holiness in our frail flesh set in a world of sin, temptation, evil and Satan…. When he cried out on the cross ‘It is finished’ (Jn 19:30; see also 17:4) and with royal dignity committed his spirit into the hands of his Father, he was the first person to have lived a life of perfect obedience and sanctification…

Sanctification is therefore neither self-induced, nor created in us by divine fiat. Like justification, it has to be ‘earthed’ in our world (that is, in Christ’s work for us in history) if it is to be more than a legal fiction. To change the metaphor, we can only draw on resources which have already been deposited in our name in the bank. But the whole of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and exaltation have, by God’s gracious design, provided the living deposit of his sanctified life, from which all our needs can be supplied.

--Sinclair Ferguson, “The Reformed View” in Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification


iv. One of Christ’s great purposes in dying for us on the cross was to make us holy.

…We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . . For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

--Hebrews 10:10, 14



[Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

--Titus 2:14



Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

--Ephesians 5:25-27

3. The Work of the Spirit


i. The Spirit is the agent of our sanctification in Christ, the “bond of our union” with Christ.

But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. 14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

--2 Thessalonians 2:13-14


ii. The Spirit is the author of regeneration, the one who indwells us as the Spirit of Christ, giving us new life in him.

[God] saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior…

--Titus 3:5-6


ii. The Spirit is the author of regeneration, the one who indwells us as the Spirit of Christ, giving us new life in him.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

--Romans 8:9-10


iii. The Spirit is the One by whose strength we are empowered and through whose energy we produce the fruit of Christlike character.

[Paul prays] that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being

--Ephesians 3:16


iii. The Spirit is the One by whose strength we are empowered and through whose energy we produce the fruit of Christlike character.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law . . . 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

--Galatians 5:22-23, 25


iv. The Spirit leads us into Christlikeness by fixing our gaze steadfastly on Christ himself.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

--2 Corinthians 3:18


iv. The Spirit leads us into Christlikeness by fixing our gaze steadfastly on Christ himself.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

--John 16:13-15

These words show us how we can have communion with God. We cannot go directly on our own to the Father, nor does the Father deal directly with us. We can only approach the Father by Christ, for it is only by him we have access into the Father’s presence….But without the Holy Spirit’s work, we cannot even come to the Father by Christ. As the things of the Father are deposited in Christ and brought to us by the Spirit, so the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray and what to pray for. These prayers are, as it were, deposited with Christ, and Christ brings them to the Father.

--John Owen, The Holy Spirit

Father

Son

Spirit

You

Spirit

Son

Grace, strength, and glory come to us from the Father through the Son applied by the

Spirit

Faith, prayer, and worship go from us

by the Spiritthrough the Son

to the Father

Conclusion

The doctrine of the Trinity shows us that

sanctification isn’t merely about sin-avoidance or moral reform.

Sanctification is inescapably relational.

In Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. . . .The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection.

If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry.

--C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

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Q. 35. What is sanctification? A. Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God,