Jesus our Sanctifier
Sanctification is to be set apart, holy and/or consecrated. After conversion we are no longer under the dominion of Satan and we are no longer a part of the worldly system, therefore, we have been set apart, sanctified to God and His Kingdom. It is only when the new believer is convicted by the word of God that his need to become holy, or more like Christ, becomes a crisis to be reckoned with. E.g. A struggle can be the fact that God’s word says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15 KJV). Here the struggle is “I have not murdered anyone but now you are telling me if I hate my brother I am a murderer?”
Progressive sanctification is the continuous growth process to become more like Christ (holy, sanctified); where the believer yields themselves to the Holy Spirit and is fully committed to Jesus. Only when we are fully committed to Christ, our sanctifier, will we want to listen and obey the Holy Spirit with the will to mortify our old nature and live to our new nature. There are many scriptures which tell us to put off our old nature and to put on the new nature. E.g. Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (KJV) or we are to be crucified with Christ or buried with Him through Baptism. (see Gal 2:20 and Romans chapter 6). From the statement of sanctification it says, “Romans 6 the main thrust of the entire chapter is to declare that the believer has been transferred through union with Christ to a new and powerful master, who reigns victoriously over sin.” When you reign over anyone or anything it is a constant observation with corrections or approvals. Are you listening to the Master?
In Christ,
Greg