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SANCTIFICATION

By Mae Shurow

The Bible is clear that sanctification is God’s will for us. 

• 1 Thes. 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

    Sanctification (37) is from the word holy (40) and means “to make holy, make clean, render pure, to purify.  To consecrate” (Zodhiates, 2000,  #37). [Consecrated means sacred: dedicated or set apart for service or worship, devoted exclusively to one use].  To be sanctified means to be clean, pure, consecrated; that which is distinct from the common or profane.  It means we belong to God.

Holy (40) means “sharing in God’s purity and abstaining from earth’s defilement” (Zodhiates, 2000,  #40). “The realm of the holy was conceptually distinct from the world with its imperfections, it could nevertheless operate within the world as long as its integrity was strictly maintained. This was essential to the concept of redemption for, by definition, holiness is separate from all that is sinful and profane. God, therefore, calls man to holiness because he himself is holy. Lev 19:2; cf. I Pet 1:15)” (TWOT).

    “Saints” (40) are “holy, sanctified ones,” and “sanctuary” (39) is from the word holy, and means “holy, those structures which are set apart to God” (Zodhiates, 2000,  #39)

The opposite of sanctified or holy is profane or unclean.  Profane means “to make common or unclean, pollute or defile” (Zodhiates, 2000,  #2840). 

• Jeremiah 23:15… from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.

• Ephes. 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
• Ephes. 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
• 2 Cor. 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
• Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

“Unclean” (169) is “impure, unclean in thought and life”(^[1]Strong’s, 1996, #169). “This word is applied to the devils who are frequently called unclean spirits in the because, having lost their original purity, they are become unclean themselves and through their solicitations have polluted mankind with all uncleanness and every abomination which the Lord hates” (Zodhiates, 2000,  #169). 

That people must be sanctified is first mentioned in Exodus and is a cleansing, purification, and preparation for being in God’s presence.

• Exodus 19:14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

Read Exodus 19:14-23.  “In Ex 19:23 the consecration of Mt. Sinai by establishing boundaries around it served to keep out all that might have profaned God’s holy presence” (^[2]Harris, 1999, #1990, p.788). 

The Tabernacle of God:

God gave instructions for the building of an earthly tabernacle where He would meet with the children of Israel under the old Covenant. He sanctified the tabernacle, the alter, and the priests (Exodus 29:42-46). Leviticus 8 lays forth in detail the methods of sanctification and consecration for the tabernacle, the alter and the priests.  There was washing with water (Lev 8:6); sprinkling of anointing oil in the tabernacle, all that was in the tabernacle, and the priest (v. 10-12); and sanctification of the altar, priests, and their garments with blood (v 30).  All had to be cleansed, purified, and set apart for the service of the Lord.   

This physical tabernacle was a figure of a greater and more perfect spiritual tabernacle to come. 

• Hebrews 9:9-11 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

• Hebrews 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. [Perfect means mature (Zodhiates, 2000,  #5048).]

Under the new Covenant, we are this greater and more perfect spiritual tabernacle.  The progress is from physical illustration (to enable our comprehension) to spiritual reality.  Jesus is the Chief Cornerstone and the High Priest. The people of God are the living stones of the temple, the spiritual house, we are the priesthood, and we are the living sacrifices.

• 1 Peter 2:5-6 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

• 1 Cor. 3:16-17 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
•  Cor. 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
• Ephes. 2:20-22 And [you] are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
• 2 Cor. 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

As the temple, spiritual priesthood, and sacrifices of God, we must be cleansed, purified and made holy.

• Ephes. 5:25-27 …Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

• 1 Thes. 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
• 1 Peter 1:15-16 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
• 1 Thes. 3:13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

  We are cleansed and sanctified by Jesus at conversion:

• Hebrews 9:13-14 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

• Hebrews 10:9-10 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
• Hebrews 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
• Hebrews 10:19-22 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
• 1 Cor. 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

But sanctification is also a process...
“It must be learned from God as He teaches it by His Word, and it must be pursued by the believer, earnestly and undeviatingly…Sanctification is an individual possession, built up, little by little, as the result of obedience to the Word of God, and of following the example of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Vine’s, 1985, p. 545).

• John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

• Ephes. 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
• 2 Thes. 2:13-15 …God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 15Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

• 1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the… 2Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

• 1 Thes. 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

• Hebrews 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

• 2 Tim. 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. [Meet (2173) Useful, serviceable, profitable.  Opposite is useless.]

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*All emphasis  mine.

Copyright ©2005 by Mae Shurow 
Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution 
provided proper citation of authorship is included.

  ___________________________

Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F. and White, W. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words. New
         York, NY.  Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Zodhiates, S. (2000, c1992, c1993). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.).
         Chattanooga, TN:  AMG Publishers.