Sanctification 

Call To Prayer

Title: Sanctification

By: Simon Maina Nuhu

Date: 05.04.2024

”For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (1 Thessalonians 4:3)

´Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth´(John 17:17).

Sanctification is a spiritual experience that involves a renewal of the Adamic (sinful) nature by God, through faith in Jesus Christ, whose precious blood of atonement cleanses and purges us from all sin. It is the necessary second work of grace after salvation. In this process, we are not only delivered from the guilt of sin, but are thoroughly washed from its pollution,  its power, and being enabled through divine empowerment, to love and please God. It is also known as ”circumcision of heart” (Deuteronomy 30:6), where God Himself performs the spiritual operation by taking away all attributes of sin, flesh, and their power over us. Sanctification is necessary to all who are saved, because it is the prior process to Holy Ghost baptism.

When someone undergoes sanctification, he/she is called a saint. A saint is a sanctified believer, purged and set apart to be holy as demanded by God (Leviticus 19:2, 1 Peter 1:15-16). All the Apostles were sanctified that is why they were referred to as saints like Saint Paul, James, Peter, John, Timothy etc. It is not until we die before we are called saints. We become saints right here on earth, not until we get to Heaven. As we know, the Holy Spirit inhabits a pure and holy place, therefore there is a need to get rid of the old man (Roman 6:6), and purification; for the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) obstruct the influence of the Spirit of God in us.

It is very essential that a child of God is sanctified. In fact, Prophet Isaiah in his encounter after seeing the glory and splendour of God´s holiness, he suddenly recognised the earthly pollution his material body carries (Isaiah 6:8) which prompted his woeful declaration of the unclean lips. Indeed, the encounter made him realise the depravity and uncleanness of his lips. The significance of the encounter is for us to understand that God is holy! Heaven is holy! the angels are holy! therefore holiness is Heaven´s non-negotiable requirement in all ages, regardless of generation. In the old Testament, events, situations and occurrence were permitted to happen in order to make the people understand the holiness and purity of God. Unfortunately, most of them were stiff-neck with heart of stone and the best version of them were the Priests, Prophets and Judges, yet they could not attain the minimum requirement of holiness by works of the law, that is why the scripture refer to their righteousness as ´filthy rags´(Isaiah 64:6).

It is therefore crucial to be aware that ´filthy rag´ type of righteousness  (holiness) was by the works of the law, and that case is not applicable to us in the New covenant (era of grace), for we are not justified by deeds of the law (Romans 3:20, Galatians 2:16). Now, we need to understand that the version of our righteousness is the perfected one because it came in a divine order from God through Christ Jesus by grace. The righteousness by grace is the superior one because it is justified, accepted, approved, and authored by God through Christ our Sanctifier (Hebrews 2:11, 13:12-13).

Prayer point:

Let’s thank God for today’s word and also ask Him to sanctify us.