The word sanctification is often used in the Old Testament, and means to set apart. In Exodus we read of the sanctifying of the firstborn in Israel, of the people and of the priests. The tabernacle was set apart as a dwelling place for God in the midst of His people Israel, being anointed and sanctified by His glory (Ex. 29:43). Under the Jewish economy there was sanctification by means of the sacrifices, but the Scripture tells us that this only dealt with man’s flesh, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh” (Heb. 9:13). In Christianity the conscience was dealt with, for the blood of Christ purged the conscience from dead works, so that we might serve the living God (verse 14).
The Son Sanctified and Sent
There can be no doubt that the consecration of Aaron brings before us in type the setting apart of the Son of God for the service of God. In Leviticus 8:12 it is written, “And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.” This was before the blood of the offerings was shed, and no doubt typified the anointing of the Lord Jesus at the time of His baptism by John the Baptist. From heaven the Holy Spirit came, and remained on Him (John 1:33), the seal of God, and His anointing of His Son for the service the Father had given Him to do.
Of Himself, the Lord said in John 10:36, “Him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world.” This is not necessarily what we have alluded to in the type of Aaron’s anointing, for the Father set apart the Son for Himself long before He came into the world, though there was the public aspect of it when the Holy Spirit came from heaven and rested upon Him. It is indeed wonderful to contemplate the Son being set apart by the Father to accomplish His will, and to see how that will is accomplished by the sending of the Son. This is but one aspect of the coming of the Son, for not only was He sent, He came of His own volition.
Things and Unbelievers Sanctified
When exposing and rebuking the hypocrisy and false teaching of the scribes and Pharisees, the Lord said to them, “Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?” (Matt. 23:16-17). It was evident that in the eyes of these proud and foolish men the gold was of greater value than the house in which God dwelt. What gave the gold that adorned the temple a value beyond its market value was its forming part of the house that God was pleased to own as His. It was the same with the gift upon the altar (Matt. 23:18-19): the real value before God of what was offered lay in its being set apart for Him by the altar on which the gift lay.
Though believers in the Lord Jesus ought not marry those who are unconverted, many have been married before being brought to God, and their spouses remain unbelievers. Such was the case with some of the saints in Corinth, and Paul showed that the Lord did not wish the believer to separate from the unbelieving spouse, but rather to seek their conversion. In the sight of God “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy” (1 Cor. 7:13-14). This has not to do with eternal blessing, but what the Lord allows because of the faith of one of the partners of the marriage. Just as the altar sanctified the gift upon it, so the unbeliever is set apart for the believer in natural things. Should the Lord come, the unbeliever would be left behind, but the children who had not reached years of maturity would no doubt go with the believing parent to heaven.
Under the law many things were forbidden to the children of Israel, among them things to eat, but under grace the word of God is, “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:4-5). The word of God refused certain things to the Jew, but the word of God sets apart for the believer “every creature of God.” If we can with a good conscience give thanks to God for what we eat, then God allows us to eat it.
Sanctification of All Believers
Faith in Christ Jesus brings us into many blessings, even as the Lord said to Paul, when He sent him to open the eyes of the Gentiles, “and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18). Through faith sins are forgiven, and through faith we are brought among the sanctified ones, the saints of God and through faith we are made heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. To this the Apostle alludes in his address to the elders of Ephesus, where he said, “I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). God’s word builds up His people, and assures them of the many blessings He has for them.
Our standing before God is in Christ, and it is in Christ that we are set apart for the pleasure of God. When writing to the believers in Corinth, the Apostle addressed them as “the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints” (1 Cor. 1:2). We are sanctified as called of God, and as in Christ Jesus. It is God that makes saints, not men, and we are called by His grace to this place where He has set us apart for Himself, to do His will. If we desire to see what our sanctification is, we look to Christ, for by God are we in Christ Jesus, who “of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, the Apostle shows what man is naturally in his sins, but adds, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (verse 11). God sets believers apart for His pleasure and will be cleansing them from all their sins and pollution, by clearing them from the guilt of their sins, and by giving them His own Spirit. It is in the Name of the Lord Jesus that we are brought into God’s blessing.
Believers are sanctified by Christ and with Christ, for “both He that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). This Scripture shows both the character and measure of our being set apart for God’s will and pleasure. God views us as one with His own Son, sharing His place before Him, as having His own life and nature. Because of our being so closely bound up with Him, the Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren. We are not seen here as sinners, but as saints, in closest intimacy with the Son of God as being like Him, and for the pleasure of God and for the delight of the Son of God.
Coming into the world the Son of God said, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:9-10), and the will of God involved the blessing of those who believed on His Son, even as it is written, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (verse 10). We could never have been brought into divine blessing apart from the death of the Lord Jesus. God’s will was carried out by His Son in every step of His holy pathway on earth, and at the close He offered His holy body as a sacrifice to secure what could only be secured by His death. What God had planned for the blessing of men could only be brought to us through Christ’s death, and in love for God and for us the Son of God gave Himself. Here it is the body of Christ, as showing the completeness of our sanctification, “For by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).
Of old, under the law, the bodies of the beasts “whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:11-12). Nothing less than the precious blood of Jesus could suffice to set apart the Christian for God. The cost to God, and to His Son, was infinite, but the blessing for us beyond computation. To be even now set apart for God is a most wonderful thing, and this is but one of the many blessings brought to believers through the death of Christ. Those who have professed Christianity with all its blessings and privileges, but who have apostatised, will come under the fearful judgment of the living God (Heb. 10:26–31).
Our sanctification is by faith, in Christ and with Christ, by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, and by the shedding of His precious blood, but also by the Holy Spirit. The death of Christ is the basis of our sanctification, our standing before God as a sanctified company is in Christ and with Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the One by whom we are anointed and made conscious of the blessings that God has given to us.
From 1 Peter 1:2 we learn that we are God’s elect “through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The possession of the Holy Spirit is the evidence that we have come under the efficacy of the blood of Jesus, and He is also the power to enable us to walk in the path of obedience that Jesus trod. On the same line we read in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God has from the beginning chosen you for salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” Just as those who were marked of God for salvation escaped His judgment, so the saints have the Spirit of God as God’s mark for salvation from a greater judgment (Ezek. 9:1–7).
Practical Sanctification
Having been set apart for God’s will, the Lord Jesus can say of His own, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:16), but the Lord added, “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth” (verse 17). The word of God has been given to us to produce a very practical effect on our lives, even to make us like the Son of God in our walk and ways, and to secure this the blessed Lord, in His place on high, cares for His own, bringing the word of God to bear upon our hearts and consciences, even as He said to the Father, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the truth” (verse 19).
Just as the Lord Jesus cares for each of His own as individuals, so He cares for His church that He loves. Christ’s present ministry for the church is to “sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” and this in view of the day when He shall “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” (Eph. 5:25–27). It is the word of God that Christ uses to secure the practical sanctification of His own and His church, so that they might be morally like Him in this world, and suited for companionship with Him in the day to come. Practical sanctification is God’s will for us (1 Thess. 4:3-4), and we are responsible to God to be separate to Him and from all who is able to sanctify us wholly (1 Thess. 5:23) through dependence upon Him.
Separation to God means that we must be separate from all kinds of evil, not only moral evil, but also doctrinal evil. The elect lady was not even to bid God speed to a teacher of evil (2 John 10-11), for those who teach what is contrary to the truth of God are vessels to dishonour, and the Spirit of God says, “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” (2 Tim. 2:21).
We are living in the last days predicted in 2 Timothy 3, and evil abounds in that which professes the Name of the Lord. Doubts are cast upon the very foundations of the faith, and many deny them, refusing also the verbal inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. If we desire to be vessels of honour, who are to be set apart for the Master’s use, in fidelity to our Lord and Master we must be separated from all that dishonours His holy Name. We cannot be in association with those who speak evil of Christ and the word of God and be loyal to Christ. To be sanctified vessels our path may be a lonely one, but it is the one prescribed for us. May God give us the grace to seek in all things to be practically sanctified for Himself.
R. 20.1.71