Sanctification is a big theological word. Literally it simply means to be “set apart” and particularly to be set apart for service.
In reference to temple worship there were many elements and pieces of equipment that had to be cleansed and set apart for the service of worship. These elements alone were to be used for worship, and, after each service, required cleansing for their next use. This gives us a bit of a picture of the ongoing nature of sanctification. More on that later here.
A year ago in August I wrote here regarding the tension we see in the creation, and in the Spirit, between light and darkness. And, about our call to be light bearers. (You can read that complete article in the archived blog – August 24, 2024). I wanted to revisit that article somewhat again here today because in it the idea of how we, when we are in fellowship with each other, are used of the Spirit in helping to sanctify each other was touched upon. Art Mealer, a brother in our fellowship, had some interesting insight into this process in his book The Servant Community/Experiencing The Promise Ekklesia. Here is an excerpt from that post and his book
….. ( I wrote) …… furthermore, I will meddle in the business of some believers here; I believe the desire to hide in darkness is a primary reason people avoid fellowship in Christian community. Please note: I said in Christian community. You can “go” to most traditional Christian “church services” and “do” your duty and “put in your time” and stay hidden and covered. But if you are to “be” a part of an open and participatory gathering, and an expression of His body; a community committed to one another and moving in relationship to one another through the Head, Jesus, His light will come to drive out darkness and sometimes uncover our secrets. You see He is still separating darkness and light! And, we are in the world as light bearers, not only to the world, but sometimes for and to one another
If you are like me, and many others. It is a real challenge at times to see, or understand, yourself as being a bearer of light, because you still find so much darkness in yourself. Yet, the truth is we need each other. He has designed us to need fellowship with one another in order to be exposed to His light. This was pointed out to me again this week as I read a segment of a book my friend Art Mealer is writing called THE SERVANT COMMUNITY / Experiencing The Promise of Ekklesia which addressed this. I share a few sentence of an excerpt here (underlines are mine for emphasis):
The process of God revealing Himself to us and revealing to us our worst selves has a participative nature, not just between God and us in our prayer closet. We need one another to help us discern between God’s voice and our vain imaginations. This process is personal but it is not private. With the help of one another, we can welcome His light intruding into the recesses of our hearts to expose our faults. A permission-giving life of “yes,” answering each new exposure with acceptance and confession brings shared joy and peace. This cleansing teachableness that brings peace is the tension of ongoing sanctification: the universe of the “one another’s” of the community are brought to bear, building each other up to wholeness.
If we refuse, He will let us turn away. We must not let hiding become the pattern of our lives. We must guard one another from fear. Like children, thinking if we can’t see Him, He can’t see us. But there is no darkness in which we can hide. Instead of a grateful string of obedient yesses, our life can degenerate into a bitter and unending “no” to His advances. We must not resist being humbled and corrected, be willing to give in to Him, and admit to others how deeply sin has a grip on us.
Against this love of darkness is our willingness to be exposed to light, our desire to be stripped of another layer revealing treasured sins, and our twisted love of self. We assist others in stepping out of the shadows into His light, removing another layer of resistant sin from their shoulders. Jesus described this shadowed heart as the fatal flaw of the lost:
“AND THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, THAT LIGHT IS COME INTO THE WORLD, AND MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT, BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL. FOR EVERY ONE THAT DOETH EVIL HATETH THE LIGHT, NEITHER COMETH TO THE LIGHT, LEST HIS DEEDS SHOULD BE REPROVED.” —Jesus, John 3:19-20
The light exposes my ugliness both to myself and to others. Light wounds my pride and kills the enjoyment of lust for power, pleasures, and possessions. Like nothing else, light also heals my troubled heart, making me clean again, standing close to Him. With an eternal perspective, our temporary embarrassment means little. We are seated safely in the heavens. He puts in us a desire for Him, and with each embrace of His piercing light, we also find His comforting presence. Let’s encourage one another as we—though presently misshapen, though imperfectly understanding—together conformed to the image of His dear Son who loves us and gave himself for us.
(I wrote:) Wow! How He moves in us, even as imperfect lamps, to show His light, and to shed the light His glory, to each other and the world around us; and to drive back the darkness. Let us be given to being open and honest before Him, for He sees in the dark anyway. And, may we be open to receiving light through one another to drive back darkness, or shame, that would cause us to hide from His presence, or forsake assembling with one another in Him. …..
That was a refreshing step back into looking at how the LORD uses light to drive back and drive out darkness. And how He sometimes, or even often, uses believers as the vessel to shine His light and glory through. Now consider all that in reference to the process and work of the Spirit in sanctification.
While there is an aspect of one and done cleansing for the believer in Jesus. We have been saved and sanctified in Him/Jesus once and for all in the Spirit. There is, in that sense, nothing we can do to be more saved from the penalty of sin (death), more set apart unto Him for service, or to become more righteous (guiltless) for His purpose. In the Spirit that work is secure and complete because of Jesus and what He alone has done. It is finished! It is complete. Our work(s) will add nothing to it.
However, in another sense, or aspect, sanctification in our soul – minds, will and emotions {our minds (thoughts/intellect), will (decision making over who rules and gets their way in situations) , and emotions (how we feel in situations and the reactions associated with that)} – is ongoing as we mature in Him and are transformed from glory to glory into His image. Both individually as a believer, and corporately as His body, the church, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
And, in our physical body, there is no doubt, from anybody over age 35, that we are not getting better or complete, but are deteriorating. Yet the hope before us is that even this physical part of us is to be complete and set apart perfect as well.
Without going into a long exposition of this sanctification process. Let me be clear that the scriptures are replete with references to this being a process the Holy Spirit takes up in us as He moves in; and that the Holy Spirit uses the truth, the word of God, to do it. The word of God coming from the scriptures, of course. But, also in that which He often delivers and reveals through others to us as well.
Yes “teachers”, or “elders”, mentors etc. but not only those we perceive wear those titles alone. Often, in fact I would say MOST OFTEN, it may come though, or in, those that are simply brothers and sisters in fellowship and family we share and experience life in Him with. This work of sanctification by process I believe may be the primary work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, that He may keep Him prepared for service in Christ. And, in fellowship with “one another is the place where we will most often find opportunity to be used in service and have light shown on us. Sometimes light reveals our talents and willingness to be servants. Sometimes, however, it may reveal issues or areas hiding some darkness needing exposure to light.
As our brother Art said in his book: We need one another to help us discern between God’s voice and our vain imaginations. This process is personal but it is not private. And …..we can welcome His light intruding into the recesses of our hearts to expose our faults. A permission-giving life of “yes,” answering each new exposure with acceptance and confession brings shared joy and peace. This cleansing teachableness that brings peace is the tension of ongoing sanctification: the universe of the “one another’s” of the community are brought to bear, building each other up to wholeness.
May we be open and experience hearing and discerning His voice in fellowship with, and in service to, one another in ways that lead to victory over vain imaginations and areas of darkness we may struggle with. Even as He transforms us from one degree of glory to the next into His image as we gaze at in His word and at it revealed in others in His body.
Selah!
Here are a few scriptures regarding the Spirit and the work/process of sanctification in our soulish-man.
· Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass 1st Thessalonians 5:23-24
Comment: We are triune, just as He is. We are “spirit” – that part which holds life itself and communes with God, “and soul” – our mind, will and emotions, “and body” – this physical shell that houses spirit and soul and is decaying but will one day, in His purposes, be perfected.
· But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. 2nd Thessalonians 2:13
Comment: Sanctification by the Spirit with the truth accompanies salvation by grace through faith.
· “Now, O Lord GOD, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant. 2nd Samuel 7:28
· “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. John 17:17
· Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God 2ND Corinthians 6:11
· Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Acts 15:7-9
· Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, Ephesians 5:25-26
Comment: As Christ loved and chose the church as His bride, and give Himself to sanctify her with the washing water ( water-often symbolising the Spirit) with the word. So the Spirit continues to set us apart for service with or applying the word to us.
· Elect 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. 1ST Peter 1:2
· But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. 2nd Corinthians 3:18
Comment: Even as Moses face shined with glory after beholding/receiving the word/law, so are we to shine, as we behold in the mirror (symbolically: mirror = the word) the glory/image of Jesus, and the Spirit transforms us from glory to glory into His image so that we reveal Him to each other, the world around us, and principalities and powers in heavenly places. The context of 1st Corinthians 3 indicates although Moses’ glory, derived from looking at the word/law inscribed on stone, fadee; Ours never will because of the indwelling Spirit and His work with the word/Jesus inscribed on our hearts that we gaze into.
These and other scriptures indicate the new covenant work of the Holy Spirit in sanctification is ongoing. Although we have been cleansed from sin, and a fallen nature, in our spiritual man by grace through faith in the finished redemptive work of Christ, and that work is complete and finished. The sanctification of our souls – mind, will, and emotions – is ongoing, and our bodies will yet, on that day, be perfected. This ongoing work of sanctification is done by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us through the redemptive work of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is renewing us daily by using the truth/the word of God, both that written in the scriptures and that which is now written on our heart as promised in the new covenant we walk out with Him and with others.