Christ Our Sanctifier

The crisis and progression of sanctification

Christ is our Savior! He has rescued us from so great a peril of death, of eternal separation from God. But to what end? Was the end He had in mind simply to get us out of hell and into heaven? Au contraire! He wants us to know Him AND to be like Him! “Be holy”, He says [Lev 11.45]. Our Creator God is holy, He is perfect, and He expects those He has made in His image to also be perfect. This indeed creates a crisis, because even after we come to know Christ as Savior, after we place our trust in His death on the cross as the all-sufficient payment for our sins, we can still struggle with sin. We are still living in these fallen bodies of flesh which war against what God wants. The good news is that Christ did much more than simply save us from sin’s penalty! His ongoing mission is not merely to give us eternal life, to get us into heaven at some unforeseen point in the future. He came to give us NEW life. Christ came not only to provide salvation - to save us from the penalty of sin, He also came to provide transformation - to save us from the power of sin. And we’re not talking about simply a fresh coat of paint on an old spiritual hovel. He didn’t come to merely slap some lipstick on a pig. This is a brand new quality of life. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come” [2Cor 5.17].

The Lord has always expected His people, His children, to bear His image well - to reflect what He is like to the world. To be like Him. “But like the Holy One Who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy” [1Pet 1.15 - where Peter references God’s original command to His people Israel]. And really, who doesn’t want to be like their Dad?  Assuming He is a good dad - which is definitely the case with our heavenly Father! He is perfect, glorious - breathtakingly good! And He has called us to be like Him, increasingly so. “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” [2Cor 3.18]. 

For those who are beholding the Lord, who are fixing their eyes on Christ as Savior, this transformation, this extreme spiritual makeover, is a lifelong journey which is called sanctification. It is the process of becoming more holy, more like Christ. And this transformed life is the fruit, the natural and expected outcome, of a truly repentant and regenerate heart. “Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance” [Luke 3.8]. Thankfully the foreman on this project is God Himself. “For I am confident of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” [Phil 1.6]. Christ is our Sanctifier, and He will faithfully further this work in our lives as we continue to trust in Him. We look to Him for salvation - and we look to Him for sanctification. What we observe - or should expect to observe then - in the life of a believer is this growth of holiness, a lifelong progression of thoughts and words and deeds which increasingly resemble this One Who actually began this good work in us. 

Conversely, it is reasonable to assume that one who professes to believe in Jesus but who gives no evidence of this transformation very likely has not truly trusted in Christ.  He likely does not know Jesus as Savior.  There should be this God-given hunger for holiness and a progression of holiness in the life of each and every believer. “For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification” [1Thess 4.7]. And while there may be times of struggle, perhaps some temporary waywardness or even doubting, holiness should be generally trending up in the life of every true Christ-follower.

Now there can also be these other points of crisis in this sanctification. “Therefore I urge you brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” [Rom 12.1-2]. Paul is talking about a point, a simple action, a decisive dedication of one’s entire self to the Lord, one which is entirely reasonable in light of all the mercy God has shown us in Christ. This is sometimes called a “Lordship decision”.  It is a point in time, a time of grateful and total surrender to the rule of Christ in my heart and life, coming to the place where I want Christ and what He wants more than anything else in the world. I want more than His salvation - I want Him, to know Him [Phil 3.10]. “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” [2Cor 7.1]. It is a crisis point, a time of going deeper with the Lord, an incremental leap if you will.

Some insist that there is no true salvation absent this level of surrender (what is referred to as “Lordship salvation”). Yet surely part of the journey of sanctification involves identifying areas of my life which are not yet surrendered to Christ. I have indeed trusted in Him as Savior, but I am constantly learning what surrender looks like in all the nooks and crannies of my life. Total surrender is a bit of a misnomer. Keep in mind that in Romans 12 Paul is writing to believers who have NOT made this decision. Nevertheless, it seems patently clear that all Christ-followers need and ought to be encouraged and urged to always pursue a deeper level of surrender to Christ as Lord.

Others suggest that there could be multiple such crises, times of surrender in the life of a sincere Christ-follower. Even Paul himself wrestled with a fickle heart, with the failings and weaknesses of his flesh. “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body waging war against the law of my mind…” [Rom 7.22-23]. Whether in response to trials or infirmity, or to receiving new truth and understanding as to the breathtaking greatness of our infinite and blessed heavenly Father, it seems quite reasonable to maintain that there could be multiple crisis points of surrender, increasing levels of sanctification, multiple incremental leaps throughout the course of following Christ this side of heaven.

There are still others who give accounts of a critical inflection point subsequent to salvation, a deeper crisis of faith, which is accompanied by a deeper experience of Christ in connection with this surrender, even a tangible one. These times of personal crisis often (but not always) appear to be accompanied by various forms of healing or vision/setting apart for ministry. Often they appear to be followed by a new season of markedly more powerful and fruitful ministry. Some of these folks have concluded in turn that this kind of experience is universal, that it is to be sought by every believer.

I honestly believe there is a danger here, one of seeking and prioritizing an experience (one which in my opinion is not normative nor expressly mandated in Scripture), as opposed to seeking the Lord, of seeking to walk in increasing levels of surrender and devotion to Him - something which is definitely mandated throughout Scripture. “I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, that your minds should be led astray from the purity and simplicity of devotion to Christ” [2Cor 11.3]. We see that the assembly in Corinth was extremely zealous for the gifts and manifestation of the Spirit [1Cor 14.12], no doubt they were intoxicated by their experience(s) - but they lacked the fruit of the Spirit [1Cor 1.10-11, 3.1-4, 5.1-2, 6.7, 11.17-18, 11.21]. They lacked the basic love for one another, that which is the first mentioned of the fruits of the Spirit, that which is the greatest of these [1Cor 13.13], that which in fact is the goal of our instruction [1Tim 1.5]. Surely the greatest crisis of our day and in the church and in my own life is lack of love - for the Lord, as well as for one another. Surely we ought to seek and prioritize this! We must pursue and make progress in this! The Great Command AND the New Command. This is the mission! If I have gifts of tongues and prophecy and knowledge and faith to move mountains but do not have love, Paul says, I am nothing [1Cor 13.1-3].

Identification of the believer with Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension

It is vitally important in this regard that we understand just who we are as believers in Christ. We have a new identity. We ARE these new creations - this is how we should see ourselves - and seeing this should transform how we live. Paul tells us that when we trust in Christ we are placed IN Christ, literally hidden with Him in God [Col 3.3]. Not only is His righteousness credited to our account, but we become joined to Him, united with Him in the likeness of His death and resurrection [Rom 6.4-7]. We are dead to sin - freed not only from its penalty but also its power over us, and raised to new life. He IS our life [Col 3.4]. We can (and should) be like Him - which is precisely the point. Like Him, bearing His image - this is what we were always meant to be, and who we now are!

We no longer have to live the way we did before we trusted Christ (nor should we). We can say no to sin. We don’t need to live in it any longer like the rest of the unbelieving world. Nor should we. We have (or should have) laid aside the old corrupt self like a ragged old robe, and have put on these brand new righteous threads [Col 3.9-10]. We are in essence wearing Jesus - this same One Who has conquered death, this One Who was tempted in all things like we are but Who never sinned [Heb 4.15]. We can walk in newness of life, the life of the risen and glorified Christ manifested in and through us. We can and should keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, this same One Who ascended to glory and sat down at the right hand of the Father [Col 3.1].

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in sanctification

No doubt the actual ascension of Christ left those early disciples feeling a bit helpless and even abandoned.  But Christ Himself said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” [Jn 16.7]. Of this Helper, the promised Holy Spirit - Christ said, “He will be IN you” [Jn 14.17b, emphasis mine]. We are in Christ, and His Spirit is in us - in each and every person who has trusted in Christ [Rom 8.9]. And Christ gave His disciples a promise right before His ascension: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…”[Acts 1.8a].  You will receive power. This is a promise, and a caveat.

The thing is, the promised power to live a holy life, a life that is pleasing to God, does not reside in me. It doesn’t originate in my flesh. It comes from the Spirit of God Who indwells every Christ-follower. I am unable to make myself holy in my own strength, by my own efforts. “Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh” [Gal 5.16]. “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with Spirit” [Eph 5.18b]. That which fills us controls us and produces a change in our behavior. The imperative verb there is present tense, ongoing, meaning “keep on being filled". Rather than being filled with something like wine - or anger or selfishness or fear - we are to be ongoingly controlled and empowered and transformed in our behavior and every aspect of our lives with and by the Holy Spirit. 

This is not a one-time experience, but an imperative for each and every believer to in fact walk in dependence and surrender to the indwelling Spirit of Christ moment by moment, every minute of every hour of every day. We give control to Him. Again, the metamorphosis from spiritual caterpillar to glorious butterfly is “by the Spirit” [2Cor 3.18]. He is indeed our indwelling ever-present Helper, helping us to become increasingly more like Christ in all our thoughts and deeds. Usually this is a gradual process, and yes there are those who experience crises or points of significant leaps forward in their devotion to Christ - but it is the same Spirit at work in all cases. This is why Paul calls the qualities of a holy life the “fruit of the Spirit”. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” [Gal 5.22-23]. These characteristics of holiness, these unmistakeable traits of Christlikeness are the byproduct of His work in my life, a direct result of His help - such that they thus allow my life to truly rise to the level of the divine. The devil can actually counterfeit gifts of the Spirit, but he cannot counterfeit the fruit. There becomes no way to account for my life apart from the fact that it has been wrought by God’s Spirit.            

Christ Himself employed this metaphor of fruit bearing - “I am the Vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” [Jn 15.5]. Just as a branch of a grapevine cannot produce fruit unless it remains vitally connected to the primary Vine, tapping into the Vine for all that is needed in order to bear fruit, so each and every believer in Christ must be tapping into Him in order to manifest the expected fruit of a holy life.

Surely the default setting of humanity is that of self-effort. Works. We are that little engine who could, gutting it out up the hills of life as best we can in our own strength. Religion in its basest form is man trying to work his way up that steep incline towards that ever-elusive goal of right standing with God. Self-righteousness is an oxymoron if there ever was one! Thus we understand in coming to Christ as Savior that we are saved by grace through faith alone. Yet that nasty old self-effort setting is not automatically overridden when someone trusts in Christ as Savior. This is why Paul had to admonish the believers in Galatia, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” [Gal 3.3]. The history of the New Testament church ever since that time is littered with leaders and churches and denominations which have layered works of righteousness onto the backs of the faithful. In every place we see many Christ-followers faithfully working to try and maintain and advance their right standing with God, perfecting their holiness.  Attending services and reading books and all the various sundry disciplines which are good and even beneficial yet none of which are primary in producing fruit and godly character. Christ is Vine Dresser. He is the One Who sanctifies. We begin by His Spirit - and progress by the same Spirit. I surrender to Christ. I trust in Him - for salvation, AND for sanctification.

My personal experience of Christ as Sanctifier

I did not grow up in the church, yet I was blessed to come to Christ through a ministry which stressed the importance of walking in the Spirit, of being filled with the Spirit. From Day One I learned that salvation and sanctification is not an emotional experience but a personal relationship with Christ whereby I receive Him and walk in Him by faith, lived out each day in the guidance and power of His Spirit, in dependence upon Him. I put my trust in Him and His work and in the truth of His Word and not in my feelings or feeble efforts. And I would say this has been my consistent experience, beginning and then continuing each day (most days?) in reliance upon Him, albeit imperfectly, of gradually seeing more of the fruit of the Spirit in my life, becoming more like Christ, seeing victory over sin and fruit in ministry. And I try to be open to and seeking still more of Him, more of Christ in and through my life, living by Him and for Him, for His glory.

I cannot say that I have yet had a significant secondary “crisis” of surrender. For me, trusting in Christ was indeed a point of surrender. There was no easy believe-ism in play. There was much at stake - nobody I knew back home was a Christian. It was a crisis point. I experienced another crisis point in surrendering to a call to full-time ministry, when a speaker challenged his audience to be willing to go anywhere, do anything for the sake of Christ and His Great Commission. I cannot say what the Lord may have in store for me in the future, be it crises or the more mundane slopes of gradual progress further up and further in, but I trust, by God’s grace and by His Spirit, that with Paul my life and words will ever and always increasingly affirm, “For from Him and by Him and for Him are all things - to Him be the glory forever, Amen” [Rom 11.36].