God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

3. The three stages of sanctification

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The process of sanctification involves three elements: separating, purifying, and perfecting. Sanctification relates to the beginning [separating], the continuation [purifying], and the goal [perfecting] of the Christian life. Thus sanctification is past, present, and future.

~ J. Rodman Williams. Renewal Theology .

a. Theologians often use three separate words to define this one ongoing process of being set apart for God’s use. Those words are justification, sanctification, and glorification. Therefore we can rightly say three things at once: we were sanctified [set apart for God’s use], we are being sanctified [set apart for God’s use], and we will be sanctified [set apart for God’s use].

(1) The beginning [separating] - JUSTIFICATION

(a) Acts 26.18; Rom. 5.9; Gal. 2.16

(b) NOTE: Justification means that we are declared to be righteous by God. It means that God no longer counts our sins against us but rather counts Christ’s death for sin as paying our penalty in full. It wipes away our past rebellion and sets us apart from the world as people who no longer must face God’s wrath against sin. Justification is the necessary first stage in the process of sanctification [being set apart for God]. See 1 Cor. 1.2; Heb. 10.14.

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(2) The continuation [purifying] - SANCTIFICATION

(a) Rom. 6.19; 1 Thess. 5.23

(b) NOTE: Having the Spirit teach us to live like Christ lived, so that our actions and attitudes are more and more holy, is what we most commonly call the process of sanctification in day-to-day life. As one theologian properly puts it, the most common use of the term sanctification in the New Testament is “the growth in holiness that should follow conversion.”