Holiness,

Sanctification and the Believer:

Principles and Motivations

Why are we treating this issue?

Were already in a class on obedience so its not an
entirely foreign concept
Christians have never been more confused about what
sanctification is, how sanctification happens and why
sanctification matters
What do we all agree on?
Courtesy of Kevin DeYoung:
1. We cannot justify ourselves by anything we do or
try to accomplish. Self-salvation is anti-gospel and
doesnt work (Gal. 1:8). We are only made right with
God through the forgiveness of sins and the
imputation of Christs righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21), gifts
which come to us by faith alone (Eph. 2:1-10).
2. Growth in godliness is impossible apart from the
inner working of the Holy Spirit. God does not save us
by grace and then tell us that the rest of the Christian
life is up to us (Phil. 2:11-12). The gospel is for all of
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life. We need to be strengthened in the inner man

(Eph. 3:16) and renewed in the thinking of our mind
(Rom. 12:1-2).
3. The law of God is meant to convict sinners,
including Christian sinners, of disobedience. Gods
commands, as the perfect standard of the divine will,
reveal to us our idolatries, imperfections, and failures
(James 1:23). When we sin, we should not hide our
failure from God, but confess our sins and seek
forgiveness in Christ (1 John 1:8-9).
4. On this side of heaven we will always be simul
iustus et peccator. There is no perfectionism for earth-
bound creatures. We are all saints and sinners (Rom.
7:25-8:1). Even our best deeds and most grace-filled
acts are accepted by God only because of the
intercession and mercy of Christ.
5. The Bible is concerned about our obedience to the
moral law of God. God wants us to be obedient and
expects us to teach others to be obedient (Matt.
28:19-20). The purpose of exulting in grace is never so
that sin may abound (Rom. 6:1-2).

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Sounds like much we all affirm and agree on so where is the

struggle? In one word HOW??? To expand on that
question:
What are the Biblical principles
and motivations for me to pursue
holiness?
That question is critical to your Christian life:
Hebrews 12:14 Without holiness (or sanctification
the Greek term here is interchangeable), a person will
not see the Lord.

How will we deal with that question?
To give the question the treatment it deserves, were going
to look into four different areas of Biblical teaching and it is
my hope that we will come to a clearer Biblical
understanding of what God desires of us:
1. What is sanctification or Christian holiness?
2. What is the relation between a Christians justification
and sanctification?
3. What roles does my effort play in sanctification?
4. What are some of the Bibles motivations to holiness?
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_____
I. WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION OR CHRISTIAN HOLINESS?
Wrong views:
Moral reformation: ...sanctification as nothing more
than a moral reformation of life and habits, worked
out under the influence of the truth in the natural
strength of the sinner (A.A. Hodge, Outlines of
Theology)
Self-denial: ...nothing more than cessation of a series
of unholy exercises to a series of holier ones
Entire sanctification: Entire Sanctification is a definite
act of God's grace, subsequent to the New Birth, by
which the believer's heart is purified and made holy. It
cannot be attained progressively by works, struggle or
suppression, but is obtained by faith in the sanctifying
blood of Jesus Christ. Various forms of this still taught
today
Sanctification as optional: The idea here is that every
person who makes a profession of faith in Christ is
automatically a believer but that profession of faith
does not necessarily mean that the believer will go on
to pursue maturity in the Christian life. (Recommend
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The Gospel According to Jesus; The Lordship

Controversy message on GTY)
The Biblical view:
Westminster Shorter Catechism, 35
Sanctification is the work of God's free grace by which
we are renewed throughout in the image of God and
are enabled more and more to die to sin and live to
righteousness.
Three principles:
1. Sanctification is the work of Gods free grace you
cant make yourself holy!!! No amount of self-denial,
good intention or spiritual pulling-up-your-bootstraps
will make you more holy in Gods eyes. God does this
in us by His grace
a. Ezekiel 36:27
b. Phil 2:13
c. Hebrews 13:21

2. It is Gods free work of grace of renewing us
throughout in the image of God: The work of
sanctification is the work of being conformed to the
image of God.
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a. 2 Cor 5:17
b. Eph 4:23-24
c. Col 3:8-10

3. It is Gods free work of grace that enables us to die to
sin and live to righteousness: The work of Gods free
grace in sanctification doesnt just clean us up and
leaves us to carry on it actively works in us the desire
to die to sinful impulses and passions and live for
holiness.
a. Ezekiel 36:25-27
b. Romans 6:4, 6, 12-14
c. 2 Cor 7:1
d. 1 Peter 2:24
Biblically, thats what sanctification looks like a work of
Gods grace to make us into the image of God as we die to
sin and live to righteousness.
But hold on...arent I already righteous in Christ? What about
justification?
II. WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN A CHRISTIANS
JUSTIFICATION AND SANCTIFICATION?
A lot of the confusion that arises in talking about
sanctification stems from a bad understanding of what the
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difference is between justification by faith alone in Christ

alone and sanctification.
! Ask the class for a definition of justification
A helpful definition again comes to us from the Shorter
Catechism:
Justification is an act of God's free grace in
which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as
righteous in his sight for the sake of the
righteousness of Christ alone, which is credited
to us and received by faith alone.
Some would argue that our sanctification and our
justification arent all that different.
Lutheran theologian Gerhard Forde writes:
Sanctification appears in Scripture to be
roughly equivalent to other words for the
salvation wrought by God in Christ, a phrase
which designates another facet or dimension
of sanctification, but never calls it something
distinct or logically different from
justification...It is difficult to escape the
suspicion that the distinction between
justification and sanctification is strictly a
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dogmatic one made because people got

nervous about what would happen when
unconditional grace as preached, especially in
Reformation times.

More recently, Presbyterian pastor Tullian
Tchividjian wrote:
Sanctification is a grueling process. But its
NOT the process of moving beyond the
reality of our justification but rather moving
deeper into the reality of our justification. If
sanctification could be likened to our
responsibility to swim, justification is the
pool we swim in. Sanctification is the hard
work of going back to the certainty of our
already secured pardon in Christ and hitting
the refresh button over and over.
Justification and sanctification go together.
To put it simply, justification feeds
sanctification and sanctification must
continually return to justification.
Well are these men right? Is the idea of sanctification as we
saw it in the Catechism the result of people getting nervous
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because of unconditional grace? Is sanctification just going

back to the fact we are justified and hitting refresh over and
over?
Well...yes and no. Both are right in that sometimes in the
Bible, sanctification does have a definite, once-for-all
meaning, referring to being set apart for God:
1 Cor 6:9-11
Acts 20:32
Heb 10:10
However, when we tie together what weve already seen
with these passages, we see that there are differences
between our justification and our sanctification.
Theologians will call this positional and progressive
sanctification in your justification, you are declared to be
righteous, in your sanctification, you are being made
righteous.
Wayne Grudem spells out the distinction:
JUSTIFICATION (Positionally
SANCTIFICATION
holy)
(Progressively holy)
Affects our legal standing
Affects our internal condition
Happens once for all time
Continuous throughout the
Christian life
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Entirely Gods work

Perfect in this life
The same in all Christians

We cooperate with the Holy

Spirit
Not perfect in this life
Greater in some than in
others

The mistake made in both of the quotes that I read is that
everything is folded into the act of justification as though
that was the centre.
The Biblical centre for all we experience in salvation is NOT
justification but union with Christ: the most important
doctrine youve never thought of.
! Ask class what union with Christ is
John Murray said of this doctrine, Nothing is more central
or basic than union and communion with Christ
Union with Christ, simply defined, is the relationship between
the regenerate soul and Christ by which the believer is in
Christ and Christ is in the believer by faith. You are a
Christian because you are in Christ vitally connected to
Him.
John 15:1-4

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It is critical to understand that both justification and

sanctification stems from the fact that we are in Christ:
1 Cor 1:30
You are declared righteous because you are IN CHRIST! You
will grow into Christlikeness because...you are IN CHRIST!
Dr Murray says it so well Union with Christ is not a step
in the application of redemption...it underlies EVERY step
of the application of redemption
Think of a bike wheel it is many spokes all connected to the
one hub. Justification, sanctification, adoption, even our
glorification all of those are spokes. The HUB that which
binds all of those blessings together is UNION WITH CHRIST.
It is a failure to understand union with Christ that leads to
making unneceassry distinctions between our being declared
righteous by faith in Christ and our experience of growth in
holiness!
Christlikeness is possible, but not by merely working with
Jesus or simply imitating his example. Only by knowing our
position in Jesus can we begin to live like Jesus. Kevin
DeYoung

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So what is the relationship between justification and

sanctification? Both flow from our union with Christ while
being distinct from each other.
OK...so where do I come into this picture? Do I contribute
anything to my sanctification? Well, in a sense, yes.
III. WHAT ROLE DOES MY EFFORT PLAY IN
SANCTIFICATION?
From the jump, I want to address a common sentiment in
some Bible-believing circles:
Many Christians think that becoming sanctified
means that we become stronger and stronger,
more and more competent. [Erm, Col 3:10
being renewed after the image of God our
Creator] And although we would never say it
this way, we Christians sometimes give the
impression that sanctification is growth beyond
our need for Jesus and his finished work for us:
we needed Jesus a lot for justification; we need
him less for sanctification.
Apart from committing one of my cardinal sins putting
words in peoples mouths this quote betrays a

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fundamental misunderstanding about the place of our effort

in sanctification.
We are not saying that we grow beyond our need of Jesus.
As long as you draw breath, you will never outlive your need
of Jesus. As long you are in a body of flesh, bones and blood,
you will never outlive your need of Jesus.
The old hymnwriter said it so well:

I need thee, O, I need thee!

Every hour, I need thee!

It is an unfair, uncharitable and frankly disrespectful

mischaracterization on the part of many in evangelical circles
to suggest that calling on people to exercise themselves
toward godliness and to see progress in that regard is indeed
a form of telling people they have grown beyond their need
for Jesus and His finished work for us...
There are two ways to look at our effort in sanctification:
either our effort is birthed from our own trying and forcing
and striving...or our efforts flow from our union with Christ
and the fact that God doesnt see our efforts as our efforts
alone but those done in Christ.

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The problem is when we equate any and all talk of effort

with self-effort or self-salvation. Sounds nice, sounds like
were making much of the grace of God...but youll hit a
brick wall when you come to Scripture with that kinda talk:
1 Cor 15:10
Philippians 2:12-13
Colossians 1:29
1 Tim 4:7-8
Hebrews 12:14
Hebrews 13:16
In the context of the Christian life, there is indeed a place a
necessary place for the role of effort, striving and work
when it comes to sanctification. In fact, good works done in
the right spirit and with the right motivations (more on that
later) are pleasing to him!
John Piper has put it so well: When it comes to killing my
sin, I dont wait passively for the miracle of sin-killing to
happen to me I act the miracle!
But how does the miracle get acted out?
There are three ways to think of our efforts:
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 Spirit-empowered
Gospel-driven
Faith-fueled
A. Spirit-empowered:
Any effort you make in growth towards Christ-likeness
begins here.
Romans 8:11
Ephesians 3:16
Without the Spirit of God energizing our efforts, there are
simply works done in the flesh works which ultimately
have NO value.
Romans 8:13
B. Gospel-driven:
Any works in sanctification must come from the correct
foundation
Titus 2:11-15
Obligation cannot make us do this. Piper, in his magnificent
book Future Grace, talks about a debtors ethic God has
done this so I need to return the favour. Thats nonsense
the very resources you need to pursue holiness are provided
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in your union with Christ. Its the GRACE OF GOD that leads
us to repentance (Romans 2:4) and its the grace of God that
promotes good works in us.
C. Faith-fueled:
Book recommendation: Future Grace by John Piper
Well deal with this more in a more when we get to the issue
of motivations in the Christian life but part of the effort we
engage in growing into Christlikeness is fuelled by faith in the
promise of God.
Think of the beatitudes:
Matthew 5:11-12
Each beatitude follows the same formula:
Heres the divine blessing ->
Heres the attitude of heart a citizen of the Kingdom ->
Heres the promise

Jesus promises these things to those who are of this manner
of heart and life my faith in these promises of God fuels my
obedience.
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That sounds like I do this and God will bless me.

Nope God has promised this already and will do it all my
obedience is me saying with my actions that I believe God is
faithful to do all He has said.
Jesus lived that way:
Hebrews 12:1-3
Why did Jesus endure the Cross and despise its shame? For
the joy that was set before Him!
That leads us to the fourth question:
IV. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIBLES MOTIVATIONS TO
HOLINESS?
Weve touched on some of these already but what are some
of the motivations the Bible gives us for growth in holiness
and Christlikeness?
Some will tell you that it is only radical grace that
motivates good works and that is true as far as it goes. But
if we are to do justice to the whole of Scripture, then we
begin to notice there is a wide selection of motivations for us
to pursue holiness:

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1. Personal holiness is Gods requirement for dwelling

with Him Matthew 5:8, Heb 12:14, 1 John 3:2-3
2. Personal holiness is gratitude for Gods mercy
Romans 12:1
3. Personal holiness shows our love for Christ John
14:15
4. Personal holiness is mirroring who God is 1 Peter
1:14-16
5. Personal holiness is tied to assurance 2 Peter 1:10, 1
John 2:3-4, 5:3-4
6. Personal holiness is a reminder this world is not our
home 1 Peter 2:11
7. Personal holiness honours those who have gone
before us in the race of faith Heb 12:1
8. Personal holiness leads to a fullness of love and joy
John 15:10-11
I love you guys so I will state it plainly as we close: ignore
anyone who tells you stuff like this: The only reason we
dont get better is because we obsess over getting better.
God is trying to make you get better and neither should
you indwelling sin in a believer is not like a cold you can
shake off with some sleep and not doing anything for a
while.
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God is in the business of renovating taking sinful men and

making them more and more like Christ for His own glory.
Christian, Colossians 3:10 is true of you so dont wait for
the miracle of Christlikeness to happen to you. ACT. THE.
MIRACLE.
Lets pray...

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