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Lessons for the Salvation Seminar (Text Version)
Bible Doctrine of Salvation
Soteriology
Lessons: Salvation, Regeneration, Repentance, Faith, Justification, How to Be Born Again, Sanctification.
VII. Sanctification
"This is the will of God, even your sanctification...." (Read through verse 7.)
"... not... uncleanness, but holiness" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7).
"(Jesus) ... gave himself ... that he might sanctify and cleanse...." (Read
Ephesians 5:25-27.)
"Follow peace ... and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord"
(Hebrews 12:14).
What Is Sanctification?
- Sanctification means: to make holy, dedicate, separate, set apart. It means to set apart for God and his service someone or something from its common ordinary use. The Bible speaks of the following being sanctified: Firstborn, altars, houses, fields, possessions, animals, the nation of Israel, mountains, God's Name, people.
- Sanctification involves a purifying or cleansing to prepare the person or thing for God and His service.
When Does Sanctification Take Place?
- Instantly, at regeneration, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin. Acts 26:18 tells us that conversion is "to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified BY FAITH."
- Further, at a time of complete surrender and committment.
- Progressively, by the word of God (John 17:3) as a person meditates in the word and the Holy Spirit works in the heart-and mind. God sanctifies us as he works in us both "to will and to do his good pleasure." Phil. 2:13.
- There is a sense in which God says, "sanctify yourself" Lev. 11:44, and in which even Jesus said, "I sanctify myself" (John 17:19), although he was never defiled by sin and always did those things which pleased the Father.
- When God calls and sets aside a person for a particular task, it can be said that he sanctifies them for that purpose.
What Are The Sanctifying Agents?
What Is It That Sanctifies, Purifies Or Makes Holy?
- The blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7. 4). The Word of God (John 17:3).
- Prayer (1 Timothy 4:5)
- You, yourself (2 Corinthians 7:1)
- The Holy Spirit (1 Peter. 1:2; Romans 15:16; Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 7:14)
False Hopes And Means By Which Some Expect To Someday Become Holy.
Purgatory, Judgment Seat of Christ, Death, Rapture, a New Environment, Marriage, Christian service, Asceticism, Martyrdom.
Erroneous Teaching Concerning Sanctification.
A "second definite work of grace" subsequent to salvation in which the "root of sin," "the old man," is destroyed or removed. Some even call this the Baptism of the Spirit and some say it is an experience that must take place before one receives the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The Scriptures indicate that there always remains the possibility of sin and that we must choose to "put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts" (Ephesians 4:22) and that one must continue to choose to "neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God" (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 4:22-32). We must "submit to God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you" (James 4:7).
"Please tell me more."
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