www.WhatTheBibleTeaches.com

Chapter 370

[Home] [Accept Jesus] [More] [Previous] [Next]

THE SANCTIFICATION
OF BELIEVERS

370.010.000 Torrey: p340, T:I
Topic 10: What does Sanctification mean?

370.010.010 Torrey: p340, T:I, P:1
POINT 10: To sanctify means to separate or set apart for God. Sanctification is the process of setting apart or state of being set apart for God. This is the primary meaning of the word.

Leviticus 27:14, 16 [14] If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the LORD, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain. [16] If a man dedicates to the LORD part of his family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it -- fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.

Numbers 8:17 Every firstborn male in Israel, whether man or animal, is mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself.

2 Chronicles 7:16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Matthew 23:17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

John 10:35-36 [35] If he called them `gods,' to whom the word of God came -- and the Scripture cannot be broken - - [36] what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, `I am God's Son'?

370.010.020 Torrey: p341, T:I, P:2
POINT 20: To sanctify means to separate from ceremonial or moral defilement, to cleanse. Sanctification is the process of separating, or state of being separated, from ceremonial or moral defilement.

2 Chronicles 29:4-5, 15- 18 [4] He brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the square on the east side [5] and said: "Listen to me, Levites! Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove all defilement from the sanctuary. [15] When they had assembled their brothers and consecrated themselves, they went in to purify the temple of the LORD, as the king had ordered, following the word of the LORD. [16] The priests went into the sanctuary of the LORD to purify it. They brought out to the courtyard of the LORD's temple everything unclean that they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took it and carried it out to the Kidron Valley. [17] They began the consecration on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month they reached the portico of the LORD. For eight more days they consecrated the temple of the LORD itself, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month. [18] Then they went in to King Hezekiah and reported: "We have purified the entire temple of the LORD, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table for setting out the consecrated bread, with all its articles.

Leviticus 11:44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.

Leviticus 20:7 Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.

1 Chronicles 15:12, 14 [12] He said to them, "You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it." [14] So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.

Exodus 19:20-22 [20] The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up [21] and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish. [22] Even the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them."

1 Thessalonians 5:22- 23 [22] Avoid every kind of evil. [23] May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 9:13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.

1 Thessalonians 4:7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;

The two meanings of the word are closely allied. One cannot be truly separated to God without being separated from sin.

370.010.030 Torrey: p342, T:I, P:3
POINT 30: God is spoken of as being sanctified by the revelation of His own character, not that He is made holy but shown to be Holy.

Ezekiel 20:41 I will accept you as fragrant incense when I bring you out from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will show myself holy among you in the sight of the nations.

Ezekiel 28:22 and say: "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'I am against you, O Sidon, and I will gain glory within you. They will know that I am the LORD, when I inflict punishment on her and show myself holy within her.'"

Ezekiel 36:23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

Ezekiel 38:16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

Ezekiel 39:27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations.

370.020.000 Torrey: p342, T:II
Topic 20: How are men sanctified?

370.020.010 Torrey: p342, T:II, P:1
POINT 10: God sanctifies men.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Sanctification -- the separation of men from sin and separating them unto God -- is God's own work.

As it was God who in the Old Dispensation set apart the firstborn unto Himself, so it is God who in the New Dispensation sets apart the believer unto Himself and separates him from sin.

370.020.020 Torrey: p342, T:II, P:2
POINT 20: Christ sanctifies the Church. Sanctification is Christ's work.

Ephesians 5:25-26 [25] Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her [26] to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,

By the giving up or sacrifice of Himself, Christ sets the Church apart for God. The sacrifice of Christ puts a difference between the Church and the world, just as the blood of the Passover Lamb put a difference between Israel and the Egyptians.

Exodus 11:7 But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.

Exodus 12:12-13 [12] On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn -- both men and animals -- and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. [13] The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Hebrews 10:10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

By the offering of His own body Jesus Christ has forever set the believer apart fro God. The cross stands between the believer and the world. He belongs to God.

370.020.030 Torrey: p343, T:II, P:3
POINT 30: The Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer. Sanctification is the Holy Spirit's work.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

1 Peter 1:1-2 [1] ... To God's elect, ... [2] who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Just as in the Old Testament type, tabernacle, altar and priest were set apart for God by the anointing oil, so in the New Testament anti-type the believer, who is both tabernacle and priest, is set apart for God by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is also the Holy Spirit's working in the heart that overcomes the flesh and its defilements, and thus separates the believer from sin and clothes him with Divine graces of character, and makes him fit to be God's own.

Leviticus 8:10-12 [10] Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them. [11] He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them. [12] He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him.

Galatians 5:16-23 [16] So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. [17] For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. [19] The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; [20] idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions [21] and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

370.020.040 Torrey: p344, T:II, P:4
POINT 40: Believers are sanctified through the blood.

Hebrews 13:12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

The blood cleanses us from all the guilt of sin and thus separates us from the mass of men under the curse of the law and sets us apart for God. Compare:

1 John 1:7, 9 [7] But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. [9] If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

In the Old Testament the blood of the sacrifice cleansed the Israelites from the guilt of ceremonial offenses and set the apart for God; in the New Testament the blood of Christ cleanses the believer from guilt of moral offenses and sets him apart for God.

370.020.050 Torrey: p344, T:II, P:5
POINT 50: We are sanctified in the truth, the Word of God.

John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

The Word cleanses from the presence of sin, separates us from it, and sets us apart for God.

Psalms 119:9, 11 [9] How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. [11] I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

As we bring our lives into daily contact with the Word, the sins and imperfections of our lives and hearts are disclosed and put away, and we are more and more separated from sin unto God.

John 13:10 Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you."

370.020.060 Torrey: p344, T:II, P:6
POINT 60: Jesus Christ became for us a righteousness from God.

1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Separation from sin and separation to God was provided for us in Christ. By the appropriation of Christ we obtain this sanctification thus provided. The more completely we appropriate christ, the more completely are we sanctified. But perfect sanctification is provided in Him, just as perfect wisdom is provided in Him.

Colossians 2:2-3 [2] My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, [3] in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

We appropriate each in ever-increasing measure. Through the indwelling Christ, presented to us by the Spirit in the Word, we are made Christ-like and bear fruit.

John 15:1-7 [1] I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. [2] He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. [3] You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. [4] Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. [5] I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. [7] If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

As Christ takes continually more and more complete possession of every corner of our being we are more and more completely sanctified.

370.020.070 Torrey: p345, T:II, P:7
POINT 70: We become partakers of God's holiness through the administration of chastisement by our Heavenly Father.

Hebrews 12:10-11, 14 [10] Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. [11] No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. [14] Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

NOTE -- The word "holiness" in this passage is not precisely the same word as the one translated "sanctification" in other passages, but it is from precisely the same rood, and in v. 14, precisely the same word is used, and it is translated "sanctification" in the Revised Version.

370.020.080 Torrey: p345, T:II, P:8
POINT 80: Sanctification is something that we must pursue, or seek earnestly, if we are to obtain it. While it is God's work we have our part in it; viz: to make it the object of our earnest desire and pursuit.

Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

370.020.090 Torrey: p346, T:II, P:9
POINT 90: We attain unto sanctification through presenting our members as servants (literally "slaves") to righteousness and becoming ourselves bondservants unto God.

Romans 6:19, 22 [19] I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. [22] But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

370.020.100 Torrey: p346, T:II, P:10
POINT 100: We perfect holiness by cleansing ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. To this end we are to come out from among unbelievers, refusing all alliances with them and touching no unclean thing.

2 Corinthians 6:17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

2 Corinthians 7:1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

It is, of course, under the guidance and in the power of the Holy Spirit that we do this, but it is we that do it.

370.020.110 Torrey: p346, T:II, P:11
POINT 110: The completion by Christ of the work of sanctification in us -- i.e., our presentation before God, holy, without blemish and unreproveable -- is conditioned upon our continuance in the faith, grounded and steadfast.

Colossians 1:21-23 [21] Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. [22] But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation -- [23] if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

NOTE -- If we have a genuine faith we will so continue.

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

370.020.120 Torrey: p346, T:II, P:12
POINT 120: We are sanctified by faith in Christ.

Acts 26:17-18 [17] I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them [18] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Sanctification, just as Justification, Regeneration and Adoption, is conditioned upon faith. Faith is the hand that appropriates this as all other blessings of God.

370.030.000 Torrey: p347, T:III
Topic 30: When does Sanctification take Place?

370.030.010 Torrey: p347, T:III, P:1
POINT 10: All members of the Church of God already are sanctified in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ -- their Lord and ours:

1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The moment anyone becomes a member of the Church of God by faith in Jesus Christ, that moment he is sanctified.

QUESTION: In what sense are we already sanctified?

ANSWER: Hebrews 10:10, 13-14 [10] And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. [13] Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, [14] because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all we are cleansed forever from all the guilt of sin, we are "perfected forever" as far as our standing before God is concerned. The sacrifice does not need to be repeated as the Jewish sacrifices did. The work is done once for all, sin is put away forever, and we are set apart forever as God's peculiar and eternal possession.

Hebrews 9:26 Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."

There is another sense in which every believer may be already sanctified.

Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship.

It is the believer's present and blessed privilege, and immediate and solemn duty, to present his body to God a living sacrifice -- not some part or parts of the body, but the whole body and its every member and every faculty. Such an offering is "well pleasing to God." As God in the Old Testament showed His pleasure in an offering by sending down fire to take it to Himself, so when the whole body is thus offered to God He still sends down fire, the fire of the Holy Ghost, and takes to Himself what is thus presented. The believer, then, so far as the will, the governing purpose of his life, the center of his being, is concerned, is wholly God's or perfectly sanctified. He may and will daily discover, as he studies the Word of God and is illumined by the Holy Spirit, acts of his, habits of life, forms of feeling, speech and action that are not in conformity with this central purpose of his life. These must be confessed to God as blameworthy, and be put away, and this department of his being and life brought by God's Spirit and the indwelling Christ into conformity with God's will as revealed in His Word.

370.030.020 Torrey: p349, T:III, P:2
POINT 20: There is a progressive work of sanctification; an increasing in love; an abounding more and more in godly walk and in pleasing God; a growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; a being transformed into the image of our Lord Jesus from glory unto glory, each new gaze at Him making us more like Him; a growing up into Christ in all things, until we attain unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.

1 Thessalonians 4:1, 10 [1] Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. [10] And in fact, you do love all the brothers throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, brothers, to do so more and more.

2 Peter 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Ephesians 4:11-15 [11] It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, [12] to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up [13] until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. [14] Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. [15] Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

370.030.030 Torrey: p349, T:III, P:3
POINT 30: The complete sanctification of believers is something to be sought for in prayer, to be accomplished by God in the future.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 [12] May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. [13] May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

It is at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all is saints that He is to establish our hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, and that our spirit and soul and body are to be preserved entire without blame.

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

It is through our Lord making us to increase and abound in love unto one another and unto all men that this is accomplished. It is not in the life that now is, nor is it at death, but at the coming of Christ that we are entirely sanctified in this sense.

370.040.000 Torrey: p349, T:IV
Topic 40: The Results of Sanctification.

370.040.010 Torrey: p349, T:IV, P:1
POINT 10: By the one offering, the sacrifice of Himself for sins, Christ has perfected forever those who are sanctified.

Hebrews 10:13-14 [13] Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, [14] because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Their standing before God as guiltless is already forever secured for the sanctified. The sanctification here spoken of is the separation from the guilt of sin and unto God secured by the shed blood.

370.040.020 Torrey: p350, T:IV, P:2
POINT 20: Those whom Jesus sanctifies are of one with Him, and He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Hebrews 2:11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

370.040.030 Torrey: p350, T:IV, P:3
POINT 30: We are saved through sanctification.

Sanctification results in salvation. The sanctification here spoken of is the sanctification which the Holy Spirit works; and the salvation here spoken of is not salvation in the mere sense of the forgiveness of sins, but salvation in the fullest sense of deliverance from sin's dominion and presence.

370.040.040 Torrey: p350, T:IV, P:4
POINT 40: Sanctification results in seeing the Lord.

Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

The sanctification here spoken of is sanctification in the sense of separation from sin, the sanctification which is the outcome of our eager desire for it and God's chastening. without this cleansing from sin it will be impossible to know the blessed vision of the Lord that awaits those who are purified. The purity that leads to this blessed vision of God is not merely outward purity but heart purity.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Even in the life that now is, the more completely we are sanctified the clearer is our perception of God.

370.040.050 Torrey: p350, T:IV, P:5
POINT 50: Sanctification secures an inheritance.

Acts 20:32 Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified

Sanctification by God's Spirit makes us joint heirs with God's Son.

Romans 8:1-18 [1] Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, [2] because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. [3] For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, [4] in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. [5] Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. [6] The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; [12] Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. [13] For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, [14] because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [15] For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." [16] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. [17] Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. [18] I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

[Top] [Home] [Accept Jesus] [More] [Previous] [Next]

THE SANCTIFICATION OF BELIEVERS

THE SANCTIFICATION
OF BELIEVERS