Christ Our Sanctifier Series

In John 17, we have Christ’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed. He had told His disciples earlier that in a little while He would no longer be with them. The time was approaching fast. Jesus sensed the urgency of the moment and uttered this prayer.

Upon reading this prayer, you will quickly notice that it does not focus on trying to find a way to escape the horrors that awaited him. Rather Jesus is asking His Father to provide for the well being of His followers. I want to look at just one portion of this prayer beginning with verse 15. John 17:15-19 (p. 805). [Read] In these verses, Jesus uses the word sanctify three times. Knowing that His time was short, He petitioned His Father to sanctify His disciples.

What Is Sanctification?

Some of you may be wondering what the word sanctification means. It’s not a word we use a lot in everyday conversation, so it would be wise to take the time to define it.

Sanctification is a translation of the Greek word (hagiasmos) which is rendered as holiness, consecration or sanctification in our Bibles. George Pardington, noted theologian and one of the early leaders of the C&MA, said the word sanctification “has three meanings: separation from sin; dedication to God; [and] appointment to ministry.” It’s a word, like a salvation, which can be understood “in a moral sense for a process or…it’s result (the state of being made holy)” (Bauer, p. 9). On the one hand, sanctification is a stated condition, a declaration of God, that a believer is holy. That is, in a judicial act by God, on the basis of accepting Christ as Savior, every believer is declared to be holy. Often times Paul addressed his letters to the holy ones or saints, emphasizing this “already” aspect of the work of sanctification.

But sanctification is also a process. We are already sanctified positionally before God, yet, on an experiential level, we are not fully sanctified, or to use Simpson’s phrase, “wholly” sanctified. It is a present reality, yet there is a further work of holiness which still needs to be carried out. It is both a work performed in the life of the believer by God and a work of that each individual Christian must be involved in.

Numerous commands in the Bible imply that believers also have a responsibility in the process of sanctification. We are commanded to “be holy” (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:15-16); to “be perfect” (Matt. 5:48); and to “present [our] members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19) (IBD, p. 949).

What Is the Relationship Between Salvation and Sanctification?

What is the relationship between the salvation and sanctification? At the moment we received Christ as Savior, we entered or were initiated into the process of sanctification or becoming holy. As William Barclay points out, “The aim of reconciliation is holiness. Christ carried out His sacrificial work of reconciliation in order to present us to God consecrated, unblemished and irreproachable.” Christ came not only to save us from the power of sin, but from the effects of sin as well. He came to make us holy.