Sanctification and the Grace of God

Self-righteousness is trying to maintain moral behavior by fear and guilt. Nothing sanctifies us more effectively than the application of the pure grace of God. 

To become like Christ, we need the help of Christ. Knowing how much He loves us even to the point of tolerating (not accepting) our disobedience, we receive the grace to live a life of obedience and harmony with His will.

Albert Kang 

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SET APARTSanctification (Gk.. hagiasmos) means “to set apart.” In English we use the words ’holy’ and ‘saint.’ There are three aspects to sanctification; 

(1) Positional sanctification

(2) Experiential sanctification

(3) Ultimate sanctification

That is to say, we are sanctified, being sanctified, and will be sanctified. Positional sanctification and Ultimate sanctification are something that God alone does for us. But Experiential sanctification requires our active participation with the Holy Spirit to become more and more like Christ in our daily lives.

Positional sanctification has to do with our standing before God based on what Christ did for us. All those who are truly born again believers are called “saints” and St. Paul refers to believers as saints in many of his epistles. (see Romans 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; Eph. 1:1). Positional sanctification is achieved through the once-for-all death of Christ (Heb. 10:10, 14, 29).

Experiential sanctification has to do with our experience in daily life. St. Paul desired the believers in Thessalonica to be completely sanctified in their experience as can be noted in First Thess. 5:23. St. Peter writes to believers, drawing from the Old Testament Leviticus 19:2, to be holy (First Peter 1:16). As a believer grows in his or her walk with the LORD, experiential sanctification takes place (Romans 6:13; Romans 12:1-2) and desires change. Old, destructive patterns stop and are replaced with God honoring choices on a daily basis and often suffering is involved (see Philippians 3:8-11). Experiential sanctification cannot take place without the Word of God (John 17:17; Psalm 119:9-16) and it is both God and the believer who have an active part in experiential sanctification (Phil 2:12-13).

Ultimate sanctification has to do with the future and the final transformation of the Christian into the likeness of Christ. It deals with the believers being presented the LORD without blemish (Eph. 5:26-27).

(Some of the above is from Moody Handbook of Theology; Nelson Study Bible NKJV; and inspired by the sermon of Dr. Richard Mayhue of the Master’s Seminary http://www.tms.edu/

Source:http://earlymorningrainbiblestudy.blogspot.com/2010/09/set-apart.html