Most of the Bible Studies we post are original but on occasion we reprint an article from an expert and who is more of an expert than the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee of the Thru The Bible Network. A link to their site is at the bottom of the article. We recognize that the word “sanctification” is one of those Church or Bible words that is quite often misunderstood. That is why we chose to reprint this because Dr. McGee was one of Kathy’s favorite Bible teachers.
Sanctification is in three different parts. There is what is known as positional sanctification. When you and I trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Lord Jesus has been “made unto us…righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30). So you and I have a standing before God that’s perfect, because we are in Christ – that’s our position. In this matter of positional sanctification, when the Lord Jesus took away my sin, paid the penalty for my sins, He not only subtracted sin but He gave an addition of righteousness.
Then there is practical righteousness. That’s when we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).
And then there is the ultimate righteousness, “it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). He is righteous, and that is the ultimate goal for us. But ‘none of us in this life can attain that. But there is a practical righteousness that you and I can grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. And actually we ought to be a better Christian today than we were yesterday.
In other words, there should be Spiritual growth in the lives of all of us, and that growth is the thing we’re concerned with today. That is, to live a life that is worthy of God, and we cannot do that in our own strength. The thing we need today is not the gifts of the Spirit; what we really need is the fruit of the Spirit. And “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance” (Galatians 5:22 – 23).
How do you attain that? We’re told to walk in the Spirit, and that’s a learning process. That’s the reason He keeps us down here that we might grow. The business of the church is to produce spiritual fruit and not religious nuts!
That is the righteousness that you and I need today. That’s sanctification – that you and I grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you get right down to the nuts and bolts, our business as Christians is to do what Jesus wants us to do. And when you and I are doing that, then we are being sanctified.
