“Sanctification” is a big, and sometimes scary word. Among some Christians the word is entirely foreign. This is strange to me. It’s strange to me because the Bible has a whole lot to say about sanctification. In fact, one could argue that sanctification is, in a word, what the gospel and Christianity are all about.
So, what is sanctification? Sanctification, in my own words, is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus both inwardly and outwardly.
For a long time, the Protestant church (in America in particular) has understood the forgiveness of sins to be at the very the center of the gospel message. Being forgiven is what salvation is all about for so many. This makes sense because the cross is the symbol that encapsulates in itself the gospel message. When we look at the cross, we immediately think of Jesus who willingly died in the place of sinners so that sinners could be forgiven for wronging God (Rom. 5:8).
But is it what the cross is all about? I think there’s more. In the cross we not only see Jesus dying in the place of sinners, in the cross we also see Jesus putting to death the power of sin. How does this work?
Normally when we think of sin we think of rule-breaking. God said don’t do this, and we did it, therefore we have committed a sin. The consistent pattern of rule-breaking is what makes people “sinners”. This is certainly true, but there is another aspect of sin as well and that is the sin nature. That is, we are sinners not just by what we do, but also by who we are. This means that sin is built into us. Anoyone who doesn’t believe that there is something utterly evil hidden deep in the heart of ever person is naïve. This “sin nature” the Bible sometimes personifies as “the old man of the flesh”. In this phrase, the Bible referring to the sick heart of people that causes them to sin.
How do we see this idea in the cross? When Jesus died on the cross, he not only wiped away the sin of the world for the sake of forgiveness, but he also put to death the sin nature. This is why Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). What he means is that in order to follow Jesus we have to be willing to let the old sinful heart die. It means nailing our sinful passions and desires to the cross the same way that Jesus was nailed to the cross. It means getting a heart transplant.
A friend of mine explains it this way. A pig is always a pig, and pigs stink and have nasty habits. Can you bathe the pig? Sure! Can you spray perfume on the pig? Yep! Heck, you could even put a tie around the pig’s neck and bring him to church with you! At the end of the day, however, the pig is still a pig. That pig is still going to go back to rolling around the mud and eating slop. It’s his nature.
To teach that the gospel is only about forgiveness is comparable to bathing the pig and taking him to church. And, by the way, try as hard as you can not to act like a pig. If you do end up back in the mud, you can just ask forgiveness. The bottom-line, however, is that you’ll always be a pig.
This isn’t what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that the power of the gospel is to actually transform the pig into something entirely different (Rom. 8). The Bible teaches that through the power of the Holy Spirit our nature can actually change. The presence of God in people’s lives made possible through the forgiveness of sins can drive out the sinful desires and passions of the heart.
In a phrase, the gospel can actually heal people from their brokenness, rather than simply treating the symptoms. This is what sanctification is all about.
