Justification, Declaration, Sanctification, and Glorification Part 3
I wrote the first two installments of this three part blog post over a year ago. However, due to life’s various circumstances, and other things God had put on my heart, I’m just now getting around to writing the final piece in the trilogy of Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. So here we go….
There are 3 stages that lead to Sanctification that set it apart from Justification.
1. Santification finds its genesis in our salvation. Through our salvation a moral change takes place in both our physical and spiritual life. 1 John 3:9 states “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him, he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” Now I know this seems a bit contradictory because we are totally depraved or sinful for life. However, when we are born of God, the Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us the new life in Jesus. Being born again is a rebirth, a fresh start. When this happens God forgives us and fully accepts us. Through this process of sanctification beginning at regeneration, the Holy Spirit gives us both new minds and hearts. Plus our perspective changes because we begin to see things and especially people as Christ did “With Compassion,” and we are renewed day by day through the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:11 states that through salvation: “You were washed, you we’re sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
2. Sanctification increases throughout life. In addition to a clear beginning of the sanctification process at salvation, it is also a process that continues throughout our Christian lives. Paul recognized that sin remains in people’s lives, so he exhorted the members of the church at Rome to “not let it reign and not to yield to it….” Romans 6:12-13. Our task then as Christians is to grow more in sanctification, just as before salvation, we grew in sin. Sanctification basically turns the born again believers life upside down and we seek to live a life worthy of Christ, not a life rooted in sin.
Paul also wrote in Philippians 3:13-14 “I press on toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” In this context Paul stated we are not already perfect, but we continue to press on to reach and achieve everything for which Christ has saved for us.
3. Sanctification is completed at death. Because sin still remains in our hearts, even though we have committed our lives to Christ through the rebirth of salvation, our sanctification will never be completed in this life. Our Sanctification will be made complete as we reach Glorification in Heaven after this life. You see, it is impossible for sin to enter into Heaven. Revelation 21:27 provides clarity on this point. John wrote the following about Heaven: “Nothing profane will ever enter it: no one who does what is vile or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s Book Of Life.
You see, it all comes full circle. We are made just by God at salvation, with the sanctification process beginning at salvation too, but shaping our lives every day, and we find complete glorification in Heaven with Christ where there is no sin. (1)
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(1) Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology textbook provided the reference text for much of this post.
