Have you ever wanted to travel through time? We’ve all seen those sci-fi horror scenarios about people messing with the space-time continuum, but some people want to travel through time to witness history. If I could time travel, I would want to see some bands in their heyday – the Beatles, the Allman Brothers, Mother’s Finest, just to name a few.
(Brace yourself for the cheesiest segue ever...) If you’re a believer in Jesus, there’s an aspect of your life that does travel through time – your sanctification.
Podcaster Barry Cooper calls sanctification “the Marty McFly of theological words. That’s because biblically speaking, sanctification occurs in the past, the present, and the future.” Sanctification is “already but not yet,” as many theologians have put it.
The “past” of sanctification happened at your salvation. The “present” of sanctification is continually occurring as you become more and more like Jesus. The “future” of sanctification will take place when you’re made perfect in eternity.
The Lexham Survey of Theology describes it like this:
Sanctification is the ongoing supernatural work of God to rescue justified sinners from the disease of sin and to conform them to the image of his Son: holy, Christlike, and empowered to do good works.
The triune God not only declares his children righteous but also progressively makes them righteous, setting them apart for himself and freeing them from the entanglements of sin. This process, referred to as “sanctification,” does not happen in a moment but is the ongoing work of God throughout the life of a believer. In “justification,” Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers: it is reckoned to their account, judicially speaking. In sanctification, Christ’s righteousness is imparted: by the power of the Spirit, the converted sinner becomes more like Christ. The sinner is transformed in every area of his or her life: inward and outward, heart and action, relationships and purpose.
In John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.”
Related: Sunday Thoughts: The Encouragement of Future Hope
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30, ESV). He advised the church in Philippi, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13, ESV).
The author of Hebrews reminded his readers (and us today) of the forever nature of sanctification, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead:
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 10:10-14 (ESV)
So does Paul:
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:5-14, 22-23 (ESV)
Cooper quotes a pair of theological titans:
Sinclair Ferguson puts it so memorably: sanctification means that the determining factor of my existence is no longer my past. It is Christ’s past.
The Puritan John Owen wrote that there are two great pastoral problems. One is to convince committed sinners that sin does have control over them. The other is to convince Christians that sin does not have control over them. “And unless this can be done [said Owen], it is impossible [Christians] should enjoy solid peace and comfort in this life.”
Knowing that our sanctification is taking place in the past, present, and future should give us courage to be bold on the days when we believe we’re living like Jesus. It should lift us up on the days when we feel like we’ve fallen short. And it should always lead us to worship and give glory to God.
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