Sanctification

This statement by the Apostle Paul contains a fundamental lesson in the Christian life: sanctification. A misinterpretation of sanctification will directly affect the quality of a believer’s spiritual life. Therefore, this concept must not be understood in a shallow or mistaken way. The expression “called to be his holy people” is often misunderstood to suggest that sanctification is an automatic process carried out entirely by God without human involvement. The phrase “called to be” indeed gives the impression that human beings are passive, while God is fully active. However, such an understanding is contrary to the whole witness of Scripture. Human beings were created as free beings, called to respond to God’s grace consciously and responsibly. Human beings are not robots whose lives are determined by fate. Therefore, the doctrine of absolute predestination, which eliminates human responsibility, does not derive from the Bible but is drawn from theological systems outside the revelation of Holy Scripture.

 

Throughout the Bible, the call to respond to grace is always accompanied by the demand to “work out your salvation.” Grace is given not to leave people as they are, but to bring them back to God’s original design: human beings who are blameless and without defect, who partake in God’s holiness, and even share in the divine nature. God wants to make believers holy, but if someone refuses, God does not force them. God does not coerce people to obey, because coercion is not God’s nature. From this, it is clear that some are willing to repent and sincerely receive Christ, while others reject Him. The life of a believer thus becomes a struggle: one can become a victor, but one can also become a loser (Luke 13:23–24).

 

So far, sanctification is often mistakenly understood as a process of “cleansing” in a physical sense. As if being sanctified were the same as cleaning a dirty surface—like sweeping a floor or wiping a table. This understanding is not correct. Sanctification is not directed toward physical objects that have areas or surfaces. When a person sins and it is said that their heart must be cleansed, the issue is not a bodily organ, but the whole human existence. Therefore, sanctification must be understood as an act of God that flows from the sacrifice of Christ’s cross, placing human beings in a new status.

 

Sin places human beings in the position of sinners who are not pleasing to God and who do not meet His standard of holiness. This status closes off the possibility of people living as children of God and removes their potential to be like their Father. Forgiveness changes a person’s status from guilty to not guilty. This process is parallel to redemption. To be redeemed means to be bought to have one’s status transferred, from an enslaved person to a free person, from a rebel to belonging to God. Redemption places human beings as God’s possession, as servants who live for His will.

 

Through the redemptive sacrifice of Christ, sinful human beings are treated as though they were not guilty. All sins—those that have been committed, are being committed, and will be committed—are nailed to the cross. This is what can be called passive sanctification. This sanctification does not yet make a person truly good or holy in the reality of life. Passive sanctification is a change of status that opens the possibility for a person to enter the process of spiritual maturation.

 

The purpose of passive sanctification is that human beings, through the process of discipleship and spiritual growth, truly become holy like the Father (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:16). Therefore, sanctification does not stop at status, but must continue into condition. This is parallel to the concept of justification. Through the sacrifice of Christ, sinners are justified passively—regarded as righteous before God. But believers must not stop or be satisfied with this passive justification. They are called to strive toward active justification, namely, a life that is truly righteous in daily reality.