Sanctification: growth in holiness

Holiness and the life of faith

Sanctification is being made holy in actual life. It is not a second method of earning the acceptance Christ has already secured. It is also not something a believer can regard as optional. Scripture calls Christians to act while teaching that God works in them. Either half can be misused if it is separated from the other.

Read 1 Peter 1:13-25

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—
14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,
15 but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior,
16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear,
18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things like silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ,
20 who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,
21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
24 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;
25 but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.

Peter does not ask believers to imitate the surrounding culture and then add religious activities. Their conduct is to reflect the God who called them. The command is rooted in redemption, which guards against the idea that holiness purchases rescue. At the same time, the cost of rescue gives serious weight to the command. A person cannot consistently celebrate Christ’s blood while treating the way of life from which He redeems as harmless.

Read Romans 6:11-23

11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
20 For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The chapter gives both what is true of believers and what they must do. That combination prevents two errors. One treats the new identity as fiction until perfect behavior appears. The other treats the identity as an excuse to ignore behavior. Paul does neither. Because the believer belongs to Christ, he must stop offering his capacities to sin. Time, attention, speech, and bodily habits become practical places where the changed allegiance is expressed.

A practical example is speech. Deciding to stop speaking harshly is a beginning, but a workable plan also asks when the harshness usually occurs, what thoughts feed it, and what truthful alternative should be practiced. That might mean refusing to answer in anger, returning to the discussion after calming down, and stating the actual concern without insult. Such planning is not a substitute for the Spirit. It is one way to obey with the understanding and self-control He supplies. The change should be measured by faithfulness, not merely by whether the other person immediately becomes easier to deal with.

Read Philippians 2:12-16

12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without complaining and arguing,
15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without defect in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world,
16 holding up the word of life, that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.

Working out what God has given is not earning what He has withheld. Paul’s wording joins effort with divine enabling. If God works in the believer, that is a reason to obey, not a reason to wait motionless. The surrounding examples are ordinary enough to be uncomfortable: rivalry, self-interest, and grumbling. It is possible to speak enthusiastically about spiritual growth while preserving the daily habits that most clearly need changing. The passage makes those habits part of the subject.

Read Ephesians 4:25-32

25 Therefore, putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
26 “Be angry, and don’t sin.” Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath,
27 and don’t give place to the devil.
28 Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.
32 And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

The replacement pattern is useful. The thief does not merely stop stealing; he works honestly so that he can share. Harmful speech is replaced with words that build up. Sanctification therefore includes learning constructive obedience, not merely keeping a list of prohibited acts. The motive is grounded in the forgiveness received through Christ. That does not make every change easy, but it makes the direction clear. A practical plan should name both the conduct being abandoned and the faithful conduct taking its place.

Three uses of the subject need to stay clear. There is a real consecration already accomplished: Paul can tell believers that they were washed and sanctified. There is a real transformation still taking place. And there is a completion still promised, when the believer is made like Christ. Treating every use as though it described the same stage creates avoidable confusion.

The completed consecration does not mean that habits and motives are already flawless. The continuing transformation does not mean that acceptance before God is reopened every morning for a new performance review. And the promised completion does not mean that present disobedience is unimportant. Each truth protects something the other statements must not be made to deny.

Hebrews 12:14 gives the subject its necessary seriousness: holiness is to be pursued, and without it no one will see the Lord. This does not mean that Christ pays most of the cost while personal improvement covers the remainder. It means that the salvation He gives includes liberation from sin’s rule and a new direction of life. An unrepentant allegiance to sin cannot become reassuring merely because it is accompanied by a profession of faith.

There is a difference between fighting a sin and arranging a permanent home for it. The fight may be difficult and progress uneven. A believer may fall badly and need correction. But repentance does not rename the evil as good or demand that everyone stop mentioning it. First John acknowledges actual sin while directing the believer to confession and to Jesus Christ the Advocate. Both honesty and hope are required.

The means of growth are ordinarily quite recognizable. Scripture teaches and corrects. Prayer expresses dependence. Fellowship provides encouragement and accountability. The ordinances direct faith toward Christ. God’s discipline exposes and trains. These do not function as spiritual machinery, and no particular emotional experience guarantees maturity. They are means to be received in faith and acted upon.

The practical work includes what older writers call mortification and vivification: putting sin to death and living in righteousness. The language is old; the distinction is useful. Stop the slander and practice truthful speech that helps. Refuse the dishonest gain and undertake honest work. Abandon vengeance and pursue appropriate justice without cultivating hatred. Mere suppression leaves the positive command unfinished.

This must remain governed by God’s Word. A personal safeguard can be wise without becoming a universal command. A visible cultural habit can look religious without proving inward purity. Conversely, a command does not become legalism merely because obeying it is difficult. The question is whether God requires it and how the command applies in its biblical setting.

When examining growth, avoid both obsessive scorekeeping and careless self-approval. Ask whether sin is being confessed more honestly, obedience practiced more deliberately, and love expressed more concretely. Do not compare every weakness with another person’s public appearance. The measure is Christ, the power is His Spirit, and the path includes repeated repentance. That is demanding enough without inventing a ladder God has not supplied.

Choose one specific practice to put off and one faithful practice to put on. Make the change concrete enough to recognize. Ask for the Spirit’s help, use Scripture, and invite appropriate accountability. Progress may be uneven, but vague intentions do not become more useful simply because they are expressed in religious language.

Consider your perspective

Sanctification makes growth both hopeful and demanding: the Spirit enables real change, and believers actively pursue it. Neither uneven progress nor continuing struggle justifies surrender, while improvement never becomes the basis of acceptance with God.

Put it into practice

Choose one sinful pattern and name its positive replacement. Arrange a specific opportunity to practice that replacement and ask a trusted believer to help you review the change honestly.

Reflect and respond

• What is the difference between growth and earning acceptance?
• Which old practice needs a positive replacement?
• What means of grace and accountability will support that change?

Passages and further study

• Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-25. https://ebible.org/engwebp/1PE01.htm
• Scripture: Romans 6:1-23. https://ebible.org/engwebp/ROM06.htm
• Scripture: Philippians 2:1-16. https://ebible.org/engwebp/PHP02.htm
• Scripture: Ephesians 4:17-32. https://ebible.org/engwebp/EPH04.htm
• Second London Baptist Confession (1677/1689), chapters 13, 16. Historical Reformed Baptist comparison; its first-day Sabbath teaching in 22.7-8 is not adopted here. Original text: https://1689confession.app/
• WEB text and public-domain notice: https://ebible.org/details.php?id=engwebp.

Scripture quotations are from the public-domain World English Bible (WEB). Historical confessions are study aids, subordinate to Scripture. This independent lesson is not an official denominational statement.