SANCTIFIED

Heb.10:14-18 – For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,
“THIS IS THE COVENANT WHICH I WILL MAKE WITH THEM
AFTER THOSE DAYS, DECLARES THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEARTS,
AND WRITE THEM ON THEIR MIND,”
He then says,
“AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS
I WILL NO LONGER REMEMBER.”
Now where there is forgiveness of these things, an offering for sin is no longer required.

Sanctified, not a word we often hear in Christian circles today. It seems to carry a stigma we associate with rules and preconceived ideas of legalism. Funny thing about that, sanctification is exactly the opposite, it opens the doorway to freedom from sin into a life of joy and satisfaction in the Lord. Sanctification describes our life after our very nature is changed, unexplainably we now love and enjoy different things. We enjoy worship, the word of God, gathering with believers, and just enjoying God’s beauty in creation. We are way different from the people we used to be. Sanctified is not a set of rules about our behavior or our wardrobe, it is discovering the beauty and joy found in the Lord. Here is how Murray says it.

“Sanctified. That looks back to the great purpose of Christ’s coming…Sanctified is cleansed from sin, taken out of the sphere and power of the world and sin, and brought to live in the sphere and power of God’s holiness in the Holiest of All.…It not only says that He has finished and completed for them all they need, the word points back to what was said of His own being made perfect. All He became was for us in His one sacrifice He was not only perfected Himself, but He perfected us; He took us into the fellowship of His own perfectness, implanted His own perfect life in us, and gave His perfected human nature to us what we were to put on, and to live in.”

Sanctification is about putting on Christ. The Father sees us as holy because of the blood of Jesus. We actually become holy by the life of Jesus in us. Being Christlike is impossible for the natural, fallen man. Being like Jesus is actually Christ Himself living His life in and through us. Modern preaching has focused only on half of the message of grace. It focuses on the cleansing of our past – the Lord is not content with that; He is not content until we become like Him in our day to day lives.