Sanctification

SANCTIFICATION (Gr. hagiasmos from the verb hagiazō). The process or result of being made holy. As the article on Holiness makes clear, holiness when applied to things, places, and people means that they are consecrated and set apart for the use of God, who is utterly pure and apart from all imperfection and evil. When used of people, it can refer also to the practical realization within them of consecration to God: that is, it can have a moral dimension. Thus in the NT, believers are described as already (objectively) sanctified in Christ—“your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our sanctification” (1Cor.1.30 rsv), and “those sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1Cor.1.2). Also, though set apart in Christ for God and seen as holy by God because they are in Christ, believers are called to show that consecration in their lives—“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” (1Thess.4.3), and “May...the God of peace sanctify you” (1Thess.5.23). The same emphasis is found in Hebrews (1Thess.2.11; 9:13; 10:10, 1Thess.2.14, 29; 13:12). Because believers are holy in Christ (set apart for God by his sacrificial, atoning blood), they are to be holy in practice in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are to be sanctified because they are already sanctified.

In the OT

Etymology.

The basic Heb. word lying behind such terms as “sanctification,” “holiness,” “hallowed,” and “separation” is the root qadōsh. Its etymology is uncertain. Attempts to find its origin in Babylonian, Assyrian, and Arabic languages remain indecisive. The Sem. root, KDSH, means to “cut off” or to “separate.” The word KDSH appears in three discernible meanings:

Radiance.

Numerous passages speak of holiness or sanctification as linked with God’s presence, as at the burning bush (Exod 3:5), at Mt. Sinai (19:16-25; 24:17), in the desert (14:24), and in the Tabernacle and Temple (40:34-38; 1 Kings 8:11). In these passages God’s presence is marked by radiance and light; significantly, a synonym of qadosh is “glory” (kabod).

Separation.

The most basic meaning of “sanctification” is separation. In each of the thousand places where this term and its cognates appear in the canonical Scriptures, the meaning of separation is either explicit or implicit, and in no instance is this meaning excluded. Mt. Sinai (Exod 19:23), the first-born (13:2), the Sabbath (20:11), and a pagan army (Isa 13:3) were “sanctified” by being set apart.

Purity.

a. Ceremonial. The objective of sanctification is purity, whether ritual or moral purity or both. The former is that normally required of priests and other officials in divine service (Exod 22:31); it is ritual correctness.

It should be noted that the idea of moral purity or goodness is not inherent in the term or terms; the moral connotation comes rather from the God with whom the term is linked. In eleven OT usages the concept of sanctification is linked with amoral deities and shrines and has no moral content (e.g. Gen 38:21, 22; Deut 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; Job 36:14; Hos 4:14). Since Yahweh is righteous, the sanctification which He effects is ethical and moral as well as cultic in character.

Concern for inward righteousness

In the canonical writings.

From an emphasis on ceremonial purity in priestly contexts, the moral meaning comes to be predominant in the later prophets and wise men. An analysis of the moral meaning of sanctification brings one to Isaiah’s vision which, as Procksch says, is “the central point of the entire theology of holiness” (TWNT). The two important declarations in Isaiah’s vision are (1) “iniquity (עָוֹן, H6411) removed” and (2) “sin (חַטָּאת, H2633) purged, covered,” reflecting an awareness of sin that is deeper than specific acts for which the removal of guilt is needed. It is rather the corrupt source from which sinful acts arise. The prophet therefore experiences not only pardon and the removal of guilt, but purging of the inner defilement at its source, hence lips “purged.”

The most explicit and detailed description of sanctification is to be found in Psalm 51. The psalmist (prob. David) prays for pardon of actual offenses. But he is concerned with more than a rectification of the past; he also pleads for cleansing and renewal of his disposition.

Influenced by a study of comparative religions, scholarship of an earlier day tended to give an exaggerated emphasis to this amoral, cultic aspect of the Hebraic concept. There is now an increasing recognition that the moral content is present throughout and to an increasing degree from the early prophets onward (Pss 15:1-5; 24:3-6; 51:1-17; Hos 4:1-10; Amos 2:6-11). See Righteousness.

In the intertestamental writings.

In the lit. produced between the Testaments, the Wisdom of Solomon reflects a deep appreciation of the spiritual life. A much deeper awareness of the pervasiveness and subtlety of sin is seen in the thoughtful lines of 2 Baruch and 4 Esdras, but they may well be contemporary with the writings of the NT. An even more profound concern with sanctification and holy living is discernible in the scrolls produced by the residents of Qumran in the decades prior to John and Jesus. In several of their hymns, and esp. in the Manual of Discipline, the conviction is expressed that the Spirit of Truth will purge the believer’s heart from all impurity and make perfect his relationship with his God (IQS iv). The Qumran lit. is more optimistic with reference to sanctification than were the authors of 2 Baruch and 4 Esdras. The holy life envisioned therein is ascetic and legalistic in contrast to the assurance, freedom, and joyousness of the NT.

In the NT

Vocabulary.

Facets of sanctification.

Four clearly definable distinctions in the NT meaning of sanctification emerge.

When Jesus prayed, He acknowledged the holiness or sanctity of His Father (John 17:11). In the model prayer believers are taught to pray for the hallowing of the Father’s name (Matt 6:9; Luke 11:2; cf. 1 Pet 3:15). Moses’ failure at this point led to his exclusion from the Promised Land (Num 20:12; Deut 3:26).

The sanctification of the Son.

The Son was “sanctified” by the Father (John 10:36) at the Incarnation, and the Son “sanctified” or dedicated Himself for the sake of His disciples (17:19). In these instances the meaning clearly is “separation”; it designates a relationship rather than inner moral renewal.

The sanctification of the believer

a. Positionally. Positional sanctification is also properly called status sanctification or cultic sanctification. What was the predominant meaning in the OT is retained, but to a lesser degree in several NT passages. The meaning of separation with reference to gifts to God is clear (Matt 23:19—“the altar that sanctifieth the gift” [KJV]; cf. Rom 15:16 RSV; 1 Tim 4:5) and with reference to believers (1 Cor 1:2—“sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” hagioi; cf. Rom 1:7). The Corinthian believers were “sanctified” in the sense of being set apart and yet remained “carnal” or unsanctified spiritually. Sanctification in this sense is attributive or imputational; it designates one’s status, position, or relationship, and not necessarily one’s nature or spiritual condition. It is imputed righteousness or justification.

c. Entirely. Entire sanctification is the most debatable aspect of the subject. All major theological traditions agree with reference to sanctification up to this point. The Reformed traditions, Orthodox, and Catholic do not, however, find in Scripture or in experience provision for full deliverance from sin while “in the flesh.” This may be attributable in part to the influence of oriental dualism imported into Christian theology via Augustine who was influenced by a Manichaean philosophy before he became a Christian.

Those who find in Scripture and in grace provision for complete victory over sin prior to death are many in the Arminian, Pietist, Quaker, and Wesleyan traditions. Caspar Schwenk-feld, a contemporary of Luther, was among the earliest of the reformers to call for a “reformation of the Reformation” and to protest against a tendency to an accommodation of sin in some Catholic and Reformation theology.

The negative aspect: Paul, after reminding his readers that as “holy ones” (hagioi) they are temples of God (2 Cor 1:2; 6:16), exhorts them: “Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1). The negative aspect is seen in the command for cleansing from all “defilement” (molusmos), a pollution that is both religious (disloyalty to God) and ethical (association with iniquity, 2 Cor 6:14) and yet that to which the “saints” are subject.

The positive aspect is seen in the command to “perfect” or bring to completion the quality of holiness (hagiosune) which is now only potential. That this is a present option is apparent from the tense of the verbs and also from the closing words of the letter—“Be perfect” (KJV, καταρτίζεσθε).

Crisis or process?

The evidence from Scripture, reason, and experience leads to the conclusion that sanctification is both process and crisis. The process begins when one is “risen with Christ” in the new birth. Paul’s emphasis on faith blends well with this emphasis upon a stage in the Christian’s life when he recognizes his inner defilement, deliberately renounces a self-centeredness, and embraces by faith God’s provision in Christ for full deliverance and perfection in love (Col 1:22; 1 Thess 5:23; Eph 3:19; Rom 6:11-14; Gal 2:20).

“This conscious self-consecration to the indwelling Spirit...is uniformly represented as a single act...(2 Cor 7:11)...Such an awakening and real consecration...was rather a thing of definite decision (expressed by the aorist, Rom 13:14; Col 1:9f.; Eph 6:11, 13-16) than of vaguely protracted process (expressed by presents)” (Bartlet, HDB, IV, 393).

Actual or potential?

Sanctification, defined broadly as the work of God’s grace in man’s perfection in righteousness, begins when he becomes a believer and hence is “in Christ.” It continues progressively until death brings him into Christ’s presence unless he “does despite to the Spirit of grace.” It is only as one by dedication and faith realizes in actuality what is provided in the atonement that this grace is experienced; it does not follow as a matter of course, as the exhortations in the NT imply. Parallel to the work of sanctification is the infilling of the Holy Spirit in the believer, perfection in love, having the “mind of Christ,” and “walking as he walked.”

Bibliography

J. B. Bartlet, “Sanctification,” HDB, IV (1909); R. S. Taylor, A Right Conception of Sin (1939); C. W. Brown, The Meaning of Sanctification (1945); G. C. Berkouwer, Faith and Sanctification (1952); C. T. Craig, “The Paradox of Holiness,” INT (1952); J. Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1952), 1777; W. Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (1955), 1692; S. Neill, Christian Holiness (1960); K. Keiger, ed., Insights Into Holiness (1962); G. A. Turner, The Vision Which Transforms (1964); L. T. Corlett, “What is Sanctification?” Herald of Holiness, Sept. 1, 1965, 10ff.; A. A. Hoekema, “Barth on Sanctification,” The Banner, 22 October 1965, 16ff.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)

sank-ti-fi-ka’-shun:

Etymology

I. THE FORMAL SENSE

1. In the Old Testament

2. In the New Testament

II. THE ETHICAL SENSE

1. Transformation of Formal to Ethical Idea

2. Our Relation to God as Personal: New Testament Idea

3. Sanctification as God’s Gift

4. Questions of Time and Method

5. An Element in All Christian Life

6. Follows from Fellowship with God

7. Is It Instantaneous and Entire?

8. Sanctification as Man’s Task

LITERATURE

Etymology:

The root is found in the Old Testament in the Hebrew verb qadhash, in the New Testament in the Greek verb hagoazo. The noun "sanctification" (hagiasmos) does not occur in the Old Testament and is found but 10 times in the New Testament, but the roots noted above appear in a group of important words which are of very frequent occurrence. These words are "holy," "hallow," "hallowed," "holiness," "consecrate," "saint," "sanctify," "sanctification." It must be borne in mind that these words are all translations of the same root, and that therefore no one of them can be treated adequately without reference to the others. All have undergone a certain development. Broadly stated, this has been from the formal, or ritual, to the ethical, and these different meanings must be carefully distinguished.

I. The Formal Sense.

By sanctification is ordinarily meant that hallowing of the Christian believer by which he is freed from sin and enabled to realize the will of God in his life. This is not, however, the first or common meaning in the Scriptures. To sanctify means commonly to make holy, that is, to separate from the world and consecrate to God.

1. In the Old Testament:

It is this formal usage without moral implication that explains such a passage as Ge 38:21. The word translated "prostitute" here is from the same root qadhash, meaning literally,, as elsewhere, the sanctified or consecrated one (qedheshah; see margin and compare De 23:18; 1Ki 14:24; Ho 4:14). It is the hierodule, the familiar figure of the old pagan temple, the sacred slave consecrated to the temple and the deity for immoral purposes. The practice is protested against in Israel (De 23:17 f), but the use of the term illustrates clearly the absence of anything essentially ethical in its primary meaning (compare also 2Ki 10:20, "And Jehu said, Sanctify a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it"; compare Joe 1:14).

2. In the New Testament:

In a few New Testament passages the Old Testament ritual sense reappears, as when Jesus speaks of the temple sanctifying the gold, and the altar the gift (Mt 23:17,19; compare also Heb 9:13; 1Ti 4:5). The prevailing meaning is that which we found in the Old Testament. To sanctify is to consecrate or set apart. We may first take the few passages in the Fourth Gospel. As applied to Jesus in Joh 10:36; 17:19, sanctify cannot mean to make holy in the ethical sense. As the whole context shows, it means to consecrate for His mission in the world. The reference to the disciples, "that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth," has both meanings: that they may be set apart, (for Jesus sends them, as the Father sends Him), and that they may be made holy in truth.

II. The Ethical Sense.

We have been considering so far what has been called the formal meaning of the word; but the chief interest of Christian thought lies in the ethical idea, sanctification considered as the active deed or process by which the life is made holy.

1. Transformation of Formal to Ethical Idea:

Our first question is, How does the idea of belonging to God become the idea of transformation of life and character? The change is, indeed, nothing less than a part of the whole movement for which the entire Scriptures stand as a monument. The ethical is not wanting at the beginning, but the supremacy of the moral and spiritual over against the formal, the ritual, the ceremonial, the national, is the clear direction in which the movement as a whole tends. Now the pivot of this movement is the conception of God. As the thought of God grows more ethical, more spiritual, it molds and changes all other conceptions. Thus what it means to belong to God (holiness, sanctification) depends upon the nature of the God to whom man belongs. The hierodules of Corinth are women of shame because of the nature of the goddess to whose temple they belong. The prophets caught a vision of Yahweh, not jealous for His prerogative, not craving the honor of punctilious and proper ceremonial, but with a gracious love for His people and a passion for righteousness. Their great message is: This now is Yahweh; hear what it means to belong to such a God and to serve Him. "What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? .... Wash you, make you clean; .... seek justice, relieve the oppressed" (Isa 1:11,16,17). "When Israel was a child, then I loved him. .... I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than bunt-offerings" (Ho 11:1; 6:6).

2. Our Relation to God as Personal: New Testament Idea:

3. Sanctification as God’s Gift:

4. Questions of Time and Method:

When we ask, however, when and how this work is wrought, there is no such clear answer. What we have is on the one hand uncompromising ideal and demand, and on the other absolute confidence in God. By adding to these two the evident fact that the Christian believers seen in the New Testament are far from the attainment of such Christian perfection, some writers have assumed to have the foundation here for the doctrine that the state of complete holiness of life is a special experience in the Christian life wrought in a definite moment of time. It is well to realize that no New Testament passages give a specific answer to these questions of time and method, and that our conclusions must be drawn from the general teaching of the New Testament as to the Christian life.

5. An Element in All Christian Life:

6. Follows from Fellowship with God:

The second general conclusion that we draw from the New Testament teaching as to the Christian life is this: the sanctification which is a part of all Christian living follows from the very nature of that life as fellowship with God. Fundamental here is the fact that the Christian life is personal, that nothing belongs in it which cannot be stated in personal terms. It is a life with God in which He graciously gives Himself to us, and which we live out with Him and with our brothers in the spirit of Christ, which is His Spirit. The two great facts as to this fellowship are, that it is God’s gift, and that its fruit is holiness. First, it is God’s gift. What God gives us is nothing less than Himself. The gift is not primarily forgiveness, nor victory over sin, nor peace of soul, nor hope of heaven. It is fellowship with Him, which includes all of these and without which none of these can be. Secondly, the fruit of this fellowship is holiness. The real hallowing of our life can come in no other way. For Christian holiness is personal, not something formal or ritual, and its source and power can be nothing lower than the personal. Such is the fellowship into which God graciously lifts the believer. Whatever its mystical aspects, that fellowship is not magical or sacramental. It is ethical through and through. Its condition on our side is ethical. For Christian faith is the moral surrender of our life to Him in whom truth and right come to us with authority to command. The meaning of that surrender is ethical; it is opening the life to definite moral realities and powers, to love, meekness, gentleness, humility, reverence, purity, the passion for righteousness, to that which words cannot analyze but which we know as the Spirit of Christ. Such a fellowship is the supreme moral force for the molding of life. An intimate human fellowship is an analogue of this, and we know with what power it works on life and character. It cannot, however, set forth either the intimacy or the power of this supreme and final relation where our Friend is not another but is our real self. So much we know: this fellowship means a new spirit in us, a renewed and daily renewing life.

7. Is It Instantaneous and Entire?:

The clear recognition of the personal and vital character of sanctification will help us with another problem. If the holy life be God’s requirement and at the same time His deed, why should not this sanctification be instantaneous and entire? And does not Paul imply this, not merely in his demands but in his prayer for the Thessalonians, that God may establish their hearts in holiness, that He may sanctify them wholly and preserve spirit and soul and body entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th 3:13; 5:23)?

In answer to this we must first discriminate between the ideal and the empirical with Paul. Like John (1 Joh 1:6; 3:9), Paul insists that the life of Christ and the life of sin cannot go on together, and he knows no qualified obedience, no graduated standard. He brings the highest Christian demand to the poorest of his pagan converts. Nor have we any finer proof of his faith than this uncompromising idealism. On the other hand, how could he ask less than this? God cannot require less than the highest, but it is another question how the ideal is to be achieved. In the realm of the ideal it is always either .... or. In the realm of life there is another category. The question is not simply, Is this man sinner or saint? It is rather, What is he becoming? This matter of becoming is the really vital issue. Is this man turned the right way with all his power? Is his life wholly open to the divine fellowship? Not the degree of achievement, but the right attitude toward the ideal, is decisive. Paul does not stop to resolve paradoxes, but practically he reckons with this idea. Side by side with his prayer for the Thessalonians are his admonitions to growth and progress (1Th 3:12; 5:14). Neither the absolute demand or the promise of grace gives us the right to conclude how the consummation shall take place.

8. Sanctification as Man’s Task:

We may sum up as follows: The word "sanctify" is used with two broad meanings:

(1) The first is to devote, to consecrate to God, to recognize as holy, that is, as belonging to God. This is the regular Old Testament usage and is most common in the New Testament. The prophets showed that this belonging to Yahweh demanded righteousness. The New Testament deepens this into a whole-hearted surrender to the fellowship of God and to the rule of His Spirit.

(2) Though the word itself appears in but few passages with this sense, the New Testament is full of the thought of the making holy of the Christian’s life by the Spirit of God in that fellowship into which God lifts us by His grace and in which He gives Himself to us. This sanctifying, or hallowing, is not mechanical or magical. It is wrought out by God’s Spirit in a daily fellowship to which man gives himself in aspiration and trust and obedience, receiving with open heart, living out in obedient life. It is not negative, the mere separation from sin, but the progressive hallowing of a life that grows constantly in capacity, as in character, into the stature of full manhood as it is in Christ. And from this its very nature it is not momentary, but the deed and the privilege of a whole life.

See also HOLY SPIRIT and the following article.

LITERATURE.

The popular and special works are usually too undiscriminating and unhistorical to be of value for the Biblical study. An exception is Beet, Holiness Symbolic and Real. Full Biblical material in Cremer, Biblical Theol. Lexicon, but treated from special points of view. See Systematic Theologies, Old Testament Theologies (compare especially Smend), and New Testament Theologies (compare especially Holtzmann).

Harris Franklin Rall

WESLEYAN DOCTRINE

|| 1. Doctrine Stated

2. Objections Answered

3. Required for the Highest Success of the Preacher

4. Hymnology

5. Its Glorious Results

6. Wesley’s Personal Testimony

1. Doctrine Stated:

Christian perfection, through entire sanctification, by faith, here and now, was one of the doctrines by which John Wesley gave great offense to his clerical brethren in the Anglican church. From the beginning of his work in 1739, till 1760, he was formulating this doctrine. At the last date there suddenly arose a large number of witnesses among his followers. Many of these he questioned with Baconian skill, the result being a confirmation of his theories on various points.

Wesley’s perfection of love is not perfection of degree, but of kind. Pure love is perfect love. The gradual growth toward perfect purity of love is beautifully expressed in Monod’s hymn,

"O the bitter shame and sorrow!"

The first response to the Saviour’s call is,

"All of self, and none of Thee."

But after a view of Christ on the cross. the answer is faintly,

"Some of self, and some of Thee."

Then, after a period of growing love, the cry is,

"Less of self, and more of Thee."

After another period, the final cry is,

"None of self, and all of Thee!"

aspiration for pure love, without any selfishness.

The attainment of this grace is certified by the total cessation of all Servile fear (1 Joh 4:18). Wesley added to this the witness of the Spirit, for which his only proof-text is 1Co 2:12.

2. Objections Answered:

(1) Paul, in Php 3:12, declares that he is not "made perfect":

(a) in 3:15, he declares that he is perfect;

(b) "made perfect" is a term, borrowed from the ancient games, signifying a finished course. This is one of the meanings of teleioo, as seen also in Lu 13:32 margin, "The third day I end my course." Paul no more disclaims spiritual perfection in these words than does Christ before "the third day." Paul claims in Php 3:15, by the use of an adjective, that he is perfect. In 3:12 Paul claims that he is not perfect as a victor, because the race is not ended. In 3:15 he claims that he is perfect as a racer.

(2) Paul says (1Co 15:31), "I die daily." This does not refer to death to sin, as some say that it does, but to his daily danger of being killed for preaching Christ, as in Ro 8:36, "we are killed all the day long."

(3) 1 Joh 1:8: "If we say that we have no sin," etc.

(a) If this includes Christians, it contradicts John himself in the very next verse, and in 3:9, sin," "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no and Joh 8:36, "If .... the Son shall make you free," etc., and in all those texts in the New Testament declaring sins forgiven.

(b) Bishop Westcott says that the expression, "to have sin," is distinguished from "to sin," as the sinful principle is distinguished from the sinful act in itself. It includes the idea of personal guilt. Westcott asserts that John refers to the Gnostics, who taught that moral evil exists only in matter, and never touches spirit, which is always holy; and, therefore, though guilty of all manner of vice, their spirits had no need of atonement, because they were untouched by sin, which existed only in their bodies, as it does in all matter. When told that this made the body of Christ sinful, they denied the reality of His body, saying that it was only a phantom. Hence, in the very first verse of this Epistle, John writes evidently against the Gnostic error, quoting three of the five senses to prove the reality of Chrtst’s humanity. (By all means, see "The Epistles of John," Cambridge Bible for Schools, etc., 17-21.)

3. Required for the Highest Success of the Preacher:

The relation of this doctrine to the Methodist Episcopal church in the United States is seen in the following questions, which have been affirmatively answered in public by all its preachers on their admission to the Conferences: "Are you going on to perfection?"; "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?"; "Are you earnestly striving after it?" The hymns of the Wesleys, still universally sung, are filled with this doctrine, in which occur such expressions as:

4. Hymnology:

"Take away our bent to sinning," ....

"Let us find that second rest," ....

"Make and keep me pure within," ....

"’Tis done! Thou dost this moment save,

With full salvation bless." ....

5. Its Glorious Results:

To the preaching of Christian perfection Wesley ascribed the success of his work in the conversion, religious training and intellectual education of the masses of Great Britain. It furnished him a multitude of consecrated workers, many of them lay preachers, who labored in nearly every hamlet, and who carried the gospel into all the British colonies, including America. It is declared by secular historians that this great evangelical movement, in which the doctrine of entire sanctification was so prominent, saved England from a disastrous revolution, like that which drenched France with the blood of its royal family and its nobility, in the last decade of the 18th century. It is certain that the great Christian and humanitarian work of William Booth, originally a Methodist, was inspired by this doctrine which he constantly preached. This enabled his followers in the early years of the Salvation Army to endure the persecutions which befell them at that time.

6. Wesley’s Personal Testimony:

On March 6, 1760, Wesley enters in his Journal the following testimony of one Elizabeth Longmore: "`I felt my soul was all love. I was so stayed on God as I never felt before, and knew that I loved Him with all my heart. .... And the witness that God had saved me from all my sins grew clearer every hour. .... I have never since found my heart wander from God.’ Now this is what I always did, and do now, mean by perfection. And this I believe many have attained, on the same evidence that I believe many are justified."

We have Wesley’s only recorded testimony to his own justification in these words (May 24, 1738): "I felt my heart strangely warmed .... and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins," etc.

Daniel Steele