But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom
from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:30
Today’s title is an extremely important one, even though I don’t remember ever hearing anyone preach on it. Jesus not only became our redemption and justification, He is also our sanctification.
Too many Christians today are still spiritual babies. They’ve been attending church for years, so they should be ready to teach others – ain’t gonna happen! Most don’t have enough doctrine in their head to fill a thimble, and far too few could even give a definition of sanctification, must less tell you how it applies to Christ.
During the summer, I teach grade school kids at Christian camps. When I ask them who knows how to spell “sanctification” all the home-schoolers raise their hands. So my job is to teach the public school kids. I lift up my hand and one by one put up a finger as I spell “sanctification: C-L-E-A-N, sanctification.” I’ll do this three or four more times during the lesson and when I’m finally done, the public school kids have gotten it. The home-school kids, on the other hand, just want to argue with me that the word starts with an S followed by a whole bunch of letters.
The Apostle Paul describes a long list of nasty lifestyles that typify those who are not going to heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). He then goes on to say: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.”
There is no way that we can save ourselves. It’s a miracle, and the Lord has to do it. In the same way, we can’t clean up our own act. Christ has to do that, too. The grace that saves is the same grace that transforms a person from self-destructive behavior. Jesus is not only our Savior, He’s our “Sanctification: C-L-E-A-N, sanctification.”
January 9
