Three Stages of Sanctification
Three Stages of Sanctification
Sanctification, or holiness, may be seen in The Holy Bible in three different contexts or categories:
- A Moment Realized: Sanctification begins at regeneration
- A Lifetime Lived: Sanctification continues imperfectly for a lifetime
- An Eternity Perfected: Sanctification made perfect for all time
First Stage: A Moment Realized
- Our primary desires change, toward God and away from sin
- Dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11)
- Made an instrument of righteous for God (Rom 6:13)
- No longer ruled or dominated by sin (Rom 6:14)
Second Stage: A Lifetime Lived
- A lifetime of yielding to God's Spirit and resisting sinful desires of the flesh
- Our master becomes righteousness (Rom 6:18)
- Daily we offer ourselves in submission to righteousness (Rom 6:19)
- We are being transformed with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor 3:18)
- Let us run with perseverance, throwing off all sin that so easily hinders and entangles (Heb 12:1)
Third Stage: An Eternity Perfected
- Our hearts made perfectly free from desires of sin, and our bodies made perfectly glorious
- In the presence of God, with all the righteous made perfect in spirit (Heb 12:23)
- Make like Jesus, with bodies gloriously transformed (Phil 3:21)
My takeaway:
There are three categories of sanctification for the Christian, but only two categories of time: Past and Future. What we call the "Present" is fleeting...seconds quickly pass, and the "present" is now the most recent Past. This "then" and "now" condition governs all life on earth.
There is no such thing as a Pause Button for life. We may spend hours or decades remembering, recording or regretting our past. We may spend equal time predicting, planning or pleading for our future. But there is no "present". The moment we say, "Now, I am doing this or that," it quickly becomes our irreversible past.
Our life on earth is ROM: Read-Only Memory.
Paul saw these two categories of time clearly:
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it (the power of resurrection, and the promise of becoming like Christ). But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:13-14 NIV)
"Forgetting the past" means that the reality of my yet sinful flesh has no power now over my future in Christ: I can forget about any lasting harm done me by my past sins. "Pressing on toward the goal" means the future is all I truly have now: I can continue to eagerly submit to God's call for righteousness in all that I say and do.
Like a runner in a marathon, the Christian's eyes are ever focused upon the prize at the end. The momentary misstep, the stumble over a loose stone, the drifting off the path, the slip down a muddy embankment...all of it she regrets, of course. The delays and discouragements are real, and are painful in her spirit and body. But the prize at the end, and the constant presence and providence of her Coach and Mentor pulls her up off the ground. Her medic may bring immediate healing and strength, or she may continue on with a limp or ache, but none of that matters in her mind...only the prize matters.
For the Christian, sanctification is the Start of the marathon, the Running of the Marathon, and the Prize of the marathon!
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