JESUS, WHAT A SANCTIFIER!
By: Frank Tunstall, D. Min.
“My lover is mine and I am His” (Song of Solomon 2:16).
“I am the Lord who makes you holy” (Leviticus 20:8).
“In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (1 Peter 3:15).
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12).
In the new birth, a person recognizes his sins and repents. He makes this choice as his response to Jesus’ compelling love. The Lord “carried our sins in His own body on the tree” so that “we might die to sins and live for righteousness” (John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:24; Isaiah 49:5–6). Motivated by the wooing of the Holy Spirit, a new believer makes a fundamental change. He turns his life around, leaves his sins behind, and opens his heart to God. The experience is so life-changing the analogy of a second birth is appropriate (John 3:3–7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
SANCTIFICATION
“Set apart” for divine service (hagios) is the master key that unlocks the scriptures on the subject of sanctification (John 10:36). It communicates living in personal consecration to God, and the result is outshining devotion to Jesus Christ.
The test that a person is sanctified must not be is he living in sinless perfection (no one can), but rather is he personally set apart unto Jesus Christ—heart, soul, mind, and strength.
To be set apart unto Jesus also includes living in the best interests of one’s neighbors, including our newest neighbors in the mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16; Jeremiah 1:5).
In the new birth, a person becomes a son in the family of God. In sanctification, he “works out [his] salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). In the new birth a person converts and in deeply felt repentance turns his whole life over to Jesus Christ. In sanctification, he makes Jesus his Lord of the many sinful “thrones” of his life (1 Peter 3:15). These include but are not limited to his money, devotional life, family life, as well as sexual life, and the list goes on and on.
Some believers are set apart to Jesus quickly. With others their secret sins must be worked out with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). In each of the many areas of bondage, it remains for him to work out his salvation in total surrender to Jesus. The salt of the gospel must blend through his whole soul so that the values of Jesus permeate each dimension of his life (Matthew 5:13). He comes to the cross in the new birth, bringing all of this old baggage with him, including his habits and strongholds, and lays it all at the feet of Jesus.
To settle the lordship question in all areas of an individual’s life, a believer must confront his inner self. Sin always begins in the heart and expresses itself in choices that produce sinful actions. Jesus described it in these terms: “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). The only conclusion to be drawn from the Lord’s statement is that all people commit sins because of their bondage to sin, and “a slave [to sin] has no place in the family” of God (John 8:35).
The Lord’s death dealt decisively both with the sins people commit and the sin nature that produces the sins. The result is freedom and liberation. “If the Son sets you free [from the nature of sin and the sins it produces], you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Blessed be God! “My beloved is mine and I am His” (Song of Solomon 2:16).
