Sanctification: The Essentials

God has ordained this mysterious, yet beautiful process that some have called sanctification. God wants to buy us, cleanse us, and transform us. In that order - it's that simple.

"Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to REDEEM us from all lawlessness and to PURIFY for himself a people for his own possession who are ZEALOUS for good works." - Titus 2:13-14

REDEEM. That action is done. Christ has defeated death by death canceling out the wages of sin that we have earned. The bible calls us children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and slaves to sin (Romans 6). We're cited as being slaves to the lusts of this world and even our own passions. We are owned by the world, and we can't get out of it. We can't fix us. You can't fix you. But when you were unlovable, Christ came and got you (cf. Romans 6:5-8). He brought you out of the pit (Psalm 103:4). Jesus came and was killed by man. He didn't stay dead. He rose from the grave as our hero and champion, ascending to prepare a place for us. And He is coming back to get us! Hallelujah to Our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

PURIFY. The elimination process in which the sin nature is destroyed and taken captive to the cross of Christ. This is the step where I get caught up, and I'm certain I'm not the only one. God has to do some molding in our hearts here, and it can be painful. It's not our say to tell God what He should do with out lives (cf. Isaiah 45:9) but sometimes we so want to. We kick and scream as God boils out the impurities. But it's worth it! We are under the knife of the master surgeon, yet we squirm and scream, putting ourselves in more danger and making his task so much more difficult. The most helpful thing we can do is get out of the way. Submission and obedience enables our lives to be ready to be purified.

ZEALOUS. The transformed state. God transforms us into people who are zealous for His Word, Zealous for His Son, and Zealous for His Kingdom. We are the hands and feet of Christ in this world. Not only do we have the why, we also have the how. God has REDEEMED us from death and sin and has chosen to PURIFY us, His chosen elect to be with Him for eternity which He manifests to the world by making us ZEALOUS for Christ and the Gospel He proclaimed.

Some thoughts.
-matt