Outline

«　WEEK 1　DAY 5　»

　　1 Cor. 1:2 To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place…

　　2 Thes. 2:13 But we ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.

　　The term saints denotes those who have been separated and made holy unto God…The believers in Christ are “the called saints” [1 Cor. 1:2]; they are not called to be saints. This is a positional matter, a sanctification in position with a view to sanctification in disposition.

　　According to grammar,…”to the church of God” is in apposition to “to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus” [v. 2]. This indicates that “to the church of God” equals “to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus.” This strongly indicates that the church is a composition of the saints and that the saints are the constituents of the church…Individually, we are the saints; corporately, we are the church. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1141-1142)

　　Christ is the element and sphere that separated us unto God, made us holy unto Him, when we believed in Him, that is, when we were brought into an organic union with Him through our faith in Him. Holiness is actually God Himself, and God is embodied in Christ. Therefore, Christ is our holiness…Through Christ’s redemption, God has put us into Christ. Now that we are in Christ, who is the sphere and element of holiness, we are sanctified, made holy.

　　As saints, we have been sanctified by Christ with His redeeming blood positionally…Christ’s body suffered the death of the cross outside the gate, and His blood was brought into the Holy of Holies for our sanctification (Heb. 13:11-12). The book of Hebrews unveils that God’s heavenly calling is to make us a heavenly people (3:1), a people who are sanctified unto God. Christ is the Sanctifier (2:11). He suffered the death of the cross, shed His blood on it, and entered the Holy of Holies with His blood (9:12) that He might be able to do the sanctifying work by the heavenly ministry (8:2, 6) of His heavenly priesthood (7:26) and that we might enter “within the veil” (6:19) by His blood to participate in Him as the heavenly Sanctifier. Christ’s redeeming blood sanctifies us positionally.

　　As saints, we are also being sanctified dispositionally by the Holy Spirit with God’s holy nature. The Holy Spirit is changing our disposition by causing it to be mingled with the holy disposition of God. This is subjective sanctification…This is a matter of a long process, beginning with regeneration (1 Pet. 1:2-3; Titus 3:5), passing through the whole Christian life (1 Thes. 4:3; Heb. 12:14; Eph. 5:26), and reaching completion at the time of rapture, at the maturity of life (1 Thes. 5:23).

　　Another verse that speaks of dispositional sanctification is 2 Thessalonians 2:13…The salvation unto which we were chosen by God is salvation and sanctification of the Spirit…While the Holy Spirit is sanctifying us, God is saving us. Therefore, we are being saved in sanctification of the Spirit. This sanctification of the Spirit is actually the divine transformation. By this we are thoroughly saved from all old and negative things and made a new creation to obtain the Lord’s glory.

　　Every day we are being sanctified, and the One who sanctifies us is the Spirit… All day long the Spirit is sanctifying us, applying to us what the Father has planned and what the Son has accomplished. The Spirit has been commissioned to sanctify us; He has been given to us for the purpose of completing the work of sanctification. As saints, we have such a practical, living, and subjective Sanctifier. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1142-1146)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 106