Hebrews 10:11-14
“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
Justification and sanctification appear to be important to God’s process of salvation. In our society’s cultural Christianity, most are more familiar with justification, than sanctification.
Some people believe that justification is salvation. In Hebrews 6:1, the author writes, “Let us go on to perfection.” At that time one is justified, the “perfection” or spiritual maturity of which the author of the book of Hebrews writes, is still future.
While, sanctification is that step in God’s plan that shows on the outside of a person, it is also true that sanctification is the inward spiritual change that Jesus Christ works in a person, by the Holy Spirit, after the justification, which results from a true baptism. I Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ is not only our righteousness, but also our sanctification. Hebrews 2:11 names, Jesus Christ, as “He who sanctifies,” and in the same verse, His brethren are called “those who are being sanctified.”
During Jesus’ prayer in John 17:19, He prayed, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” In Ephesians 5:26-27, the apostle Paul writes, “. . . that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
After true baptism that results in the receipt of God’s Holy Spirit, we are justified, but we are also, then obligated to live obediently and submit to God in faith, by overcoming Satan and his influence in the world, as well as his influence on our human nature. Sanctification is a challenge of time, which can prove to be the most difficult aspect of salvation.
