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What Christian writers said, from about AD 130 to 1957.
294 passages · 52 writers · 14 centuries
Of the 294 passages here, 138 state a position on sanctification and 156 mention it in passing, from 52 writers across six eras. The writers who state a position use the word for being set apart for God, for being made holy in nature and conduct, or for both. They ascribe it to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit, and connect it to election, calling, and preparation for heaven. Smaller groups of statements address its relation to justification, growth in holiness, putting sin to death, imperfection and perfection, sanctifying grace, whether holiness is necessary for salvation, the holiness of family members, and sanctification before birth. Most statements are from Reformation (54) and Modern (55) writers; the others are 5 Ante-Nicene, 10 Nicene, 5 Post-Nicene, and 9 medieval. No writer tagged Orthodox has a statement here, and the Catholic-tagged statements come from Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, and the Council of Trent.
40 passages · 20 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers define sanctification as being set apart for God, as being made holy in nature and conduct, or as both.
Sacrifices, therefore, do not sanctify a man, for God stands in no need of sacrifice; but it is the conscience of the offerer that sanctifies the sacrifice when it is pure, and thus moves God to accept [the offering] as from a friend.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies: Book IV 19 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1)
If holy as making holy, and as needing none to sanctify, I should be proud and false: but if holy as made holy, as it is written, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” then the body of Christ may venture, and that one Man “crying from the end of the earth,” may venture with his Head, and under his Head, to say, “For I am holy.” For he hath received the grace of holiness, the grace of Baptism, and of remission of sins. …Say unto thy God, I am holy, for Thou hast sanctified me: because I received, not because I had: because Thou gavest, not because I deserved.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 86 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 8)
And how is His Name hallowed in us, except while it makes us holy. For once we were not holy, and we are made holy by His Name; but He is always Holy, and His Name always Holy.
Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 9 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 6)
To this we cleave by sanctification. For when sanctified we burn with full and perfect love, which is the only security for our not turning away from God, and for our being conformed to Him rather than to this world; for "He has predestinated us," says the same apostle, "that we should be conformed to the image of His Son."
Augustine of Hippo, On the Morals of the Catholic Church 13 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 4)
“I offer to Thee a sacrifice.” Now all sacrifices are called “holy,” and those are specially called “holy things,” which are laid up for God. For whereas of old in type the sanctification was by the sheep, but now it is not in type, but by the truth itself, He therefore saith, “That they may be sanctified in Thy truth.” “For I both dedicate them to Thee, and make them an offering”; this He saith, either because their Head was being made so, or because they also were sacrificed; for, “Present,” it saith, “your bodies a living sacrifice, holy” ( Rom. xii. 1 ); and, “We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.” ( Ps. xliv. 22 .)
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 84 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 14)
So then the end indeed which we have set before us is, as the Apostle says, eternal life, as he declares, “having indeed your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life;” but the immediate goal is purity of heart, which he not unfairly terms “sanctification,” without which the afore-mentioned end cannot be gained; as if he had said in other words, having your immediate goal in purity of heart, but the end life eternal. Of which goal the same blessed Apostle teaches us, and significantly uses the very term, i.e., σκοπός , saying as follows, “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those that are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of the Lord:” which is more clearly put in Greek κατὰ σκοπὸν διώκω , i.e., “I press toward the mark,” as if he said, “With this aim, with which I forget those things that are behind, i.e., the faults of earlier life, I strive to reach as the end the heavenly prize.” Whatever then can help to guide us to this object; viz., purity of heart, we must follow with all our might, but whatever hinders us from it, we must shun as a dangerous and hurtful thing.
John Cassian, The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X 2.5 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 11)
First, because the sanctification of which we are speaking, is nothing but the cleansing from original sin: for sanctification is a "perfect cleansing," as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. xii). Now sin cannot be taken away except by grace, the subject of which is the rational creature alone.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q27.A2
To be sanctified is to be made holy. Now something is made not only from its contrary, but also from that which is opposite to it, either by negation or by privation: thus white is made either from black or from not-white. We indeed from being sinners are made holy: so that our sanctification is a cleansing from sin.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q34.A1
St Paul saith, “This is God’s will, our sanctification.” And this is our sanctification, to know what we were before time; what we are in time, and what we shall be after time.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons 6
The man who is wholly sanctified is so drawn towards the Eternal, that no transitory thing may move him, no corporeal thing affect him, no earthly thing attract him. This was the meaning of St Paul when he said, “I live; yet not I; Christ liveth in me.” Now the question arises what is sanctification, since it has so lofty a rank. Thou shouldest know that real sanctification consists in this that the spirit remain as immovable and unaffected by all impact of love or hate, joy or sorrow, honour or shame, as a huge mountain is unstirred by a gentle breeze. This immovable sanctification causes man to attain the nearest likeness to God that he is capable of.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons 7
Although humility may exist without sanctification, perfect sanctification cannot exist without perfect humility. Perfect humility tends to the annihilation of self; sanctification also is so close to self-annihilation that nothing can come between them.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons 7
Now the term sanctification denotes separation This takes place in us when we are regenerated by the Spirit to newness of life, that we may serve God and not the world. For while by nature we are unholy, the Spirit consecrates us to God.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 1.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 39)
When he says that this is the will of God , he means that we have been called by God with this design. “For this end ye are Christians — this the gospel aims at — that ye may sanctify yourselves to God .” The meaning of the term sanctification we have already explained elsewhere in repeated instances — that renouncing the world, and clearing ourselves from the pollutions of the flesh, we offer ourselves to God as if in sacrifice, for nothing can with propriety be offered to Him, but what is pure and holy.
John Calvin, Commentary on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians 1 Thessalonians 4.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 42)
The sprinkling of the heart from an evil conscience takes place, either when we are, by obtaining pardon, deemed pure before God, or when the heart, cleansed from all corrupt affections, is not stimulated by the goads of the flesh. … The meaning is, that we are made partakers of Christ, if we come to him, sanctified in body and soul; and yet that this sanctification is not what consists in a visible parade of ceremonies, but that it is from faith, pure conscience, and that cleanness of soul and body which flows from, and is effected by, the Spirit of God.
John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 10.4 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 44)
Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God hath, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God; having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Larger Catechism 75
Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Shorter Catechism 35
Nothing is more in words acknowledged than that all the elect of God are sanctified by the Holy Ghost. And this regeneration is the head, fountain, or beginning of our sanctification, virtually comprising the whole in itself, as will afterward appear. However, that it is a part thereof is not to be denied.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 3.5
All believers, and only believers, being sanctified and made holy, what it is that is sanctified in them, or what is the proper seat and subject of this work, is, in the next place, to be declared; for it is not a mere external denomination, as things were called “holy” under the Old Testament, nor any transient act, nor any series or course of actions, that we plead about, but that which hath, as a real being and existence, so a constant abiding or residence in us. Hence, he that is holy is always so, whether he be in the actual exercise of the duties of holiness or no, though an omission of any of them in their proper season is contrary unto and an impeachment of holiness, as to its degrees. Now, this subject of sanctification is the entire nature or whole person of a believer.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.3
Only, to clear the manner of it, we may observe, — First, That sanctification may be considered two ways:— First, As to the original and essential work of it, which consists in the preservation of the principle of spiritual life and holiness communicated unto us in our regeneration. Secondly, As to those renewed actual operations whereby it is carried on, and is gradually progressive, as hath been declared. … Sanctification in the first sense respects faith also in the first; that is, the preservation of the seed, principle, grace, habit of faith in us, belongs unto the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit; and so believers only are sanctified.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.3
Pardon fills us with inward peace, but sanctification fills us with an activity for God.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 13
Man consists of body and soul; the service of man is the service of both. The body is to be sanctified as well as the soul; and, therefore, to be offered to God as well as the soul.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 4
The word sanctification signifies to consecrate and set apart to a holy use: thus they are sanctified persons who are separated from the world, and set apart for God's service. Sanctification has a privative and a positive part. I. A privative part, which lies in the purging out of sin.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
After the fall, the affections were misplaced on wrong objects; in sanctification, they are turned into a sweet order and harmony, the grief placed on sin, the love on God, the joy on heaven. Thus sanctification spreads itself as far as original corruption; it goes over the whole soul: ‘the God of peace sanctify you wholly.' He is not a sanctified person who is good only in some part, but who is all over sanctified; therefore, in Scripture, grace is called a ‘new man,' not a new eye or a new tongue, but a ‘new man.'
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
Sanctification is an extensive thing: it spreads into the whole man. ‘The God of peace sanctify you wholly.' I Thess 5:53. As original corruption has depraved all the faculties - ‘the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint,' no part sound, as if the whole mass of blood were corrupted - so sanctification goes over the whole soul. … In sanctification, there is a blessed pliableness in the will; it symbolizes and comports with the will of God.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul; it is its disorder, and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctification; when sin is mortified, the disease is healed; though complicated, it is all healed.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 103.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3)
All that are sanctified have a new spirit, quite different from what it was; they act from new principles, walk by new rules, and aim at new ends. A new name, or a new face, will not serve without a new spirit. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ezekiel 11.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 4)
When guilt is pardoned, and the corrupt nature sanctified, then we are cleansed from our filthiness, and there is no other way of being saved from it. This God promises his people here, in order to his being sanctified in them, v. 23 . We cannot sanctify God's name unless he sanctify our hearts, nor live to his glory, but by his grace.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ezekiel 36.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 4)
Come to me - Here he shows to whom he is pleased to reveal these things to the weary and heavy laden; ye that labour - After rest in God: and are heavy laden - With the guilt and power of sin: and I will give you rest - I alone (for none else can) will freely give you (what ye cannot purchase) rest from the guilt of sin by justification, and from the power of sin by sanctification.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 1.11
Sanctification is an inward work wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and never quite perfect so long as we live in this body of sin. The disciples needed no prayer for justification; they were completely justified already. They did need prayer for their sanctification; for they were not completely sanctified. (c) Sanctification is a thing that admits of growth; else why should our Lord pray, “Sanctify them”? … Holiness is a thing imparted and in-wrought, but not imputed. (d) The Word is the great instrument by which the Holy Ghost carries forward the work of inward sanctification.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 17:17-26 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 4)
No doubt the word “sanctify” originally and primarily means “set apart, separate for religious uses;” and it might be used of a vessel, a house, or an animal. But inasmuch as in human beings this separation is principally evidenced by holiness and godliness of life and character, the secondary sense of “sanctify” is “to make holy,” and holy and godly people are “sanctified.” This I hold to be the meaning here most decidedly. It is a prayer for the increased holiness and practical godliness of Christ’s people.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 17:17-26 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 4)
Christ who once for all consecrates His people to God (Jude 1, bringing them nigh to Him as the consequence) and everlasting glory, by having consecrated Himself for them in His being made "perfect (as their expiatory sacrifice) through sufferings" (Heb 2:10; Heb 10:10, 14, 29; Joh 17:17, 19). God in His electing love, by Christ's finished work, perfectly sanctifies them to God's service and to heaven once for all: then they are progressively sanctified by the transforming Spirit "Sanctification is glory working in embryo; glory is sanctification come to the birth, and manifested" [Alford].
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Hebrews 2
The sanctification by God is here put before man's faith. The twofold aspect of salvation is thus presented, God's grace in the first instance sanctifying us, (that is, setting us apart in His eternal purposes as holy unto Himself); and our faith, by God's gift, laying hold of salvation (2Th 2:13; 1Pe 1:2).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Ephesians 1
As it is through the body that all the evil that is in the unrenewed heart comes forth into palpable manifestation and action, so it is through the body that all the gracious principles and affections of believers reveal themselves in the outward life. Sanctification extends to the whole man (1Th 5:23, 24).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Romans 12
As all men since the fall are in a state of sin, not only sinners because guilty of specific acts of transgression, but also as depraved, their nature perverted and corrupted, regeneration is the infusion of a new principle of life in this corrupt nature. It is leaven introduced to diffuse its influence gradually through the whole mass. Sanctification, therefore, consists in two things: first, the removing more and more the principles of evil still infecting our nature, and destroying their power; and secondly, the growth of the principle of spiritual life until it controls the thoughts, feelings, and acts, and brings the soul into conformity to the image of Christ.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.2 (Vol. 3)
Sanctification is that inward spiritual work which the Lord Jesus Christ works in a man by the Holy Ghost, when He calls him to be a true believer. He not only washes him from his sins in His own blood, but He also separates him from his natural love of sin and the world, puts a new principle in his heart, and makes him practically godly in life.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
By one offering He has perfected for ever those who are being sanctified (10:14). The word cannot mean that He has made them sinless, in the sense of having freed them completely from all the power of sin, from every trace of its presence; it means obviously that He has put them into the ideal religious relation to God.
James Denney, The Death of Christ 7
Holiness is consecration, that is to say, holiness is giving myself up to Him to do what He will with. ‘I am holy’ is not the declaration of my estimate ‘I am pure,’ but the declaration of the fact ‘I am thine, O Lord.’ So the New Testament idea of saint has in it these elements—consecration, consecration resting on faith in Christ, and consecration leading to separation from the world and its sin. And that glad yielding of oneself to God, as wooed by His mercies, and thereby drawn away from communion with our evil surroundings and from submission to our evil selves, must be a part of the experience of every true Christian. All His people are saints, not as being pure, but as being given up to Him, in union with whom alone will the cleansing powers flow into their lives and clothe them with ‘the righteousness of saints.’
Alexander Maclaren, Acts 1.43 (Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 12)
In the one as well as in the other ethical holiness is not mere moral rectitude, and sanctification is never mere moral improvement. These two are often confused in the present day, when people speak of salvation by character. A man may boast of great moral improvement, and yet be an utter stranger to sanctification. … Sanctification may be defined as that gracious and continuous operation of the Holy Spirit, by which He delivers the justified sinner from the pollution of sin, renews his whole nature in the image of God, and enables him to perform good works.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 4.10
Many people think we become holy by the eradication of something evil within. No, we become holy by being separated unto God.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 6.2
The common conception of sanctification is that every item of the life should be holy; but that is not holiness, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is Christ.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 10.2
40 passages · 23 writers · 200s to 1900s
Writers ascribe sanctification to God, to Christ, and to the Holy Spirit, and say that it is not a work of unaided human nature.
Man’s whole nature in Christ, seems to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit’s suffusion of man’s spirit ; this rules and governs the psychic nature and through it the body .
Tertullian, The Five Books Against Marcion 5.22 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3)
In saying this He has shown that He is not the sanctified, but the Sanctifier; for He is not sanctified by other, but Himself sanctifies Himself, that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who sanctifies Himself is Lord of sanctification.
Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.1.12 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 4)
O Lord, Thou hast given us sanctification by partaking of the all-holy body and precious blood of Thine only-begotten Son; give us the grace and gift of the All-holy Spirit. Enable us to lead blameless lives; and guide us unto the perfect redemption, and adoption, and the everlasting joys of the world to come. For Thou art our sanctification, and we ascribe glory unto Thee, the Father, and the Son, and the All-holy Spirit, now, henceforth, and for evermore.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 3 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
But there is no sanctification without the Spirit. The powers of the heavens are not holy by nature; were it so there would in this respect be no difference between them and the Holy Spirit. It is in proportion to their relative excellence that they have their meed of holiness from the Spirit.
Basil of Caesarea, De Spiritu Sancto 17 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 8)
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit alike give sanctification, and life, and light, and comfort, and all similar graces. And let no one attribute the power of sanctification in an especial sense to the Spirit, when he hears the Saviour in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning His disciples, “Father, sanctify them in Thy name .”
Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Trinity, and of the Godhead of the Holy Spirit 21 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 5)
The sanctification of Christ therefore in Christ Himself, is the power of the sanctification of God in Christ. In that he saith, “shall flourish,” he refers to His glory: for when trees flourish, then are they beautiful. Sanctification therefore is in Baptism: thence it flourisheth, and is brightened. Why hath the world yielded to this beauty? Because it flourisheth in Christ; for, put it in man’s power, and how doth it then flourish? since “all flesh in grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the grass.”
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 132 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 8)
“By the which will we are sanctified,” he says. How sanctified? “by the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 22 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 14)
The Father therefore sanctifies in the truth, that is, in His own Word, in His Only begotten, His own heirs and His (the Son’s) co-heirs.
Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 109 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 7)
In like manner, we attach one meaning to the statement, “God sanctifies His saints,” and another to the words, “Sanctified be Thy name;” for in the former case we suppose the words to mean that He makes those to be saints who were not saints before, and in the latter, that the prayer would have that which is always holy in itself be also regarded as holy by men,—in a word, be feared with a hallowed awe.
Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 45 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 5)
To sanctify men is a work proper to God: I am the Lord who sanctify you (Levit. xxii, 9). But it is the Holy Ghost who sanctifies, according to the words of the Apostle: Ye are washed and sanctified and justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. vi, 11). … However, the spirit of man is sanctified only by the action, and even indwelling, of the Holy Ghost.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles 4.17
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.
Martin Luther, Luther's Small Catechism 17
With propriety and elegance he distinguishes between different offices. For the blood of Christ is the procuring cause of our cleansing: righteousness and sanctification come to us through his death and resurrection. But, as the cleansing effected by Christ, and the attainment of righteousness, are of no avail except to those who have been made partakers of those blessings by the influence of the Holy Spirit, it is with propriety that he makes mention of the Spirit in connection with Christ.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 6.2 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 39)
There is a sanctification that is common to all believers. But here Christ claims for himself something far more excellent, namely, that he alone was separated from all others, that the power of the Spirit and the majesty of God might be displayed in him; as he formerly said, that him hath God the Father sealed , ( John 6:27 .) But this refers strictly to the person of Christ, so far as he is manifested in the flesh.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Vol. 1 10.6 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 34)
The meaning would be more clear, were we to make a change in the order of the words, “Elected, according to the foreknowledge of God, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, through (or, by) the sanctification of the Spirit,” that is, they were elected in order that they might obey the gospel, and be cleansed from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ, through the sanctifying power of the Spirit. It was not their obedience that made them the elect, but they were chosen that they might obey, and thus obey through the influence of the Spirit.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles 1 Peter 1.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 45)
Two things are here ascribed to the blood of Christ; — one referring to God, “It obtains eternal redemption;” the other respecting us, “It purgeth our consciences from dead works:” so that justification with God, by procuring for us an eternal redemption from the guilt of our sins and his wrath due unto them, with sanctification in ourselves (or, as it is called, Heb. i. 3, a “purging our sins”), is the immediate product of that blood by which he entered into the holy place, of that oblation which, through the eternal Spirit, he presented unto God.
John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 2.3
The Spirit alone brings the cross of Christ into our hearts with its sin-killing power; for by the Spirit are we baptized into the death of Christ. (5.) The Spirit is the author and finisher of our sanctification; gives new supplies and influences of grace for holiness and sanctification, when the contrary principle is weakened and abated, Eph. iii. 16–18.
John Owen, Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers 16
The author of our sanctification, who only is so, is asserted to be “God.” He is the eternal spring and only fountain of all holiness; there is nothing of it in any creature but what is directly and immediately from him; there was not in our first creation. He made us in his own image. And to suppose that we can now sanctify or make ourselves holy is proudly to renounce and cast off our principal dependence upon him.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.1
As he is the author of bodily life in the creature, so he is the author of his own life, the life of God in the soul. By his holiness he makes men holy, as the sun by his light enlightens the air. … He only can mould us into a Divine frame; the great original can only derive the excellency of his own nature to us.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 11
As election is the effect of God’s sovereignty, our pardon the fruit of his mercy, our knowledge a stream from his wisdom, our strength an impression of his power; so our purity is a beam from his holiness. The whole work of sanctification, and the preservation of it, our Saviour begs for his disciples of his Father, under this title (John xvii. 11, 17): “Holy Father, keep them through thy own name,” and “sanctify them through thy truth;” as the proper source whence holiness was to flow to the creature: as the sun is the proper fountain whence light is derived, both to the stars above, and the bodies here below.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 11
God took away the sanctifying Spirit from man, as a penalty for the first sin; who can regain it but by his will and pleasure? who can restore it, but he that removed it? Since every man hath the same fundamental atheism in him by nature, and would be a rule to himself and his own end, he is so far from dethroning himself, that all the strength of his corrupted nature is alarmed up to stand to their arms upon any attempt God makes to regain the fort. The will is so strong against God, that it is like many wills twisted together (Eph. ii. 3), “Wills of the flesh;” we translate it the “desires of the flesh;” like many threads twisted in a cable, never to be snapped asunder by a human arm; a power and will above ours, can only untwist so many wills in a knot.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 2
The Spirit sanctifies the heart, as lightning purifies the air, and as fire refines metals. Omne agens generat sibi simile. [The Spirit at work generates its own likeness everywhere.] The Spirit stamps the impression of its own sanctity upon the heart, as the seal prints its likeness upon the wax.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
Jesus Christ has died for our sanctification. Christ shed his blood to wash off our impurity. … Christ died, not only to save us from wrath, but from sin.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
God consecrates us with his Spirit. Whom he adopts, he anoints; whom he makes sons, he makes saints. When a man adopts another for his son and heir, he may put his name upon him, but he cannot put his disposition into him; if he be of a morose rugged nature, he cannot alter it; but whom God adopts he sanctifies; he not only gives a new name but a new nature.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.4
Note, We have as necessary a dependence on the Spirit's operation and influence for our sanctification and perseverance as on the mediation of Christ for our reconciliation and acceptance with God: and no man could confirm this truth with a miracle but by the Holy Ghost.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Corinthians 12.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Christ died to purify as well as to pardon—to obtain grace, to heal the nature, as well as to free from guilt and condemnation. … Observe, Redemption from sin and sanctification of the nature go together, and both make a peculiar people unto God: freedom from guilt and condemnation, freedom from the power of lusts, and purification of soul by the Spirit.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Titus 2.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Sanctification is usually spoken of in scripture as the work of the Holy Spirit, yet here it is ascribed to God the Father, because the Spirit works it as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. Note, All who are effectually called are sanctified, made partakers of a divine nature ( 2 Pet. i. 4 ); for without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Jude 1.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
There is a more excellent way in which the Spirit leads the sons of God, that natural men cannot have; and that is, by inclining them to do the will of God, and go in the shining path of truth and Christian holiness, from a holy, heavenly disposition, which the Spirit of God gives them, and which inclines and leads them to those things that are excellent and agreeable to God’s mind, whereby they “are transformed by the renewing of their minds, and prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God,” Rom. xii. 2. … The sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God rectifies the taste of the soul, whereby it savours those things that are of God, and naturally relishes and delights in those things that are holy and agreeable to God’s mind; and, like one of a distinguishing taste, it chooses those things that are good and wholesome, and rejects those that are evil.
Jonathan Edwards, Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in New England 5
Through sanctification of the Spirit - Through the renewing and purifying influences of his Spirit on their souls.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 21.1
Sanctification is the imparting to us of God Himself by the Holy Spirit in the soul. We by faith partake also of the material nature of Jesus (Eph 5:30). The "divine power" enables us to be partakers of "the divine nature."
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Second Peter 1
As the atonement, or reconciliation, is by the blood of Christ (Le 17:11), so our sanctification (consecration to God, holiness and eternal bliss) is by the body of Christ (Col 1:22).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Hebrews 10
The sanctification of believers, as it has its whole foundation in the atoning death, so it has its living spring in the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ (Ro 8:2-4).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Romans 8
Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit; although on that account only the more rationally.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.7.6 (Vol. 2)
Sanctification is declared to be a work of God’s free grace. Two things are included in this. First, that the power or influence by which it is carried on is supernatural. Secondly, that granting this influence to any sinner, to one sinner rather than another, and to one more than to another, is a matter of favour.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.1 (Vol. 3)
In representing, in accordance with Scripture, sanctification as a supernatural work, or as a work of grace, the Church intends to deny the Pelagian or Rationalistic doctrine which confounds it with mere moral reformation. … But whatever may be the proximate cause of such reformation, it falls very far short of sanctification. The two things differ in nature as much as a clean heart from clean clothes.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.1 (Vol. 3)
Sanctification, then, is the invariable result of that vital union with Christ which true faith gives to a Christian.—“He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” (John xv. 5.) The branch which bears no fruit is no living branch of the vine. The union with Christ which produces no effect on heart and life is a mere formal union, which is worthless before God. … In short, where there is no sanctification of life, there is no real faith in Christ.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
The Lord Jesus has undertaken everything that His people’s souls require; not only to deliver them from the guilt of their sins by His atoning death, but from the dominion of their sins, by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit; not only to justify them, but also to sanctify them. He is, thus, not only their “righteousness,” but their “sanctification.”
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
The sin of the whole world has been atoned for, as the apostle expressly asserts (2:2); and it is on the basis of this work finished for all, and assumed to underlie everything, that the progressive purification of the Christian proceeds. It is the virtue of the ἱλασμός, in which all sin has been dealt with for its removal, and dealt with according to the realities of the divine law involved in the case, which eventually effects sanctification.
James Denney, The Death of Christ 8
Instead of our old sin-worn and sin-marked selves, He proffers to each of us a new self, not the outcome of what we have been, but the image of what He is and the prophecy of what we shall be. By the great gift of holiness for the future by the impartation of His own life and spirit, Jesus makes all things new.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 1.2.3 (Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 14)
Some have the mistaken notion that sanctification consists merely in the drawing out of the new life, implanted in the soul by regeneration, in a persuasive way by presenting motives to the will. But this is not true. It consists fundamentally and primarily in a divine operation in the soul, whereby the holy disposition born in regeneration is strengthened and its holy exercises are increased. It is essentially a work of God, though in so far as He employs means, man can and is expected to co-operate by the proper use of these means.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 4.10
Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen Him bearing our sins on the Cross, so we cannot have sanctification if we have not seen Him bearing us on the Cross. Not only have our sins been laid on Him but we ourselves have been put into Him.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 3.1
24 passages · 7 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers connect sanctification to God's election and calling and to preparation for heaven.
But in election we perceive the beginning of sanctification; for it was in consequence of God having deigned to elect them out of his mere good pleasure, that this nation became his peculiar inheritance. Isaiah therefore points out the secret will of God, from which sanctification proceeds; that Israel might not think that he had been selected on account of his own merits.
John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 4 49.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 16)
Besides, that sanctification has a deep root in them, which cannot be removed; because the adoption of God is without repentance. Meanwhile, let us regard it as a settled point, that it results from the election of God, when, having embraced by faith the doctrine of Christ, we also follow it during our life; and that this is the only cause of our happiness, by which we are distinguished from the reprobate; for they, being destitute of the grace of the Spirit, miserably perish, while we have Christ for our guardian, who guides us by his hand, and upholds us by his power.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Vol. 2 13.4 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 35)
As however in our election he assigns the first place to the gratuitous favor of God, so again he would have us to know it by the effects, for there is nothing more dangerous or more preposterous than to overlook our calling and to seek for the certainty of our election in the hidden prescience of God, which is the deepest labyrinth. Therefore to obviate this danger, Peter supplies the best correction; for though in the first place he would have us to consider the counsel of God, the cause of which is alone in himself; yet he invites us to notice the effect, by which he sets forth and bears witness to our election. That effect is the sanctification of the Spirit, even effectual calling, when faith is added to the outward preaching of the gospel, which faith is begotten by the inward operation of the Spirit.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles 1 Peter 1.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 45)
Let us now state the substance of the whole; which is, that our salvation flows from the gratuitous election of God; but that it is to be ascertained by the experience of faith, because he sanctifies us by his Spirit; and then that there are two effects or ends of our calling, even renewal into obedience and ablution by the blood of Christ; and further, that both are the work of the Holy Spirit. We hence conclude, that election is not to be separated from calling, nor the gratuitous righteousness of faith from newness of life.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles 1 Peter 1.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 45)
Either we may understand Paul to say, that the ground of sanctification is the call of God, inasmuch as God has chosen them; meaning, that this depends on his grace, not on the excellence of men; or we may understand him to mean, that, it accords with our profession that we be holy, this being the design of the doctrine of the gospel. The former interpretation appears to suit better with the context, but it is of no great consequence in which way you understand it, as there is an entire agreement between the two following positions — that our holiness flows from the fountain of divine election, and that it, is the end of our calling.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 1.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 39)
Hereof sanctification, or the communication of saving grace, is comprehensive; for we are “chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit,” 2 Thess. ii. 13, for this is that whereby we are “made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,” Col. i. 12. The end of God in election is the sonship and salvation of the elect, “to the praise of the glory of his grace,” Eph. i. 5, 6; and this cannot be unless his image be renewed in them in holiness or saving graces.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 10.2
There is nothing more infallibly certain than that he who pursues sincerely and diligently the ways of faith and obedience, — which are, as we have often said, the fruits of election, — shall obtain in the end everlasting blessedness, and, ordinarily, shall have in this world a comfortable evidence of his own personal election. This, therefore, on all accounts, and towards all sorts of persons, is an invincible argument for the necessity of holiness, and a mighty motive thereunto: for it is unavoidable, that if there be such a thing as personal election, and that the fruits of it are sanctification, faith, and obedience, it is utterly impossible, that without holiness anyone should see God; the reason of which consequence is apparent unto all.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 5.2
The means which he hath ordained whereby we shall be brought unto this salvation, so designed in his eternal purpose, is the “sanctification of the Spirit.” Gospel holiness, therefore, is the effect of that sanctification of the Spirit, which God hath designed as the especial way and means on their part of bringing the elect unto salvation; and his choosing of them is the cause and reason why he doth so sanctify them by his Spirit. And where our sanctification is comprised under our vocation, because therein and thereby we are sanctified, by the sanctifying principle of holiness communicated unto us, it is not only reckoned as an effect and consequent of our predestination, but is so conjoined thereunto as to declare that none others are partakers of it but those that are predestinate, Rom. viii. 29, 30.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.6
Wherever predestination unto glory goes before concerning any person, there effectual vocation unto faith and holiness infallibly ensues; and where these never were, the other never was. So 2 Thess. ii. 13, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.” … Through the sanctification of the Spirit, and no otherwise. Whom God doth not sanctify and make holy by his Spirit, he never chose unto salvation from the beginning.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 5.2
God chooseth us from eternity that we should be holy; that is, with a design and purpose to make us so. … That is holiness which God works in men by his Spirit because he hath chosen them, and nothing else is so; for he “chooseth us unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit,” 2 Thess. ii. 13.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.6
Sanctification is the first fruit of the Spirit; it is heaven begun in the soul. Sanctification and glory differ only in degree: sanctification is glory in the seed, and glory is sanctification in the flower.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
Glory is the throne, and sanctification is the step by which we ascend to it. As you first cleanse the vessel, and then pour in the wine; so God first cleanses us by sanctification, and then pours in the wine of glory.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
It is the great design God carries on in the world, to make a people like himself in holiness. What are all the showers of ordinances for, but to rain down righteousness upon us, and make us holy? … What is the end of Christ's dying, but that his blood might wash away our unholiness?
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 3.7
Sanctification is the preparation of the soul for glory, making it meet to partake of the inheritance of the saints in light. This is God's work.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 9.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
The end and last result of election is eternal life and salvation; but, before this can be accomplished, every elect person must be sanctified by the Spirit, and justified by the blood of Jesus. God's decree for man's salvation always operates through sanctification of the Spirit and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. By sanctification here understand, not a federal sanctification only, but a real one, begun in regeneration, whereby we are renewed after the image of God and made new creatures, and carried on in the daily exercise of holiness, mortifying our sins more and more, and living to God in all the duties of a Christian life, which is here summed up in one word, obedience, comprehending all the duties of Christianity.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Peter 1.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Being chosen of God, we must not live as we list; but, if we are chosen to salvation as the end, we must be prepared for it by sanctification as the necessary means to obtain that end, which sanctification is by the operation of the Holy Spirit as the author and by faith on our part. There must be the belief of the truth, without which there can be by true sanctification, nor perseverance in grace, nor obtaining of salvation.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Second Thessalonians 2.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Observe, All who shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now. Wherever the call of the gospel is an effectual call, it is found to be a holy call, making those holy who are effectually called.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Second Timothy 1.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
All who are chosen to happiness as the end are chosen to holiness as the means. Their sanctification, as well as their salvation, is the result of the counsels of divine love.— And without blame before him —that their holiness might not be merely external and in outward appearance, so as to prevent blame from men, but internal and real, and what God himself, who looketh at the heart, will account such, such holiness as proceeds from love to God and to our fellow-creatures, this charity being the principle of all true holiness.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ephesians 1.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
The "election" of God realized and manifested itself "IN" their sanctification. Believers are "sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all" (Heb 10:10).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible First Peter 1
Sanctification, again, is the only sure mark of God’s election. … But if there is one thing clearly and plainly laid down about election, it is this—that elect men and women may be known and distinguished by holy lives.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
Sanctification gives us our meetness for heaven, and prepares us to enjoy it when we dwell there. (h) Justification is the act of God about us, and is not easily discerned by others. Sanctification is the work of God within us, and cannot be hid in its outward manifestation from the eyes of men.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
Are believers said to be elect!—it is “through sanctification of the Spirit.” … He does not merely take away the guilt of a believer’s sin, He does more—He breaks its power, (1 Peter i. 2; Rom. viii. 29; Eph. i. 4; Heb. xii. 10.)
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 4
Of course it is hard to know what people really are, and many who make a fair show outwardly in religion, may turn out at last to be rotten-hearted hypocrites. But where there is not, at least, some appearance of sanctification, we may be quite certain there is no election. The Church Catechism correctly and wisely teaches that the Holy Ghost “sanctifieth all the elect people of God.”
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
Consider, also, what this calling is to. 'God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness,' or, as this letter has it, in another part, 'unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.' By all the subduing and animating and restraining and impelling tones in the sacrifice and life of Jesus Christ we are summoned to a life of self-crucifixion, of subjection of the flesh, of aspiration after God, of holy living according to the pattern that was showed us in Him.
Alexander Maclaren, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, and First Timothy 2.4.2 (Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 14)
6 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1800s
Writers distinguish sanctification from justification and say how the two are related.
“To the sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Again the name of Jesus; the names of men he findeth no place for. But what is Sanctification? The Laver, the Purification. For he reminds them of their own uncleanness, from which he had freed them; and so persuades them to lowliness of mind; for not by their own good deeds, but by the loving-kindness of God, had they been sanctified.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 2 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 12)
Although sanctification be inseparably joined with justification, yet they differ, in that God in justification imputeth the righteousness of Christ; in sanctification his Spirit infuseth grace, and enableth to the exercise thereof; in the former, sin is pardoned; in the other, it is subdued: the one doth equally free all believers from the revenging wrath of God, and that perfectly in this life, that they never fall into condemnation; the other is neither equal in all, nor in this life perfect in any, but growing up to perfection.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Larger Catechism 77
By faith the heart is purified; we are not only justified, and conscience purified, but the work of sanctification is begun and carried on.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Acts 15.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Hence we see plainly how groundless that opinion is, that holiness or sanctification is previous to our justification.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 6.4
We are not justified because we are holy; but being justified, we are rendered holy.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.5 (Vol. 3)
Those who are justified are always sanctified, and those who are sanctified are always justified. God has joined them together, and they cannot be put asunder. (d) Both begin at the same time. The moment a person begins to be a justified person, he also begins to be a sanctified person.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
7 passages · 7 writers · 200s to 1700s
Writers describe sanctification as a work that advances over a lifetime, name the means by which it advances, and list the marks by which it is recognized.
Well, because He says, “Be ye holy, even as I am holy,” we ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be. And this we daily pray for; for we have need of daily sanctification, that we who daily fall away may wash out our sins by continual sanctification.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 4 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5)
“Make them holy by the gift of the Spirit, and of right doctrines.” … For right doctrines asserted concerning God sanctify the soul.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 84 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 14)
Sanctification is effected by all the virtues, by which also sins are taken away.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q70.A3
Grace does not suddenly transform a Christian into a new and perfect creature. Dregs of the old and natural corruption remain. The Spirit of God cannot at once overcome human deficiency. Sanctification takes time.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 3:1
Every believer is truly and really sanctified at once, but none is perfectly sanctified at once.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.5
What is the lamp of profession without the oil of saving grace? … A pretence of sanctification is not to be rested in.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
The fruits of righteousness are the evidences and effects of our sanctification, the duties of holiness springing from a renewed heart, the root of the matter in us.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Philippians 1.4 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
4 passages · 4 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers describe putting off the old nature and killing sin as part of sanctification.
Moreover when God’s chastisements are said to be profitable to make men partners of his holiness, this is not to be so taken as though they made us really holy, but that they are helps to sanctify us, for by them the Lord exercises us in the work of mortifying the flesh.
John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 12.3 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 44)
For the first, we may hence observe the nature of sanctification, what it is, and wherein it consists. In general it has two things in it, mortification and vivification—dying to sin and living to righteousness, elsewhere expressed by putting off the old man and putting on the new, ceasing to do evil and learning to do well.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 6.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
The sanctification is first described negatively (1Pe 1:14, "not fashioning yourselves," &c.; the putting off the old man, even in the outward fashion, as well as in the inward conformation), then positively (1Pe 1:15, putting on the new man, compare Eph 4:22, 24). "Lusts" flow from the original birth-sin (inherited from our first parents, who by self-willed desire brought sin into the world), the lust which, ever since man has been alienated from God, seeks to fill up with earthly things the emptiness of his being; the manifold forms which the mother-lust assumes are called in the plural lusts. In the regenerate, as far as the new man is concerned, which constitutes his truest self, "sin" no longer exists; but in the flesh or old man it does. Hence arises the conflict, uninterruptedly maintained through life, wherein the new man in the main prevails, and at last completely.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible First Peter 1
The two parts of sanctification are represented in Scripture as: a. The mortification of the old man, the body of sin. This Scriptural term denotes that act of God whereby the pollution and corruption of human nature that results from sin is gradually removed. It is often represented in the Bible as the crucifying of the old man, and is thus connected with the death of Christ on the cross.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 4.10
2 passages · 2 writers · 1600s to 1800s
Writers say that sanctification is imperfect in this life and describe the war between flesh and Spirit.
This sanctification is throughout, in the whole man; yet imperfect in this life, there abiding still some remnants of corruption in every part; whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Confession of Faith 13.2
The doctrine of Lutherans and Reformed, the two great branches of the Protestant Church, is, that sanctification is never perfected in this life; that sin is not in any case entirely subdued; so that the most advanced believer has need as long as he continues in the flesh, daily to pray for the forgiveness of sins.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.7 (Vol. 3)
3 passages · 3 writers · 200s to 1600s
Writers describe holiness as a quality or principle that God gives to the soul.
If there is any other nature which is holy, it possesses this property of being made holy by the reception or inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not having it by nature, but as an accidental quality, for which reason it may be lost, in consequence of being accidental.
Origen of Alexandria, The Works of Origen 2.8 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4)
This disposition, or preparation, is followed by Justification itself, which is not remission of sins merely, but also the sanctification and renewal of the inward man, through the voluntary reception of the grace, and of the gifts, whereby man of unjust becomes just, and of an enemy a friend, that so he may be an heir according to hope of life everlasting.
Council of Trent, Canons and Dogmatic Decrees of the Council of Trent Session 6, ch. VII
Sanctification is a supernatural thing; it is divinely infused.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
7 passages · 7 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers say that holiness is required for seeing God and for entering heaven, and discuss in what sense.
The will of God is our sanctification, for He wishes His “image”—us—to become likewise His “likeness;” that we may be “holy” just as Himself is “holy.” That good—sanctification, I mean—I distribute into several species, that in some one of those species we may be found.
Tertullian, On Exhortation to Chastity 1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4)
The whole lives of Christians ought to be a kind of aspiration after piety, seeing they are called unto holiness (Eph. 1:4; 1 Thess. 4:5). The office of the law is to excite them to the study of purity and holiness, by reminding them of their duty.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.19
The gospel frees us from the curse, but not from the duty and service: “We are delivered from the hands of our enemies, that we might serve God in holiness and righteousness” (Luke i. 74). … Christ’s righteousness gives us a title to heaven; but there must be a holiness to give us a fitness for heaven.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 9
Without sanctification all our holy things are defiled. … This evinces the necessity of sanctification. Sanctification makes our holy things accepted.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.5
There may be a faith of miracles, where there is no justifying faith; none of that faith which works by love and obedience. Gifts of tongues and healing would recommend men to the world, but it is real holiness or sanctification that is accepted of God.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 7.5 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 5)
Sanctification, in the last place, is absolutely necessary in order to train and prepare us for heaven. … We must be saints before we die, if we are to be saints afterwards in glory.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
In 6:1-7:6 Paul proved the obligation to be sanctified. In 7:7-8:11 he discusses the possibility of sanctification, only for the renewed man by the help of the Holy Spirit.
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament 7.7
2 passages · 2 writers · 1200s to 1500s
Writers say whether the holiness of parents or of a spouse passes to others.
Sanctification is twofold. one is that of the whole nature: inasmuch as the whole human nature is freed from all corruption of sin and punishment. This will take place at the resurrection. The other is personal sanctification. This is not transmitted to the children begotten of the flesh: because it does not regard the flesh but the mind.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q27.A2
Moreover, though godly parents do in some measure contribute to the holiness of their offspring, this is by the blessing of God; a blessing, however, which does not prevent the primary and universal curse of the whole race from previously taking effect. Guilt is from nature, whereas sanctification is from supernatural grace.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion II.1
3 passages · 2 writers · 1200s to 1500s
Writers discuss whether and for whom sanctification occurs before birth, including Christ, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and the Virgin Mary.
Christ was sanctified by grace in the first instant of His conception. Now, sanctification is twofold: that of adults who are sanctified in consideration of their own act; and that of infants who are sanctified in consideration of, not their own act of faith, but that of their parents or of the Church. The former sanctification is more perfect than the latter: just as act is more perfect than habit; and "that which is by itself, than that which is by another" [*Aristotle, Phys. viii]. Since, therefore, the sanctification of Christ was most perfect, because He was so sanctified that He might sanctify others; consequently He was sanctified by reason of His own movement of the free-will towards God.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q34.A3
God declares that he knew Jeremiah before he formed him in the womb. This is not said specially of the Prophet, as though other men are unknown to God, but it is to be understood of the prophetic office, as though he had said, “Before I formed thee in the womb, I destined thee for this work, even that thou mayest undertake the burden of a teacher among the people.” And the second part is a repetition, when he says, Before thou camest forth from the womb I sanctified thee Sanctification is the same as the knowledge of God: and thus we perceive that knowledge is not mere prescience, but that predestination, by which God chooses every single individual according to his own will, and at the same time appoints and also sanctifies him; for no one, as Paul declares, ( 2 Corinthians 2:16 ,) is according to his own nature fitted for the work.
John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Vol. 1 1.2 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 17)
And, indeed, Christ was sanctified from earliest infancy, that he might sanctify his elect in himself at any age, without distinction. For as he, in order to wipe away the guilt of disobedience which had been committed in our flesh, assumed that very flesh, that in it he might, on our account, and in our stead, perform a perfect obedience, so he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that, completely pervaded with his holiness in the flesh which he had assumed, he might transfuse it into us. If in Christ we have a perfect pattern of all the graces which God bestows on all his children, in this instance we have a proof that the age of infancy is not incapable of receiving sanctification. This, at least, we set down as incontrovertible, that none of the elect is called away from the present life without being previously sanctified and regenerated by the Spirit of God.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.16
15 passages · 9 writers · 400s to 1900s
Writers use sanctification for the setting apart of people, days, places, and offerings to God, and for a believer's own act of dedication.
The Sabbath is a day of sanctification; and it is not without significance that, among all the works which God accomplished, the first sound of sanctification was heard on the day when He rested from all His labours. On this, indeed, we must not now enlarge. But at the same time I deem it to be enough for the point now in question, that it was not for nothing that the nation was commanded on that day to abstain from all servile work, by which sin is signified; but because not to commit sin belongs to sanctification, that is, to God’s gift through the Holy Spirit.
Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 27 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 5)
The literal reason for the sanctification of the tabernacle and vessels was that they might be treated with greater reverence, being deputed, as it were, to the divine worship by this consecration. The figurative reason is that this sanctification signified the sanctification of the living tabernacle, i.e. the faithful of whom the Church of Christ is composed.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q102.A4
The nation is here called holy, not with reference to their piety or personal holiness, but as set apart from others by God by special privilege. Yet on this kind of sanctification the other depends, viz., that they who are exalted by God’s favor should cultivate holiness, and thus on their part sanctify God.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 1 3.19.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 3)
The Sabbath indicated not a temporal but a perpetual sanctification of the people. Nevertheless, it is not to be denied, that Christ brought them both to an end.
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1 17.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 1)
All Christians are sanctified; and, therefore, themselves, and all that they have, are consecrated ‘to the Master’s use.’ But ministers are doubly sanctified: they are devoted to God, both as Christians and as ministers; and, therefore, they are doubly obligated to honor him with all they have.
Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor 3.1
It is required that Israel be a holy people, because the God of Israel is a holy God, v. 2 . Their being distinguished from all other people by peculiar laws and customs was intended to teach them a real separation from the world and the flesh, and an entire devotedness to God. … We are the followers of the holy Jesus, and therefore must be, according to our capacity, consecrated to God's honour, and conformed to his nature and will. Israel was sanctified by the types and shadows ( ch. xx. 8 ), but we are sanctified by the truth, or substance of all those shadows, John xvii. 17; Tit. ii. 14 .
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Leviticus 19.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 1)
When we are to offer spiritual sacrifices it concerns us, by sequestering ourselves from the world and renewing the dedication of ourselves to God, to sanctify ourselves. When our Lord Jesus came into the world, though men had reason enough to tremble, fearing that his errand was to condemn the world, yet he gave full assurance that he came peaceably, for he came to sacrifice, and he brought his offering along with him: A body hast thou prepared me. Let us sanctify ourselves, that we may have an interest in his sacrifice.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Samuel 16.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 2)
See what preparation we must make to receive the discoveries of God's glory and the communications of his grace: we must sanctify ourselves. This we must do when we are to attend the ark, and God by it is about to do wonders among us; we must separate ourselves from all other cares, devote ourselves to God's honour, and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Joshua 3.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 2)
By which will - Of God, done and suffered by Christ. We are sanctified - Cleansed from guilt, and consecrated to God.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 19.10
The elect - The Christians: whom he hath chosen - That is, hath taken out of, or separated from, the world, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 2.13
Purified themselves - They that would be instrumental to sanctify others, must sanctify themselves, and set themselves apart for God, with purity of mind and sincerity of intention.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 43.12
Sanctify - Consecrate them by the anointing of thy Spirit to their office, and perfect them in holiness, by means of thy word.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 4.17
The sanctification of the nation was emphatically symbolized by strictness of diet as regards both the kind of animal, and the mode of slaughtering.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Exodus 22:31
The primary meaning is, "to set apart" from a common to a special use; hence arose the secondary sense, "to sanctify," ceremonially and morally. It is not here meant that Jehovah cleansed Jeremiah from original sin or regenerated him by His Spirit; but separated him to his peculiar prophetical office, including in its range, not merely the Hebrews, but also the nations hostile to them (Jer 25:12-38; 27:1-21; 46:1-51:64), [Henderson]. Not the effect, but the predestination in Jehovah's secret counsel, is meant by the sanctification here (compare Lu 1:15, 41; Ac 15:18; Ga 1:15; Eph 1:11).
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Jeremiah 1
Paul says, “Present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification (A.V. ‘holiness’)” (Romans 6:19). Make it a definite act. “Present yourselves to God.”
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 6.1
15 passages · 15 writers · 100s to 1900s
Writers name Christ as the one who sanctifies, through his person, his offering, and his blood, often citing 1 Corinthians 1:30.
Let us beware lest we be found [fulfilling that saying], as it is written, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” For to this end the Lord endured to deliver up His flesh to corruption, that we might be sanctified through the remission of sins, which is effected by His blood of sprinkling. For it is written concerning Him, partly with reference to Israel, and partly to us; and [the Scripture] saith thus: “He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities: with His stripes we are healed.
Barnabas, Epistle of Barnabas 2.5 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1)
Having expiscated the “to us” and the “absolutely”—sanctification and redemption being “to us” and not absolute, wisdom and redemption both to us and absolute—we must not omit to enquire into the position of righteousness in the same passage. That Christ is righteousness relatively to us appears clearly from the words: “Who was made to us of God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” And if we do not find Him to be righteousness absolutely as He is the wisdom and the power of God absolutely, then we must enquire whether to Christ Himself, as the Father is sanctification, so the Father is also righteousness.
Origen of Alexandria, Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 3.1.40 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 9)
He was baptized in Jordan, not as receiving any sanctification for Himself, but as gifting a participation in sanctification to others.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dubious or Spurious Writings of Gregory Thaumaturgus 3.12 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6)
Already He had foretold that the hour was coming “when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth;” and He thus fulfilled what He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth, may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 4 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5)
O chaste woman, long ye for my Well-beloved, that He may dwell in you; and ye also that are impure that He may sanctify you! ye Churches also, that the Son of the Creator Who came to renew all creatures, may adorn you!
Ephrem the Syrian, Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 13 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 13)
Jesus was anointed, therefore, that the mystery of the regeneration of flesh might be accomplished. Nor are we left in doubt how He was thus anointed with the Spirit of God and with power, when we listen to the Father’s voice, as it spoke when He came up out of the Jordan, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee . Thus is testified the sanctification of His flesh, and in this testimony we must recognise His anointing with the power of the Spirit.
Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate or On the Trinity 2.11 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 9)
“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” … And of this nobility of ours, not this person or that, but Christ is the cause, having made us wise, and righteous, and holy. For so mean the words, “He was made unto us wisdom.”
John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians 6 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 12)
What manner of clothing is this but that of which the Apostle boasts, saying Christ of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification?1 Cor. i. 30. How would He more richly apparel thee than by making thee glorious with the garment of wisdom, the ornament of righteousness, the beauty of holiness?
Anselm of Canterbury, The Devotions of Saint Anselm 3.4
The sacrifice of the New Law, viz. the Eucharist, contains Christ Himself, the Author of our Sanctification: for He sanctified "the people by His own blood" ( Heb. 13:12 ). Hence this Sacrifice is also a sacrament.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II.Q101.A4
We believe that all that is necessary for our salvation was offered and communicated to us in Jesus Christ. He is given to us for our salvation, and “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”: so that if we refuse him, we renounce the mercy of the Father, in which alone we can find a refuge.
Reformed Churches, French Confession 13
A. The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Larger Catechism 69
Why is the Church holy? Because she is sanctified by Jesus Christ through his passion, through his doctrine, through his prayer, and through the Sacraments. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 268–270
The Lord Jesus is indeed one that "receives sinners." He receives them to pardon them, to sanctify them, and to make them fit for heaven. It is His special office to do so.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke Luke 15:1-10 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 3)
He is made unto us not only righteousness, but sanctification. We are cleansed by his blood from guilt, and renewed by his Spirit after the image of God.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.9.1 (Vol. 2)
Said our friend, ‘the best thing a man can do is to pray.’ ‘But if God has already given you everything, what do you need to pray for?’ we asked. ‘He hasn’t’, the man replied, ‘for I am still losing my temper, still failing constantly; so I must pray more.’ ‘Well’, we said, ‘do you get what you pray for?’ ‘I am sorry to say that I do not get anything’, he replied. We tried to point out that, just as he had done nothing for his justification, so he need do nothing for his sanctification.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 3.3
15 passages · 15 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers, creeds, and catechisms assign sanctification to the Holy Spirit or to the three persons together.
The heavens shall be opened, and from the temple of glory shall the sanctification come upon Him with the Father’s voice, as from Abraham the father of Isaac. And the glory of the Most High shall be uttered over Him, and the spirit of understanding and of sanctification shall rest upon Him in the water.
Anonymous (ANF), The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 5 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8)
There is one Lord the Son; but in like manner there is the Spirit, who bears over the Son’s lordship to the creature that is sanctified. The Son sojourned in the world, having of the Virgin received flesh, which He filled with the Holy Spirit for the sanctification of us all; and having given up the flesh to death, He destroyed death through the resurrection that had in view the resurrection of us all; and He ascended to heaven, exalting and glorifying men in Himself; and He comes the second time to bring us again eternal life.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dubious or Spurious Writings of Gregory Thaumaturgus 1.18 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 6)
The creature is sanctified; it is the Spirit that sanctifies. Whether you name angels, archangels, or all the heavenly powers, they receive their sanctification through the Spirit, but the Spirit Himself has His holiness by nature, not received by favour, but essentially His; whence He has received the distinctive name of Holy.
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 159 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 8)
For the Holy Spirit does not receive from creatures but is received; as also He is not sanctified but sanctifies; for the creature is sanctified, but the Holy Spirit sanctifies. In which matter, though the word is used in common, there is a difference in the nature. For both the man who receives and God Who gives sanctity are called holy, as we read: “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” Now sanctification and corruption cannot share the same nature, and therefore the grace of the Holy Spirit and the creature cannot be of one substance.
Ambrose of Milan, On the Holy Spirit 2.6 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 10)
God is also Holy Spirit, being sanctifying power, subsistential, proceeding from the Father without separation, and resting in the Son, identical in essence with Father and Son.
John of Damascus, John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 1.13 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 9)
First, we must receive the Holy Spirit, who enlightens and sanctifies us so that we can begin to do the Law, i.e., to love God and our neighbor. Now, the Holy Ghost is not obtained by the Law, but by faith in Christ. In the last analysis, to do the Law means to believe in Jesus Christ. The tree comes first, and then come the fruits.
Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians 3:10
There was by no means any virtue or efficacy for sanctification in the oil, except in so far as it was a type of the Spirit, from whom as its only source all holiness emanates. … This figure, therefore, clearly shews that nothing pleases God, that nothing is pure or holy in His sight, except what has been purged, and duly consecrated by the influence and grace of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 3 6.3 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 5)
Q. How are these articles divided? A. Into three parts: God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; and God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
Reformed Churches, Heidelberg Catechism 24
The Spirit of God is the cause of sanctification and holiness; but what kind of cause, I pray? Even such an one as is immediately and really efficient of the effect.
John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ 3.4
All the holiness we have is but a crystal stream from this fountain. We borrow all our holiness from God. As the lights of the sanctuary were lighted from the middle lamp, so all the holiness of others is a lamp lighted from heaven. ‘I am the Lord which sanctify you.' Lev 20:0. God is not only a pattern of holiness, but he is a principle of holiness: his spring feeds all our cisterns, he drops his holy oil of grace upon us.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 3.7
Holiness is the strength and stability of the church: it is this that will support it and keep it from sinking; not so much that it is built upon mountains as that it is built upon holy mountains—upon the promise of God, for the confirming of which he has sworn by his holiness, upon the sanctification of the Spirit, which will secure the happiness of all the saints.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 87.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3)
Out of the mouth of the dragon, the wild beast, and the false prophet - It seems, the dragon fights chiefly against God; the beast, against Christ; the false prophet, against the Spirit of truth; and that the three unclean spirits which come from them, and exactly resemble them, endeavour to blacken the works of creation, of redemption, and of sanctification.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 27.16
Let us not boast in ourselves; Co2 10:17. Not of our talents, wealth, learning, or accomplishments let us glory. But let us glory that we have such a God as Yahweh. Let us glory that we have such a Redeemer as Jesus Christ. Let us glory that we have such a sanctifier as the Holy Spirit.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Second Corinthians 10:18
Let us remember, that all that believers have, and are, and enjoy under the Gospel, they owe to the inward teaching of the Holy Spirit. The work of each of the three Persons of the Trinity is equally and entirely needful to the salvation of every saved soul. The ELECTION of God the Father, the REDEMPTION of God the Son, and the SANCTIFICATION of God the Spirit, ought never to be separated in our Christianity.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke Luke 1:34-38 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 3)
The Spirit also sustains relations to us, and performs offices which none but a person can sustain or perform. He is our teacher, sanctifier, comforter, and guide.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology I.8.1 (Vol. 1)
15 passages · 8 writers · 300s to 1800s
Writers and liturgies ask God to sanctify, or name sanctification as something to pray for.
Hallowed be Thy Name . The Name of God is in its nature holy, whether we say so or not; but since it is sometimes profaned among sinners, according to the words, Through you My Name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles , we pray that in us God’s Name may be hallowed; not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy in us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness.
Cyril of Jerusalem, The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 27 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 7)
O holy, highest, awe-inspiring God, who dwellest among the saints, sanctify us by the word of Thy grace and by the inspiration of Thy all-holy Spirit; for Thou hast said, O Lord our God, Be ye holy; for I am holy. … The Holy Spirit commands and sanctifies.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 3 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
Thou hast given unto us, O Lord, sanctification in the communion of the all-holy body and precious blood of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ ; give unto us also the grace of Thy good Spirit, and keep us blameless in the faith, lead us unto perfect adoption and redemption, and to the coming joys of eternity; for Thou art our sanctification and light, O God, and Thy only-begotten Son, and Thy all-holy Spirit, now and ever, and to all eternity. Amen.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
O good One, in the sanctification of Thy Holy Spirit, that being made holy, we may find part and inheritance with all Thy saints that have been well-pleasing to Thee since the world began, in the light of Thy countenance, through the mercy of Thy only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ , with whom Thou art blessed, together with Thy all-holy, and good, and quickening Spirit: for blessed and glorified is Thy all-precious and glorious name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to all eternity.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
O holy Lord, that abidest in holy places, sanctify us by the word of Thy grace, and by the visitation of Thy all-holy Spirit: for Thou, O Lord, hast said, Ye will be holy, for I am holy.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
Blessed be God, who blesseth and sanctifieth us all in our attendance upon, and service of, His pure mysteries, now and always, and for ever.
Anonymous (ANF), Early Liturgies 2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
When we ask that the name of God may be hallowed, as God wishes to prove whether we love and serve him freely, or from the hope of reward, we are not to think at all of our own interest; we must set his glory before our eyes, and keep them intent upon it alone. In the other similar petitions, this is the only manner in which we ought to be affected. It is true, that in this way our own interest is greatly promoted, because, when the name of God is hallowed in the way we ask, our own sanctification also is thereby promoted.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.20
Most holy and eternal God, lord and sovereign of all the creatures, I humbly present to thy Divine Majesty myself, my soul and body, my thoughts and my words, my actions and intentions, my passions and my sufferings, to be disposed by thee to thy glory; to be blessed by thy providence; to be guided by thy counsel; to be sanctified by thy Spirit; and afterwards that my body and soul may be received into glory: for nothing can perish which is under thy custody; and the enemy of souls cannot devour what is thy portion, nor take it out of thy hands. This day, O Lord, and all the days of my life, I dedicate to thy honour, and the actions of my calling to the uses of grace, and the religion of all my days to be united to the merits and intercession of my holy Saviour Jesus, that in him and for him I may be pardoned and accepted.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 1.4.2
Bless my children with healthful bodies, with good understandings, with the graces and gifts of thy Spirit, with sweet dispositions and holy habits; and sanctify them throughout in their bodies, and souls, and spirits, and keep them unblamable to the coming of the Lord Jesus. … Do thou good to them, and return all their kindness double into their own bosom, rewarding them with blessings, and sanctifying them with thy graces, and bringing them to glory.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 1.4.2
O blessed Jesus, thou hast used many arts to save me, thou hast given thy life to redeem me, thy Holy Spirit to sanctify me, thyself for my example, thy word for my rule, thy grace for my guide, the fruit of thy body hanging on the tree of the cross for the sin of my soul; and, after all this, thou hast sent thy apostles and ministers of salvation to call me, to importune me, to constrain me to holiness, and peace, and felicity.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 4.12.24
The things about which believers do and ought to treat principally and deal with God, in their supplications, are the inward spiritual frames and dispositions of their souls, with the actings of grace and sun in them. Hereon David was not satisfied with the confession of his original and all known actual sins, Ps. li. 1–5; nor yet with an acknowledgment that” none knoweth his own wanderings,” whence he desireth cleansing from “unknown sins,” Ps. xix. 12; but, moreover, he begs of God to undertake the inward search of his heart, to find out what was amiss or [not] right in him, Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24, as knowing that God principally required “truth in the inward parts,” Ps. li. 6. Such is the carrying on of the work of sanctification in the whole spirit and soul, 1 Thess. v. 23.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 8.6
"Let me have a little comfort before I die, that I may take leave of this world calmly, and not in such confusion as I am now in." Thus earnest should we be for grace, and thus we should plead, "Lord, renew me in the inward man; Lord, sanctify me before I die, for otherwise it will never be done."
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Job 10.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3)
"Lord, save me from them, and let me not fall into their wicked hands. Heal me, that is, sanctify me by thy grace; save me, that is, bring me to thy glory." All that shall be saved hereafter are sanctified now; unless the disease of sin be purged out the soul cannot live.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Jeremiah 17.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 4)
The Christian prays that he may be sanctified; yet at the same time he may pray to be delivered from affliction. God will hear his main desire, to be made holy; will convert what he fears into a blessing, and make it the means of accomplishing the great end.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Romans 15:33
Let us only remember that the four things prayed for by our Lord are things that every Christian should daily desire—preservation, sanctification, unity, and final glory in Christ’s company.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 17:17-26 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 4)
15 passages · 11 writers · 100s to 1800s
Writers connect sanctification to baptism, the Eucharist, anointing, blessing, and other rites of the church.
“Why are they then baptized for the dead,” he asks, unless the bodies rise again which are thus baptized? For it is not the soul which is sanctified by the baptismal bath: its sanctification comes from the “answer.” “And why,” he inquires, “stand we in jeopardy every hour?” —meaning, of course, through the flesh. “I die daily,” (says he); that is, undoubtedly, in the perils of the body, in which “he even fought with beasts at Ephesus,” —even with those beasts which caused him such peril and trouble in Asia, to which he alludes in his second epistle to the same church of Corinth : “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed above measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” Now, if I mistake not, he enumerates all these particulars in order that in his unwillingness to have his conflicts in the flesh supposed to be useless, he may induce an unfaltering belief in the resurrection of the flesh.
Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh 48 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3)
All indeed who attain to the divine gift and inheritance by the sanctification of baptism, therein put off the old man by the grace of the saving laver, and, renewed by the Holy Spirit from the filth of the old contagion, are purged by a second nativity. But the greater holiness and truth of that repeated birth belongs to you, who have no longer any desires of the flesh and of the body. Only the things which belong to virtue and the Spirit have remained in you to glory.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Treatises of Cyprian 2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5)
When, however, they come to the water of salvation and to the sanctification of baptism, we ought to know and to trust that there the devil is beaten down, and the man, dedicated to God, is set free by the divine mercy. For as scorpions and serpents, which prevail on the dry ground, when cast into water, cannot prevail nor retain their venom; so also the wicked spirits, which are called scorpions and serpents, and yet are trodden under foot by us, by the power given by the Lord, cannot remain any longer in the body of a man in whom, baptized and sanctified, the Holy Spirit is beginning to dwell.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Epistles of Cyprian 75 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5)
Since, then, we manifestly know that heretics have not either Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit, they ought, when they come to the Church our Mother, truly to be born again and to be baptized; that the cancer which they had, and the anger of damnation, and the witchery of error, may be sanctified by the holy and heavenly laver.
Cyprian of Carthage, The Seventh Council of Carthage under Cyprian 1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 5)
In His wine the betrothed are wedded, by His oil the wedded are sanctified. By His wine is union; by His oil sanctification.
Ephrem the Syrian, Ephraim Syrus: Fifteen Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany 4 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 13)
In the Christian mysteries there is one means of sanctification for the master and the servant, the noble and the low-born, for the king and his soldiers, and yet, that which is one varies according to the merits of those who receive it. “Whosoever shall eat or drink unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.” Does it follow that because Judas drank of the same cup as the rest of the apostles, that he and they are of equal merit?
Jerome, Against Jovinianus 2 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 6)
For he is unfit to bless another who needs to take care of his own wounds, for blessing is the imparting of sanctification. But how can he impart this to another who does not possess it himself through a sin of ignorance?
Anonymous (NPNF), The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext Council 3.27 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 14)
Thou didst—as though Thou wert indeed a sinner approach—Thy servant who baptized sinners with the baptism of penance, and didst even implore him to baptize Thee, Thee, innocent Lamb of God, whom slightest taint of sin had never stained. Thou wast baptized, not to sanctify Thyself by the waters, but to sanctify the waters by Thyself, that so through them we might be sanctified by Thee.
Anselm of Canterbury, Meditations and Prayers 2.9
The sacraments, as stated above ( AA[2] ,3), are employed as signs for man's sanctification. Consequently they can be considered in three ways: and in each way it is fitting for words to be added to the sensible signs. For in the first place they can be considered in regard to the cause of sanctification, which is the Word incarnate: to Whom the sacraments have a certain conformity, in that the word is joined to the sensible sign, just as in the mystery of the Incarnation the Word of God is united to sensible flesh.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q60.A6
Holiness is the cause of salvation. Therefore it comes to the same whether we say "chrism of salvation" or "of sanctification."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica III.Q72.A4
In baptism we are washed from our sins; but Paul teacheth that our washing is the work of the Holy Ghost, ( Titus 3:5 .) The water used in baptism is a sign of the blood of Christ; but Peter saith, that it is the Spirit by whom we are washed with the blood of Christ ( 1 Peter 1:2 .) Our old man is crucified in baptism, that we may be raised up unto newness of life, ( Romans 6:6 ;) and whence cometh all this save only from the sanctification of the Spirit?
John Calvin, Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Vol. 1 8.3 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 36)
What is specially signified by anointing the forehead? The sanctification of the mind, or thoughts.
Philaret of Moscow, The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church q. 307–314
Take thou also … principal spices, &c.—Oil is frequently mentioned in Scripture as an emblem of sanctification, and anointing with it a means of designating objects as well as persons to the service of God.
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Exodus 30
Baptism is an ordinance instituted by Christ, to signify and seal the purification of the soul, by the sprinkling of his blood, and its regeneration by the Holy Ghost. It can therefore be properly administered only to those who are in a state of guilt and pollution. It is, however, administered to infants, and therefore infants are assumed to need pardon and sanctification.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology II.8.13 (Vol. 2)
In baptism the recipient of that ordinance publicly dedares that he takes God the Father to be his father; God the Son to be his Saviour; and God the Holy Ghost to be his sanctifier. More than this no Christian can profess.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.20.11 (Vol. 3)
15 passages · 11 writers · 400s to 1900s
Writers list sanctification with the benefits God gives in salvation, or name it as the purpose or fruit of election.
Let us, then, look into the words of the apostle and see whether He chose us before the foundation of the world because we were going to be holy and immaculate, or in order that we might be so. “Blessed,” says he, “be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us in all spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; even as He hath chosen us in Himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted.” Not, then, because we were to be so, but that we might be so.
Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints 2.36 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 5)
There are three ways in which God acts by men. … Of this method the Prophet speaks in this passage. Thirdly, when he guides by his Spirit of sanctification, which is peculiar to the elect.
John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 1 10.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 13)
Anointing, it is true, was not as yet in use, as it was afterwards under the law; but the prophet teaches, that what God at a subsequent period exhibited in the ceremonies of the law was really and in very deed in Abraham, even as God engraves the mark of sanctification on all his chosen ones.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 4 105.3 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 11)
They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Shorter Catechism 32
God must be judged true in the promising justification and sanctification, the means of happiness; and if any man desires to be partaker of those promises, he must desire to be sanctified; and how can he desire that which is the matter of those promises, if he wallow in his own lusts, and desire to do so, a thing repugnant to the promise itself?
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 12
‘God has chosen you to salvation, through sanctification.' 2 Thess 2:13. We may read God's predestinating love in the work of grace in our heart.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 6.2
The beauty of the church. Christians shall be called saints ( 1 Cor. i. 2 ), the holy people, for they are chosen and called to salvation through sanctification.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah 62.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 4)
All those who in the fulness of time are effectually called and sanctified were from eternity elected and chosen to salvation. [2.] The election of God is of his own good pleasure and mere grace, not for the sake of any merit in those who are chosen. [3.] The election of God may be known by the fruits thereof.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on First Thessalonians 1.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
God is concerned for the consolation of believers, as well as for their sanctification; he would have his children walk in the fear of the Lord, and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Hebrews 6.2 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
The love of God brings salvation; imparts comfort; pardons sin; sanctifies the soul; fills the heart with joy and peace; and Paul here prays that all the blessings which are the fruit of that love may be with them.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Second Corinthians 13:14
Election is always to sanctification. Those whom Christ chooses out of mankind, He chooses not only that they may be saved, but that they may bear fruit, and fruit that can be seen. … (1 Thess. 1:4.) Where there is no visible fruit of sanctification, we may be sure there is no election.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 15:12-16 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 4)
The degree of faith varies in different believers; but in respect to its objects, present justification, sanctification, and future glorification, it is common alike to all. Christ is to all believers "made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."
Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible Second Peter 1
Men, according to the Apostle, repent and believe, because they are elected; God has chosen them to be holy, and therefore their holiness or their goodness in any form or measure cannot be the reason why He chose them. … Such is the clear doctrine of the Bible, men are chosen to be holy. The fact that God has predestinated them to salvation is the reason why they are brought to repentance and a holy life. “God,” says Paul to the Thessalonians (2 Thess. ii. 13), “hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through (not on account of) sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.1.8 (Vol. 2)
The sanctification and ultimate salvation of believers are secured by the immutable decree of God. For those “whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; . . . . moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” This last includes sanctification; the inward glory of the soul; the divine image as retraced by the Spirit of God, which to and in the believer is the Spirit of glory.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.18.1 (Vol. 3)
In the plainest of language Paul taught that the very purpose of election is, "That we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love," Eph. 1:4; that we are "foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son," Rom. 8:29; and that "God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth," II Thess. 2:13. "As many as were ordained to eternal life believed," Acts 13:48.
Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination 32
7 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1800s
Writers separate sanctifying grace from prophecy, miracles, inspiration, and other gifts that do not make a person holy.
We add, in the next place, that neither is every one that prophesies holy, nor every one that casts out devils religious: for even Balaam the son of Beor the prophet did prophesy, though he was himself ungodly; as also did Caiaphas , the falsely-named high priest. Nay, the devil foretells many things, and the demons, about Him; and yet for all that, there is not a spark of piety in them: for they are oppressed with ignorance, by reason of their voluntary wickedness. It is manifest, therefore, that the ungodly, although they prophesy, do not by their prophesying cover their own impiety; nor will those who cast out demons be sanctified by the demons being made subject to them: for they only mock one another, as they do who play childish tricks for mirth, and destroy those who give heed to them.
Anonymous (ANF), Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 9.1 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)
Paul, however, as I have already stated, is his own interpreter, by restricting faith, here, to miracles. It is what Chrysostom calls the “faith of miracles,” and what we term a “special faith,” because it does not apprehend a whole Christ, but simply his power in working miracles; and hence it may sometimes exist in a man without the Spirit of sanctification, as it did in Judas.
John Calvin, Commentary on Corinthians, Vol. 1 13.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 39)
The ordinary sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God are the end of all extraordinary gifts, as the apostle shows, Ephes. iv. 11, 12, 13. They are good for nothing, any further than as they are subordinate to this end; they will be so far from profiting any without it, that they will only aggravate their misery. This is, as the apostle observes, the most excellent way of God’s communicating his Spirit to his church, it is the greatest glory of the church in all ages.
Jonathan Edwards, Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God 2
Certain disciples - Who had been formerly baptized by John the Baptist, and since imperfectly instructed in Christianity. 2. Have ye received the Holy Ghost? - The extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, as well as his sanctifying graces? We have not so much as heard - Whether there be any such gifts.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 5.19
The Holy Ghost - In his miraculous gifts? Or his sanctifying graces? Probably in both.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 5.8
Inspiration, in its true nature, secures a truthful record; it does not necessarily secure absolute sanctification. Indeed, inspiration has no necessary connection with sanctification; - as it is conceivable, certainly, in accordance with the common belief, that Balaam uttered true prophecies respecting the Messiah, yet no one from that fact feels bound to maintain that he was otherwise than a bad man.
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible Psalms Introduction
Inspiration in itself has no sanctifying influence.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology Intro.6.2 (Vol. 1)
15 passages · 9 writers · 1000s to 1800s
Writers describe sanctification as the washing, renewal, and healing of the soul and its faculties.
Cleanse thy heart from all the pollution of fleshly delight, shut out unclean thoughts from thy mind, if thou wilt escape the foulness of this mire. But when by repentance and confession, by weeping for thy sin and occupying thy heart with holy meditations, thou hast escaped thence, take heed that thou fall not into it again; but with all thy heart utter thy sighing before God, beseeching His mercy that He may set thy feet upon the rock,Ps. xl. i. that is, that thy mind may establish itself upon the firm ground of righteousness by constantly cleaving unto Christ, of whom it is said that He is made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification.1 Cor. i. 30.
Anselm of Canterbury, The Devotions of Saint Anselm 3.9
Before propounding His law, it is not unreasonable that God should command the people to be sanctified, lest He should cast pearls before swine, or give that which is holy unto dogs; for although by right of adoption they were holy, yet, as regarded themselves, the filthiness of their nature unfitted them for participating in so great a blessing. It was by no means right or just that the inestimable treasure should be polluted by foul and stinking vessels. Therefore, in the injunction that they should be sanctified, two things were pointed out, — that the sacred doctrine of God was not to be handled by unwashen hands, and that the whole human race is impure and polluted, and, consequently, that none can duly enter God’s school save those who are cleansed from their filthiness.
John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 1 3.19.2 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 3)
By his Spirit the Lord purifies our affections that he may renew and sanctify us. The word judgment explains what is of chief importance in the restoration of the Church; that is, when those things which were confused or decayed are restored to good order. Burning points out the plan and method by which the Lord restores the Church to her purity.
John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah, Vol. 1 4.1 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 13)
To keep the heart, necessarily supposes a previous work of sanctification, which hath set the heart right, by giving it a new spiritual bent and inclination; for, as long as the heart is not set right by grace, as to its habitual frame, no duties or means can keep it right with God. Self is the poise of the unsanctified heart, which biases and moves it in all its designs and actions; and, as long as it is so, it is impossible that any external means should keep it with God.
John Flavel, A Saint Indeed 3
There were many things under the Old Testament that did typically and legally defile men that were liable unto them; but for all of them were provided typical and legal purifications, which sanctified them as to the purifying of the flesh. Now, no man was absolutely cut off or separated from the people of God for being so defiled; but he that, being defiled, did not take care that he might be purified according to the law, he was to be cut off from among the people. It is in like manner in things spiritual and evangelical. There are many sins whereby believers are defiled; but there is a way of cleansing still open unto them.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.5
Sin, with respect unto his authority, is attended with guilt; and this, in the conscience of the sinner, produceth fear: as it respects the holiness of God, it is attended with filth or uncleanness; and this produceth shame. And the ultimate effects of it are, on the first account, “pœna sensus;” on the other, “pœna damni.” This, therefore, is the spot, the stain, the pollution of sin, which is purged in our sanctification, — the perverse disorder and shameful crookedness that is in sin with respect unto the holiness of God.
John Owen, Pneumatologia 4.4
Holiness is the honor of the creature; sanctification and honor are linked together (1 Thess. iv. 4); much more is it the honor of God; it is the image of God in the creature (Eph. iv. 24). When we take the picture of a man, we draw the most beautiful part, the face, which is a member of the greatest excellency. When God would be drawn to the life, as much as can be, in the spirit of his creatures, he is drawn in this attribute, as being the most beautiful perfection of God, and most valuable with him.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 11
How shall I get a part in the unchangeable God? By having a change wrought in thee. ‘But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified.' I Cor 6:6: Whence we are changed, a tenebris ad lucem [from darkness to light], so changed, as if another soul did live in the same body.
Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity 3.4
How is this image of God upon man defaced! How small are the remains of it, and how great the ruins of it! The Lord renew it upon our souls by his sanctifying grace!
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Genesis 1.8 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 1)
Let my soul live, that is, let me be sanctified and comforted, for sanctification and comfort are the life of the soul, and then it shall praise thee. Our souls must be employed in praising God, and we must pray for grace and peace that we may be fitted to praise God.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 119.125 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3)
The word of God reaches to all cases, to all times. The divine law lays a restraint upon the whole man, is designed to sanctify us wholly. There is a great deal required and forbidden in every commandment.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 119.66 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3)
Sanctification, expressed by the laver of regeneration, (that is, baptism, the thing signified, as well as the outward sign,) and the renewal of the Holy Ghost; which purifies the soul, as water cleanses the body, and renews it in the whole image of God. 3. The consummation of all; - that we might become heirs of eternal life, and live now in the joyful hope of it.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 17.3
The pure in heart - The sanctified: they who love God with all their hearts. They shall see God - In all things here; hereafter in glory.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 1.5
Noah was a just man - Justified before God by faith in the promised seed; for he was an heir of the righteousness which is by faith, Heb. xi, 7. He was sanctified, and had right principles and dispositions implanted in him: and he was righteous in his conversation, one that made conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due, and to men theirs. And he walked with God as Enoch had done before him: in his generation, even in that corrupt degenerate age.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 28.6
By a consent almost universal the word regeneration is now used to designate, not the whole work of sanctification, nor the first stages of that work comprehended in conversion, much less justification or any mere external change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life. Regeneration, therefore, is a spiritual resurrection; the beginning of a new life.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.15.2 (Vol. 3)
6 passages · 5 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers say that actions, worship, and ordinary work are sanctified by faith, intention, or Christ.
Prayers, as I have said, cannot be acceptable to God without a sacrifice; for what can proceed from mortal man but what is abominable before God? Our prayers must therefore be sanctified in order that they please God; and the only way of sanctification is through the sacrifice of Christ.
John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations, Vol. 2 14.9 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 18)
Blessed be that grace and goodness of God, which, out of infinite desire to glorify and save mankind, would make the very works of nature capable of becoming acts of virtue, that all our life-time we may do him service. This grace is so excellent that it sanctifies the most common action of our life; and yet so necessary that, without it, the very best actions of our devotion are imperfect and vicious. For he that prays out of custom, or gives alms for praise, or fasts to be accounted religious, is but a pharisee hypocrite in his fast. But a holy end sanctifies all these and all other actions, which can be made holy, and gives distinction to them, and procures acceptance.
Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living 1.2.1
The best evidence that it was a complete cure was that he now praised God for it. Mercies are then perfected, when they are sanctified.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Acts 3.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
A sanctified soul is offered up to God in the flames of love, upon Christ the altar. … Paul preached to them, and dealt with them; but that which made them sacrifices to God was their sanctification; and this was not his work, but the work of the Holy Ghost. None are acceptably offered to God but those that are sanctified: unholy things can never be pleasing to the holy God.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 15.5 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
The altar was also sanctified, not only set apart itself to a sacred use, but made so holy as to sanctify the gifts that were offered upon it, Matt. xxiii, 19. Christ is our altar, for our sakes he sanctified himself, that we and our performances might be sanctified and recommended to God, John xvii, 19.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 29.29
If spirit, then body; if individuals, then communities. It is to be all-comprehensive governing:—institutions, arts, sciences. All spheres of human life are capable of sanctification and will receive it. A prophet had a vision of a day when the very bells of the horses should bear the same inscription of ‘holiness to the Lord’ as was engraved on the High Priest’s mitre, and when every pot and pan in the kitchens of Jerusalem should be sacred as the vessels of the Temple.
Alexander Maclaren, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets; and Matthew Chaps. I to VIII 2.33 (Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 6)
6 passages · 4 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers comment on how sanctification is explained, misunderstood, or argued over.
Now, if I were to demand of you these three things, What is the Manifestation of the Spirit? What are Miracles? What is Sanctification? As far as I have known you from your letters and books, you would appear so great a novice and ignoramus that you would not be able to give three syllables of explanation.
Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will 28
That God set forth his Son to be a propitiation for our sins, is a doctrine. It rests solely on the authority of God. We receive it upon his testimony. So with all the great doctrines of grace; of regeneration, of justification, of sanctification, and of a future life. … From the nature of the case, “the things of the Spirit,” the thoughts and purposes of God, can be known only by revelation, and they can be received only on the authority of God. They are objects neither of sense nor of reason.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.16.2 (Vol. 3)
“Sanctify them through Thy truth.”—John xvii. 17. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.”—1 Thess. iv. 3. The subject of sanctification is one which many, I fear, dislike exceedingly. Some even turn from it with scorn and disdain. … It is not an enemy, but a friend.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 3
Finally, I must deprecate, and I do it in love, the use of uncouth and new-fangled terms and phrases in teaching sanctification. … The cause of true sanctification is not helped, but hindered, by such weapons as these. A movement in aid of holiness which produces strife and dispute among God’s children is somewhat suspicious. For Christ’s sake, and in the name of truth and charity, let us endeavour to follow after peace as well as holiness.
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 1
I suppose I belong to the old school of Evangelical theology, and I am therefore content with such teaching about sanctification as I find in the Life of Faith of Sibbes and of Manton, and in The Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith of William Romaine. But I must express a hope that my younger brethren who have taken up new views of holiness will beware of multiplying causeless divisions. Do they think that a higher standard of Christian living is needed in the present day?
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 1
Remember, too, that our division of Christian experience into various subjects: justification, new birth, the gift of the spirit, deliverance, sanctification, etc., is for our clearer understanding only. It does not mean that these stages must or will always follow one another in a certain prescribed order.
Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life 11.1
2 passages · 1 writer · 1200s
Meister Eckhart treats sanctification as the state of a heart at rest in God and unmoved by created things.
The reason why God desires a sanctified heart more than any other is apparent when we ask the question, “What does God seek in all things?” The mouth of Wisdom says to us, “In all things I seek rest,” and rest is to be found only in the sanctified heart; therein therefore God is more glad to dwell than in any other thing.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons 7
If sanctification is higher than humility, why did Our Lady speak of her humility, and not of her sanctification, when she said, “For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden?” … Therefore she made mention of her humility and not of her sanctification, in which she remained unmoved and unaffected. If she had said, “He hath regarded the sanctification of His handmaiden,” her sanctification would have been disturbed, for, so to speak, would have been a going out of herself.
Meister Eckhart, Sermons 7
2 passages · 2 writers · 1600s to 1900s
Writers who mention sanctification while treating justification and faith.
But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Confession of Faith 14.2
In justification the sure foundation is laid for that vital spiritual union with Christ which secures our sanctification. It really leads right on to the only conditions under which we can be truly holy in principle. The man who is justified also receives the spirit of sanctification, and is the only one who can abound in good works which will glorify God.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 4.9
2 passages · 2 writers · 1600s to 1700s
Writers who mention sanctification while treating growth in holiness and its fruits.
An increase in holiness is attended with a manifestation of his love (John xiv. 21): “He that hath my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me, and he shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him.” It is a testimony of love to God, and God will not be behind‑hand with the creature in kindness; he loves a holy man for some resemblance to him in his nature; but when there is an abounding in sanctified dispositions suitable to it, there is an increase of favor; the more we resemble the original, the more shall we enjoy the blessedness of that original: as any partake more of the Divine likeness, they partake more of the Divine happiness.
Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God 11
God's sanctified ones are his mighty ones. Those whom God calls he qualifies; and those whom he makes holy he makes strong in spirit.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah 13.1 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 4)
3 passages · 3 writers · 1700s to 1900s
Writers who mention sanctification while treating the killing of sin and deliverance from its reign.
If the devil's interest in a soul be not only checked by custom or external restraints, but sunk and broken by the Spirit of God, as a Sanctifier, no doubt but the kingdom of God is come to that soul, the kingdom of grace, a blessed earnest of the kingdom of the glory.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Matthew 12.3 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 5)
Unless we are willing to die to sin, and crucify all that is most dear to flesh and blood, we cannot expect any benefit from Christ's death. … The way of self-crucifixion and sanctification may seem foolishness and wasteful to the world, just as burying good seed seems wasteful to the child and the fool. But there never lived the man who did not find that, by sowing to the Spirit, he reaped life everlasting.
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on John John 12:20-26 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 4)
The freedom of which Jesus here speaks is freedom from the slavery of sin as Paul in Ro 8:2 . See Joh 8:36 . This freedom is won alone by Christ ( 8:36) and we are sanctified in truth ( 17:19).
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament 5.8
2 passages · 2 writers · 1600s
Writers who mention sanctification while treating its completion at death.
The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Westminster Assembly, Westminster Shorter Catechism 37
I am not yet fully ready, I am not as a bride completely adorned for the bridegroom. Solution. Thy justification is complete already, though thy sanctification be not so; and the way to make it so, is to die: for till then, it will have its defects and wants.
John Flavel, A Saint Indeed 16
4 passages · 4 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers who mention sanctification when speaking of grace, including sanctifying grace.
“Holiness and greatness are in His sanctification.” Thou wast before seeking for greatness: first love righteousness: when thou art righteous, thou shall also be great. For if thou preposterously dost wish first to be great, thou fallest before thou canst rise: for thou dost not rise, thou art raised up. Thou risest better, if He raise thee who falleth not. For He who falleth not descendeth unto thee: thou hadst fallen: He descendeth, He hath stretched forth His hand unto thee; thou canst not rise by thy own strength, embrace the hand of Him who descendeth, that thou mayest be raised up by the Strong One.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Book of Psalms 96 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 8)
Black - I confess, as to myself, I am contemptible and deformed. She alludes to the complexion of Pharaoh's daughter. Comely - Yet I am glorious within, and comely through the beauty which my husband hath put upon me, by his graces conferred upon me, in justification and sanctification.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 49.1
Baptism, according to Romanists, avails not only for the remission and removal of all sin, but also for the inward sanctification of the soul. … It thus appears, that, according to the Church of Rome, all the benefits of the redemption of Christ are conveyed to the soul by baptism; and that there is no other divinely appointed channel of their communication.
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology III.20.14 (Vol. 3)
Zwingli conceived of sin as pollution rather than as guilt, and consequently regarded the grace of God as sanctifying, rather than as pardoning, grace.
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology 4.3
5 passages · 5 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Writers who mention sanctification while saying holiness is required to see God or enter heaven.
We must be renewed, that we may be like God, before it be granted to us to see him. And that our curiosity may not be beyond measure, let us always remember, that the manner of living is of more importance in this inquiry than the manner of speaking. At the same time, let us remember the judicious caution which Augustine gives us, to be on our guard lest, while we are keenly disputing how God can be seen, we lose both peace and sanctification, without which no man can ever see God.
John Calvin, Commentary on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon 1 Timothy 6.4 (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 43)
The apostle, having fully explained the doctrine of justification, and pressed the necessity of sanctification, in this chapter applies himself to the consolation of the Lord's people.
Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 8.0 (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 6)
Who is able to build you up - To confirm and increase your faith, love, holiness. … And to give you an inheritance - Of eternal glory, among them that are sanctified - And so made meet for it.
John Wesley, Notes on the Bible 5.20
Are the wicked after ages of misery to be admitted into heaven? Why then, the need of the sanctification of the Spirit is cast aside and despised!
J.C. Ryle, Holiness 11
Purity of heart is the condition of the vision of God in heaven. Without holiness, ‘no man shall see the Lord.’ The sight makes us pure, and purity makes us see. Thus heaven will be a state of ever-increasing, reciprocally acting sight and holiness.
Alexander Maclaren, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Minor Prophets; and Matthew Chaps. I to VIII 2.13 (Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 6)
6 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1900s
Writers who mention sanctification in connection with sexual purity, marriage, spouses, and children.
If any one wants to contract a lawful marriage, the whole world is open to him: if he is only impelled by lust, let him be the more restricted, “that he may know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the lust of concupiscence.”
Basil of Caesarea, The Letters 160 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 8)
The woman who dwelleth with an unbeliever is not impure; (“for,” It saith, “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife”— 1 Cor. vi. 15 ;) not so with the harlot; but what? “Shall I then make the members of Christ the members of an harlot?” In the one case sanctification remains, and is not removed though the unbeliever dwelleth with his wife; but in the other case it departeth.
John Chrysostom, The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John 65 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 14)
I suppose too that the end of marriage is death. But the compensating fruit of sanctification, fruit belonging either to virginity or to continence, is eternal life. … “When,” he says, “we were in the flesh, and not in the newness of the Spirit but in the oldness of the letter,” we did those things which pertained to the flesh, and bore fruit unto death.
Jerome, Against Jovinianus 1 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 6)
No unlawful pleasures are compatible with chastity; the pure heart is like the mother of pearl which admits no drop of water save that which comes from Heaven,—it is closed to every attraction save such as are sanctified by holy matrimony.
Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 3.12
The third rule is to strive first and foremost for one another's sanctification. The more holy married people are, the happier they are. "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it."
J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark Mark 10:1-12 (Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Vol. 2)
Not for uncleanness, but in sanctification (επ ακαθαρσια αλλ' εν αγιασμω). Sharp contrast made still sharper by the two prepositions επ (on the basis of) and εν (in the sphere of). God has "called" us all for a decent sex life consonant with his aims and purposes.
A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament 14.4
6 passages · 6 writers · 300s to 1700s
Writers who discuss prenatal sanctification of Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Mary, or the sanctification of children.
Have you an infant child? Do not let sin get any opportunity, but let him be sanctified from his childhood; from his very tenderest age let him be consecrated by the Spirit.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 23 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 7)
“Before I formed thee in thy mother’s belly I knew thee,” saith the Scripture, “and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.” Sanctification, therefore, cometh not of tradition, but of inspiration; therefore keep watch over the gifts of God. For that which no man hath taught you, God hath surely given and inspired.
Ambrose of Milan, Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.1 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 10)
How is it that no one is moved, no one is driven to the expression of wonder amidst such depths, by the circumstance that some children are vexed by the unclean spirit, while others experience no such pollution, and others again, as Jeremiah, are sanctified even in their mother’s womb; whereas all men, if there is original sin, are equally guilty; or else equally innocent if there is original sin? Whence this great diversity, except in the fact that God’s judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out?
Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.30 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 5)
If, therefore, before her conception she could not possibly be sanctified, since she did not exist, nor in the conception itself, because of the sin which inhered in it, it remains to be believed that she received sanctification when existing in the womb after conception, which, by excluding sin, made her birth holy, but not her conception.
Bernard of Clairvaux, Some Letters of Saint Bernard 75
Elizabeth thy wife shall conceive and bear a son, whom thou shalt call John, of whom thou shalt have great gladness, and much people shall make great feast and joy of his nativity, for he shall be great, and of great merit tofore our Lord. He shall not drink wine ne cider, ne thing whereof he might be drunken, and in his mother's womb he shall be sanctified and fulfilled with the Holy Ghost.
Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend 52 (Vol. 3)
“Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” In the same manner as God is said to sanctify Jeremiah as a prophet before he was, whom he had elected to be such, for he said he foreknew the elect or saints, and children and heirs of life.
Jonathan Edwards, Notes on the Bible 12
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