TWO SIDES OF THE COIN Pt.1

SANCTIFIED & LIVING A SANCTIFIED LIFE

You may be wondering what I mean by two sides of the coin. Our salvation has two sides to it and it'll be good we examine this issue carefully especially now that we live in the days of one-sided gospel message and teachings. In recent years, I've heard those in the hyper grace movement teach& preach a one-sided Gospel without striking a balance from the word. The argument they put forth is this, "the word of God is balanced so it doesn't need any balance". While that is true to some extent, it is also a dangerous position because we risk the danger of building a doctrine on a text of scripture and related texts at the expense of other scriptures that shed more light on the subject matter from a different perspective. Let's consider the sanctification of the believer and examine the two sides of the same coin.

Sanctification is setting apart unto God. It is from the Greek word "Hagiasmos". It speaks of a life that is separated, purified and holy. In the new testament, words like 'holy', 'cleanse', 'separate', 'saint' are from the same root word in the Greek- "Hagiasmos". By virtue of the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, every child of God is already sanctified. The day you gave your life to Jesus and confessed Him as your Lord and saviour, you were sanctified instantaneously. The blood of Jesus did that. Hallelujah!!! You are now a saint not because you attained it by works. Sainthood, or sanctification, is the state into which God, in grace, calls sinful men, and in which they begin their course as Christians. Consider these scriptures: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy( Sanctified) and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;" Colossians 3:12 KJV. Another scripture worthy of note is Hebrews 3:1, "Wherefore, holy brethren(Sanctified brethren), partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;". There's no arguing the fact that we are sanctified already. Here, it is presented as our identity, our personality and as a noun. However, that's just one side of the coin.

In other parts of the new testament canon, we see scriptures where we were enjoined to live a sanctified life. That is, to live out/ manifest the sanctifying work of the Spirit that has been worked into us when we came to Christ: "It is God’s will that you should be sanctified:"(1Thess4:3). Note the phrase "You Should Be Sanctified". The sense in which Paul rendered it is that of an instruction telling us to do something- to live a sanctified life. In Hebrews 12:14(NLT), a very popular scriptures, we see the same instruction there: "Work at living in peace with everyone, and WORK AT LIVING A HOLY(sanctified) LIFE, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord." If sanctification ends at salvation and is one-sided, these scriptures wouldn't have surfaced. It shows there are two sides to it. It is possible to be sanctfied positionally by reason of having come to Christ and still be living in sin. Yes, it is possible. Apostle Paul called the Corinthian believers "Saints" which means those sanctified (1Cor1:2) but reading further, he also called them carnal and worldly, 1Cor3:1-3. God expect you to live a sanctified( pure, holy and separated) life. That's what gives Him glory. Don't be blown away by the sweet words of men who preach and teach a Gospel that doesn't place a responsibility "to do" on you. Any Gospel that removes the place of man's responsibility and push it all on God is an irresponsible Gospel. That's not the Gospel of the bible. I'll close with a Pauline prayer on this subject matter.