Views of sanctification

Sanctification is what happens after a person has justification (which is a legal standing of being declared innocent before God). Justification is accomplished by Jesus on the cross and your faith in Him as your prophet, high priest, and king. (This is all shorthand.)

Sanctification is a word that describes then how a justified believer then becomes new in an 'inner development' sort of way. Takes on the kind of qualities Paul lists here and there in the Epistles like goodwill, long-suffering, joy, peace-maker; but also how a justified believer develops into the image of God lost at the fall. How one become more and more a prophet, priest, and a king.

The controversy from the beginning has been between those who say you can, by your own works (efforts) save yourself (justify yourself) and they pull sanctification into justification and make the two things the same thing. (This is all very, very complicated to put into few words...) The other side says you can't do anything to justify (or save) yourself and that God does it all. They are right, but they tend to distort sanctification by denying it involves any effort at all. It's all done for you. In truth, though, sanctification involves a passive and an active role on the part of the believer. The active role is denied by Christians who hold that you can't do anything to justify yourself because they fear any doing at all is too close to 'works righteousness'.

Then there is a middle ground where there are people who think only God can save but people have free will to choose God (Arminians). This in effect makes 'choosing God' a work necessary to salvation (in extreme shorthand). It's an in-between position which is a concession to human vanity which demands that Imaginary 'I' have the control and freedom to 'do'. It is Roman Catholic doctrine and also many Protestants - not Calvinists - hold to it. It's the belief of people who have yet to wake up and get out from under the tyranny of vanity, worldly pride, and self-will.

This leaves sanctification, what it is, how one is to see it, in a confused state.

None of the main groups get it right.

To use Work language, if justification is 'developing magnetic center to the point of having Observing I and that initial stage of real awakening' then sanctification is actual Work effort (like the step of making real Work efforts). You can do it if you have at least Observing I (which emerges from the development of magnetic center). Prior to that 'man cannot do'. You can, though, start doing once you have Observing I. The same with biblical teaching, you can start to make effective efforts in sanctification once you have justification.

Reformed (Calvinist) Theology recognizes this, reluctantly. It doesn't strongly recognize it though, and mainstream Calvinists therefore are weak in knowing about it or accepting it.

Paul in 1 Cor. 3:10-15 describes it all. The 'foundation' mentioned is justification. It also includes the 'passive' element of sanctification which is given to you once justified (that is the new 'heart' implanted into a regenerated being). That's the complicated part. You ARE given a basic degree of sanctification once regenerated and justified, with no effort on your part (passive element in sanctification). You have to recognize that. Then the 'house' mentioned (in the 1 Cor. verses) that you build on the foundation of justification is 'active' sanctification. Your efforts in sanctification. Paul concludes by saying even if you screw up and build a house of straw that can't withstand any testing (by fire, he says, metaphorically) you still have the foundation which is everything because it is justification and the default level of necessary sanctification.

If, though, the house you build (active effort in sanctification) is strong and can withstand the test by fire then that is 'reward'. There is difference in reward among believers, and it is this active effort that makes this difference. Yet, the justified believer who makes little nor no (or ineffective) efforts still is saved because he still has the foundation. It's just a matter of difference in level of being but not in being in the Kingdom of God to begin with.

The Work knowledge describes these efforts that can be made in the active element of sanctification.

What does the Bible say about such efforts though? There is a view among very smart Reformed theologians who think that the active element of sanctification has to do solely with reading and studying the Bible, because the Bible itself says sanctify them with your truth, and your Word is truth (John 17:17).

This is a very on-the-mark way to see the active element of sanctification. It is very powerful to just read the Bible complete. It awakens a person essentially (I mean potentially, if the person isn't just hardened to it all totally). This is the element of reading the Bible that I am referring to basically when I talk about 'higher visual language' and just getting it all into you. Also, though, having the goal to become 'mighty in the Word' is part of it. To get a 'seeing the parts in relation to the whole' understanding of the entire Scripture.

This, though, also brings up the Work understanding of 'Knowledge and Being'. The Bible, when you read it and learn it, tells you to do things. Like the two great commandments of Jesus (which correspond to the two conscious shocks, ultimately). This is the 'being' part of knowledge and being. Effort. The Reformed types who see reading and learning the Bible as the primary effort in active sanctification also tend to sort of have 'some' program to walk the walk, so to speak. But with a Work person the walking of the walk becomes much more a real and detailed thing. You have real knowledge to guide you in your efforts.

This is all important to sort out and know. You can't save yourself. Vanity and worldly pride and self-will (false personality) demand that you can, but FP wants you to stay asleep and in its control. Admitting you can't save yourself and recognizing that just as you are dead in sin because of what Adam did in the Garden you can only be made holy before God by what the second Adam (Jesus Christ) did on the cross is an assault to vanity, but you want to get out from under the tyranny of your vanity.

Once you are saved, though, you then have the necessary foundation to build the house on top of. Even if you screw up and build it badly you still have the foundation, so it's OK. You don't have to worry about saving yourself by the house you build. Yet you can build a strong house, too. And that will stay with you. It will separate you from those who perhaps don't make the effort to build a house (or who do it poorly), but the Bible talks explicitly that there is this degree of reward (or degree of level of being) in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Bible is the main effort for sanctification. Reading it, understanding it, getting it into your heart. Then learning Work knowledge, and applying that knowledge to real effort to increase level of being is the further effort you can make in developing along the lines of sanctification.

Sorry if the above is a mish-mash and confusing, but these are real, substantial things and not just ivory tower philosophy and theory theologians debate about. And the part of the Work is included, when you know it, and it's very big...