There is a simple yet profound word which occurs nine hundred times in the Bible. You see it first in Genesis, as we are informed how God created heaven and earth. You see it last in the Bible's final chapter, where we are told about God's creation of a new heaven and a new earth. One entire book, Leviticus, is devoted to the subject of this word. Yet this word is strangely overlooked today. Though it describes the uniqueness of God and the calling of all His children, it is largely ignored. This short yet awesome word is holy. Among other words, saint, sanctify, and sanctification are obtained from its root.

 

Sanctification

By Peter Sarkis

Sanctification in the Greek means “purification”, “to make holy”, and “to purify or consecrate.” Justification happens only once when we first get saved but Sanctification is a lifetime process by which God conforms us “to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). Though we are saved and justified after believing in the Lord Jesus yet the old nature and the old man still remains in us until “the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23). The old nature and the old man fights with the new nature and the new man so that we cry out like the Apostle Paul “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”