August 13, 2006
EVEN YOUR SANCTIFICATION
1 Thessalonians 4:3

   "This is the will of God concerning you, even your sanctification...that ...you should know how to possess [your] vessel in sanctification and honor... And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 4:3-4, 5:23).
   After listing wicked behavior of the unrighteous, Paul wrote that, "...such were some of you: but [now] ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6:11), again "He has chosen us...that we should be sanctified and without blame before Him" (Eph. 1:4). "That He might sanctify and cleanse it...that it should be sanctified and without blemish" (Eph. 5:26-27), and again, "In the body of His flesh through death, to present you sanctified and unblameable and irreproachable in His sight" (Col. 1:22).
   That sanctification is God's will in every dispensation is evident, "For by one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified." To accomplish this, "the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us, for after...He had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them,' He then said, 'I will put My laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.' Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin" (Heb. 10:14-18).
   "Having therefore...boldness to enter into the (true) holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a newly slain and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a great High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of hope, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; (for He is faithful Who promised:) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works..." (Heb. 10:19-24). With boldness we approach God. Toward ourselves we hold fast our confession of hope, and toward others we provoke to love and good works. "Having therefore" means little without the practical application, let us...let us...let us... "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness (sanctification) in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1).

Ivan L. Burgener