First Corinthians 1:2 tells us that we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus. To be sanctified in Christ Jesus is to be sanctified in the element and sphere of Christ. Christ is the element and sphere that separated us unto God, made us holy unto Him, when we believed in Him, that is, when we were brought into an organic union with Him through our faith in Him.
To be sanctified in Christ means that we have been put into Christ. Christ is a holy sphere, a sphere of holiness. Not only is Christ holy-Christ Himself is holiness. Because God has put us into this Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), we have been put into the sphere of holiness. Now that we are in Christ as the sphere of holiness, we are sanctified. To be sanctified in Christ is to be made holy in Him.
Holiness is actually God Himself, and God is embodied in Christ. Therefore, Christ is our holiness. As our holiness, He is the sphere and element of holiness. Through Christ’s redemption, God has put us into Christ. Now that we are in Christ, who is the sphere and element of holiness, we are sanctified, made holy.
What we have in 1 Corinthians 1:2 is a matter of being in Christ positionally. We should never despise our position in Christ. God has put us into Christ, and this makes it possible for us to experience the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity. Because we have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, we may have the boldness to declare that we are holy, that we are saints. Concerning this, we should not look at ourselves. God does not look at us as we are in ourselves; rather, He looks at us in Christ. Paul does not tell the Corinthians that they were sanctified in themselves, but that they had been sanctified in Christ Jesus. We need to forget ourselves and see that it is in Christ that we are sanctified.
As saints, we have been sanctified by Christ with His redeeming blood positionally. Hebrews 13:12 says, “Wherefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” Christ’s body suffered the death of the cross outside the gate, and His blood was brought into the Holy of Holies for our sanctification (v. 11). The book of Hebrews unveils that God’s heavenly calling is to make us a heavenly people (3:1), a people who are sanctified unto God. Christ is the Sanctifier (2:11). He suffered the death of the cross, shed His blood on it, and entered the Holy of Holies with His blood (9:12) that He might be able to do the sanctifying work by the heavenly ministry (8:2, 6) of His heavenly priesthood (7:26) and that we might enter “within the veil” (6:19) by His blood to participate in Him as the heavenly Sanctifier.
Christ’s redeeming blood sanctifies us positionally, not dispositionally. The reason the blood of Christ can sanctify us only positionally is that the blood is not able to accomplish anything in us with respect to the inner life. This is the work of the Holy Spirit with God’s holy nature to sanctify us dispositionally. The blood of Christ, however, can only separate us unto God, make us holy, positionally.
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