The believers are also redeemed by being sanctified. In Greek the word rendered “sanctified” is actually a verbal form of the word for holiness. The word for holiness is hagios, and the verb that means sanctified is hagiazo. To be sanctified, therefore, is to be made holy.
The believers are sanctified by faith in Christ. Acts 26:18 speaks of “those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” This sanctification is not only positional but also dispositional. To be sanctified positionally is to have a change in position and usage; to be sanctified dispositionally is to be transformed in nature by and with the holy nature of God. Positionally and dispositionally we are sanctified by faith in Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 1:2 Paul speaks of those who 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 first means that we are 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. Furthermore, since to be sanctified is to be made holy, to be sanctified in Christ Jesus is to be made holy in Him.
Sanctification, like washing, has both a positional and a dispositional aspect. Sanctification first means a change of position. Originally, our position was worldly and not at all for God. But when we were separated unto God, our position was changed, and, as a result, we became holy. This is to be sanctified positionally.
The One who sanctifies us positionally is Jesus the Redeemer. “Wherefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate” (Heb. 13:12). This verse speaks of positional sanctification and indicates that this sanctification is accomplished by Jesus the Redeemer.
Jesus the Redeemer has sanctified us positionally through His blood. The blood of Christ separates us unto God, makes us holy, positionally. However, because His blood is not able to accomplish anything in us with respect to the inner life, it can sanctify us only positionally but not dispositionally. Through Christ’s blood we have been separated unto God for the fulfillment of His purpose.
Although sanctification is a positional matter and thereby involves separation from a worldly position to a position for God, sanctification is also a dispositional matter. This means that sanctification is not only a change of position but also a change of disposition. Therefore, the sanctification revealed in the New Testament includes dispositional transformation in addition to positional change. Through dispositional sanctification the believers are being transformed from a natural disposition to a spiritual one.
Dispositionally we are sanctified by Christ, the One who sanctifies with His holy nature and who is out of the same one Father as the sanctified are. “Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb. 2:11). He who sanctifies is Christ as the firstborn Son of God, and those who are being sanctified are the believers of Christ as the many sons of God. Both the firstborn Son and the many sons of God are born of the same Father God in resurrection (Acts 13:33; 1 Pet. 1:3). Both the firstborn Son and the many sons are the same in the divine life and nature.
Christ, the One who sanctifies us with His holy nature, has entered into us and has become our life. He imparts His holy nature to us, and this nature becomes the sanctifying element within us. This means that the indwelling Christ sanctifies us dispositionally with His holy nature. This is not the outward sanctification through His blood; this is the inward sanctification by the divine life with the Lord’s holy, divine nature.
He who sanctifies us with His holy nature is of the same one Father as the sanctified are. As the firstborn Son, Christ is of the Father, and we, the many sons of God, are also out of the same Father. Therefore, He and we are of the same Father. Both He and we have come out of the same source. Within Him there is a holy nature, and this holy nature is also within us, for He and we are of the same Father, the same source.
According to 1 Corinthians 6:11, we are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name of the Lord denotes His person. Hence, to be sanctified dispositionally in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is to be sanctified in His person, that is, to be sanctified in the Lord Himself.
First Corinthians 6:11 also tells us that we are sanctified in the Spirit. We need to see the connection between the name of the Lord, the person of the Lord, and the Spirit. From experience we know that when we call on the name of the Lord, we get the person of the Lord, and that the person of the Lord is the Spirit. We are sanctified dispositionally in the Spirit as the reality of the Lord’s person. When God put us into Christ, Christ’s Spirit came into us. Now we are sanctified not only in Christ but also in the Spirit, that is, in the power and realization of the Holy Spirit.
Being sanctified dispositionally in the Spirit is actually a matter of the dispensing of the Spirit into us. This means that sanctifying is equal to dispensing. Through experience we have come to realize that the Holy Spirit is the sanctifying Spirit. This Spirit dispenses His element into us, and this dispensing of the Spirit is the sanctifying of the Spirit. The more we call on the name of the Lord Jesus and experience the Spirit, the more we are sanctified dispositionally in the Spirit by the divine dispensing.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul speaks of “sanctification of the Spirit.” The Spirit is in us to sanctify us with the divine element, which is the nature of God. This sanctification of the Spirit is actually the divine transformation. The Spirit indwells us with one goal—to sanctify us dispositionally. Day by day we are being inwardly sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit.