1. “Christ Jesus, who became...to us from God... sanctification” (1 Cor. 1:30).
God has made Christ our sanctification. This shows that holiness is just Christ. Christ entered into us to be our life at the time of our salvation. This life, which is sanctification, causes us to have God’s holy nature so that we may be holy and live a life of holiness.
After we are saved, Christ indwells us, and His holy life in us, which is Himself, causes us to be different from worldly people and to be separated from the world. After we pray and spend time with the Lord, His life causes us to be different from our colleagues and schoolmates. While they spend their time in amusements and recreation, something mysterious within tells us to leave and not be with them. If we follow them, we will feel unhappy even if they are having fun. This mysterious thing is the Lord’s life. This life is holiness, and being holy is according to its taste. This life loves all that agrees with God’s holy nature and abhors all that is contrary to God’s holy nature. Hence, if we touch what God loves and what is in accord with His holy nature, He gives us a comfortable and marvelous inward sensation; but if we contact what God hates and what opposes His holy nature, He causes us to feel grief and pain inwardly. In this way God causes us to put off all that does not agree with His holy nature so that we may live in this nature to be holy.
Brothers and sisters, in God’s way of salvation there are no laws and regulations charging us how to conduct ourselves and how to dress. In God’s salvation there is only a precious life, which is Christ, whose nature matches God’s holiness and whose very taste is God’s holiness. This life moves in us to do the work of separation according to its taste which is one with God’s holy nature. This causes us to be different from the world in conduct and appearance until we are full of God’s holy nature and completely live out God’s holy life to become perfectly holy.
Therefore, Christ is our life of sanctification within, causing us to live out God’s holiness.
1. “Sanctify them in the truth” (John 17:17, see also v. 19).
In order that we may be sanctified, God not only gives us life within but also the Bible without. The Bible is the word of God, and the word of God is truth. The life of Christ causes us to possess a holy nature and taste. The truth of the Bible acts as our holy enlightenment and guidance. The life within requires us to be holy, whereas the truth without teaches us to be holy. The holy nature within corresponds with the holy light without, and the holy guidance without activates the holy taste within. These two complement each other. The more we follow the sensation of holiness within, the more we will see the revelation of holiness without. The more we read the Bible without, the more the life is strengthened within. The truth in the Bible, like the inner taste of life, separates us from worldly people. If we read the Bible often, the truth in it will enlighten and show us what agrees with God’s holy nature and what is contrary to it. This will separate us and our manner of living from the world so that we may be holy and be in agreement with the holy nature in us. Thus, others will sense God, or holiness, in us and in our manner of life. If we truly read the Bible, we will see that only God is holy and that whatever is not of God, whatever is not out of God, and whatever does not cause people to sense God are common and unholy.
1. “Having been sanctified in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16; see also 1 Pet. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11).
In addition to giving Christ to us as our sanctifying life within and the Bible as our sanctifying light without, God gives us the Holy Spirit as our sanctifying power for our sanctification. The Holy Spirit strengthens the requirement of the holy life within us and makes the light of the holy truth outside of us to shine brighter. He also enables us to answer the demand of the holy life within and to obey the shining of the holy truth without. These three—the life of Christ, the light of the Bible, and the power of the Spirit—are like a threefold cord, sanctifying us completely.
2. “Sanctification of the Spirit” (2 Thes. 2:13).
The Holy Spirit always inspires us according to the sense of life and the light of the Word, making us one with God’s holy nature. Through His life, He causes us to sense, and through the Bible, He causes us to see what does and does not agree with God. This enables us to live according to God’s nature, which is to live in God’s nature and become holy.