The experience of sanctification concerns the holy life we live after our salvation. Although we obtained the fact and position of sanctification upon believing, the experience of sanctification occurs only after our salvation.
1. “Pursue...sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).
To pursue sanctification means to pursue the holy life within or, we may say, to pursue the sense of holiness according to the life within. The life within us is holy. Inwardly, the Lord requires us to be holy, leads us to be holy, and gives us a sensation of holiness and an inclination toward holiness. We should follow His holy guidance, His holy sense, to live a holy life and walk in the way of holiness. Without this, we will not see the Lord or have fellowship with Him.
2. “According to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all your manner of life” (1 Pet. 1:15).
Since God who called us is holy and different from everything else, we, who have been called, must be sanctified in all things after being saved in order to match His holy nature.
3. “What kind of persons ought you to be in holy manner of life and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:11).
In the future what is contrary to God’s holy nature will be burned by fire. This shows the need for everything pertaining to us to be separated and sanctified unto God after we are saved.
4. “Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1; see also 1 Thes. 4:3-4, 7).
God, being absolutely holy, cannot tolerate anything that is contrary to His holy nature. Therefore, we need to fear Him, remove all filthiness of flesh and spirit both within and without, and put off all unholiness, that is, all that does not agree with God’s holy nature.
5. “Having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification” (Rom. 6:22).
Sanctification stresses the need to be separated to God from all that is apart from God in order to be holy unto God. Although it does not exclusively deal with deliverance from sin, deliverance from sin is included. Therefore, being freed from sin is an experience of sanctification, involving fruit that is unto sanctification.
What is spoken of in Romans 6:22 is not sanctification itself but the fruit unto sanctification; thus, it is not a question of salvation but of deliverance from sin after salvation. To be delivered from sin after we are saved is to be separated from what is outside of God; hence, it is also an experience of God’s holiness which bears fruit unto sanctification.
6. “Disciplined...that we might partake of His holiness” (Heb. 12:10).
After we are saved, the life of Christ demands that we be holy, the truth of the Bible teaches us to be holy, and the Holy Spirit inspires us to be holy. However, we often refuse to follow the sense of holiness from the life of Christ, to obey the teaching of the truth from the Bible, or to submit to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in order to sanctify ourselves. God’s chastisement delivers us from the unholy matters that we are reluctant to forsake so that we can partake bountifully of His holy nature.
7. “If therefore anyone cleanses himself from these, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, useful to the master” (2 Tim. 2:21).
Anything that is apart from God is dishonorable, and only what is of God is honorable. We should put off all that is outside of God and be sanctified to be a vessel unto honor, useful to the Master.
8. “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thes. 5:23).
After we are saved and before we are raptured to meet the Lord, God will sanctify us wholly. To be sanctified wholly is to have our spirit, soul, and body separated from all that is apart from God to be holy unto Him. At the time of our salvation, our spirit obtained God’s holy life and nature; however, the various parts of our being have not shed all that is outside of God to fully possess God’s holiness. Thus, after our salvation and in our experience, God causes all that is outside of Him to be put away from the conscience, intuition, and fellowship, which are the parts of our spirit; from the mind, emotion, and will, which are the parts of our soul; and from the parts of our body so that we may become holy. The holiness we experience after we are saved is God’s sanctification of every part of our being, which enables us to live in His holiness and be full of His holiness.