Some may argue by saying that the angels are holy and that in the Old Testament there are God's holy people with the holy city. The temple was holy, and the gold was sanctified by the temple (Matt. 23:17). The priests were holy, the altar was holy, and the offerings were sanctified by the altar (v. 19). In this sense something that belongs to God can also be considered holy. Even the garments of the priests were made holy by being anointed. After being anointed they became holy because they became something for God and something belonging to God. But that is not the genuine holiness in nature. The tabernacle and the things related to it were not God Himself but were something belonging to God.
When we are speaking of sanctification in its highest sense in the New Testament, we are speaking about something not merely belonging to God but something which is God. Ephesians 1:4 and 5 speak of being holy unto sonship. We are chosen to be holy so that we can become God's sons. Since we are God's sons, born of God, we are not just belonging to God. We are sons of God who have God's essence, God's life and nature.
The garments of the high priest belonged to God, but they did not have God's life and nature. Today, however, we are sons of God with the holy nature and the holy life of God Himself. We have the holy essence of God, so we are holy. But we were not created or born this way. We were created as common human beings, but we became fallen sinners, even God's enemies. But one day we were born of God, and this new birth revolutionized our essence.
Regeneration is a reconditioning. Regeneration reconditions us with something essential. This essential matter is God Himself. When He regenerated us, He was born into our being, so He became our essence, our nature and our life. Now we are holy, exactly as He is. He is gold, and we also are gold in nature. In this sense, only the ones who are born of God as His sons can be called holy people.
On the one hand, we are all holy, but our holiness is at various levels. One brother who has been in the church life for many years is more holy than a new one who has been recently regenerated. This new one's spirit is regenerated by God as the essence, but just a little part of his being is holy. His soul has not been touched much by the essence of God. But another brother may have the experience of being made holy for over forty years. His spirit has been sanctified, and his soul is greatly sanctified.
Our being made holy will be consummated at the redemption of our body, which is the transfiguration of our body. Thus, the sanctifying work of the Spirit first issues in our repentance and continues all the way to our glorification. In between our repentance and our glorification are regeneration, renewing, transformation, conformation, and the transfiguration of our body, which is the glorification of our entire being. This is the line of the divine sanctification to make us holy, so this line holds the carrying out of God's economy.
Today we all have been "hooked" by the line of the divine sanctification. We were in the "ocean" of humanity, but this line reached us, and we have been hooked. Our being hooked will be consummated when we are transfigured. Then the line will be completed. A number of us were studying in school when someone came and spoke something about Christ to us. There was a "hook" hidden in this one's speaking, and a hook got into us. We were convicted and we repented and believed. Then we were regenerated in order for us to continue on the holding line of the divine sanctification.
The divine sanctification holds all of our spiritual experiences from our repentance to our glorification. It goes through our regeneration, renewing, transformation, and conformation unto the redemption of our body (Eph. 1:14; 4:30). Unto means "resulting in." The redemption of our body is the consummation of the divine sanctification.
Such a sanctification is to "sonize" us divinely, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature (but not in His Godhead), so that we can be God's expression. Hence, sanctification is the divine sonizing. We are sons to our parents humanly, but we have been sonized by regeneration divinely. We do not have and we cannot have God's Godhead, but we do have God's life and nature so that we may be God's expression. A son, in principle, is the expression of the father. God the Father sanctifies us to sonize us, to make us His sons for His expression. In regeneration we were sonized, but that sonizing is just a start, an initiation. After being regenerated we need to grow to reach maturity. We become mature when our soul is fully sonized. Eventually, our body, which is still full of weakness, sickness, lust, and sinfulness, will be transfigured, glorified in full.