“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thess. 5:23)
As Christians our new birth is something that we should never get tired of. We ought to praise God continually for the fact of our salvation. But we should also realize that there is more in store for the Christian following the new birth. God has something in mind for us. We are saved with a clear purpose in view.
What God has in store for us can be summed up in a word. That word is sanctification. Sanctification simply means that we are caused to be holy. It carries the idea of being set apart by God for His use. God has saved us with this as His ongoing purpose.
It is not only God’s desire to sanctify us; it is His desire to sanctify us through and through. As Paul puts it, God desires to “sanctify you wholly.” The Greek word means quite completely, entirely or perfectly. The above verse indicates that the extent of sanctification is spirit, soul and body. In other words, every aspect of our being should be set apart to Him. To say it another way, we should be wholly holy. There is no part of us that remains untouched and unaffected in the sanctifying process.
Now this does not happen overnight. It should be said that sanctification is a part of the salvation process. Salvation begins with the new birth and continues until we are with Jesus in glory. And in the course of this process God is constantly at work in your life and He will never leave that work undone.
