“Yeah, right … I am perfect; that’s a laugh.”  But in a great sense this is what the word sanctification means.  Literally it is defined from the original language as to make holy, purify or consecrate.  It is a thorough cleansing, outside, inside, physically, spiritually and of the soul. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 as he was closing the first letter to the Thessalonians “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Do you know anyone who fits this description?  If you do I would really like for you to introduce me to him or her because I have never in my life met anyone completely cleansed, cleaned up and that holy.  Oh don’t get me wrong; I know there are some mighty good people out there, and some of them are even Christians.  But I don’t know anyone who can honestly say that they are completely clean, never sin, never make a mistake and never step in a mud hole.  To fit the Biblical definition of being sanctified requires absolute perfection.  In my experience the person who claims that they are perfect in every way just blew it and became a liar.

However, when we come to the Lord in salvation one of the things He does is to sanctify or cleanse our soul from sin.  That doesn’t mean that we will never sin again because let’s be honest – We do.  But our sin has been forgiven as we have previously discussed several times in this series.  What happens is that the work of Christ brings our spirits back to life but only because His spirit is living in us (sort of like a battery on jumper cables).  Our spirits are alive again (because that was the first thing that died when Adam and Eve sinned in Eden).  Next our soul – our very life existence – is cleaned up, sanctified and made holy only because of Christ in us.

This is a great work done by our Lord.  So the spirit of man has been cleaned, the soul of man has been cleaned and now it is time for the body -That is a whole different matter.  You see this body is still in this world.  It still is subject to the desires of the flesh and has not been cleansed in the way the spirit and soul have been.  This is why Paul wrote “I die daily” in 1 Corinthians 15:31.  He also wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”  He is writing about the flesh.  It is not sanctified as our spirits and souls have been.  It becomes a progressive work that has to take place every day. 

As Christians another job we have to deal with daily is to discipline our flesh each and every day to be subject to Christian living.  Some days we succeed and some days we fail.  That is why John wrote, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”  (1 John 2:1).  In other words, John was saying that we shouldn’t sin (and perhaps you will have days when you don’t sin).  Sin is something we should flee from.  We should try our best to distance ourselves from those things that we know will tempt us and more often than not result in sin.  But if we fail (and eventually we will) Jesus is our Advocate – the One pleading our case before the Father – ever reminding that we are covered by His blood.  Of course we need to confess that sin once it has been committed, but then Christ is defending us in Heaven.  That isn’t to say that God is a “big ol’ meany” looking for any petty excuse to keep us out of Heaven.  Nope … that’s the devil’s job.  But Christ our Advocate is ever pleading our case when the devil stands ready to accuse.

One day our bodies will be sanctified because the Bible tells us that when we leave this planet (whether by death or if we are among those alive and remaining when Christ returns) we will be changed.  We will take on a glorified and sanctified body and then we will be completely whole; fully sanctified in spirit, soul, and body.  Just as sure as I am writing this article that day will come if we have committed ourselves to Christ and are living in His salvation.  Such great word “sanctification” when we know that in Christ we can obtain it, and we can if we turn and go with Him.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.