Justification and sanctification ought to be compared to appreciate the
latter. The first is an act, the second is a work. We do not grow in
justification. There is no distinction between Christians in this
respect; the smallest child accepting Christ is as truly justified as
the saint of a half century. So far as sanctification is concerned
there is the widest possible difference. Justification depends upon
what Christ does for us, sanctification depends upon what Christ does
in us. First of all it is a supernatural work. In this respect among
others it differs from reformation. Henry Drummond has said that in
reformation men work from the circumference, in sanctification they
work from the center. The Triune God may really be counted upon as the
author of this work. In 1 Thessalonians the fifth chapter and the
twenty-third verse we have the work of the Father. "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." In Ephesians fifth chapter twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth
verses we have the work of the Son. "Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it; that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word."
In John the seventeenth chapter and the seventeenth verse we have
special emphasis laid upon the work of the Spirit. "Sanctify them
through thy truth; thy word is truth." What folly, therefore, to think
that we could carry on this work by ourselves!
Second: Just what, therefore, is this work of sanctification? When we
are regenerated we have given to us an entirely new nature. The old
nature and the new are absolutely different; and the old and the new
war one against the other. The Bible is full of the accounts of those
who have met this inward conflict. Some of the most eminent people in
the world whose names have been mentioned in the Bible and out of it
have told the story of their backsliding, their falling, their
repentance, and their lamentation because of their weakness. You have
all read the seventh chapter of Romans. Whether this is the story of
Paul's experience or not, it is the story of yours. Galatians the
fifth chapter sixteenth and seventeenth verses gives us the same
thought. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary, the
one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." What
is it, therefore? It is just the working day by day of the spirit of
Christ in us. It is the growth of that spiritual nature which after a
while controls our whole being. It is the bringing into subjection of
the old nature until it has no more dominion over us. After Paul's
struggle in the seventh chapter of Romans he comes triumphantly to the
second verse of the eighth chapter of Romans and exclaims, "For the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death."