1 Cor. 6:11--"And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God." Heb. 10:10, 14--"By the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all. . . . For by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified." By the death of Jesus Christ the
sanctification of the believer takes place at once. The very moment
a man believes in Christ he is sanctified, that is, in this first
sense: he is separated from sin and separated unto God. For this
reason all through the New Testament believers are called saints
(1 Cor. 1:2, R. V.; Rom. 1:7, R. V.). If a man is not a saint he
is not a Christian; if he is a Christian he is a saint. In some
quarters people are canonized after they are dead; the New Testament
canonizes believers while they are alive. Note how that in 1 Cor.
6:11 "sanctified" is put before "justified." The believer grows
_in_ sanctification rather than _into_ sanctification out
of something else. By a simple act of faith in Christ the believer
is at once put into a state of sanctification. Every Christian is
a sanctified man. The same act that ushers him into the state of
justification admits him at once into the state of sanctification,
in which he is to grow until he reaches the fulness of the measure
of the stature of Christ.