Justification differs from Sanctification thus: the former is an
instantaneous act with no progression; while the latter is a crisis
with a view to a process--an act, which is instantaneous and which
at the same time carries with it the idea of growth unto completion.
2 Pet. 3:18--"But grow in (the) grace, and in the knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 3:18--We "are transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the
Spirit." The tense is interesting here: We are being transformed
from one degree of character, or glory, to another. It is because
sanctification is progressive, a growth, that we are exhorted
to "increase and abound" (1 Thess. 3:12), and to "abound more and
more" (4:1, 10) in the graces of the Christian life. The fact that
there is always danger of contracting defilement by contact with a
sinful world, and that there is, in the life of the true Christian,
an ever increasing sense of duty and an ever-deepening consciousness
of sin, necessitates a continual growth and development in the
graces and virtues of the believer's life. There is such a thing
as "perfecting holiness" (2 Cor. 7:1). God's gift to the church of
pastors and teachers is for the purpose of the perfecting of the
saints in the likeness of Christ _until_, at last, they attain
unto the fulness of the divine standard, even Jesus Christ (Eph.
4:11-15). Holiness is not a mushroom growth; it is not the thing
of an hour; it grows as the coral reef grows: little by little,
degree by degree. See also Phil. 3:10-15.