a) Faith in the Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 1:30, R. V.--"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was
made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption." Christ is indeed all these things to us, but, in
reality, He becomes such only as we appropriate Him for ourselves.
Only as the believer, daily, yea, even momentarily, takes by faith
the holiness of Jesus, His faith, His patience, His love, His
grace, to be his own for the need of that very moment, can Christ,
who by His death was made unto him sanctification in the instantaneous
sense, become unto him sanctification in the progressive
sense--producing in the believer His own life moment by moment.
Herein lies the secret of a holy life--the momentarily appropriation
of Jesus Christ in all the riches of His grace for every need as
it arises. The degree of our sanctification is the proportion of
our appropriation of Christ. See also Acts 26:18.
b) The Study of the Scriptures and Obedience Thereto.
John 17:17--"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."
Eph. 5:26--"That he might sanctify and cleanse it (i.e., the Church)
with the washing of water by the word." John 15:3--"Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you." Our sanctification
is limited by our limitation in the knowledge of and our lack of
obedience to the Word of God. How does the Word of God sanctify? By
revealing sin; by awakening conscience; by revealing the character
of Christ; by showing the example of Christ; by offering the
influences and powers of the Holy Spirit, and by setting forth
spiritual motives and ideals. There is no power like that of the
Word of God for detaching a man from the world, the flesh and the
devil.
c) Various Other Agencies.
Heb. 12:14, R. V.--"Follow after . . . the sanctification without
which no man shall see the Lord." To "follow after" means to
pursue, to persecute, as Saul of Tarsus pursued and followed the
early Christians. One cannot become a saint in his sleep. Holiness
must be the object of his pursuit. The lazy man will not be the
holy man.
Heb. 12:10, 11: God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be
partakers of his holiness." Chastisement ofttimes is intended to
"produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
Rom. 6:19-32; 2 Cor. 6:17, 7:1. Sanctification is brought about
in the life of the believer by his separating himself deliberately
from all that is unclean and unholy, and by presenting, continually
and constantly, the members of his body as holy instruments unto God
for the accomplishment of His holy purposes. Thus by these single
acts of surrender unto holiness, sanctification soon becomes the
habit of the life.