AMEN! As a Christian POSITIONALLY I am fully holy in Christ, by His unconditional grace. I am fully set apart in the righteousness of Jesus and therefore perfect before the Father. But, PRACTICALLY, I am being made holy day by day by Christ and His conditional grace. (Yes, there is such a thing as conditional grace - Psalm 18:24-26; Matt. 5:3-11). When I walk by faith I progressively am being set apart unto the Lord in Christ-likeness. And that is God's aim in our lives (Romans 8:29).
When I was saved, believing in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, all His perfection and righteousness was reckoned or charged to my heavenly account. From henceforth God always sees me IN His Son. He sees me through Jesus and all that Jesus is He sees as me. Though certainly not perfect in myself, I am in Jesus. This is the basis of God's justification of me, sinner that I am. He declares me righteous IN Jesus. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (Romans 5:1). This is an absolute, a constant. It can never change. It is invariable. "There is, therefore, no condemnation in Christ Jesus."
1 Corinthians 1:30 spells it out so very clearly...."But by His (the Father's) doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord'." I utterly have this the moment I am born again.
And now, the Christian life begins. And, although IN Christ I am fully sanctified, in another sense I AM BEING SANCTIFIED. While growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, I am sanctified BY Him. This is incremental. Being sanctified IN Christ Jesus is instantaneous. The Apostle Paul expresses this when he declares, "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).
So, the Christian should say with confidence: I AM SANCTIFIED IN CHRIST JESUS. Contrasting believers with unbelievers the Apostle says, "And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, YOU WERE SANCTIFIED, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11). Regardless of my falterings, in the mind of the Father I am fully accepted. This is not an excuse to live sinfully, but is a tremendous comfort and brings wonderful peace to the human heart wrestling with the lusts within and evils all around.
And, day by day, it is right for the believer in Jesus to say, again and again, I AM BEING SANCTIFIED BY CHRIST JESUS. Jesus Himself prayed for all of us that we might be sanctified in this manner, and He revealed the means whereby this happens. In John 17:17 we hear His words: "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth."
Lay hold of this teaching and when reading scripture whenever seeing the word "sanctify" ask, now is this referring POSITIONAL SANCTIFICATION which I have IN Christ, or to PRACTICAL SANCTIFICATION which I am experiencing BY Christ Jesus, my Savior and Lord.
So, at any one time, I am resting in the full salvation I have IN Jesus and applying myself diligently ("work out your salvation with fear and trembling") to be more and more like Jesus (BY His enabling grace.)
- dick christen
