Sanctification by Faith

Below is a little discussion I had on a forum site with a Greek Orthodox discussing the nature of sanctification. He of course, coming from a religious background, defines sanctification quite differently than Scripture. The discussion was going on for quite some time, and this post captures the essence of Biblical sanctification. I hope you may find this a blessing.

He replied to one post this way:

"Sanctification and Salvation are two very distinct aspects of salvation. Christ died so we could live with Him in relationship whereby the righteousness of Christ can be imparted to us."

He asserted that we are not imputed the righteousness of Christ, as Scripture clearly states (Rom 4:24), but is rather taken in increments through adhering to the various church teachings such as communion, water baptism joining the Greek Orthodox church etc.

I responded to him as follows:

This is your religion getting in the way of clear scriptural teaching again. Christ died and rose to save you, particularly your soul. He died to condemn sin in the flesh, and rose to glory and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. Your flesh is dead, and you are free to live for God. Christ overcame sin and death and by belief, you can too.

Our relationship to God has been restored through our belief in the finished work on the Cross. The original relationship that Adam had with God in the garden was one of faith. It was not to work with God, it was to commune with Him in a relationship of trust.

When God created Adam and Eve, He told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then left them alone. He wanted fellowship, based on trust and wanted Adam and Eve to simply 'believe' in Him. To believe what He said was for their benefit, and to believe that He was Good.

Through Christ, we are offered an opportunity to restore that relationship of faith. Christ came and overcame the world, the flesh and the devil on our behalf. Through our faith in Him, we are reconciled to God, crucified with Him, buried, raised new creatures in Christ, and our lives are hid with Christ in God. All of this happens by faith.

I received salvation through faith, through a simple trust that God can and will do what He said He will do, which is, as the angel of death who passed over the homes of those with the blood on the door posts, pass over us at the judgment when he sees that we are washed in the blood of the lamb.

That same faith that saved me, has also sanctified me.

1Co 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.

You say, no the righteousness of God is imparted to me as I appropriate it and apply myself to overcome sin. You try to die to yourself, abide in Him, continually confess and repent, trying to attain something that God has given us by faith. You are trying to kill something that is already dead, and you are making yourself a transgressor.

Gal 2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.



Rom 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Rom 4:22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Abraham was counted as righteous simply by believing God. That belief created a faith in Him and he looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. What is faith?

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is not something we build and release on God, faith is a substance, it is the evidence of the things we have in Christ, based on the promises of God, though we cannot see them. That faith creates a hope in us and our relationship to God takes center stage in our life.

Just as Abraham believed God when God told him that he was the father of a great nation, Abraham simply believed it. Abraham did not have one single thing to show anyone, the least of which was himself. He had never had any children, he was old, and eventually his wife passed child bearing age.

At this point, Abraham thought he would help God out. He decided that what God promised needed some work on his part to complete, so he went into Hagar to produce a seed to 'help' God fulfill His promise. Abraham offered God his works. God said 'throw out the bondwoman with her son.' God did not need Abrahams work.

Just as Abraham tried to 'help' God, you are trying to help God make you righteous. God says that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to you by faith, but you have a hard time believing it, so you change the word to 'impart'.

You see, Abraham had the same problem. He looked around at his old body, and his old wife and just had trouble believing what God said. You are doing the same thing. You look at me, or yourself and you see sin and you say, there must be more. I must crucify this flesh and put off the old man. I must appropriate the righteousness of God in increments through the sacraments, through confession and repentance and fight this body of flesh.

But that is absolutely contrary to the Gospel of Christ. Religious people try to make themselves righteous instead of submitting to the righteousness which is of Christ.

Rom 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

But Paul said that we are righteous through faith.

Rom 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.


For decades, Abraham was asked to walk around telling people that he was the father of a great nation, innumerable. People probably thought that he was crazy. They saw no children and two really old people who didn't even come together anymore. His faith was not perfect and he failed many times, not the least of which was trying to work out in his experience that which God said was true. But despite his failings and flutterings, God sees his life as one of faith:

Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

I am not righteous in and of myself. My walk of faith is no better than Abraham's yet I believe what God says about my condition. He says I am the righteousness of God in Him and I believe it, not because I am perfect or that I confess or work to attain it, but because I believe that it is so because He said so.

Rom 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

Abraham believed in spite of what he saw, and in the face of doubt. Likewise, I believe what God says is true even though I do not see it. I have faith that he is able to deliver on His promises.

Rom 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:

Just as Abraham did not look to himself for visual fulfillment of what God said was true, I do not look at myself for evidence of what God says. I know I am no perfect person, but I know I am perfect in God's eyes because He has imputed the righteousness of Christ to me, through faith.

Rom 4:20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Even though Abraham had some failings in His walk of faith, the Word of God says, 'he staggered not at the promises.' I have faith, not in my ability to 'be' righteous, but in the promises of God. You have faith in your ability to make something true in your experience that God is asking you to believe by faith is already true because He is faithful and just who has promised.

That is why God has us here, in this body, in the world in the presence of the devil. God is building faith in us. Faith in the unseen. Faith in Him, not in us.

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold thatperisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

I am dead to the flesh and alive unto God.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.


You are a dead man. You have been crucified with Christ. You say, 'but I must stop sinning and war against the flesh and fight temptation and sin or I am not righteous.'

The Gospel says something altogether different:

Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

You cannot fight the flesh, because the flesh is dead. How can a dead man sin? That is the power of God to deliver from sin, once for all!!!

Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

Here is what you are doing, RG:

Col 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:23 Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.

What you are doing is concentrating on yourself, on the flesh in a religious show of will-worship, voluntary humility and you are vainly puffed up in your own mind, looking down your nose at those simple Bible believers who simply believe what God has said, all the while refusing to believe it and changing righteousness imputed by faith to a righteousness you must work out.

The Gospel is quite clear, that we should:
Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Col 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Set your affections on the hope, that is in Christ. We don't overcome sin by warring with the flesh or the devil, we do it by reckoning ourselves to be dead, just believe what God said. We cannot fight the flesh with our will:

2Co 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

When sin rises up, we can declare,'I am a dead man, how can I live any longer therein?'

That is the Gospel of sanctification. It is by faith in the promises of God. Just as Abraham was asked to believe something that was not true in his experience, he simply believed it was so, because God said it was so, nothing more.

(For a very thorough teaching of sanctification by faith, see "Sin No More" a teaching series by Michael Pearl)