6.10 You are sanctified in Christ

For years I was confused about holiness. I heard preachers tell the church that they must be holy. This was followed by a list of things that they had to do – in behavior and action. All these things are good, but somehow people always fall short of those requirements and they often felt condemned as unholy.

You see, in the Old Covenant, holiness was conditional upon their performance in keeping the law perfectly (Ex 19:5-6). God found fault with the Old Covenant because they failed to keep it (Heb 8:8-9).

So Jesus, the true expression of God’s holiness came to this earth to redeem us from sin, to sanctify (set us apart) for God, and to make us holy in Him. To sanctify is to make holy. Today, holiness is based on what Jesus has done. Christ has sanctified us by His blood.

(Hebrews 13:12, NJKJV)
Therefore Jesus also, that He might SANCTIFY the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 

So how holy are? It depends on how able the blood of Jesus is. How conscious we are of our holiness depends on how much faith we have in His blood. The Bible says that His work is perfect. It is so perfect that we have been perfected forever with regards to our sanctification and conscience.

(Hebrews 10:14, NKJV)
For by one offering He has PERFECTED FOREVER those who are being SANCTIFIED.

How permanent is His work. Is it for a while? Or is it forever? The above verse says that He has perfected “forever”. The verse below tells us that we have been sanctified once for all. It is a permanent work.

(Heb 10:10, NKJV)
By that will we have been SANCTIFIED through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ ONCE FOR ALL.

Today, we are in Christ and He is in us. He has become for us our sanctification. Thank God that we are in Christ.

(1 Corinthians 1:30, NKJV)
But of Him you are IN CHRIST Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and SANCTIFICATION and redemption…