1Thes.3:12,13 “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.”
Sanctification by faith alone in Christ alone. This is one of the most glorious doctrines concerning a Christian’s salvation! The words “justification by faith alone” are not unfamiliar words to a Christian, but ‘sanctification’ by faith alone is not so prevalent. In Ephesians 2:8 the apostle Paul tells us that it is “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” When it comes to this familiar verse, I think many see the word ‘justified’ in the place of ‘saved’. Nevertheless, it is the entirety of salvation in which the apostle is addressing in this epistle to the Ephesians, not merely ‘justification’, which is but one part of our salvation.
Salvation is in three parts. First, a sinner is ‘justified’, thus that sinner is now made a Christian; second, this new Christian saint is sanctified, both once and forever from the kingdom of Satan, and also progressively by the infusion of Christ’s righteousness into his newborn soul; and thirdly, at his death, the soul of the saint is glorified, and then at the ‘second coming of our Lord’ the glorified soul is then re-united with his body, which at that point will also be glorified. So, salvation, in toto,1 is all by faith alone in Christ alone.
This is very good news! There is no need for a Christian to earn his salvation. It is generally understood that ‘justification’ is by faith alone, outside the works of the law: one need only read Romans chapters 3 and 4 to affirm this foundational truth; but there are so many verses like the one we read above, from 1Thes.3, that affirm the truth about our ‘sanctification’ as being by faith alone.
There are many who believe that we as Christians must aid God in our sanctification. The question that I would put here is, does God need our help to save us? “Let it not be spoken!” the apostle Paul would say. Of course we do not sanctify ourselves, that is a works-based understanding of how we as Christians are to grow in our faith. On the contrary, as we read in our verses above, it is “the Lord that makes us to abound in love one toward another, and toward all men…” This word ‘abound’ is the key to our understanding; it literally means, ‘to make, to increase’. The apostle informs us that it is God who is making us to increase in love: and this word for love is the well-known Greek word which means ‘Godly love’, viz. literally, love from God. Next, the apostle informs us that God also “establishes our hearts unblameable in holiness”. ‘Establish’ means ‘to strengthen’, ‘to fix’, as in ‘making it unmovable’. And, not just this, but God makes us ‘unblameable’; and this is possibly the most glorious word of all, it means ‘deserving no censure’ and ‘free from fault’. This is such great news!
God has placed His love in us in abundance, and set us in a place where we cannot lose this love by strengthening us, all for His glory’s sake, that we may be presented unto Him, in Christ, at that very last day when our ‘sanctification’ is completed. And completed it shall be! And, until that day comes, God is continually increasing, not only the love within us, but the righteousness within us too. And, both of these qualities, which are qualities of God Himself, are being infused into our souls from Christ the Lord by the Holy Spirit. It is the combination of these two qualities that is ‘holiness’. And, it is because of these facts, about our ‘sanctification’ in Christ Jesus, that the epistles exhort us to live our lives in a way that is worthy and reflects the fact that “it is God that works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure,”(Phil.2:13) and, that we are “his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”(Eph.2:10)
God sanctifies us and gives us a super abundance of righteousness and love, and the strength to live a Christian life. The apostle Paul tells us in three separate epistles that we ought to “walk worthy”, viz. live a worthy life; not because we have the power to do so, but because God has placed the power of Christ’s righteousness and love within us, that we are made able. These verses penned by the apostle Paul all say the same thing, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called;”(Eph.4:1) “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;”(Col.19-11) and, “As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”(1Thes.2:11,12)
As Christian people we are told that Christ is sufficient for all things in our lives. We have His holiness, His righteousness, His love, and His strength. All in varying degrees, of course; and none in perfection, our perfection is certain to come at Christ’s glorious second appearing, but not in this life. Nevertheless, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”(1Cor.10:13); and, because of this truth, we know that God deals with us as Christians in an individual and an intimate sense; for, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench:”(Isa.42:3)
Each one of us are His children, and He has a very large family; and like our families in this world, our eternal family is made up of individuals. There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter Christian, we are not all postage stamps on a sheet, identical in every way. No, indeed, we are God’s creation; and our God is a most holy, just, loving, and friendly Father to all of us. He has ensured that by the blood of His only begotten Son, and the sending of God the Holy Spirit, that none of HIs Children should ever be in want, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing”(Ps.23:1), “Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?”(Luk.12:24)
Yet, with so many individuals in this holy eternal family, the truths of God’s doctrines found in His Scripture are the same for us all, and the exhortations as to what we are not to do, what we ought to do, how, and why, are the same for each one of us. For, despite our differences as individuals, we do have these things in common — we all have the same Father, we all have the same Saviour, and we are all effectually kept in this family by the same Holy Spirit. So, let us reckon ourselves to know who stands beside us, and who stands behind us, and to live our lives accordingly — for the glory of God.
- in toto(latin) translates to “in all,” “completely,” “entirely,” or “as a whole” ↩︎
Scripture Alone 