Sanctification: Separated Unto Him

Hebrews 10:
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all……….. 

14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 

Sanctification is not a "process". It is not a progressive improving of myself. It is not the working out of which Paul speaks in Philippians 2:12-13. It is not the good works we are predestined for. (Ephesians 2:10) All of these things the saints do as they have been both justified, (redeemed), and sanctified, (set apart), for these works.
Therefore, sanctification is simply defined as our being "set apart" in Christ, who is Himself set apart from all things.

Hebrews 7:
26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 

John 17:
14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sake I consecrate (sanctify; kjv) myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
20 "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

The Lord said "be holy (altogether separate) as I am holy (altogether separate)". He did not say be perfectly sinless, as I am perfectly sinless. He has perfected once for all and for all time those "being sanctified", that is those are elected (predestined to), and called to, justification and sanctification. Just as He is separate (sanctified) from all things in His own inherent perfection, He has perfected all who are His, to be sanctified from all things in Christ, in the world, but not part of it.
Once again, the scriptures do not speak of a process of improvement. The Savior needs no assistance in accomplishing that which for which He came. We are holy for the very reason that He has declared us to be so. As the song says; some days are diamonds, and some days are stones, some days we do better than others. However, Scripture tells us that for the saints, everyday is a day of growing in grace and knowledge of Him.

Hebrews 4:
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

1Thess 5:
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 

Hebrews 9:
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. 

Ephesians 1:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

The Holy Spirit comes as the guarantor, i.e. earnest deposit, that all that Christ has fulfilled through his life, death, and resurrection will be consummated in time upon His return, at the “end”, of the end of the ages. He is not our guide to a “better us”. How much better does one need to be when one has already been freely justified, sanctified, and baptized into both His death and resurrection?
Fulfillment and consummation-
It is finished!

The Accusers: Psalm 109:29

Colossians 2:
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs toChrist.18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, (Habakkuk2:4) 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—21 "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 

 The rulers and authorities of which Paul speaks of in THIS CONTEXT, are the neo-pharisees, i.e. the purveyors of legalism, the holiness brigade, those who preach a progressive sanctification, do all the right things or else, sinless perfection or bust; “church leadership” and their followers.Even those who claim “heavenly visions” demand an allegiance to their “revelation”.                                                                                                                      
Paul says they are "disarmed" by Christ. For those of us in Christ (the saints, those whom He has sanctified)there is no legal requirement that can be brought to bear against us. Christ accomplished it all and satisfies the righteous requirement of the law on our behalf. Christ has died, He has risen and has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Satan has been cast down. The enemy no longer stands before the throne as accuser of the brothers. (Rev 12:1-11; Job 1:6-12; the truth be told, Satan would no longer have to, as there are many who call themselves brothers who now do the job for him, and quite well I might add).
Paul spent a great amount of time in his calling as an apostle battling these types.
Christ, through His death and resurrection, disarmed them. They have no effective weapon to use against us who stand before the Lord in and through Christ (John 8:3-11).

 Isaiah 54:  (Isaiah also saw His day and rejoiced. John8:56-58) 
14 In righteousness you shall be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. 15 If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you.
(1 Timothy 1:1-11; Romans 14; all of the letter to the Galatians)

 16 Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy;
(God is sovereign. He is creator of both weapon, and the makers of weaponry. He determines the purpose of both. All things serve Him; therefore………)

 17 no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me, declares the LORD."
(So, He has purposed that those whom the Son has set free, are free indeed! John 8:34-36; Romans 6:11-18)

Galatians 2:4 Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 

Anyone coming to you with the “gospel” of righteousness and sanctification, accomplished through our dead works, i.e. our freewill choices, (the trappings of our religious rituals and settings), as necessary additions to the Lord’s finished work is not bringing you “the good news” at all.
Solus Christus
Soli Deo Gloria 

Our Maturity;Growing In The Grace And The Knowledge Of Him

Hebrews 6:1  Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to

maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works ……….

2Peter 1:

1  Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

2  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,

4  by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Ephesians 1:

22  And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,

23  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 4:

11  And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

12  to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

13  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

14  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

16  from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

John 17:3  And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

1John 5:20  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Our “growth process”, i.e. our maturing as saints, is growing in the grace and knowledge of Him. It is not in becoming better at repenting, or becoming better at not sinning, that is, our efforts at working toward “sinless perfection”. It is not in becoming a better version of ourselves, thus pleasing the Father.

Only the Son pleases the Father, and as both author and finisher of our faith, we who have been placed in Him, i.e. His body, have a Father who is well pleased on our behalf. (Luke 3:22; 2 Peter 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 12:1-2)

Let us stay in the Word and thereby show ourselves to be His true “workman”. (2 Timothy 2:11-16)

2Peter 3:

17  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

18  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of Him! 

The Grace of God;The Bitter Root

Ephesians 2:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
:6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

Hebrews 2:
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,
3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. 

Hebrews12:15  See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

It is evident that there are many who preach "the doctrines of grace" and still manage to heap a form of law and works, along with the outcome of such preaching; condemnation, upon the hearers whether regenerate or not. Christ came to save the sinners that the Father had given Him to save. Only the elect have been given ears to hear and eyes to see, (Proverbs 20:12; Matthew 13:13-16).
The assurance is that none of the elect will fail to believe the Gospel. All for whom he died are saved. When we forget the depth of the grace God has shown us, we end up looking foolish; and of course only in the most pious of manner.
So let us stick to His plan and cease trying to convince the unregenerate of God's truth, as only the Lord knows who will hear and believe on a day to day basis. We are not hear to make projects out of any to whom we present the Gospel, nor to make projects out of those who do hear and believe.

Acts 2:
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.