Hagiazo

Every year on July 23 I am reminded of one of the key elements of the ministry God has given me by Oswald Chambers in his article for that day … Hagiazo … Sanctification. Every time it comes up I am encouraged to reflect on sancification and where I am in the process. I am confident it will challenge you as it does me every year.

1 Cor 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 

The mystery of sanctification (hagiazo) that the perfections of Jesus Christ are imparted to me, not gradually, but instantly, when by faith I enter into the realization that Jesus Christ is made unto me sanctification. Sanctification does not mean anything less than the holiness of Jesus being made mine manifestly. 

The one marvelous secret of a holy life lies not in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfections of Jesus manifest themselves in my mortal flesh. Sanctification is “Christ in you.” It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification, and imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace. Am I willing for God to make sanctification as real in me as it is in His word? 

Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ. It is His patience, His love, His Holiness, His faith, His purity, and His Goodliness, that is manifested in and through every sanctified soul. Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests it in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation. Imitation is on a different line. In Jesus Christ is the perfection of everything, and the mystery of sanctification is that all the perfections of Jesus are at my disposal, and slowly and surely I begin to live a life of ineffable order and sanity and holiness: “Kept by the power of God.”  Oswald Chambers