Sanctification
By David Brandt Berg
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The word “saint” is a noun from the same word from which we get the word “sanctify,” and that comes from a word meaning in the Greek “to be sanctified,” to be washed clean. The meaning goes even further than that; it is to be washed clean and set aside in a clean place, like you wash the dishes.
Holiness people teach that it’s a one-time thing. They go through this experience of entire sanctification. The Pentecostals call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Again we have the word “baptism” there, which signifies washing. Only this time by the fire of the Spirit, so to speak—purified, purged by the power of the Lord. They teach that it is once and done with forever. Baptists teach that it has to be constantly repeated, that you’ve got to keep being washed. The fact of the matter is they’re both right!
What did Jesus say to Peter when at first Peter refused to let Him wash his feet? “If I wash you not, you have no part in Me.”1 He said, “If you don’t let Me wash your feet, you’re not one of Mine, Peter.” Peter was an extremist, so immediately he says, “Not my feet only, but my hands and my head!” First he wouldn’t even let Jesus wash his feet; next thing he wants Him to give him a full bath! He goes from one extreme to another.
Peter was a man of great force; he was impulsive, impetuous. He was quite a character. If I had a favorite disciple of all Jesus’ disciples, I think I would just about choose Peter because he was so funny, sometimes he was absolutely ridiculous. You could laugh out loud at some of his antics, and sometimes he made you want to cry, you felt so sorry for him, such as when he denied the Lord and went out and wept. But the Lord loved him.
Did you ever notice what the Lord said after He rose from the dead? He said, Go and tell the disciples and Peter.2 Why did He say that? Wasn’t Peter a disciple? Had he lost his salvation through his denial of Christ? Why do you suppose He said and Peter? He probably said it to encourage him. Peter probably thought he had lost his salvation. He probably thought he’d forfeited his discipleship through his denial. The Lord wanted to let him know he was still a disciple.
The love of the Lord, the mercy of Jesus is so beautiful. My grandfather used to preach a whole sermon on that. “And Peter,” it was called, bringing out how much the Lord loved him to reassure him that when He called for His disciples to come, Peter would know that he, too, was called. They hadn’t all seen Him yet, and He wanted to see them all and manifest Himself. So He said and Peter to reassure Peter that he was forgiven.
When Peter said, “Wash me all over; wash my head too,” the Lord said, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.”3 He was speaking symbolically, spiritually. He was as good as telling Peter, “I’ve already washed you entirely. Now I just need to wash your feet, that’s all.”
Jesus was carrying on a simple ceremony that had deep spiritual significance. He was telling Peter, “You’ve been washed once and for all, and really in a way forever, but I still have to keep washing you a little bit to keep you clean.” Daily. Is there ever a day that passes that we don’t sin? No, none of us are perfect. How often do we miss the mark? How often do we make a mistake? Even a mistake is a sin, in a way, missing the mark. The Lord has to constantly be cleaning us. We’re human, we’re in these vile bodies of flesh, and daily He has to cleanse us—our minds, our thoughts, our bodies, actions, words.
So sanctification is both a one-time thing and a constant process, and these schools of thought that have argued over this theological doctrine for centuries, whether it was once and for all or continuous, are both right.
There are many religions in which you have to partly save yourself and it partly depends on your own works. If it even depends on one little tiny work, then it’s a work religion. But we know that Jesus has done it and did it all, because the Bible says, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”4 It has cleansed us from all past sin. It cleanses us from sins every day and from all future sin as well; otherwise we’d never make it. But it’s Christ’s work that’s already done, and yet it’s constantly being done by Him daily.
As Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science) said about sin, “Every fall in a way is a fall upward.” She was trying to say that we even learn by our mistakes. So therefore we even learn by our sins, don’t we? That’s why she said every fall of a saint is a fall upward. Because even though we make a mistake, we learn by it.
That was what the Lord was trying to show Peter through that experience, that the major work had been done. He was now a saved sinner, a saint, and cleansed once and for all, past, present and future. But it was a continuing process, like a child grows day by day and learns day by day. So if you have been sanctified by the Lord and His blood and salvation, the noun for a person so sanctified is a saint.
“The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.”
Originally published in 1980. Adapted and republished March 2013.
Read by Simon Peterson.
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