You might have seen that another thread ended with some comments about sanctification and the question:
"And how, in your view, is that achieved?"

Because it is an important topic I thought it is best to start a new thread and see if others also want to join the discussions. Will try and comment later on.

Markus,

You said in that other thread:

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Jade

I see several stages
First we need to be sure that we are truly born again, that we are out of Egypt.
Then we need to realise that out of Egypt is not the goal, it is only the beginning of a journey.
Only God could bring the Israelites into the Promised Land.
But they had to be willing, they had to learn to trust and obey God and stop complaining etc.

Therefore I wouldn't say that we can "achieve" Sanctification, ie. i wouldn't say that we can get there just by our own achievements with some kind of a formula.
It is the work of the HS, but we need to be willing and obedient.
In practical terms:
We need to spend time with God, pray and read His Word.
We also need a Bible teaching fellowship, learn from each other and encourage each other.
Paul wrote to Timothy:
All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for
training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage] so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16 (Ampl)

Sanctification is a process and not a one time occurrence, a life long process. The things that tripped me up 40 years ago, no longer trip me now. The things that tripped me up 20 years ago, no longer trip me now, and so forth.

We are called to be in relationship with Father, His son and the Holy Spirit! Carving out time from our day and spending it with Him in prayer, worship and Bible study brings us into His presence.

God knowingly created fallible human beings and none will be perfect on this earth but we are headed that way if we follow on to know the Lord!! Because He is worth it all!!

Lisa



From Vines:
"Sanctification is that relationship with God into which men enter by faith in Christ, Acts 26:18; 1 Cor. 6:11, and to which their sole title is the death of Christ, Eph. 5:25,26: Col. 1:22; Heb. 10:10,29; 13:12.

"Sanctification is also used in NT of the separation of the believer from evil things and ways. This sanctification is God’s will for the believer, 1 Thess. 4:3, and His purpose in calling him by the gospel, 1 Thess. 4:7; it must be learned from God, 1 Thess. 4:4, as He teaches it by His Word, John 17:17,19; cp. Ps. 17:4; 119:9, and it must be pursued by the believer, earnestly and undeviatingly, 1 Tim. 2:15; Heb. 12:14. For the holy character, hagiosune, 1 Thess. 3:13, is not vicarious, i.e., it cannot be transferred or imputed, it is an individual possession, built up, little by little, as the result of obedience to the Word of God, and of following the example of Christ, Matt. 11:29; John 13:15; Eph. 4:20; Phil. 2:5, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Rom. 8:13; Eph. 3:16.

"The Holy Spirit is the Agent in sanctification, Rom. 15:16; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2; cp. 1 Cor. 6:11.  See Holiness.

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Lisa

Markus,

A rich young ruler came to Jesus and said:

Luke 18:8 –
“Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus said to him:

v. 20 –
“You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

The rich young ruler said:

v.21 –
“All these things I have kept from my youth.”

Jesus said:

v.22 –
“You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

----------

You said:

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Jade

The Lord Jesus who commands:

Luke 9:23 –
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”

Has Himself provided the way:

Gal. 2:20—
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

How can this be?

2 Cor. 1:20 –
For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes; therefore through Him also is our Amen to the glory of God through us.


Our Part:

Mark 9:23-24 –
All things are possible to him who believes …………I do believe; help my unbelief.

Jer.33:3 –
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Hab. 2:3-4 –
…………Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
…………the righteous will live by his faith.

Also, Rom. 1:17.

Ps. 27:13-14 --
I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the LORD.

Ps. 25:3 --
Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed;


God's Part:

The indwelling Holy Spirit will make the truth of our co-crucifixion with Christ and our new resurrected and holy life in Christ the living reality in us.

John 14:20 –
In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Note:
“In that day” is the day the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us re: John 14:16-17.

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Jade

Sanctification
A very important subject, I see people have different answers like self-denial, that it’s some say it’s becoming more dedicated to God and separated from sin and that it’s a process and not a one of event.

However if you carefully study the subject and look at what teachers of Holiness teach you find that there is great wealth of information on this subject.

Word of warning – like all things the enemy, our enemy does try and counterfeit this wonderful deeper work of this Spirit of God. I find the false usually involves “the mystics” and specific prayer (contemplative prayer or in modern words soaking prayer).

Over the years of digging I will try and sum up sanctification this wonderful deeper work of the Holy Spirit in a few words – “heart purity”

Now for scripture evidence I will use the words of Peter taken from the Jerusalem Council; where he stands up
Acts 15:8-9 So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.

Sanctification is a deeper work of the Holy Spirit and it part of the promise of salvation.

Here is a verse from a song we should know.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save me from its guilt and power.

The double cure - saved from the guilt of sin and it’s power.

We may be forgiven of sins; but the power of sin remains in the heart, and it must be removed. An example of an Old Testament is found in Psalm 51.

Psalm 51:7-9 is clearly asking to be freed from the guilt of sin, however in verse 10 its something different.

Ps 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

It is what we are told that the new covenant is and what was promised.

Ezekiel 36 :15:25-27 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

God intends to rescue us from sin in every dimension. By Jesus’ sinless life and atoning death, God saves us from sin’s penalty and delivers us from its power.

Guest have arrived so stopping here.

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Colin Murray

Good comments from everyone.
Most would define sanctification as a process.
“Progressive” or “experiential” sanctification, as it is sometimes called, is the effect of obedience to the Word of God in ones life.
It is the same as growing in the Lord (2 Peter 3:18) or spiritual maturity.
God started the work of making us like Christ, and He is continuing it (Philippians 1:6). This type of sanctification is to be pursued by the believer earnestly (1 Peter 1:15; Hebrews 12:14) and is effected by the application of the Word (John 17:17). (got questions.org)

I wrote: "We need to spend time with God, pray and read His Word.
We also need a Bible teaching fellowship, learn from each other and encourage each other."
Because it is an ongoing process nobody could say: "All these things I have done.”
Just as nobody can take enough food for the body and then stop eating.
We need to eat daily till we die.

The more we spend time with God the more we mature as believers.
As we mature we begin to comprehend more and more those passages that all of you mentioned
I would say that in this life we never come to a point where we can say, now we are 100% holy and sanctified, now we are just like Jesus.

John 3:30:"He must increase; I must decrease.
31 The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth.

Here's the entry for sanctification from Torrey's Topical Textbook, it might be helpful in your studies on this topic;

Sanctification

Is separation to the service of God
Psalm 4:3; 2 Corinthians 6:17

EFFECTED BY
God
Ezekiel 37:28; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Jude 1:1
Christ
Hebrews 2:11; 13:12
The Holy Spirit
Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11

In Christ
1 Corinthians 1:2

Through the atonement of Christ
Hebrews 10:10; 13:12

Through the word of God
John 17:17,19; Ephesians 5:26

Christ made, of God, to us
1 Corinthians 1:30

Saints elected to salvation through
2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:2

All saints are in a state of
Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Corinthians 6:11

The Church made glorious by
Ephesians 5:26,27

SHOULD LEAD TO
Mortification of sin
1 Thessalonians 4:3,4
Holiness
Romans 6:22; Ephesians 5:7-9

Offering up of saints acceptable through
Romans 15:16

Saints fitted for the service of God by
2 Timothy 2:21

God wills all saints to have
1 Thessalonians 4:3

MINISTERS
Set apart to God's service by
Jeremiah 1:5
Should pray that their people may enjoy complete
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Should exhort their people to walk in
1 Thessalonians 4:1,3

None can inherit the kingdom of God without
1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Typified
Genesis 2:3; Exodus 13:2; 19:14; 40:9-15; Leviticus 27:14-16

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Ron Halverson

Quote: Most would define sanctification as a process.


I agree most would say that, however if you have a revelation on the subject it changes the way you think.

Here is a testimony from Derek Prince.


You see, there’s a lot of difference between having your sins forgiven which is wonderful and having the rebel executed. For instance, when I grew up in church as a boy, every Sunday morning we went to church and we confessed our sins. We really didn’t have any option, everybody did it. And I somehow walked out of the church wondering or hoping maybe something would happen. But I knew full well that during the next week I would be committing the same sins that I’d already confessed. And I came to wonder whether it was better to confess them and go on doing them or not confess them. But you see, that’s just a form of religion. That’s not the message of the gospel because God not merely deals with the past. That’s wonderful to have your past forgiven, it’s tremendous. But it still doesn’t solve your problem if there’s a rebel living inside you. Why? Because the rebel will cause you to go on doing rebellious acts. So the provision of God is not merely to forgive us of the past, but it’s the execution of the rebel inside me.

Now God made this vivid to me personally many years ago now. I was for about eight years the pastor of a small Pentecostal congregation in the center of London, England. And some people who know me today would find it hard to believe this, but we conducted open air services three times every week in the center of London at a place that’s known as Speaker’s Corner, Marble Arch. And that was where we got our fish. We went out and fished for sinners, brought them in. And we saw over the years hundreds of sinners saved through those meetings at Speaker’s Corner.

But one night during this period I had a very vivid dream. And in my dream I saw a typical open air meeting. A circle of people standing around and a man in the middle preaching. And as I watched the man and listened to him I said to myself, “What he’s preaching is pretty good.” But there was something I didn’t like about the man. It was like he was hunchbacked and he had a club foot and altogether he looked crooked. So I woke up and I thought, “I wonder what that meant,” and dismissed it. But about two weeks later I had the same dream again. So this time I said to myself, “God must be trying to tell me something. I wonder who the man is?” And it was like the Holy Spirit said to me what Nathan said to David, “thou art the man.”

And it opened up to me a completely new aspect of salvation. I was soundly saved by most standards, baptized in the Spirit, serving the Lord, but there was something in me that was crooked and unacceptable to God. It was the old man. I didn’t have any gospel understanding of God’s program for the old man. I had to find my way through these things.

Well, about the same time Easter was coming on and because of the Easter season somehow I had in my mind a mental image of the hill of Golgotha [or Calvary] and the three crosses on it. But the middle cross was much taller than the other two. And it was like the Holy Spirit put me through an examination. He said, “Now tell me, for whom was the middle cross made?” But it was as if he said, “Be careful before you answer.” So I stopped and thought and I said, “It was made for Barabbas.” And he said, “That’s right.” Because it really was not made for Jesus. Do you understand? Barabbas was due to be executed. But he was released at the last moment, Jesus took his place. So then he said, “But Jesus took the place of Barabbas.” I said, “That’s right.” Then the Holy Spirit said, “But I thought Jesus took your place?” I said, “Yes, that’s right.” Then he said, “You must be Barabbas.”

And at that point I saw it. I never try to argue with people about that, it’s a revelation. But I saw that I was the criminal for whom the cross was made. It was exactly to my measure. It was appropriate for me. But Jesus took my place.


That made it so vivid to me, God’s program for dealing with the old man. This is quite distinct from the forgiveness of sin. The forgiveness of sins is wonderful but you’re never going to have a life of victory or real fruitfulness as long as that old rebel is still alive inside you. God’s provision is the execution of the rebel. God’s mercy is the execution took place when Jesus died. Our old man was crucified with him. The Old King James says “is crucified” which is the perfect tense. But the more correct translation is “was crucified.” It’s a simple past tense, it’s an actual, historical fact that took place.

This doesn’t matter whether we know it or believe it, it’s true. But knowing it and believing it is going to change you and me. So that’s the negative side. “Our old man was crucified that the new man might come to life in us.” That’s the exchange from the old man to the new man.

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Colin Murray