The Jason DeMars Podcast
The Jason DeMars Podcast
Mysteries Revealed - ETMH - Section 43 - Justification and Sanctification
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Support the show & get subscriber-only content.The distinction between justification and sanctification forms the backbone of Christian spiritual development, yet these concepts are frequently misunderstood. Justification—God's act of declaring believers righteous—happens instantaneously through faith alone, completely separate from works or law-keeping. As the Apostle Paul emphasized repeatedly, we are "justified by faith without the deeds of the law," receiving immediate peace with God through Christ's finished work.
Sanctification, however, presents a more nuanced picture. John Wesley, who restored this truth to the church, taught that while sanctification begins as an immediate work of grace received by faith, believers must "go on unto perfection" to experience "entire sanctification." This state isn't sinlessness but rather "perfect love" that liberates from willful rebellion against God. Scripture reveals sanctification as both positional—we are "sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"—and progressive, requiring our active participation as we are "transformed by the renewing of your mind" and changed "from glory to glory."
The end-time significance of these truths cannot be overstated. Brother Branham taught that the true church must experience "growth to perfection" before the rapture, advancing "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." This perfection comes through adding to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, and other spiritual qualities. The journey from justification to glorification reveals God's complete redemptive work—we're saved by faith alone, yet called to participate in our sanctification as we're transformed into Christ's image. Are you actively engaging with the Holy Spirit in this transformative process of becoming the spotless bride Christ is returning for?
Mysteries Revealed the End Time Message Handbook, section 43, justification and Sanctification. What is the difference between justification and sanctification? Justification is immediate, but is sanctification immediate or is it a process? Is sanctification immediate, work of God based upon our surrender, or is it a process that takes place over a lifetime that involves our continual surrender and battle against sin? Romans 5, verse 1,. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 3, verse 28,. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Galatians 2, verse 16,. Knowing that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Galatians 2, verse 16,. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 3, verse 24,. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.
Speaker 1:The Greek word for justified is dikaiou and it means to render just or innocent. In Romans 3.28 and Galatians 26 and 3.24, we see that the Apostle Paul is clearly separating faith and works. It cannot ever be justified by the works of the law. It is through the law that comes the knowledge of sin and we are all held guilty before God because we have all sinned. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. The very meaning of the Greek word in the example we have with Abraham shows us that justification is an immediate act of God in our lives. Through faith, which is a gift of God and not of works, we are declared to be just. Justification is not a process whereby we achieve salvation by the end of our lives. We see that the effect of justification is immediate. As Romans 5, verse 1 states, we have peace with God Through faith alone. We are justified and not by works. Once we put our faith in Jesus Christ, then we are justified and have immediate peace with God. It is through the finished work of Jesus Christ that we receive salvation, by faith. Our works add nothing to it. Romans 1, verse 17 tells us that just shall live by faith.
Speaker 1:Receiving eternal life is based upon faith only, apart from works, as Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter 2, verse 21,. I do not frustrate the grace of God for his righteousness came by the law, and Christ is dead. In vain Works cannot save us. Only Christ can do that. We deserve death because of sin. Therefore, jesus Christ took our sins upon himself and died in our place. The work is finished, the bill has been paid. We cannot do anything to improve the work of Christ. We are saved once and for all by the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I want you to notice that this is directly connected to the new birth experience. As Paul writes in Ephesians 1.13 and is spoken of in Acts 19.2,. We receive the Holy Spirit after we believe. Yet even receiving the Holy Spirit comes from the hearing of faith. It is not by the works or by something we achieve, but by faith. This only, would I learn of you, received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, by the hearing of faith. Galatians 3.2. So then, is sanctification also an immediate work based upon the work of Christ at Calvary? The question is much more complicated biblically. If you look into history, you can find various standpoints on this. We should go to the scriptures and search to find out the various nuances to sanctification.
Speaker 1:John Wesley was the sixth church-age messenger and is credited for restoring the truth of sanctification back to the church. Wesley taught that sanctification was an immediate work of grace and received by faith, but that a believer is to go on unto perfection and experience what is called entire sanctification. I will bring you several quotes from the works of Wesley. I have continually testified, in private and in public, that we are sanctified as well as justified by faith, and indeed the one of those great truths does exceedingly illustrate the other. Exactly as we are justified by faith, so are we sanctified by faith. Faith is the condition and the only condition of sanctification, exactly as it is of justification. It is the condition. None is sanctified but he that believes. Without faith, no man is sanctified, and it is the only condition. This alone is sufficient for sanctification. Everyone that believes is sanctified, whatever else he has or has not. In other words, no man is sanctified till he believes. Every man, when he believes, is sanctified. The scriptures also bear record of this truth. But there are more layers to this reality than one might think.
Speaker 1:As we continue to examine sanctification, as we read from the following quotes from Wesley, we can see that sanctification itself is accomplished along with our faith. It is thus that we wait for our entire sanctification, for a full salvation from all our sins, from pride, self-will, anger, unbelief, or, as the apostle expresses it, go on into perfection. But what is perfection? The word has various senses. Here it means perfect love. It is love excluding sin, love filling the heart, taking up the whole capacity of the soul. It is love rejoicing evermore, praying without ceasing and everything giving thanks Well. But what more than this can be implied in entire sanctification? It does not imply any new kind of holiness. Let no man imagine this. From the moment we are justified till we give up our spirits to God, love is the fulfilling of the law, of the whole evangelical law, which took place of the Adamic law when the first promise of the seed of the woman was made.
Speaker 1:Love is the sum of Christian sanctification. It is the one kind of holiness which is found only in various degrees in the believers who are distinguished by St John into little children, young men and fathers. The difference between one and the other properly lies in the degree of love, and herein there is a great difference, in the spiritual as in the natural sense, between fathers, young men and babes. Entire sanctification, or Christian perfection, is neither more nor less than pure love, love expelling sin and governing both the heart and life of a child of God. The refiner's fire purges out all that is contrary to love and that many times by a pleasing, smart. Leave all this to him that does all things well and that loves you better than you do yourself.
Speaker 1:Acts 26, verse 18, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith, that is, in me. It is through faith that we are sanctified. The word sanctify in the Greek is hagiazo and it means to make holy, purify, to consecrate. We are sanctified by faith, not by works. Romans 15, 16, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God. That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13,. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen you from the beginning unto salvation, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. The tense of the word sanctified in the Greek speaks of having been sanctified. This is a past tense.
Speaker 1:Work of God. The Holy Ghost, coming upon us at the new birth, sets us apart unto God for sacred purposes. Hebrews 10, verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The tense of the word sanctification is a completed tense. The Weiss translation says he takes away the first in order that he may establish the second. By means of which will we stand permanently set apart for God and his service through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It is through the blood of Jesus Christ we are sanctified permanently, and it is by faith. This sanctification is then applied in our lives by the Holy Ghost. We can see, then, that sanctification comes to the believer by faith and is based upon the finished work of Christ, and becomes applied to us personally via the Holy Ghost baptism.
Speaker 1:These verses show us clearly that sanctification takes place positionally. Upon our salvation, we have been set apart for God and he has made us holy. Romans 6.11 tells us that we are then dead, indeed, unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We are then no longer under the dominion of sin. We are delivered from it by grace. However, sanctification is also an ongoing process and a process that we are involved in.
Speaker 1:Scriptures are clear about wrestling against the works of the devil in Ephesians 6, striving against sin Hebrews 12.4,. And going on into perfection Hebrews 6.1. But we all, with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3.18,. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? Romans 12.2,. Is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God? Romans 12, verse 2. And if put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator? Colossians chapter 3, verse 10.
Speaker 1:In the ongoing process of sanctification, our wills are involved in the work of the Spirit. We have to submit, surrender, fight, kill the flesh, etc. Romans 8, verse 13. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh, etc. Romans 8.13,. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die, but if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. We have to put to death the deeds of the body, but we do so through the Spirit. We are sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and it is through the work of the Holy Ghost within us, that has already freed us from the dominion of sin, that we put to death the works of the flesh. Hebrews 10, verse 14 ESV. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. We are made complete by the blood of Christ and this is evidenced in our lives by the fact that we are going through the process of sanctification. We are being sanctified In this verse in Hebrews. It is an ongoing process.
Speaker 1:Now, this is the point that John Wesley's doctrine becomes very distinctive. Most Bible teachers say that entire sanctification only takes place upon death or during the body change at the rapture. Let's read what Wesley taught. This is from a book summarizing his teachings Entire sanctification is a state of perfect love, righteousness and true holiness which every regenerate believer may obtain by being delivered from the power of sin. I know and believe that Wesley was the messenger to the Philadelphian church age, and Brother Branham told us that the true understanding of sanctification was restored to the church through Wesley.
Speaker 1:This entire sanctification that Wesley taught came from the following scriptures Hebrews 6, verse 1,. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. 1 Thessalonians 5.23. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved, blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here we see that the Apostle Paul writing to the believers in Hebrews 6.1 that they should leave the state of immaturity and go on into perfection. Then he writes to the Thessalonians a prayer for God to sanctify them holy. The word holy in Greek is holotiles and it means complete to the end. Here we see the idea of complete sanctification. The word is used again, but it carries a little different meaning. Your whole spirit and soul and body, your entire spirit and soul and body are to be preserved, blameless. 1 John 3, verses 3 and 4,. And every man that hath this hope in himself.
Speaker 1:Wesley did not teach that a believer would become sinless, but that they could become free from lawlessness. The word for sin in the above verse is anomia, the other word for sin is hamartia, to miss the mark. We all miss the mark, but we can be delivered from the practice of committing lawlessness that is open rebellion against the known will of God. Entire sanctification speaks of a change of the disposition of the heart that causes a believer to choose to not willfully sin. Wesley connected this with perfection. By this he meant a maturity in his Christian walk where he did not willfully choose sin. Even after that, a believer would gradually grow in sanctification. This is called a second work of grace. We find many places that Brother Branham speaks of the three works of grace. He emphasizes that a person can be justified without being sanctified sanctified without receiving the Holy Ghost and later begins to show how people can be anointed with the Holy Spirit on their human spirit but not in their soul.
Speaker 1:Prior to the opening of the seals, brother Branham taught the distinction between the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Ghost. We find that after that time he taught that they are one in the same act, that we are born again by the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Then we are to add word on top of word, growing in our faith and being transformed by the renewing of our mind. It is the baptism of the Holy Ghost that places us in the body of Christ. Let's look back at 1 Thessalonians 5.23, which Wesley uses to show entire sanctification, as well as Hebrews 6.1, going on into perfection. Both of these verses are applicable to the end time. Paul writes May God sanctify you wholly and preserve your entire spirit, soul and body. What other time in history could we find that God preserving our body until the coming of the Lord? I cannot find anywhere after the seals that.
Speaker 1:Brother Branham spoke clearly about the true experience of God being first in becoming justified, secondly, having a second experience of entire sanctification and lastly, going on to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The transforming power lay within receiving the Holy Ghost and we receive that after we believe A person within nature change, behaves and acts with the nature of God. This experience of perfection that Wesley emphasized was a partial realization of an end-time truth. The true church at the end time experiences a growth to perfection in preparation for the rapture. Throughout the church ages they had a partial realization of the Word, but at the end time, when the true faith is restored back to the church, we have a perfect realization. Sanctification is a work of the Holy Ghost, which comes by faith and is a gradual process throughout the lifetime of the believer. It is a transformation from glory to glory as our minds are renewed. Yet at the end time there is a perfection that the church is to grow into.
Speaker 1:In Ephesians 4, the church is to advance unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In Hebrews 6.1, we are called to go on into perfection. In Philippians 3.14, it is called pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus In the stature of a perfect man. Brother Branham tells us this church has got to come to perfection in order to bring the resurrection. We grow into this stature by adding to our faith, virtue etc. A growth into perfection by process.
Speaker 1:I will close with two quotes from Brother Branham. We're coming now to the perfection because the people has to come to this in order for the rapture. That's what's holding it away right now is waiting for the church to come into that perfect, raptured faith, looking for it. It means a lot of shaving down for me, it means a lot for you, but together we'll make it by the grace of God. It's a perfect place, calling you to that perfection. And you have to be perfect to get there.
Speaker 1:The Bible said so. Jesus said be therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. It's a perfect kingdom, so it must be a perfect people. Come because you have to stand and be married to a perfect Son of God and you must be a perfect bride. So how can you do it through anything else but the perfect Word of God, which is the waters of separation that washes us from our sins? Amen, that's right, the blood of Jesus Christ. Think of it, the dripping bloody word. Amen, the blood, the word of God, bleeding blood to wash the bride. And amen, yes, sir, she stands. Perfect, virgin, unadulterated. She never sinned in the first place. Amen, she was trapped into it. See,