Pursue Reality Podcast
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Pursue Reality Podcast
PRP 64 | Sanctification: Becoming Like Jesus - Big Words, Good God Series
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You are sanctified—and you are being sanctified.
In this episode of the Pursue Reality Podcast, Pastor Lindsey and Chris Lautsbaugh talk about one of the most important and often misunderstood words in the Christian life: sanctification. What does it mean to be made holy, and why does the Bible describe it as both something already true of us and something still happening?
Together they explore the beautiful tension of the Christian life: in Christ, we are already made holy, and by the Spirit, we are still being changed. If you’ve ever felt discouraged by your lack of growth, this conversation will remind you that God’s grace doesn’t stop at salvation—it continues shaping you every step of the way.
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You're listening to the Pursue Reality Podcast from Reality Church. Each episode is a conversation about what it means to be real people pursuing a better reality in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Welcome everyone to the Pursue Reality Podcast. This is Lindsay, one of the pastors here at Reality Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And I have with me our very special guest slash uh regular uh professional expertise contributor, Chris Lotzpah.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad that doesn't have to fit on a business card.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And Chris is my husband, and I've asked him to come in for this series to help us because of you're a great Bible teacher and a little bit of, I would say, an expert at unpacking some of the basics of the faith. That's kind of your heart, would you say that?
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah, it's something I love to do.
SPEAKER_00Something you love to do. Yeah, and something you're very good at. Um and so we have today another word that we're doing, and we're actually gonna uh we have been in a Roman uh passage in Romans that we've been looking at, um, but we're gonna kind of skip skip to another passage. We're going, we're going off the track uh because we wanted to include another word that we use a lot um in our Christian circles and in our language that we feel really fits with this whole it's a word we use, but we don't necessarily understand it. And this would be the word sanctified or sanctification. Um sanctification is a word that is used quite a lot. This definitely, some of them I say modern culture doesn't use a lot. I would say this word we don't use this. We don't outside of churchy circles, no one uses the word sanctification, to my knowledge, but maybe you have unusual friends. Um and I was when I was thinking of this word, I was thinking of Paul writing to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians uh chapter 6, verse 11. And uh I actually want to read a little bit of the verses before that, because I think it kind of is helpful in giving um some context that will help feed into the definition of this word. It says, Um, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Um the beginning of that kind of gives a list, a list of different sins. Um, idolaters, adulterers, I love this word, revilers. That could be an episode, because I don't know if I know what revilers is, to be honest. Yeah, that's true. Swindlers, I love that. Um, and saying, hey, talking about this whole idea of people that are just kind of living this life of sin, going after it. Um and then he goes on to say, you know, such were some of you, but now you're washed, um, you're sanctified, and you're justified, which we have an episode on justification, so people should go listen to that. But this word sanctified, um, I think Paul is specifically putting in here because of this context of talking about sinful behavior. So that's our starting point. Help us out. What does sanctified or sanctification mean?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, out of all the words we've done, this is probably one that actually has the easiest definition. Um, kind of a similar Bible word that is often used for sanctification uh is holiness. Uh, you know, that's uh God says, be holy as I am holy. We know that uh holiness is the absence of sin. Uh and so to be sanctified is to be made holy, to be made like God, uh, or to put it in kind of more of a an idea of what we we are pursuing, it's to become like Jesus. Uh a lot of times we sum up the Christian walk by becoming more like Jesus, reflecting him more and more. Now, uh I do want to point out something that's interesting in this passage, the one that we read, I mean, after that horrible list of sins, all these all these things that the Corinthians were, it says they were washed, okay, so that would they were forgiven. Yeah. Okay, so you know, your sins are washed whiter than the snow, cast as far as from the east as from the west. Forgiveness happens at salvation. Uh they are justified, which if you haven't listened to the justification episode, jump back to that. But that basically occurs at salvation. Uh, and it says you are sanctified. Okay. You were sanctified. You were sanct. It's a done thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, interesting.
SPEAKER_02And so here's the interesting thing that sanctification really shows us, but in many ways, all of these gifts show us, uh, that these are all part of what God has given to us. So God has actually given us holiness, he's given us sanctification, he's given us this gift, the same as He's given us forgiveness and redemption and justification at salvation. Many times uh in in a lot of our lives, we think becoming holy or living, avoiding the sins that are listed right before that, that's a hundred percent our job. Yeah. And of course, sanctification is how we live out our faith, how we walk this out. So there is a partnership with God, but our sanctification doesn't start at a zero when we get saved and we slowly work it up towards whatever level, and A B and A sanctified students, yeah. Uh and then God is pleased. God actually starts us with an A plus. He says, You are holy, you are sanctified, this is done for you by Christ. Now you need to live in your new identity. Yeah. Uh one one of the other passages that uh Paul uses in Corinthians says that uh if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Yeah. The old has gone, the new is come. We are made a new creation at salvation. Now the the tension with this and the thing that makes us scratch our head and go, wait a second. So I am holy, I am Christ-like, I am a saint, I am a new cre yes, and uh yet I am these I I have these things, I have been given salvation, the event of sanctification, but sanctification is a journey, it is a partnership. And and really all of these things that God gives us out salvation are simultaneously done and in process.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's the now it has happened and is happening.
SPEAKER_02Yes. So even forgiveness, we are forgiven, but it takes time to start living as one who's been forgiven. Yeah. Uh we talked about redemption. We are redeemed, we are adopted, we are sons and daughters. But it takes time to start living that out. So we are sanctified, we are holy, but it takes time for us to begin to reflect that identity. Uh, in the same book, 1 Corinthians, Paul starts out this to the same church that he lists all these crazy sins for and even addresses current sins in their midst. He starts out and says, To the saints who are in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You are holy and blameless. You you have a saint. You are a saint.
SPEAKER_00And in the same book, he confronts them about getting drunk. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But here it says celebrating immorality in their midst.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and here and celebrating immorality in their midst. And here it says, you know, don't, you know, those who don't inherit the kingdom of God are drunkards, you know, sexually immoral. And then he says, Such were some of you. And then in the same letter he's saying, Some of you are doing this. So it is a um, you are sanctified, but he recognizes sanctification is an event and a process. It reminds me of Hebrews chapter 10, verse 14, that says, For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And it's in process. So he has perfected us. We are, it is an event to become holy and Christ-like, and it is a process to become holy and Christ-like. That doesn't make sense to our logical brains. Does that make sense to your brain? Yes and no?
SPEAKER_02Because I mean, how much of the gospel in God doesn't make sense though? Because there's like God can be multiple things at the same time. Salvation can be multiple things. It's done and it's in process. Yeah. Uh, you know, and I think the the thing that we kind of fall short on is we we often think, okay, God saves us. Yep. We're not foolish enough to say I saved myself. Like it's all God, it's all God, it's all God. But the second we get saved, then we think it's all me, it's all me, it's all me. And that's our I can do it, I can just work harder, I can try more. And it's like, how many of us have tried to deal with a certain area or even not even deal with sin, but like say grow in an area, and the harder we try, the worse we get. When we're doing it in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But when we partner with what's already been given to us, when we partner with God who lives in us, when we run the race, as Hebrews says, looking to Jesus, we do grow and we do change. It's part of it's part of the journey. But even our holiness is a gift from God. It we can't take credit for it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, I would agree.
SPEAKER_02We can add fertilizer. Yeah. We can partner with the God of the universe to grow and change.
SPEAKER_00Practice ultimately the spiritual disciplines that open us up to his work. Sure, we're involved. And first Corinthians says this is accomplished by Jesus and it's a work of the Spirit. So the Spirit is working that out. It kind of reminds me if we go back to redemption, that we're we redemption is so closely linked with adoption and becoming part of this family. And I think of like if someone is adopted, let's say at an older age, 12 or 13, it is done. They are part of the family. But it takes a while for them to learn the family traits. And over time, all this, it whether or not they learn the family traits doesn't risk their place in the family. But it takes some time for all the adoption to be worked out and to talk like the family, learn the habits of the family. Is that accurate kind of an accurate?
SPEAKER_02And and even you know, playing off the redemption imagery, uh it's redemption is you're coming out of slavery. So it takes time to stop thinking like a slave and start thinking as a son or a daughter. That's really good. And you know, that's uh it's it's not all about my performance and my duty and my obligation. It's actually something that's been gifted to me and is done so I have it, now I respond to it.
SPEAKER_00And I just want to point out in the process of discipleship, this is really important to hold both these truths, that we are sanctified and we are being sanctified. Because if we just hold that we're being sanctified and not that we're we are sanctified, like it's a work of God in our life, what ends up happening is sanctification is on me. And I gotta get my life together because even if you're kind of framing it as I'm a child of God, so I gotta start acting like it. In my experience, the fastest way to not act like Jesus is to think it's all on you to act like Jesus, to think it's your work, to think I gotta get my life together, I've gotta um to should and would, I should have done this, I I've gotta try harder. And grace isn't opposed to effort, but at the same time, we have to be grounded in sanctification is ultimately the work of Christ of Christ Christ. It is the work of Jesus on the cross, and it is the work of the Spirit in our lives. And if we start with grace for salvation, but leave grace for sanctification, then you're not going to grow in Christ-likeness. Yeah. To me, the people who are most unchrist-like are the people who try hardest in their own strength to be Christ-like. Right? Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. It it is one of those mysteries that's like, so we are gifted holiness, which means we are gifted Christ-likeness, but yet our journey on earth and our pursuit is that we fix our eyes on Jesus and we want to walk towards him and reflect him more and more, not less and less. So we have it, but we're pursuing it. And it it again to our logical brains, we're like, so I either have it or I'm pursuing it. And it's like, no, it it's both. Yeah. God has met the standard. So when Jesus says, Be holy as I am, or God says, Be holy as I am holy, Jesus said, Be perfect as I'm perfect. That standard has been achieved through salvation, but through life, we want to move closer to Him and reflect Him more and be start to live consistent with this new creation, our new identity. Yeah, new family identity.
SPEAKER_00Born again into this new family that we take on all those characteristics. But not the ones listed here drunkenness, sexual immorality, thieves, but this new identity.
SPEAKER_02But in a self-focused pursuit, how's it going to be perfect as Christ is perfect? Like how are we doing with that? Uh we're all failing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like and then we're like, oh, I'm terrible, I'm never I'm no good. God doesn't love me. He's saying, No, Christ has accomplished everything, He's gifted it to us. Every good and perfect gift comes from our Father above, and we just begin to reflect our true nature.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's so good. And this is the life of a disciple. Um, a disciple, in what we say as a short definition, is the process of being formed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. Um it's not our own self-improvement, but it's to be formed into the image of Christ. And that's not to become a first century Jewish man, it is to be uh the image of Christ of Christ were you, whoever you are and how he's uniquely made. Um but the important part there is it is the process of being formed and that kind of ongoing work that has been accomplished and is being accomplished in our lives. Which is great encouragement when some days we're like, I don't I I wouldn't say Christ likeness was my um was my big takeaway for the day. I I I think that I can say that because you're married to me. So you get up close and personal when those days are true. Never, never.
SPEAKER_02I mean, Pastor Lindsay is is only holy because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And then you get to treat me as someone who is left by God with grace, even when I don't act like God who has given me grace.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it it's pretty crazy. We can simultaneously thank God for his gift of holiness and ask him to help us to be more holy.
SPEAKER_00To be more holy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And that's that's a very that's that's we're we're stating our identity and we're committing to our dependence on him to uh help us that that identity that is inside of us to reveal itself more and more through our lives.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's so good. Uh I don't think she said is the I know she's probably not the one who coined this, but it's the one that I hear hear from the most is uh author and Bible teacher named Jen Wilkin, um, who refers back to that uh justification is that we are saved from the penalty of sin, but sanctification is is that we are being saved, um and we have it from God, but we are living into it, and glorification is the fact that so we are being saved from the power of sin. So sin is losing its power over us, we're growing into family-likeness, and then we will be saved from the presence of sin. Someday we will join with Jesus in all of eternity and fully experience that we have been saved from the punishment of sin. That will be that is a f a reality we'll just understand more than ever. Um, but fully experience that the power of sin no longer has a hold on us because the presence of sin is gone. And that's what that's why eternity, that's why heaven is heaven, because the presence of sin is gone. Um we're living towards that day where we're seeing that become more and more of a a reality for us, that the power of sin is being broken, has been broken and is being broken in our lives.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was just saying that the uh the verse that comes to my mind is uh Titus chapter 2, uh starting in verse 11, and you kind of see that progression. Uh Titus 2.11 says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Verse 12, training us, so that's the sanctification, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. And then verse 13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I love sanctification, is the grace of God training us um to grow and live into Christ-likeness, which He has achieved for us on the cross. So this is good news. Amen. This is good news. And if you've had a discouraging day, discouraging week, or discouraging year where you're like, I'm not living up to it. I hope these episodes have um encouraged you that your position with God and with Christ is not at risk because you have been saved by grace through faith. Um, but I hope it also encourages you that the work of God is still active and he's going to continue growing you in holiness, Christ-likeness, um, until someday it will all be accomplished. The power of sin or the presence of sin will be gone forever. I can't wait for that day.
SPEAKER_02It'll be a glorious day.
SPEAKER_00It'll be a glorious day. So thank you for joining us on the Pursue Reality Podcast. Uh definitely subscribe to this podcast if these episodes are helpful to you to be just notified when we release new episodes. And I hope you come back uh next week as we continue to explore what it means to be real people who follow and discover a better reality in Jesus. So we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_01Thanks for tuning in to the Pursue Reality Podcast. Reality Church is a local church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. To learn more or get connected, visit us at pursue reality.org.