Sanctification And The Shape Of A Holy Life

Ever wondered why real change can feel slow even after a dramatic spiritual breakthrough? We unpack sanctification as both an instant welcome into God’s family and a gradual, Spirit-led reshaping of your desires, habits, and priorities. Think of it like joining a new household: you truly belong on day one, and then you learn the family culture over time until it becomes second nature.

We start by clarifying three anchors: redemption cancels the debt and breaks sin’s grip, justification declares you right with God, and sanctification dedicates you to God’s purposes. From there, we move into the lived tension Scripture names so clearly in Romans 6: you’re no longer a slave to sin, so don’t let it rule your life. That means presenting your whole self to God and choosing freedom over impulse. You’re not at the mercy of your urges; in Christ, you can stand outside your desires and direct them toward life.

Then we trace Galatians 5 as a map for growth. The flesh and the Spirit pull in opposite directions, but when the Spirit leads, a new culture takes root: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These aren’t personality tweaks; they’re the family resemblance of the kingdom of God. We share practical ways to cooperate with grace—immersing in Scripture, praying honestly, worshiping regularly, building community, and obeying promptly—so the Spirit can do the deep work only he can do. Over time, the gap widens between temptation and action, chaos gives way to order, and your life aligns with God’s character.

If you’re longing for a faith that feels both secure and alive, this conversation will help you name what God has already done and step into what he’s doing right now. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with one way you’re reordering your life around the Spirit this week.

Transcript

Setting The Stage: Sanctification

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Welcome back to what we believe and why it matters. Uh, we are talking about the foundations of our faith, kind of the the the basics, I guess. Not really even the basics. These are just the foundational things, the things that are so important for us to have a good grasp of, to understand what we believe and why we believe it. Today we're talking about foundation number six, sanctification. Have you ever come to the point, or I'm sure you have, if you're my age, listen, I did a little research today. I'm 43 years old, and according to Chat GPT, I am older than 65% of the world. Only 35% of the world is older than me. And I'm not sure how I feel about that. Actually, I know how I feel about that. I don't like it. I don't like it one bit. So, anyway, if you're my age, um, I know that at some point you have come to the realization that the family you grew up in, your family of origin, did some things that were weird, but you didn't realize they were weird when you were growing up. Okay, so I'll I'll I'll I want rather than tell on my parents, I'll tell on me and what my kids will one day, well, they already know it's weird, um, but they had to come to the realization. So for us, we have a lot of kids, which means a lot of socks. There, we we were folding so many socks that one day we were like, we got to figure out a new system. So we got rid of all the old socks, and we just bought all of the same sock, the same style, the same everything for all the boys in the home, and then the same sock for all the girls.

Family Mores As A Metaphor

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So, and we put them in baskets in our breezeway, in our mud room where we put our shoes on, and all the boys' socks were in one, the girls' socks in another. We didn't have to fold socks. You just reach in and grab two socks and you have a pair. It was like magic. It worked so well. Well, my kids thought it was just normal to have a communal sock basket by your shoes. My poor kids. They didn't realize that most people have their own socks in their drawer, in their bedroom. They didn't realize that for a long time. Um, I think they did. I don't know, but we knew it was weird. But it was just something that we had to do because of how many socks we had, how many kids we had. It was essentially kind of our own little weird thing, our own little process, our own little procedure that was unique to our family. Every family has its own moraes, it's called, okay? And that that is simply what what a moray is, it's it's the essential or characteristic customs and conventions or processes of a community or family. All right. So that's what I mean when I say like our cultural mores, the cultural mores of our family. Every family, every community has its own way of doing things. When you join a new family, either by marriage or by adoption, you're creating a new family. You're taking multiple different cultural values and you're you're combining them together in a new way. When you do that, you're creating a new culture, a new set of cultural mores. And when you join a new family or you create a new family, you have to learn the new family's culture. I have adopted children. When those children came into my home, they had

Defining Positional And Progressive Holiness

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to learn the culture of the family that they were now a part of. This is the theological concept of sanctification, kind of. Okay. Um this is the definition of sanctification that we are working with today. Sanctification initially occurs at salvation and is a positional declaration that a believer is holy. And now, when I say positional, the word holy means set apart. Okay. So it's a positional declaration that you have been taken from this family and now you are in a new family. All right. It is also a progressive, lifelong process of separating from evil as believers continually draw closer to God and become more Christ-like. All right. It is also, I'm gonna read it again, it is also a progressive, lifelong process of separating from evil and drawing closer to God and becoming more Christ-like. It's in sanctification that we become more like Jesus. It's in sanctification that we learn and live by the cultural mores of the kingdom of God, of the family of God. It is in sanctification that we learn to order our lives according to God's character and the culture of God's kingdom. The longer we serve Jesus, the more our sanctification should increase. It's not a one-time event. It is a one-time event. It is a positional declaration. You're now a part of the kingdom of God. You are now a part of the family of God, but it is also a progressive work in our lives. So here is the belief statement just read. You ready for it? Foundation number six. We believe in the sanctifying

Redemption, Justification, Sanctification Explained

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work of Jesus at salvation to dedicate us to God and the power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy life. There it is. Now, let's dive in. These definitions will help us have a better understanding of what Jesus does, what he did, what he does, and what he's doing in our lives. All right. The first definition I want to hit is redemption. Redemption is having our sin debt cleared because Jesus paid it all. Imagine someone going to your bank account that's in the negatives and then erasing that debt and saying, here you go, now you're at zero, and here's so much more. Okay, that's what redemption is. The Bible often uses the metaphor of being enslaved and then being free. Okay. That is redemption. You have been redeemed. You have been bought with a price. That is redemption. All right. Justification. Justification is right standing with God, moving from guilt to innocence. Justification is a word that's it's almost like a courtroom word, like not guilty. You have been declared not guilty. That's what justification is. And finally, sanctification. Sanctification is being separated from sin and dedicated to God for his purposes, moving from unclean to clean. That's sanctification. And I would say, even moving from chaos to order, that we are ordering our lives according to God's

Scripture Grounding In 1 Corinthians 6:11

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kingdom and the culture. I'm sorry, according to God's character and the culture of God's kingdom. All right. So um Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, he actually connects all of these things in one in one verse. Uh 1 Corinthians 6, 11. He says, Some of you were once like that, but you were cleansed. Okay, you were redeemed, you were made holy, sanctified, and you were made right, justified with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. This verse shows us how God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit brought about and bring about change in our lives. We were cleansed, we were forgiven, we were made holy or sanctified, and we were made right or justified by Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. While our redemption and justification are both received at salvation, redemption is both a salvific event, a positional declaration. You are now a part of God's kingdom. And I think most of us, nope, I think all of us can attest to the fact that it's also a process, really a work in progress. It is through sanctification that we are separated from sin and set apart for God. Salvation is just the first step as we become more and more separated from sin and more and more connected to Jesus. The first thing I want to talk about as we now that we've gotten those definitions figured out, is that there is a battle going on inside each of us and for each of us. There's a passage in one of the gospels, I don't remember where it is, because I'm just I'm just throwing this at you, but Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift him, but that Jesus

The Inner Battle And Romans 6

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prayed for him. There is a battle going on inside each one of us, but also for each one of us. We have an enemy that desires to kill, steal, and destroy. And we have to fight that battle. This is what Romans 6, 5 through 10 says. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. We've been redeemed. For when we died with Christ, we are set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this. Ah, man, I love the confidence with which Paul understands this. He says, We are sure of this, because Christ was raised from the dead and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died once, I'm sorry, let me let me rephrase that. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin, but now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ. Sanctification calls us to live out what Christ did in our lives. Did you see what it said? It said, when he died, he died once to break the power of sin. And then verse 11 so you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ. It calls us to live out in our lives what Christ did in our life. As he gave his life through death, we now give our life by committing to him, ordering our lives according to his character and the culture of the kingdom of God, and allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us. When we live daily the truths of Scripture as the Holy Spirit helps us, we become more like Jesus and live holy just as He is holy. We have a struggle that is going on within us, a struggle with sin, a struggle with chaos. Romans 6, 12 through 14 says, do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. It doesn't get any more clear than what Paul is saying in this. Do not let sin control the way you live. I think we sometimes have to remind ourselves that we are not slaves to our desires. Animals are slaves to their desires. An animal only acts on instinct. You cannot say to an animal, do not give in to your desires, because an animal is driven by its desires. Humanity is unique in that we have the ability to stand outside of our desires and to control our desires rather than our desires controlling us. That's why Paul says here, do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely

Don’t Let Sin Control You

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to God. For you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God's grace. We are in a spiritual battle. We have a struggle within ourselves, and we have a struggle without ourselves, outside of ourselves. Our sin nature, wars against our spirit, and our desire to stand clean before God. And ultimately, we have an enemy that is using chaos and deception, destruction, distraction, every tool that he possibly can, so that you will choose sin over righteousness. But you don't have to give in to that temptation. You don't have to give in to that chaos because the Holy Spirit is at work within you. I just I feel like somebody needs to hear this truth. You don't have to give in to sin. The Luddha says, Do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. Each day as we obey and yield ourselves to the process of sanctification, we can claim victory. With each victory, we grow closer to Jesus. We grow closer to holiness, we grow closer to that process, that progressive sanctification. You're still right now, you are positionally right with God. But as we are sanctified, we become closer and closer to Jesus, more aligned with his character, more aligned with the culture of the kingdom of God. It is a lifelong process completed only when we enter heaven for eternity. So let's talk about the work of the Holy Spirit and what that looks like in our lives. So in Galatians, um, Paul says, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. I mean, sometimes Paul is very confusing. Sometimes Paul is super clear. So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. Right? I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty clear. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. This is in Romans, or

Life In The Spirit: Galatians 5

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I'm sorry, Galatians chapter five. These two forces are constantly fighting each other so that you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. And then Paul says, Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that you are earning your salvation? No, it means that if you are a part of the family of God, you will exhibit the characteristics of the family of God. You will exhibit the characteristics of God's kingdom as the Holy Spirit works in you. Because then Paul goes on to tell us what the culture of the kingdom of God looks like. Most of us know this list by the moniker fruit of the Spirit. I like to call it the culture of the kingdom of God. This is the cultural mores of the kingdom of God. These are the characteristics of God's kingdom. And this is what they are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then Paul says, There is no law against these things. Why does he say that? Because if you live by these things, you don't even need laws to govern your behavior because you are living a life that is constantly in line and in sync with the kingdom of God and with the character of God. Love one another. Have joy. Choose joy. Be at peace with one another and with God. Live an ordered, structured life that keeps God at the center. Be patient. You know what patience is? I think this is what I call patience. Patience is preemptive forgiveness. Patience is forgiving people before they even need forgiveness. Realizing that we are all broken and we are all struggling and we are all working our way through this life, allowing the Holy Spirit to work about sanctification in our lives, and being patient just allows us to freely forgive. And really have no need for forgiveness because we just are open-handed and let it go. Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Man, if we lived in a world right now that this that these things were the cultural mores that governed our society, can you imagine what the world would look like? Ultimately, we know that one day this will be the cultural mores that guide the world under the government of Jesus. In Isaiah chapter 9, it says that the government shall be on his shoulders. That's like the the structures of the world, that they will all be in alignment with Jesus. And when they're all in alignment with Jesus, we're all living and walking

Fruit Of The Spirit As Kingdom Culture

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and moving in the culture of the kingdom of God, which is this love, joy, peace list that we're talking about here. Ultimately, sanctification is moving us away from the desires of the flesh to the desires of the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are this list: love, joy, peace, patience, and so on and so forth. As we grow in sanctification, the fruit of the spirit should naturally be produced and constantly widening the gap between us and our sinful desires. Also, the good news is that it's not us that produces this fruit. It's not through great effort and trying really, really hard. Now, we do have to put ourselves in a position to be transformed by God, but ultimately it is the Holy Spirit who produces this fruit in our lives, who produces these characteristics in our lives. Our part in the process is resisting sin and then ordering our lives according to God's plan for humanity. Those who belong to Christ have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. And that is foundational truth number six. We believe in the sanctifying work of Jesus at salvation to dedicate us to God and the power of the Holy Spirit by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a holy life. Sanctification is not about memorizing and following a list of rules. Instead, we are called to the incredible adventure of developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We do that through prayer, through worship, through reading God's word. The word of God is one of the chief catalysts of transformation that God uses in our lives. The Holy Spirit speaks to us, and when he speaks, we are called to obey and order our lives according to his culture, his kingdom, his character. All right, that's it. Thanks for uh joining, and uh, we'll see you next time.