This study series a discussion of Paul’s letter to the Romans as it pertains to the “sanctification” of the maturing Christian believer. The generic meaning of “sanctification” is “the state of proper functioning.” To sanctify someone is to set that person apart for the use intended by their designer. In the theological sense, believers are functionally sanctified when they are living in accord with the purpose that God intended for them.

The Greek word translated “sanctification” is hagiasmos meaning “holiness.” To sanctify, therefore, means “to make holy.” In one sense only God is holy (Isa. 6:3), God is separate, distinct, and set apart from all else. No human being or thing shares the holiness of God’s essential nature. There is “one God.” (Eph. 4:4). Yet Scripture speaks about holy things. Moreover, God calls human beings to be as holy as He is holy (Lev. 11:44; Mat, 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). Another word for a holy person is “saint (hagios),” meaning “a sanctified, one who is separated.” The opposite of sanctified or holy is to be profane, unclean, blasphemous (Lev. 10:10).

Most genuinely serious believers will ultimately come to acknowledge that they are frustrated in their attempts to follow what they thought Romans 6 was saying and teaching concerning overcoming “Sin.” Usually we strive to follow what we think is being suggested as the remedy; where Romans 6 says “know, reckon, and yield.” But honestly, I’ve tried this for years with only little success. At times, I’ve found myself rebelling against what I “know,” not wanting to “reckon, yield or obey.” I still fell to what I knew was “Sin” (Rom. 14:23). I found myself as Paul did, saying; 

“I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].” (Rom. 7:15 (AMP)

Even when we are on the right track of looking to Him and His cross as our source, we as grace believers will fail at times so long as we live in these Sin-laden flesh bodies, but we’re not to be possessed of Sin habitually. But, we only learn this after we’ve tried and failed in our attempts to live righteously … by our own independent human effort.

The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is the oft referred to Magna Carta for the Christian… where believers become free from Sin’s penalty and power.

Romans lays out the progressive steps (below) on the road toward living a sanctified Christian life. Paul’s contextual progression to sanctification moves through Romans 5, 6, and 7, and then culminates in the victory of Romans 8, saying; “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37).

• Rom. 5 reveals our “justification,” which is our declaration of ‘innocence’ that was gained by grace through faith in the Crosswork of Jesus Christ.
• Rom. 6 reveals the fact of our co-death and our co-resurrection with Christ, as the basis of God sanctifying us… ‘positionally.’
• Rom. 7 reveals the frustration of believers relapsing from grace by trying to live righteous via human effort.
• Rom. 8, reveals how the Work and Power of “the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” is what makes us frees from the dominion of “Sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:2-3), thus, sanctifying us ‘practically.’  

“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath (already) made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

Clearly then, the focus for the maturing believers is to learn to trust in and rely upon the indwelling “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” to actualize this and bring us to maturity… as we then learn follow His leading. “… as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the (grown) sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)