Sanctified by the cross

by John Wilthew County Church Wansbeck,


Northumberland, UK

Let me take you to a room in Jerusalem. It is the evening before Jesus' death on the cross. He is praying for his disciples. ‘For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified' (John 17:19).

This is the language of sacrifice. Christ is consecrating Himself as the spotless Lamb of God while, in the temple nearby, animals are being consecrated for death at Passover. Jesus is making Himself ready to be the atoning sacrifice for sin. This is an awesome moment in human history.

Disobedience and independence are at the root of the human problem.

If we all obeyed our Creator and embraced His instructions, the world would be a happier place. Sadly, our natural disposition is to make our own choices and demand our own freedom or even ‘our rights'. We all want our personal space.

Because Jesus sanctified himself we, and those first disciples, are ‘truly sanctified'. Sanctification is being set apart by and devoted to a holy God. It is also the process of being made holy by the work of the Holy Spirit. Christians are ‘those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy' (1 Cor. 1:2). I am sanctified! Christ's death on the cross is central to this sanctification. ‘We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all' (Heb. 10:10).

Animal sacrifices under the Law had always been inadequate to deal with the problem of sin. Their very repetition proclaimed this. Nevertheless they foreshadowed something wonderful; the coming into the world of the perfect sacrifice, the Messiah himself. ‘By one sacrifice he has made perfect those who are being made holy' (Heb. 10:14). Now I am accepted and set apart to a holy God on the basis of Christ's redeeming sacrifice on the cross. I am sanctified!

In Paul's mighty ‘Romans' letter you will find this same truth expressed in extraordinary words. ‘We died to sin' (Rom. 6:2).

This is not announcing something we have done to make ourselves holy. Rather, believing in Christ has so united us with him that his death and resurrection have become ours. We have a new nature and a new master. We have been transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.

This does not mean that I can now sail through life untroubled by sin's attacks. But it does mean that sin has lost its grip on me.

‘Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace' (Rom. 6:14).

My new master's rule is not characterised by demands and threats but by mercy and power to ‘overcome by the blood of the Lamb' (Rev.12:11). John Piper writes, ‘When Christ died to remove our condemnation, he opened, as it were, the valve of heaven's mighty mercy to flow on behalf of our liberation from the power of sin.'

‘He breaks the power of cancelled sin' wrote Charles Wesley, while poet William Cowper describes the ongoing power of Christ's blood:

‘Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood

Shall never lose its power,

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Be saved to sin no more.'

I am being sanctified!

I have a new nature, but I am not perfect. The Spirit is working to make me more like Jesus but my human frame is frail and the target of sin's foul attacks. Nevertheless I now know who I am in Christ and I have spiritual weapons to deal with sin. And the precious blood of Christ goes on cleansing me. ‘If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin' (1 John 1:7).

Here the apostle John challenges those who say that holiness is not a big issue. He writes, ‘If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth' (v6). Instead we are to walk with Christ, who is the Light, and in integrity and purity, not seeking the cover of darkness to conceal sin. But we still need the blood of Christ to keep on cleansing us. ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness' (v8, 9).

Can I lose my sanctification?

If every true believer is ‘sanctified in Christ Jesus' what about those who fall away? What becomes of their sanctification? The writer of Hebrews pulls no punches. ‘How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?' (Heb. 10:29). This verse is cited by those who believe Christians can lose their salvation. Others argue that the person described here was never regenerate in the first place. But ‘the blood of the covenant that sanctified him' sounds like a true believer.

R.T. Kendall thinks so too and suggests that this passage highlights the two-fold application of the blood of Christ in sanctification. First, as this text says, the blood of the covenant ‘sanctified' us. This is our once and for all sanctification which we cannot lose because it is rooted in grace. Second, there is the ongoing confession and cleansing for sins which the apostle John speaks of. Kendall argues that this is in view in Hebrews 10:26, ‘If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left.' When believers fall away they do not lose their salvation but they will forfeit inheritance and a ‘rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Pet. 1:11). Whatever conclusion you come to, a text like this is a powerful provocation to faithfulness and to keeping your eyes on Jesus.

Christ is my sanctification

All my hope for the past, present and future is in Christ. ‘Christ Jesus is, our righteousness our sanctification and our redemption' (1 Cor. 1:30).

He is all this ‘by the purity of his person and the excellency of his sacrifice being reckoned to our account,' writes A.W. Pink. This is accountancy even I can manage. Not only do I count myself dead to sin but I also add Christ's holiness to my account. More than enough to overwhelm any debit column!

This same Jesus is my heavenly advocate. ‘He is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest meets our need - one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens' (Heb. 7:25f).

My Redeemer is before the throne of God above with my name over his heart and on his lips. But it is ‘the power of his death', says John Calvin, which ‘avails as an everlasting intercession on our behalf.'

‘Behold Him there! The risen Lamb,

My perfect spotless righteousness;

The great unchangeable I AM,

The King of glory and of grace!

One with himself I cannot die

My soul is purchased with his blood;

My life is hid with Christ on high,

With Christ my Saviour and my God.'