Dear BPCWA worshipper, Thank God for another year where we could spend time away from the world and seek His face at the Family Camp. This year, the topic I chose for our Morning Devotion messages was “The Christian’s Sanctification”, taken from Philippians 2:12-15, preached by Rev Lingkang Ko in pre-recorded video sermons.

What is sanctification? The answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s question 35 states that “Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.” Sanctification is the work of God whereby we become spiritually mature when we are more and more like Christ after salvation, beginning from the time that we are born again. It is something that all believers will experience because the indwelling Holy Spirit guides and prompts us to turn away from sin. The Word of God is the infallible guide that teaches us and instructs us in the way of righteousness. Sanctification is marked by how much we obey the Word of God. When we understand and embrace the Word of God, we will start to apply it in our lives and obey it. Sanctification is really a measure of how much we obey the Word of God and how we continue to align all of our lives according to His Truth. Spiritual maturity is also measured by sanctification as we strive towards obedience to the objective Word of God, dying to sin and living unto righteousness. Sanctification is a 1) Continual obedience. Paul said, “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence” (Php 2:12a). The Philippian church obeyed from the time they were saved. They held the Word seriously, showed concern, and were active in service. A mark of ongoing sanctification is that from the time that you’re born again, you obey, and you continue to obey. Verse 12 is connected by a “wherefore” to the preceding, which included a discourse of Christ in Philippians 2:2-8. Christ as a man was perfect in His obedience, actively fulfilling all righteousness and passively submitting to what God willed for Him. This, too, is the pattern for every Christian when it comes to sanctification. This does not mean we don’t struggle with sin and occasionally wander away from righteousness, but sanctification is always there and keeps going. 2) Consistent obedience. Since “Christ liveth in me”, “I am crucified with Christ . . . and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). The Christian, with the inward working of the Holy Spirit, wants to obey. Sanctification is not about obeying only to please someone or when it is advantageous to you, and disobeying when you think you won’t get caught. We obey because our Lord desires it of us. We must remember that when we obey just to project a good image of ourselves, that is not sanctification. Sanctification is when the desire to please God motivates the outward obedience. If so, the believer doesn’t change depending on who we are with because God always sees everything we do, even if others don’t. Sanctification is when the desire to please God and not grieve the Holy Spirit outweighs the desire to sin. Obedience that is inconsistent and to please man is only hypocrisy and is not sanctification. 

Whose work is it? Sanctification involves human responsibility, but the ability to obey is from God. Paul says, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). “Work out” means to manifest, demonstrate. Your salvation must be evidenced by your sanctified life. Conversely, our testimony must be worthy of the salvation that we have received. Who is responsible for sanctification? 1) Personal responsibility. Obedience is not passive, something that we wait for to happen. There is effort on our part to be godly, now that we are saved. That is your sanctification. This is the picture of what godliness looks like. As we read God’s Word, we know what it means to be heavenly minded. It makes us wise and discerning and affects both our actions and our thoughts. We practise godliness so that it is evident to the people around us. As a child of God, I have reverential fear for Him when I remember my own unworthiness before God. I respect Him and want to please Him because He is worthy. It is a parental relationship that I want to obey God out of gratitude because of all that God has done for me. Hence, I make a conscious choice to “work out” my salvation. 2) God’s Sovereign work. At the same time, we are told, “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php 2:13). Sanctification is never anything that we can be proud of or boast about. There are many testimonies of how God has turned my sinful life around. These are our encouragements, because left to ourselves, none of us can ever meet the spirit of the law laid out in the Ten Commandments. Knowing this also gives us great assurance, because the God who does the sanctification can also accomplish it as He works in us. Salvation will most certainly be followed by sanctification. We can be confident that “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6). We can both desire (which is what God puts in our hearts) and do of God’s good pleasure. The God who is delighted as we grow in sanctification will continue to see to our sanctification progressing. The God who gave us a perfect salvation will work out a perfect sanctification to be conformed to the image of Christ. This sanctification is both outward and inward, for we know, “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” (1Th 5:23).

The above is but a summary of the first 2 messages on sanctification. I hope you see from this that sanctification is not an option in a Christian’s life. Instead, it is the evidence that one is a Christian. This is because sanctification is an important part of God’s plan – not just to save us from hell, but to have us reflect the God who saved us. Good works do not save us, but sanctification demonstrates a faith which is evidenced by works that reflect the God who saves us from sin. Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor