HOW DO YOU SANCTIFY YOUR SPIRIT?
Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2024
Here's the backgroud:
There are a few pathways leading to salvations found in the holy words of God. Just in the two following verses, we find these:
Faith in the truth
Obedience to Jesus Christ
Sprinkling of the blood
Sanctification of the spirit
The last of these 4 is the one I would love to give attention to today, for it is often misinterpreted in popular Bibles.
2thess 2:13- God chose You(pl) from the beginning unto salvation in holiness of spirit and in faith of truth
1pet 1:2- (to those chosen) according to Father God's foreknowledge, in holiness of spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of Jesus Christ's blood.
In these verses, we see that just as much as God had foreordained to have a people adopted by himself as children (Ephesians 1:5&11) for the purpose of being conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), here, in both forementioned verses, God foreordained a people to be IN holiness of spirit. Not (in this specific context) in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit which would be a passive action, the holy Spirit doing the work, but instead, Paul describe an active action, YOU being who does the work of sanctifying your spirit, YOU bringing to life your faith of truth.
This is vitally important to understand Romans 1:5 (also often mistranslated for exactly the same reason) which says that Jesus was declared Son of God..... according to the spirit of holiness. The holy Spirit did not declare Jesus to be the Son of God, but Christ's spirit of holiness marked him as Son (as John explains emphatically in his letters later) and so, he was declared Son, in power through the resurrection. Christ sanctified his spirit, actively, as a purposeful practice of his life, and obtained salvation for all.
HERE IS MY QUESTION THEN:
How does anyone sanctify their spirit?
What's the pragmatic application?
There are a few pathways leading to salvations found in the holy words of God. Just in the two following verses, we find these:
Faith in the truth
Obedience to Jesus Christ
Sprinkling of the blood
Sanctification of the spirit
The last of these 4 is the one I would love to give attention to today, for it is often misinterpreted in popular Bibles.
2thess 2:13- God chose You(pl) from the beginning unto salvation in holiness of spirit and in faith of truth
1pet 1:2- (to those chosen) according to Father God's foreknowledge, in holiness of spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of Jesus Christ's blood.
In these verses, we see that just as much as God had foreordained to have a people adopted by himself as children (Ephesians 1:5&11) for the purpose of being conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29), here, in both forementioned verses, God foreordained a people to be IN holiness of spirit. Not (in this specific context) in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit which would be a passive action, the holy Spirit doing the work, but instead, Paul describe an active action, YOU being who does the work of sanctifying your spirit, YOU bringing to life your faith of truth.
This is vitally important to understand Romans 1:5 (also often mistranslated for exactly the same reason) which says that Jesus was declared Son of God..... according to the spirit of holiness. The holy Spirit did not declare Jesus to be the Son of God, but Christ's spirit of holiness marked him as Son (as John explains emphatically in his letters later) and so, he was declared Son, in power through the resurrection. Christ sanctified his spirit, actively, as a purposeful practice of his life, and obtained salvation for all.
HERE IS MY QUESTION THEN:How does anyone sanctify their spirit?
What's the pragmatic application?