A Short Treatise on Sanctification
God's Continuing Work in Us
Sanctification is a process. While it may look different for different people, all believers experience this process. When we are spiritually regenerated, the Holy Spirit begins to work in us. That work is meant to grow, ultimately leading us to perfection, or in other words, leading us to entire sanctification. How do we get there? Are there steps to follow, or do we just sit back and hope for the best? The three different levels of sanctification, as defined by John Wesley, are initial, gradual, and entirely; each highlighting the journey of renewal. Wesley wrote in various sermons how these three levels of sanctification flow from each other and are connected, eventually leading to perfection.
Initial Sanctification
Initial sanctification describes the initial moment when you are sanctified, also commonly referred to as regenerated. This born-again experience marks you as a renewed being by the power of God, setting the tone for how you are meant to grow. This new birth is the renewal of our sinful fallen nature, beginning the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts. John Wesley explains this concept in his sermon “The New Birth”:1
From hence it manifestly appears, what is the nature of the new birth. It is that great change which God works in the soul when he brings it into life; when he raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. It is the change wrought in the whole soul by the almighty Spirit of God when it is “created anew in Christ Jesus;” when it is “renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness;” when the love of the world is changed into the love of God; pride into humility; passion into meekness; hatred, envy, malice, into a sincere, tender, disinterested love for all mankind.
John Wesley describes our initial sanctification by saying, “In that instant we are born again, born from above, born of the Spirit: there is a real as well as a relative change. We are inwardly renewed by the power of God.”2 Initial sanctification flows from our justification, or when we are pardoned. It is when we are born again that the work of the Spirit begins to grow within us. Again, Wesley provides clarity in his sermon “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” saying, “We feel ‘the love of God shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us;’ producing love to all mankind, and more especially to the children of God; expelling the love of the world, the love of pleasure, of ease, of honour, of money, together with pride, anger, self-will, and every other evil temper; in a word, changing the earthly, sensual, devilish mind, into ‘the mind which was in Christ Jesus’.”3 As born-again believers, we do not merely receive assurance about avoiding God’s wrath. The sinful love we once had for worldly pleasures is expelled upon our regeneration. This is the fruit of initial sanctification.
Gradual Sanctification
At the moment of regeneration, gradual sanctification also begins. Gradual sanctification is not isolated from initial sanctification, and it is not necessarily to be viewed as the 2nd or 3rd “step” in the salvation process. Instead, the words “initial” and “gradual” describe the kind of condition in which one is growing in sanctification. The initial component of sanctification is instantaneous. Gradual sanctification, then, is the spiritual standing before God in which the majority of born-again believers exist. This position is what most other church traditions articulate when they use the word “sanctification.” Unfortunately, this narrower view of sanctification limits their definition of God’s grace, excluding entire sanctification. Wesley encourages believers to lean into a life of gradual sanctification when he says in “The Scriptural Way of Salvation” that “From the time of our being born again, the gradual work of sanctification takes place. We are enabled ‘by the Spirit’ to ‘mortify the deeds of the body,’ of our evil nature; and as we are more and more dead to sin, we are more and more alive to God.”4
In this sermon he devotes only one relatively short paragraph to gradual sanctification. He certainly does not demean the importance of this work of God, but it reveals where his focus is at. As believers, we should not merely want to sin less than we already do. Instead, we ought to want the Holy Spirit to completely transform us into how we were originally made, which is in God’s image, free from the power of sin.
The modern evangelical church often deemphasizes this, leading to a practical abandonment of the work of the Holy Spirit. This results in a misunderstanding about the breadth of the Gospel, which only acknowledges “getting saved.” In this understanding, sanctification is attributed to merely being a better Christian, representing Christ in a way that might lead to unbelievers “getting saved.” It leaves unanswered, ‘What is our faith supposed to grow into?’ John Wesley would say all of Scripture, including the Old Testament, establishes our need to be transformed by God to right relationship with Him.
Entire Sanctification
This leads us to the natural end of gradual sanctification. Entire sanctification is not merely implied in Scripture, it is promised in the same way heaven is promised. Often when some Christians reject the idea of entire sanctification, they say that man is incapable of perfection. They are not wrong; man is completely and utterly incapable of perfection. That is why the work of holiness in one’s life is completely a work of the Spirit of God. This is the message of holiness. In order to return to the way we were originally created, we must be made new and then transformed by the Holy Spirit. Wesley points out that this is God’s promise for us; he adds that, “It is a divine evidence and conviction, secondly, that what God hath promised He is able to perform. Admitting, therefore, that ‘with men it is impossible’ to ‘bring a clean thing out of an unclean,’ to purify the heart from all sin, and to till it with all holiness; yet this creates no difficulty in the case, seeing ‘with God all things are possible’.”5
It is significant that Wesley alludes to Matthew 19:26, contending this passage is talking about holiness. I would imagine that he would not be agreeable to how that verse, and similar verses like Philippians 4:13, are used in modernity. They are often used to justify all sorts of trivial excesses and rarely used to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. This indicates the Holy Spirit’s role in the church has been greatly diminished. Some of the contributors to this phenomenon are lazy preaching, revivalism, and bad theology.
An Invitation
To take care of our holiness problem, it is vital that we understand the process of sanctification. Man was made in the image of God, and due to our sin, we cannot return to that former image by our own efforts. Through the work of the Spirit, we are justified and sanctified. Initially, we are being sanctified at the moment of regeneration. Flowing from that, we gradually grow in holiness. Eventually this gradual work of holiness can lead to entire sanctification. This experience describes the opportunity we have to allow the perfect love of God to fill us. This love can move us to a place where his love is “excluding sin” in our lives. The Holy Spirit then makes us into the person we were created to be.6
Andy Miller IV is a dual enrollment student at Wesley Biblical Seminary and Asbury University. He is aspiring to ministry in the Global Methodist Church. He co-hosts The Praislandia Podcast on Spotify. You can find him on Instagram @andymillerfour.
John Wesley, “The New Birth” in The Sermons of John Wesley (1872), Wesley Center for Applied Theology, II.5. https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-45-the-new-birth/
John Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation” in The Sermons of John Wesley (1872), Wesley Center for Applied Theology, I.4. https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/the-sermons-of-john-wesley-1872-edition/sermon-43-the-scripture-way-of-salvation/
Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” I.4.
Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” I.8.
Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” III.14.
This article was originally submitted as a paper to Dr. Chris Lohrstorfer at Wesley Biblical Seminary. It has been edited for publication on The Earnest Wesleyan.
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