Chapter 13: Of Sanctification

Understanding The Westminister Confession of Faith
Chapter 13: Of Sanctification

SANCTIFICATION is described as “the carrying on to perfection the work begun in regeneration.” This extends to the whole man (see Rom 6:13 and Col 3:10). And it is the Holy Spirit in the plan of redemption who carries on this work. He does this by “bringing the whole nature more and more under the influences of the new gracious principles implanted in the soul in regeneration” (Easton).

The WCF teaches that, “Christians have a new heart and a new spirit created in them, and are further “sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them … and strengthened, in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

This is the spiritual direction we are to embark on and continue to move in, so that we can “…grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

While sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, practically we are to look at it as an injunction to separate ourselves to the service of God. Psalm 4:3 teaches that, “The LORD has set apart the godly for himself.” And Paul reminds us that we are the temple of the living God, so therefore we are to “separate from” the ungodly. Then he says, God “will welcome you” (2 Cor 6:17).

All this should lead to the mortification of sin. (Mortification here means to exercise discipline to overcome the desire for sin and to strengthen the will.) That is why Paul calls us to “know how to control [our] own body in holiness and honour” (1 Thess 4:4).

This is referred to as “the practice of the law” by Walter Marshall, an English Presbyterian minister in his excellent work on sanctification first published in 1692. In his book, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, he says that “several endowments and qualifications are necessary to enable us” to do this. He says, “for the immediate practice of the law … we must have an inclination and propensity of our hearts thereunto; and therefore we must be well persuaded of our reconciliation with God, and of our future enjoyment of the everlasting heavenly happenings, and of sufficient strength both to will and perform all duties acceptably, until we come to the enjoyment of that happiness.”


These holy “endowments and qualifications” necessary for the practice of the law can only be received from the fullness of Christ. We do this by constantly fellowshipping with Him – we must be in Christ, and have Christ Himself in us!

“Be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19) therefore is a call to endeavour diligently to make the right use of all means appointed in the Word of God for the obtaining and practising of holiness according our faith.
 

In Him,
Rev Robert Chew