Is Sanctification Positional, Progressive, or Neither? - Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at how the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sins for all eternity.

This is called sanctified or sanctification.

Through faith in Jesus, we have been sanctified or cleansed from all sins.

Therefore, we are holy and can now be in a close, loving relationship with God without fear of judgment, condemnation, or loss of fellowship with God because of sin.

We learned that sanctification is not positional or progressive but is immediate, actual and personal upon one’s faith in Jesus.

This is why Paul refers to believers in the Bible as saints, or as holy ones.

The Greek word he uses is hagiois.

This is the root word for hagiazó that we examined in Part 1 that means to make holy, pure, clean.

Those who are made holy (hagiazó) through faith in the blood of Jesus are called holy ones or saints (hagiois).

The foundational identity of a believer in Jesus is a saint, a holy one, whose sins have been cleansed eternally by the blood of Jesus.

This is not a positional identity but a personal identity.

Based on this identity, this actual, real identity, Paul appeals to believers to live morally pure lives.

For example, Paul writes in Ephesians 1:1 (Berean Study Bible),

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful [believers] in Christ Jesus.

The Literal Standard Bible interprets Ephesians 1:1 this way.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, to the holy ones who are in Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.

In Ephesians, Paul refers to believers as saints or holy ones nine times.

Based upon this holy identity, Paul in Ephesians 5:3 writes,

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. (NIV)

The NET Bible translates Ephesians 5:3 this way.

But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints.

To Paul, the motivation for living a morally pure life was established in the actual identity of the believer – a holy one, a saint (see also 1 Corinthians 6:11-20).

This identity is not a positional identity or a progressive identity but is an actual identity based upon faith in the blood of Jesus that eternal cleansed from all sins, making believers holy in their identity (hagiazó) resulting in believers being called saints (hagiois).

Again, this is an actual and immediate identity based upon faith in Jesus, not a positional or progressive identity and is essential for a believer to understand if they are to live out behaviorally who they are in their identity.

With this in mind, it is vital to know that living morally doesn’t make us holy – cleansed from sins.

Rather, knowing that we are holy – eternally cleansed from all sins by the blood of Jesus – motivates us to live a morally pure life.

This why Paul opens his letters to the churches addressing them as saints, meaning believers in Jesus who have been cleansed from all sins by the blood of Jesus.

To Paul, being a saint was not a positional truth but an actual, real personal truth which was foundational to putting on the new self and taking off the old, as seen in Ephesians 4-5 and Colossians 3.

To read Part 3 of Is Sanctification Positional, Progressive, or Neither?, click below.

Part 3: Is Sanctification Positional, Progressive, or Neither?