Sanctification

In the original Greek language, the noun is HAGIASMOS and the verb is HAGIAZO.

The word literally means "TO SET APART" or "A STATE OF BEING SET APART".

"SET APART" is separating things into different categories. Just like a well organized person will set apart his sock drawer into different compartments. One side will be for white socks, and the other side will be for dark socks. Perhaps the stripes or patterns will be in the middle of the drawer. In a sense, this person sanctifies his socks.

When a mother places food upon a plate for each child, she is sanctifying the food. Separating it from the skillet onto individual plates.

When you enter a public place and need to go to the restroom, you look for the symbols or words that sanctify the privacy you desire. There are men's and women's restrooms. This is what is meant by separation or sanctification.

But now, let us look and see how the word is used in the Bible. Whenever we start to deal with spiritual matters there are phrases that take on different meanings than if we used them in the normal everyday life of everyone.

1. We are separated BY God and FOR God when we come into a relationship with Him. When we believe in God and demonstrate our FAITH towards Him and what He commands, God will accept us. Even though God LOVES everyone and made provision for everyone's SALVATION, it is our individual OBEDIENCE to His COMMANDS that makes us recipients of His GRACE and gives us the right to be called CHILDREN OF GOD.

2. When we live in such a way that we demontrate to the world around us that we believe in God and devote ourselves to God's service, we are sanctified. This is done in two parts. First part is the fact that God made the provisions for us, and the second part is the fact that we obey those provisions. When we walk, talk, act, and live like Christians, we are sanctified. The world will see our faith being demonstrated and know that we are different from the world. That is sanctification.

3.God appoints a work for His children to do. When we do that work we are following a Divine commission or command. Since God is the originator of these commands and since we obey these commands, it can be rightly said that God Sanctifies us for a purpose. That purpose is the primary gist of everything the Bible teaches us. The purpose above all else is the salvation of souls. Jesus came and died for that very reason. The Holy Spirit inspired men to write this information down so that all could read and learn what can save souls. As Christians and followers of God, we also should have that purpose of saving souls.

4. A very close synonym as used in the Bible is the word HOLINESS.

We have seen so far the use of the word as a noun (a person, place, or thing). Now let us look at the word as a verb (an action).

1. When we make the choice to put away worldliness and devote ourselves and consecrate ourselves to serving God, we have sanctified ourselves TO HIS SERVICE.

2. When we make the choice to put away worldliness and devote ourselves and conscrate ourselves to serving God, God has sanctified us FOR HIS SERVICE.

(You see, that it takes both God and the individual to accomplish sanctification.)

3. When we look at a person and see in them a faith towards God, and we look at another person and see someone who does not care for God, we make a separation in our observation.
God also does the same thing. God does not wish for the lost soul to perish and neither should we. God provided for the lost souls salvation, but if they choose not to accept it, they cannot be sanctified.

Since we have been separated or "SANCTIFIED" by Divine Sources, we are also called SAINTS in the Bible. Many people believe saints are dead people who did some great deed in this life and are honored for their selfless actions.
But in the Bible, sainthood or sanctification is not an ATTAINMENT, but it is a STATE into which God, in grace, calls sinful men, AND in which they begin their course as Christians by obedience.

Read
1 Corinthians 1:30
1 Thessalonians 4:3,4
2 Thessalonians 2:13
1 Peter 1:2
Genesis 2:3
Exodus 19:14
Exodus 29:43
Leviticus 8:10,15,30
Leviticus 10:3
Leviticus 27:15,19
Numbers 7:1
Numbers 8:17
Deuteronomy 32:51
1 Samuel 7:1
1 Samuel 16:5
1 Samuel 21:5
1 Chronicles 15:14
2 Chronicles 5:11
2 Chronicles 7:16,20
2 Chronicles 29:15,17,19
2 Chronicles 29:34
2 Chronicles 30:3,8,15,17,24
2 Chronicles 31:18
Nehemiah 3:1
Nehemiah 12:47
Job 1:5
Isaiah 5:16
Isaiah 13:3
Jeremiah 1:5
Ezekiel 20:41
Ezekiel 28:22
Ezekiel 36:23
Ezekiel 38:16,25
Ezekiel 39:27
Ezekiel 48:11
John 10:36
John 17:19
Acts 20:32
Acts 26:18
Romans 15:16
1 Corinthians 1:2
1 Corinthians 6:11
1 Corinthians 7:14
1 Timothy 4:5
2 Timothy 2:21
Hebrews 2:11
Hebrews 10:10,14,20
Jude 1
Matthew 23:17,19
Hebrews 2:11
Hebrews 9:13
Exodus 13:2
Exodus 19:10,22,23
Exodus 28:41
Exodus 29:27,33,36,37
Exodus 31:13
Exodus 40:13
Leviticus 8:11,12
Leviticus 20:8
Leviticus 27:14,16,17,18,22,26
Deuteronomy 5:12
Joshua 7:13
1 Chronicles 15:12
2 Chronicles 29:15,34
2 Chronicles 35:6
Isaiah 8:13
Isaiah 29:23
Isaiah 66:17
Ezekiel 36:23
Ezekiel 37:28
Joel 1:14
Joel 2:15,16
John 17:17, 19
Ephesians 5:26
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Hebrews 13:12
1 Peter 3:15

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