Understanding the COST of Sanctification

By George Nielsen

Paul the Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians and spoke a blessing and a special impartation of grace over this group of believers as he closed the letter now titled 1 Thessalonians.   In chapter 5, verse 23, he wrote:

²³ Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  [NKJV]

First, Paul addresses a particular character quality of God Almighty, peace, which he meant to convey the idea of Shalom.   Shalom included the absence of conflict, and also rest, personal fulfillment, and contentment.  Shalom has this extra, emotional, aspect to it because it is a state of being where there was no lack of any needed thing and thus no stress over needing “more.” 

Then Paul gives his spoken petition that he addressed to the God of peace, Yahweh-Shalom.     He asks for a special move of God in the Thessalonian church – to sanctify those people, and to do so completely.     We, in the Church today, probably do understand sanctification in a basic sense; it means to be set apart for a special purpose to serve God and to please God by living a life of personal holiness.   Paul was asking God for more than this!   I am not functioning as an apostle, but I am called and functioning as a teacher and pastor.   I am asking the same petition for you who are reading this message   I ask that Holy Spirit move in a special and mighty way, imparting divine Peace (Shalom) to you and stirring your heart and mind to desire sanctification at the next level, beyond the basics – to “sanctify you completely.”   

I am afraid that we are not taking the concept of sanctification seriously.  The typical view is that “God does His part by setting us apart for service, when we Come to Jesus.”  But we don’t lock-in on our part, serving God. 

Instead we live for God “just enough to get by and look OK.”    This isn’t rebellion, but it is a casual attitude that doesn’t produce results.    When this is our viewpoint, satan can easily distract us and lie to us, saying things like “you can’t succeed” or “you’re not gifted, not able, don’t have time, etc.”     Or, maybe you’re a man who is rebelling, in a passive way – believing the lie “Christianity is for girly-men; I’m a real man.”   For you, serving God means “I go to church on Sundays,” but that is the full extent of your sanctification.

As I stated above, I have called out to Holy Spirit to stir up your desire, so you want to receive and are ready for being sanctified completely.    Oswald Chambers has written a devotional message (February 8^th, in My Utmost for His Highest  [Updated Edition c. 1992]) about the Cost of sanctification.    If you are thinking, “well, Jesus paid the cost” you are not fully understanding what the Apostle Paul wrote to describe what he meant by being sanctified completely.   The cost for our salvation was fully paid; the price was the precious Blood of Jesus, shed for us when He died on the Cross.   The cleansing power of the Blood of Jesus is complete.   This is what Oswald Chambers wrote about the cost of sanctification:

Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification?   The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns.   Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view.   It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone.  

In the devotion, Chambers went on to quote part of John 17: 19, where Jesus is praying to the Father, the night before His Crucifixion: “For their sakes, I sanctify Myself.”   It is based on this text, and Jesus’ complete dedication to do His Father’s will and be our Savior, that Chambers was able to arrive at such an intense, hard-core, “real-man” definition of sanctification, and of the cost we have to pay for sanctification.   Chambers also wrote “It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.”  

So my message, which includes and builds on what I have read and quoted from Oswald Chambers, is that we all need to be sanctified completely.  First, understand that this is the next level up from the basic ideas we may have held about sanctification. Then make the forthright choice and commitment to do this.  Our God, the God of Peace, will step in to help us.   Holy Spirit can show us what is “of God” in all the areas of our life – home, family, employment, social, discipleship and ministry – and any corrections we need to make for things that are not “of God.”