Page 36 - Biblical Ethics Course

Study Section 6: Characteristics of Sanctification and Biblical Ethics.

6.1 Connect

Becoming like Christ is a process. You don’t instantly have victory over all your faults and hang-ups
the moment you received Christ as Savior! Just like it takes 18 years for a child to mature to
adulthood, so it takes time for a new baby in Christ to mature into the likeness of Christ. God often
takes us through some difficult times to help us trust Him and grow up. He sometimes disciplines us
so that we can learn “never to do that again!” It is a slow process. That’s why the Bible says that a
new believer should NOT become a pastor. The pastor who is guiding a church needs to be a mature
believer who walks his talk.

The process that God takes every believer through to grow him up in Christ is called sanctification. That’s a
theological term which means that God is doing things in our life to help us grow and mature in Christ. And we
will find that the longer this process, the easier it is to apply Biblical ethics into our behavior and decisions. Let’s
learn about these ideas today….

6.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to list and explain the characteristics of sanctification.

2. The student should be able to explain the relationship between sanctification and good works.

3. The student should be able to list and explain the six features of Biblical Ethics.

6.3 Characteristics of Sanctification and Biblical Ethics.

1. As appears from the immediately preceding, sanctification is a work of which God and not man is
the author. It is not based on the work of man; it is a God process. Nevertheless, it differs from
regeneration in that man can, and is in duty bound to, strive for ever-increasing sanctification by
using the means which God has placed at his disposal. This is clearly taught in Scripture, 2 Cor. 7:1;
Col. 3:5–14; 1 Pet. 1:22.

2. Sanctification takes place partly in the subconscious life, and as such is an immediate operation of the Holy
Spirit; but also, partly in the conscious life, and then depends on the use of certain means, such as the constant
exercise of faith, the study of God’s Word, prayer, and association with other believers.

3. Sanctification is usually a lengthy process and never reaches perfection in this life.

4. The sanctification of the believer must, it would seem, be completed either at the very moment of death, or
immediately after death, as far as the soul is concerned, and at the resurrection in so far as it pertains to the body.
Moreover, we are told that in the heavenly city of God there shall in no wise enter “anything unclean or he that
maketh an abomination and a lie,” Rev. 21:27; and that Christ at His coming will “fashion anew the body of our
humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,” Phil. 3:21.
16

16 L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 532–535.

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