It is an essential part of your journey to practice the fundamental human virtues, with your gaze fixed on the God who has revealed himself in Christ, and to let yourselves be purified by him ever anew.
Pope Benedict XVI, Open Letter to Seminarians
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The spiritual nourishment the branches have…
This sanctifying Spirit, communicated by the Lord Jesus to His members, is the spiritual nourishment the branches have from the stock into which they are in-grafted; whereby the life of grace, given them in regeneration, is preserved, continued, and actuated. It is the nourishment whereby the new creature lives and is nourished up towards perfection. Spiritual life needs to be fed, and must have supply of nourishment: and believers derive the same from Christ their Head, whom the Father has appointed the Head of influences to all His members.
- Thomas Boston
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“As Romans 6 makes clear, the ground of sanctification is our union with Christ in his death and resurrection, in which the old nature was destroyed and a new nature created with the power to grow in newness of life.”
Richard Lovelace
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By…
How do we live out our sanctification in Christ? How do we grow in grace? It is not by “trying harder.” Not by human effort. Nor is it by “doing nothing” by “letting go and letting God.” It is not freedom from responsibility. Instead it is by “communing with God,” by “connecting with Christ and his grace,” by “tapping into Christ’s resurrection power,” by “yielding to God’s Spirit,” and by developing a “transforming relationship with God.’”
~ Robert W. Kellemen
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The key difference between “an evidence of sanctification” and “separated unto the gospel” is:
Evidence of sanctification= Inner transformation shown outwardly= Proof that God is making someone holy
Separated unto the gospel = Calling and purpose= Being set apart to serve or proclaim the gospel
• Sanctification is about who you are becoming in Christ.
• Separation unto the gospel is about what you are set apart to do for Christ.
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Growing Forward Through Surrendered Grace
As the Day Begins
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” — 2 Peter 3:18
Spiritual growth is rarely instantaneous. The apostle Peter uses the Greek word auxanete—“keep on growing”—which implies steady, ongoing development. Growth in Christ is not a single breakthrough moment but a daily unfolding of grace and understanding. Just as a tree adds rings year by…
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#8195
In the hot desert of a genie’s mirage,
May you already be prepared to sabotage
A magical camouflage
By reciting an incantation
Of wisdom brought from the steady dedication
To understand the process of sanctification.
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When the Mirror Is Cleaner Than the Conscience
On Second Thought
Ephesians 5 is not a casual chapter. It is not written for spectators of faith but for participants in a holy calling. Paul exhorts believers to “be imitators of God” and to “walk in love,” grounding his appeal in Christ’s self-giving sacrifice. Then he presses further, speaking of the church as a bride whom Christ is sanctifying. “That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the…
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The Loving Knife of the Gardener
On Second Thought
In John 15, Jesus offers one of His most tender and searching images: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1). Then He speaks words that are both comforting and unsettling: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). If we are honest, most of us long for a…
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Sanctification: Its Communal, Missional, and Familial Dimensions | Tabletalk
In my short but rigorous study of sanctification in Sanctification as Set Apart and Growing in Christ, I trace the theme of sanctification in Scripture through a biblical-theological lens. I show how this theme develops and gradually unfolds in the course of biblical revelation. It is an enlivening study for those who aim to live a life that is pleasing to God.
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Whatever
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
https://craigtowens.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/whatever.mp3
Colossians 3 is a catalog of heart changes that reveal themselves as behavior changes. Intermingled in these instructions Paul gives some summary “whatever you do” mile markers.
Whatever virtues the Holy…
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The Benefits of Justification and Sanctification
Those who receive the call of the Gospel are adopted into the family of the Church. The other benefits of salvation are justification and sanctification. In this short devotion, we are going to look at the differences between justification and sanctification, and their benefit to us. Firstly, let us define our words. Justification is a one-time event in the life of a Christian that declares…
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The Least Holy Person in Your Church | Tabletalk
It is a typical Sunday—the parking lot, the stroll up to the church doors, the usual people who arrive at the same time you usually do. As you walk in, you see two ushers just inside the door with a basket of glasses, handing out a pair to each person. It reminds you of attending a 3-D movie and the requisite glasses involved.
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5 Stages of Sanctification
Christian people are set apart from the world for the work and honour of God on earth. Here are some brief points on the subject of sanctification for you to consider today.Salvation –1 Corinthians 1:26-31
The process of sanctification starts the moment you come to God as a sinner and confess Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour with a contrite and sincere heart before Him. Do you come…
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God’s Work of Sanctification
Sanctification is the result of God’s grace in a believer’s life. Upon becoming a believer, we are dedicated to God. Sanctification is a continual process carried out by the Holy Spirit within believers. The Holy Spirit persistently works to transform us internally to resemble Christ more closely. Abandonment of sin and the cultivation of grace is fundamental to the Christian journey.
You have…
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Taking Off the Old Garment and Putting On the Garment of Eternity, David Jang
ALTAt the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, hangs Rembrandt’s late-life masterpiece, The Return of the Prodigal Son—the work of a “magician” of light and shadow. The prodigal in the painting is utterly wretched. One worn sandal has slipped off; the other is so frayed it can barely hold together, exposing cracked soles. The ragged clothes on his body vividly reveal the hardship and sinful wandering he must have endured in a far country. Yet the climax of this painting is found in the father’s warm hands embracing the son still dressed in rags—and in the “new robe” prepared for him.
The apostle Paul’s letter, written as his pen moved across the page from a prison in Ephesus—especially the cry of Ephesians 4—comes alive on Rembrandt’s canvas: “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires… and put on the new self.” This is not a mere moral lecture calling for self-improvement. It is an invitation to a great spiritual change of garments—one that divides human existence and eternal destiny. Throughout his pastoral ministry, Pastor David Jang has persistently returned to this very point: how, within time, a person must take off the old self and prepare for eternity.
All of us are floating upon the vast current called time. As the writer of Hebrews says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Faced with this unyielding truth, the world strains to look away, or tries to lighten the weight of death through cyclical views of time such as reincarnation. But Pastor David Jang emphasizes that the biblical view of time is linear and once-for-all. The death we describe as “passed away” is not annihilation, but a gateway into the Father’s house—our true homeland. Therefore, for the believer, death is not nihilism but a solemn reckoning before God and, at the same time, a new beginning. Unlike the emptiness felt by those without God, Christians know that beyond the end of time there is an eternal hope. And because of that hope, we live today with reverent fear and trembling.
Then what should we look like as we cross this finite time? The prodigal in Rembrandt’s painting cannot sit at the father’s table while still wearing the stench of pig-feed and the rags of his former life. The “putting off” and “putting on” that Ephesians speaks of demands a total change of being. Pastor David Jang has long insisted that salvation is not merely intellectual assent, but a fierce struggle in the concrete arena of daily life—cutting off old habits. Lips that once lied begin to speak truth; a heart once filled with anger becomes filled with forgiveness; hands that once coveted what belonged to others become hands that serve neighbors. This is the reality of sanctification.
Of course, the habits of the “old self,” ingrained over many years, are stubborn. They cling like skin and refuse to come off. Like the old story of a warrior who cut the throat of the horse that kept carrying him to the tavern, breaking with sin sometimes demands painful decisions. Pastor David Jang points out that no one can win this battle by willpower alone. We need the help of the Holy Spirit and the unity of the church community. Only when each member is connected—giving and receiving help—can we grow soundly, not as isolated individuals, but as “one body.”
Our lives, in the end, are a sojourner’s road. Yet it is not aimless wandering; it is pilgrimage toward our true home. After the flood, even Noah—who had been saved—became drunk on wine and exposed the shame of his nakedness. In the same way, even those who possess assurance of salvation remain in danger of returning to old ways if they do not stay watchful. Revelation declares, “Blessed are those who wash their robes.” This is a stern command to wash our deeds daily in the blood of Jesus Christ and to clothe ourselves in holy garments.
The heart of Pastor David Jang’s message is unmistakable: the gospel is not an idea; it is power. Just as the father in Rembrandt’s painting gently lays his hands upon the returning son, God still waits for those who come with broken hearts. Yet the one who is embraced can no longer live as a wastrel of the past. He must now live as an heir who resembles the Father’s holiness.
Today, what kind of garment are you wearing? Is it the ragged clothing of the old self, stained with desire and emptiness? Or is it the robe of the new self, created in the holiness of righteousness and truth? Time does not stop; it keeps flowing, and with every moment we draw nearer to God. As Pastor David Jang exhorts, cast off the decaying habits of the former life and be clothed with Christ. That alone will be the one garment that leaves us unashamed on the day of judgment to come. The door of our eternal home stands wide open—for pilgrims who have put on the holy new robe.
DAVID JANG - Founder, International President of Olivet University
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The Sanctification of the Believer’s Ministry
This sanctification concerns one’s deportment (behaviour) and understanding of doctrine, and basically amounts to how one’s life as a Believer progressively lines up with that of one’s position in Christ.
This type of sanctification so happens to be a lifelong process, and can be summed up by just this one verse –
Philippians 1:21 KJB — For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
While we…
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Positional Sanctification
Otherwise known as sanctification of the spirit or inner man.
This means Saints are permanently set apart by God as being holy, solely due to their position in Christ, as they are in possession of His imputed righteousness.
1 Corinthians 1:2 KJB — Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon…
