The second half of Hebrews 12:14 says that “without holiness no one will see the Lord.” That is not only a great shorthand definition of sanctification, but it also tells us how vitally important it is to every single one of us. We were saved not just to get to heaven one day, but to glorify and honour God in the here and now by becoming holy and more and more Christlike.
With 2000 years of thought and writing on this, one can find thousands of terrific quotes about sanctification. This is a tiny sample of some general remarks about sanctification. Future articles will deal with more specific matters concerning this topic.
These 30 quotes come from 21 writers, mainly Protestants, and mainly from recent sources. But some older quotes, along with some non-Protestant ones are found here as well.
“My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it. It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it. It contains much that you will not be pleased to see: this I know and do not hide. But who is to rid it of these things? There is no one but you.” Augustine
“It is not merely a question of our being delivered from the law’s condemnation. Christ has delivered us from the law’s power, too. He died to start the process of sanctification and not merely to provide propitiation from wrath. . . . Justification and sanctification always go together, so that you cannot have one without the other. . . . According to Romans 8:3-4, sanctification is the very end for which God saved us.” James Montgomery Boice
“The moment we begin to feel satisfied that we are making some progress along the road of sanctification, it is all the more necessary to repent and confess that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Yet the Christian life is not one of gloom, but of ever increasing joy in the Lord. God alone knows our good works; all we know is His good work.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“There is no higher compliment that can be paid to a Christian than to call him a godly person. He might be a conscientious parent, a zealous church worker, a dynamic spokesman for Christ, or a talented Christian leader; but none of these things matters if, at the same time, he is not a godly person.” Jerry Bridges
“Godliness is no optional spiritual luxury for a few quaint Christians of a bygone era or for some group of super-saints of today. It is both the privilege and duty of every Christian to pursue godliness, to train himself to be godly, to study diligently the practice of godliness.” Jerry Bridges
“In our day we seem to have magnified the love of God almost to the exclusion of the fear of God. Because of this preoccupation we are not honoring God and reverencing him as we should. We should magnify the love of God; but although we revel in his love and mercy, we must never lose sight of his majesty and his holiness.” Jerry Bridges
“Every element of our own self-reliance must be put to death by the power of God. The moment we recognize our complete weakness and our dependence upon Him will be the very moment that the Spirit of God will exhibit His power.” Oswald Chambers
“Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me.” Oswald Chambers
“We are personally responsible to put sin to death. It will not simply vanish on its own accord. . . . Yes the Spirit enables us. Without him we are powerless. But he never turns us into automatons. He never relieves us of the responsibility of living for the glory of Jesus Christ. Since he is holy in himself, he wants us to be holy in ourselves (but not by ourselves). And holy people do holy things – such as resisting and mortifying sin.” Sinclair Ferguson
“Sanctification is by no means a mystical experience in which holiness is ours effortlessly. God gives increase in holiness by engaging our minds, wills, emotions, and actions. We are involved in the process. That is why biblical teaching on sanctification appears in both the indicative (‘I the Lord sanctify you’) and the imperative (‘sanctify yourselves this day’).” Sinclair Ferguson
“When I know that Christ is the one real sacrifice for my sins, that His work on my behalf has been accepted by God, that He is my heavenly Intercessor – then His blood is the antidote to the poison in the voices that echo in my conscience, condemning me for my many failures. Indeed, Christ’s shed blood chokes them into silence!” Sinclair Ferguson
“Monastic spirituality concentrated on private disciplines, as if detaching oneself from ‘the world’ (i.e. society) might make one holier. Anabaptist piety was similar in that regard. However, Calvin thought of sanctification as a family affair. How could one learn loving humility, patience, wisdom, and forgiveness in isolation from others?” Michael Horton
Calvin on the Christian Life: Glorifying and Enjoying God Forever (Theologians on the Christian Life)by Horton, Michael (Author), Nichols, Stephen J. (Series Editor), Taylor, Justin (Series Editor)
“There is nothing destroyed by sanctification but that which would destroy us.” William Jenkyn
“When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.” C. S. Lewis
“We may be content to remain what we call ‘ordinary people’: but He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit to it is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.” C. S. Lewis
“A man who has his eye on his future state of glorification will spend his time in preparing himself for it.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“Indeed is it not the case that in this matter of sanctification our tendency is always to start with ourselves, instead of starting with God? I have got this sin that is worrying me and always getting me down, this sin that defeats me, and my tendency is to say, ‘What can be done about this sin, this problem of mine. How can I get rid of this thing? How can I get peace?’ I start with myself and my problem, and as certainly as I do that when I am considering this doctrine of sanctification, I am sure, in some shape or form, to end by regarding God as merely an agency who is there to help me solve my problems. And this is a totally unscriptural approach to the almighty ever blessed God.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones
“Christian discipleship is not the process of getting in by grace and then becoming less and less dependent on grace. It is, rather, becoming more dependent on grace. The engine of healthy sanctification (increase in holiness) is increasing awareness of justification (declaration of acquittal). Our growth does not fuel our status, our status fuels our growth.” Dane Ortlund
“He leads none to heaven but whom He sanctifies on the earth. This living Head will not admit of dead members.” John Owen
“Sanctification has a double aspect. Its positive side is vivification, the growing and maturing of the new man; its negative side is mortification, the weakening and killing of the old man.” J. I. Packer
“Make no mistake upon this point, dear reader, we beg you: if your heart is yet unsanctified, you are still unsaved; and if you pant not after personal holiness,then you are without any real desire for God’ssalvation.” A. W. Pink
“Many appear to think that, once converted, they have little more to attend to, and that a state of salvation is a kind of easy chair, in which they may just sit still, lie back and be happy… Such persons lose sight of the many direct injunctions to increase, to grow, to abound more and more, to add to our faith, and the like; and in this little-doing condition, this sitting-still state of mind, I never marvel that they miss assurance.” J. C. Ryle
“In justification the word to be addressed to man is believe — only believe; in sanctification the word must be ‘watch, pray, and fight’.” J. C. Ryle
“If there is no sanctification, it means that there never was any justification.” R. C. Sproul
“You are not mature if you have a high esteem of yourself. He who boasts in himself is but a babe in Christ, if indeed he be in Christ at all. Young Christians may think much of themselves. Growing Christians think themselves nothing. Mature Christians know that they are less than nothing. The more holy we are, the more we mourn our infirmities, and the humbler is our estimate of ourselves.” Charles Spurgeon
“Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.” Charles Spurgeon
“To be in Christ — that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you — that is sanctification!” Major W. Ian Thomas
“All things as they move toward God are beautiful, and they are ugly as they move away from Him.” A. W. Tozer,
“The doctrine of justification by faith is one of the most majestic and comforting doctrines in the Scriptures, but it never appears alone in the life of the Christian. The work of progressive sanctification, a grace of equal beauty, always accompanies it.” Paul Washer
“What Paul understands by holiness or sanctification (is) the learning in the present of the habits which anticipate the ultimate future.” N. T. Wright
