WHO SANCTIFIES?

Hebrews 10: 7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)to do thy will, O God...10: By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all....14: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15: Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16: This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17: And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18: Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Sanctification is being made separate and holy by God to be an instrument for God's use only. It is the work of the triune God. God the Father sanctified his children when he set them apart by choosing them unto salvation in his Son before the foundation of the world (Jude 1:1.) The Son of God made his vessels of mercy holy when he perfected them forever by his one offering on the cross. God the Holy Spirit sanctifies sinners in the new birth (Titus 3: 3-7.)

This work of God is illustrated throughout the prior chapter. First, the vessels and the priests in the tabernacle were separated by God for no other use than for the worship and service of God. Next, a spotless lamb was slain because almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission (Hebrews 9: 22.) Then the blood of that lamb was applied to the vessels and the priests, For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry (Hebrews 9: 19-21.) The priests did not serve God to become separate and holy they served God because God separated them and (in type) perfected them. Certainly, the vessels did not serve God to become separate and holy, for like dead sinners they could do nothing. They were the instruments used because God separated them and the blood of the lamb perfected them and the application of that blood consecrated them.

Believers are sanctified by God who chose us to salvation, through the Holy Spirit, to the obtaining of the glory of our Sanctifier the Lord Jesus Christ. Through God's word, through God's gift of faith which is in Christ, the believer is sanctified and rejoices to spend and be spent for the glory of God, for the furtherance of the gospel, to the edifying of God's people and the calling out of his sheep. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13, 14.)

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