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Sanctification: The Process of Salvation

Perfectionism is based mainly on Romans 6. However, a careful
examination of Romans 6:1–11 shows that this is the positional
experience in which the believer is identified with Christ. If this were not
so, why does the apostle Paul insist in verse 11 that a person yet needs
to consider himself dead to sin and alive to God? One who is absolutely
dead does not need to “consider” oneself dead. Such a person is dead
apart from any “considering” or thinking.

In Romans 7, Paul revealed his own condition: as an unsaved man
(vv. 7–13), and as a saved man (vv. 14–24). He found victory over a
life of defeat, not in the destruction of the old nature, but through the
Lord Jesus Christ (7:25). In chapter 8, however, he showed that the Lord
Jesus made this victory real in the believer by means of the indwelling
Spirit (8:1–17).

First, the Holy Spirit delivers the believer from the law of sin and
death, from the control of the old sinful nature. And then the believer is
able to “live in accordance with the Spirit” and to have his or her mind
“set on what the Spirit desires” (v. 5). Victory over the law of sin and death,
however, does not mean the total destruction of the old sinful actions
by the power of the indwelling Spirit (v. 3). This is something that each
believer has to do repeatedly—whenever the desires of the old sinful
nature arise to tempt him. “Putting to death” refers to the weakening of
the power of sin. It also means putting to death our sinful actions so that
we do not continue in habitual sin. For victory in this area, the grace
of God and the enablement of the Holy Spirit are necessary. (Compare
Romans 8:13 with Colossians 3:5, 8–10.)

Recipients of Sanctification

The people who are sanctified are the chosen or elect of God. Those
whom He chooses in eternity, He sanctifies in time. Those who are
elected and redeemed are also sanctified. Those who are a chosen
generation become God’s holy people.

Sanctification involves the total person: intellect, emotions, and will
(1 Thessalonians 5:23). “You were taught . . . to be made new in the
attitude of your minds” (Ephesians 4:22–23); thus the renewed mind is
progressively made more Christlike, upright, and holy. The emotions or

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