Our Christian Perspective
What Does It Mean To Be Sanctified?
By Brother James
The Merriam Webster’s Dictionary defines sanctify/sanctification as, “[to] make something holy.” The Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary offers us the following definition for sanctification, “the process of God’s grace by which the believer is separated from sin and becomes dedicated to God’s righteousness. Accomplished by the Word of God (John 17:7) and the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:3-4), sanctification results in holiness or purification from the guilt and power of sin.” I offer you my definition of sanctification or being sanctified then as simply being set aside/apart for a Godly purpose.
How then does God sanctify people, places and things for His Divine purpose(s)?
The Bible clearly informs us that God sanctified the ancient Israelites as His “Chosen People” who He set apart for His Holy purpose. In the Old Testament God set apart numerous people like Moses who led the Chosen People out of bondage in Egypt and subsequently through divine revelation, wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. God set aside Abraham as the “father of many nations” and whose son Isaac was sanctified to produce through his seed a son Jacob who was sanctified to become Israel, the father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. God sanctified Israel’s son Levi, the father of the Levites who God set aside as a “Priestly” tribe who were tasked with maintaining all aspects of worship in the Tabernacle and Synagogues throughout ancient Jewish history. God sanctified Noah, a faithful man of God who endured taunts and ridicule when God told him to build the ark so God might cleanse and repopulate the earth after the flood. Yes, God sanctified a virtual multitude, a plethora of people in the Old Testament such as Joshua, Esther, Ruth, Job, David and his son Solomon, the major prophets; Isaiah, Jeremiah, who many Biblical scholars believe was also the author of Lamentations; Ezekiel and Daniel. God also sanctified the minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi; and even though he has no prophetic book attributed to him in the Old Testament, the prophet Nathan is mentioned in II Samuel 12 for his rebuke of King David.
Yes, God sanctified many people, most of whom were ordinary and itinerate people for His Divine purposes in both the Old and New Testaments. I love the adage, ”The Lord uses ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.” What about you? Do you see yourself as an ordinary or nominal Christian, someone who God cannot use for His Divine purposes? Can you be like Job who God sanctified to provide us with a monumental example of how our faith in God is absolutely necessary to sustain us through trying times?
God also sanctified people in the New Testament. John the Baptist was sanctified so he might become the forerunner of Jesus and help initiate Christianity. God sanctified, set apart, Mary, a virgin and Joseph a devout believer in Almighty God, the parents of Jesus Christ, who nurtured their son and the Son of God to become the greatest religious figure ever known to man. The 12 Disciples were all sanctified as each had a specific role of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the ancient world and upon their deaths would have a seat on a throne in heaven as a representative for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Saul of Tarsus, a devote Jew who considered the Christians heretics and originally persecuted the 1st century Christians, was sanctified so he might become the Apostle Paul, the most prolific and divinely inspired writer of epistles/letters and spreader of the gospel in the New Testament.
God sanctified Julia, Phoebe, Junia, Mary and Persis, Chloe, Euodia and Syntyche, Dorcas/Tabitha and other women so they might assist the Apostle Paul in his missionary quest to spread the gospel. God also sanctified the thief on the cross so others could witness his dying declaration/testimony of his belief in Jesus. Some of the witnesses to the crucifixion probably would later become saved by watching the thief on the cross’s excruciating death and conversely new birth through his spiritual baptism on the cross. God again will sanctify people from the lowest levels of a given society so He might use them for His Divine purposes. Can God sanctify and use you to achieve His Divine goals for you and others? Does God’s Holy word inspire you to be all you can be in serving others who are in dire need of being brought into the light and truth of salvation?
God sanctified places such as Mt. Sinai as the place of Moses’s receipt and delivery of the Ten Commandments written in stone by the finger of God on two stone tablets. God sanctified Canaan as the “Promised Land” for His “Chosen People” to dwell in for the rest of their days. Let us not forget how God sanctified the muddy River Jordan so His Son might be baptized to commence His/Jesus’s public ministry. Many 1st century Christians would be baptized in the River Jordan renowned for its muddy waters only to emerge cleansed of their previous sin and appear spiritually “whiter than snow.” God sanctified Egypt, so, the ancient Israelites who were formerly sheep herders would be held in bondage there for 400 years so they might acquire the skills of architecture, carpentry, brick masonry, construction, etc., so they might later become the Master Builders of such magnificent structures and edifices as the walled city of Jerusalem and its Temple and Solomon’s Temple. Yes, God sanctified places to carry out his ultimate plan to offer us salvation and eternal life.
God also sanctified the mountain where the Transfiguration (Jesus became radiant in His glory) believed to be Mt. Tabor. In addition to Jesus, Peter, James, John, Moses, and Elijah were all present during the Transfiguration. Galilee and Jerusalem were sanctified so that in 50 AD/CE (Christian Era) during the Year of Pentecost and the Council of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit appeared to the Apostles and their followers. It was in the sanctified and Holy city of Jerusalem that Matthias was selected as Judas’s replacement and men from Galilee, Peter, James, etc. were able to address people from other lands by speaking in the “tongues/languages” of foreigners in Jerusalem. Galilee is important here because the people from Galilee were perceived by other nations as being illiterate and lacking any intellectual and sociably redeemable qualities, so, the foreigners were amazed as to how these alleged ignorant men were able to eloquently and articulately teach them the gospel in the foreigner’s native tongue/language. One might also assume that God sanctified Galilee because it was the site of the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. Calvary/Golgotha were also sanctified by God as this is the location of Jesus’s Crucifixion and the fulfillment of two aspects of Old Testament prophecy: Jesus would be executed by crucifixion and the veil/curtain in the Temple which separated the Holy of Holies, God’s earthly dwelling place from the rest of the temple, would be torn in two at the moment of His/Jesus’s death. Jerusalem was also sanctified by God as the site of Jesus’s resurrection and ascension after His crucifixion. God also sanctified the cities that the Apostle Paul wrote his epistles/letters to, so, the message of the gospel of Jesus would reach everyone in the then known world. Paul wrote his epistles/letters to the churches in cities of Rome from which we get the book of Romans; Corinth from which we get 1st and 2nd Corinthians; Galatia from which we get Galatians; Ephesus from which we get Ephesians; Philippi from which we get Philippians; Colossae from which we get Colossians; and Thessalonica from which we get 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. These were all important cities to the Roman Empire and these cities were centers of trade, education and intellectual thought. God sanctified these major cities because as centers of commerce and trade they would be visited by people from all over the then known world. It was from these and other cities the gospel was spread to the hinterlands (a very remote area not close to any cities or towns). God’s sanctified these cities so the gospel could and would be spread world-wide!
In addition to people and places, God sanctified things. God sanctified Moses’s staff/rod because Moses used his staff to impress and strike fear into the hearts of the Pharaoh, the Egyptian royal family, and Pharaoh’s people by demonstrating God’s awesome power by turning his staff/rod into a snake/serpent and then back into a staff. In an internet article on the website, Christian Answers For The New Ages, entitled, The Serpent In Egypt and In The Bible: Evil, Power, and Healing by Marcia Montenegro, we find, “The role of the serpent [snake] was prominent in Egyptian culture. The serpent symbolized the beginning and end of time, and symbolized fertility. In ancient Egypt, as in many cultures, the ouroborus, a snake swallowing its tail, was a symbol of rejuvenation and eternity, an endless cycle of beginnings and endings.23 The serpent represented both good and bad: life energy, resurrection, wisdom, power, cunning, death, darkness, evil, and corruption.24” It is now easy to see why God told Moses to turn his staff into a snake/serpent and back into his staff in front of the Pharaoh. This act was a clear demonstration to the Pharaoh who thought himself as a god on earth, of Almighty God’s omnipotence.
Moses used his staff to produce water from a rock, and then later used it to part the Red Sea while he and the Israelites were being pursued by the Egyptians. The Ark of the Covenant was sanctified by God as it was a gold covered box that contained the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai. Finally, God sanctified the cross on which His Son Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was a long and excruciatingly painful means of execution. As the “sacrificial” Lamb of God, Jesus paid for all of our sins through His extreme sacrifice, death on the cross. I have always held and promoted the belief that in the days of the Old Testament “something” had to die to atone for one’s sin, while in the New Testament/Christian Era, someone had to die to atone for our sins! Our Lord and Savior was sanctified, set apart so that we might achieve salvation and have everlasting life. The question now arises is, in what ways has God sanctified you through a specific calling and what are your plans to adhere to, fulfill and conduct yourself in an exemplary fashion to honor our Lord and Savior who has, is, and will always be faithful to us every single day? Are you determined to become more than a nominal Christian so the Lord might use you for His Divine purposes? I want to be used for God’s purpose like the lyrics of the Bill Withers song, Use Me. To make my point as to how we should want to be used for a Godly purpose, I have inserted words in brackets to further emphasize my point. Use Me lyrics by Bill Withers:
[Lord,] My friends feel it's their appointed duty
They keep trying to tell me all you want to do is use me
But my answer yeah to all that use me stuff
Is I want to spread the [Good] news that if it feels this good getting used
Oh [Lord] you just keep on using me until you use me up
Until you use me up!
Please endeavor to become more than just a nominal Christian because the Lord, like the old Uncle Sam army recruitment posters, “Needs You!”
Unpublished Materials
ECO Copyright October 2016
Henry James/Brother James