Sanctification Quotes

• There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow.

  Martin Luther

  Real, Fruit, Christianity

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• Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.

  Charles Hodge

  Character, Grace, Spirit

  Charles Hodge (1872). “Systematic Theology”, p.522

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• 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

  Ideas, Want

  Oswald Chambers (2010). “My Utmost for His Highest”, p.473, Discovery House

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• Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us whereby our inner being is progressively changed, freeing us more and more from sinful traits and developing within us over time the virtues of Christlike character.

  Jerry Bridges

  Character, Spirit, Virtue

  Jerry Bridges (2014). “Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ”, p.30, Tyndale House

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• Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

  Oswald Chambers

  Commitment, Mean, Being Free

  Oswald Chambers (2005). “My Utmost for His Highest”, Discovery House Pub

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• The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27).

  John Owen

  Taken, Tree, Grace

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• By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin…by sanctification we are saved from the power and root of sin

  John Wesley

  Roots, Guilt, Sin

  John Wesley, John Emory (1835). “The Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, A.M.: From the Latest London Edition with the Last Corrections of the Author, Comprehending Also Numerous Translations, Notes, and an Original Preface, Etc”, p.236

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• Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. It will cost everything that is not of God in us.

  Oswald Chambers

  Jesus, Mean, Cost

  Oswald Chambers (2011). “My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition”, p.88, Discovery House

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• Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Reemember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Jesus, Flower, Roots

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.985, Barbour Publishing

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• Sanctification is glory begun. Glory is sanctification completed.

  F. F. Bruce

  Glory

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• Election is always to sanctification. Where there is no visible fruit of sanctification, we may be sure there is no election.

  J. C. Ryle

  May, Fruit, Election

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• 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

  Men, Negative, Growing

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• Sanctification costs to the extent of "an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth and an immense broadening of all our interests in God.

  Oswald Chambers

  Temptation, Cost, Earth

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• Some Christians want enough of Christ to be identified with him but not enough to be seriously inconvenienced; they genuinely cling to basic Christian orthodoxy but do not want to engage in serious Bible study; they value moral probity, especially of the public sort, but do not engage in war against inner corruptions; they fret over the quality of the preacher's sermon but do not worry much over the quality of their own prayer life. Such Christians are content with mediocrity.

  D. A. Carson

  Christian, Prayer, War

  D. A. Carson (1992). “A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers”, p.121, Baker Academic

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• It’s all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones, and you’re set. But a moral checklist doesn’t take into consideration the idols of the hearts. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation. And inevitably, checklist spirituality is highly selective. So you end up feeling successful at sanctification because you stayed away from drugs, lost weight, served at the soup kitchen, and renounced Styrofoam. But you’ve ignored gentleness, humility, joy, and sexual purity.

  Kevin DeYoung

  Couple, Heart, Humility

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• Don't believe everything you think. You cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth. Stay in The Word.

  Jerry Bridges

  Inspirational, Trust, Bible

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• Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

  Thomas Watson

  Sweet, Bitter, Sin

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• The vigour, and power, and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh...The choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin...Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

  John Owen

  Spiritual, Deeds, Flesh

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• Sanctification is the real change in man from the sordidness of sin to the purity of God's image.

  William Ames

  Real, Men, Sin

  William Ames (1968). “The marrow of theology”

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• If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the Man Christ without, and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the word of God.

  John Bunyan

  Men, Differences, Able

  John Bunyan (1850). “The Riches of Bunyan”, p.140

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• 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

  Believe, Fighting, Men

  J.C. Ryle (2015). “Holiness: It's Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots”, p.17, Letcetera Publishing

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• Happy are they, who in the matter of marriage observe three rules. The first is to marry only in the Lord, and after prayer for God’s approval and blessing. The second is not to expect too much from their partners, and to remember that marriage is, after all, the union of two sinners, and not of two angels. The third rule is to strive first and foremost for one another’s sanctification. The more holy married people are, the happier they are.

  J. C. Ryle

  Prayer, Angel, Blessing

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• Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God's sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others' lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God's testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.

  Oswald Chambers

  Grace, Soul, Sovereign

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• We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgments instead. If we come to Scripture with our minds made up, expecting to hear from it only an echo of our own thoughts and never the thunderclap of God's, then indeed he will not speak to us and we shall only be confirmed in our own prejudices. We must allow the Word of God to confront us, to disturb our security, to undermine our complacency and to overthrow our patterns of thought and behavior.

  John Stott

  Echoes, Mind, Scripture

  "Authentic Christianity". Book by John Stott, 1995.

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• ...,the will of God for your life is pretty straightforward: Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God.

  Kevin DeYoung

  Jesus, Spirit, Life Is

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