Sanctification

After we become believers, our walk with God begins with sanctification as result.

1) Some of those who come to faith leave God for various reasons.

It may be because they are moving away from the Christian environment they participated in. It may be because they are losing their Christian faith, perhaps as a result of lack of guidance and instruction in God's word. Regardless of the time in life when one makes the decision to accept Christ, there is always a need for discipleship and instruction in God's word. Another reason may be because they want to live in the world rather than with God. The Bible says the following about it:

"For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them." (2 Pet 2:20–21).

Here it's about a person who was a believer, but who deliberately turned away from God to live in the world (2 Cor 6:1). A warning example is Judas who even betrayed Jesus, see Why Judas betrayed Jesus.

2) Others want to belong to God but think they can live a life of sin.

They live by the phrase "once saved, always saved", and think it's OK to live a life of sin as a Christian. See this explained in the following videos:

• Hebrews 6:1-6 Explained | Once Saved Always Saved Theology Destroyed.
• 100% Proof You Can Lose Your Salvation | Romans 11:17–22.
• Time 16:55-28:22 in This BIG Lie of Satan Sends Believers to Hell.

From these Bible words, it is clear that it is not OK to live a life of willful sin and still be counted as a Christian:

• "For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" (Heb 10:26–29). 
  This is about a firm decision to continue sinning without repenting,
  done by a saved person, even though he knows it's against God's will.
  See Do You lose Your Salvation After Sinning Willfully? Hebrews 10:26.
• "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today', that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.' 
  For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
  And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." (Heb 3:12–19, 1 Cor 15:1–2).
• "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord', will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven.
  On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" (Mat 7:21–23). 
  See Prophecy in Spiritual Gifts.

If a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and begins to sin, he will die (Ezekiel 18:24), see The Book of Ezekiel. This can be compared to a person who is righteous through his faith in Jesus, but then begins to sin deliberately without repenting. On the other hand, it's important that we don't fall under the Law
(Gal 5:4). But then the question is what is meant by sin? Not being circumcised is
no sin in the New Covenant explained in the New Testament, see Jesus and the Law.

The following are examples of sins in the New Covenant that lead to being lost forever, unless repenting. People who do this must repent and pray to God to strengthen them so that they can say no to such temptations in the future:

• "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom
  of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters,
  nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves,
  nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9–10).
• "Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Gal 5:19–23).
• "Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." (Rev 22:15).
• "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life,
  he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:11–15).
• "Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts." (Mal 3:5).
• "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch." (Mal 4:1).

The way to destruction is broad, while the way to life in God's Heaven is narrow
(Mat 7:13–14), see The Narrow Gate.

There are examples of famous pastors who have been revealed to be living in sin.
It can be their salvation that they are revealed, if it causes them to truly repent, confess their sin to God, and begin to live a sanctified life (Psalm 32:5, 1 John 1:9). These people have been given a second chance. Unless they are exposed while they are still alive and they continue to live in sin without repenting, they may be lost forever. When you make a mistake, realize that you made a mistake, repent, rectify the situation, and get back to what you are supposed to do. Don't waste a lot of time trying to make up for your mistake if God has already forgiven you. Then it's important to also forgive yourself. See Psalm 51: Coming to God when we fail. 

1. A life of sin is incompatible with the life of the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us (Gal 5:17). Believers who succumb to a life of sin will be in constant conflict with the Holy Spirit who dwells in them and will be miserable (Psalm 32:3–4).
2. We have "died to sin" (Rom 6:1–2). We are now dead to the control of the old sin nature that once dominated our behavior. We are now free to follow Christ and make him Lord of our lives. To live in sin would be a complete denial of the freedom Christ won for us on the cross. Living in sin means going back to a life of slavery and bondage to the flesh. See also Typology.
3. Victory over sin is a sign, that we have come to know Jesus and belong to him.
   We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands
   (1 John 2:3, 2:29, 3:6, 5:18), see Jesus and the Law.
4. Living to please God enables us to test and approve God's will. We should no longer conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then we will be able to test and approve what God's will is; his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:2).
5. We owe Jesus our obedience, gratitude and worship. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
   (Rom 12:1). See How should we worship God? in
   The Woman's Place in the Congregation.
6. Sin always leads to death. Sin can cause death in our lives, even as Christians, when we are careless about allowing sin into our lives. Everything from the death of a marriage, family, and career can easily develop from a life of reckless ignorance. See also The Book of Jude.
1. "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 6:23). 
2. "Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." (James 1:15). 
3. See Ananias and Sapphira.
7. Because of sin, the wrath of God is coming. "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming." (Col 3:5–6). See God has wrath in God's Attributes.

If you struggle with this to live a holy life, see time 6:00–13:53 as encouragement
in Titus 3 • Careful to devote ourselves to good works.

See also The Book of Corinthians.

3) Others want to belong to God, and want to live a sanctified life.

When we came to faith in Jesus, by grace trough faith, without works (Eph 2:8–9,
1 Cor 15:1–2) and repented from our sin, we became holy and justified in the sight of God (Heb 10:10). That is, we received positional righteousness, the righteous standing we have before God through Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21). This is how God looks at us when we become a follower of Jesus. Practical righteousness is how
I live my life and requires sanctification. We  need to be gradually sanctified in our walk with God (Heb 10:14). Progressive sanctification is a continuous process after receiving Jesus. See this explained at time 33:55–36:01 in 1 Peter 1 (Part 1) :1-2. See also time 22:50–25:12 in May 2024 Bible Q&A.

Note also that a true faith in Jesus results in good works (James 2:18, Eph 2:10), see The Parables of the Talents and the Ten Minas. A natural result of faith is work because my life has changed, but work isn't required to be saved.

If you struggle with this to live a holy life, see time 6:00–13:53 as encouragement
in Titus 3 • Careful to devote ourselves to good works.

God wants us to work out our salvation (Phil 2:12–13). It speaks of making my 
salvation functional in all areas of my life, inviting Jesus to be Lord in more and more areas of everyday life. When we came to Christ, we began our walk with God. From there, the Holy Spirit encourages us to go deeper and deeper into the life of Christ, as far as we are willing to go (Rom 8:4). To do this, he speaks to us about new and different areas where we can surrender control to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our marriage, our work, our daily speech, and even our thoughts are affected. And as we concede more and more of these areas of the self-life and surrender them to Jesus, we are said to work out our salvation. We should do it in the same way as we received Jesus as Lord, that's by faith (Col 2:6–8 (NIV), Rom 1:17 (NIV), Gal 3:11, Hab 2:4b), see time 9:59–10:50 in Bible Q & A With Pastor Paul - June 2023.

It's then important to distinguish between Sanctification and Legalism. There is always a risk that a desire to live a sanctified life will tip over into a life of legalism.
See Legalism in The Book of Colossians and Disputable Matters in
The Book of Romans. Legalism ends up in man-made rules and regulations.

Our hearts can't be changed by trying to follow rules and regulations. Our hearts
can only be changed by grace through faith in God and through the work of the 
Holy Spirit in our lives. We must trust God to transform our lives, to believe that he can do in us what we can't do in our own strength. God can take his word, put it into our lives, and change us through the Holy Spirit (John 16:13–15). He can mold us into a closer image of Christ (Rom 8:29). See it explained at time 17:43–25:11 in John 13:1-17 – Prepared to Serve. We shouldn't compare ourselves to other people. To achieve this we need to spend time in the word, in prayer, and in an environment of Christian fellowship. See also: 
Seven elements to make us grow as Christians in The Sermon on the Mount.

As Christians, we have the following help to live our lives:

1. We are all born with a conscience that acts as a gauge of right and wrong. 
   It's a remnant for us being created as the image of God. However, our conscience can be corrupted (1 Tim 4:1–2). It can be influenced by prejudice, superstition, or downright bad teaching. We can be taught to ignore our conscience. We can have a "weak" conscience, see
   Disputable Matters in The Book of Romans. 
2. God's word, the Bible, to help us understand morality.
3. The Holy Spirit who lives in us as born again believers, see Jesus the Light of the World. The process of conviction that the Holy Spirit will place upon us when we get off course. The Holy Spirit doesn't change as the conscience can. He is so far superior to the conscience. He can do the following: 
• Remind us of things we used to know and maybe forgot. 
• Comfort us in difficult times. 
• Counsel us with wisdom and insight in our walk in this life. 
• Remind us of Scripture. 
• He doesn't go against the Scripture (Gal 5:16–17, 19–21a, 26).

However, we can withstand them all. This is called grieving the Holy Spirit. The danger in not responding to the Holy Spirit is that it will be more difficult to respond to him the next time. And pretty soon it's almost impossible to hear his voice.

When Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross, and we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we began to trust him, God took the work of Jesus on the cross and applied it to us. We then became righteous before God. God sees us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Justification happens in an instant. Righteousness isn't a process. Sanctification is a process after we are justified, because we still live in a sinful body. Sanctification is about how we live our Christian life. We should become more and more controlled by the Holy Spirit (John 15:5) to live our lives more for God doing good works and not live in sin. 

It's God's will that we allow ourselves to be sanctified (1 Thess 4:3–8). We can't
do it in our own strength, we need the power of thee Holy Spirit to achieve it 
(1 Thess 5:23a). Salvation is by grace trough faith, and should be followed by being sanctified by the Holy Spirit (2 Thess 2:13). Circumcision in the Old Covenant 
(not applicable in the New Covenant) is a picture of sanctification, see Typology. We should be led by the Holy Spirit and not satisfy the desires of the flesh (Gal 5:16).

After we have been saved, there is a great risk that we still sin in various ways, unintentionally but also intentionally. This isn't God's will. God wants us to live a sanctified life. Sanctification means that we live more and more in obedience to God's word. We need to grow in spiritual maturity. (Psalm 119:11, 2 Pet 3:18). We gain knowledge about Jesus by reading and studying what is written in the Bible. Sanctification is an ongoing work of God in our lives. This is something believers must honestly strive for (1 Pet 1:15–16, Phil 2:12–13). Our actions, but also our thoughts and feelings are part of our sanctification (2 Cor 7:1, Eph 1:3–4).

God the Father has sanctified Jesus and sent him into the world (John 10:36).
The holiness of Jesus is an example for us to follow. If God is to use us, we need
to be sanctified. We will be transformed step by step to become more like Jesus
(Rom 8:29, Gal 4:19, 2 Cor 3:18).

Without sanctification, we may even miss the goal of getting to God's Heaven,
see A New Heaven and a New Earth. Here we are talking about spiritual death
and eternal loss compared to eternal life with God.

• "Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14).
• "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom 6:22–23). 
• "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." (Rom 8:13)

See To Fear the Lord in in Fear of Man. It's also necessary to forgive anyone who treats us badly, see Forgive and You will Be Forgiven.

What must I do if I know that I have inadvertently or even intentionally done what is wrong before God? Then I must repent. I must humble myself and in prayer admit my shortcomings and ask God for forgiveness (Psalm 32:5, 1 John 1:9). I must not explain away or blame someone else. A good example is king David, who didn't wash away his sin when he deliberately wronged God (2 Sam 11:2–12:25, Psalm 51:1–2, 10 (1–4, 12 in some translations)), see Psalm 51: Coming to God when we fail. 

A good way to not fall for temptation is to read and also study the Bible and learn from God's people mentioned in the Bible. See The Book of John and 
The Book of Hebrews. One can also imagine what the reward will be one day by following God (Gal 6:9–10). It's a short time we live on Earth compared to the eternity that awaits us after death.

Sanctification is a gradual work by God in us (2 Cor 3:18), based on daily decisions by faith to work it out (Eph 4:22–24). It's not done automatically. See the following guidelines given by king David in Psalm 101: How to live a holy life.

Dangers to avoid as Christians in doing this are as follows:

1. To show no mercy:
   God wants us to be a people of mercy and forgiveness. Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). See examples of showing mercy at the end part of The Book of Ruth.
2. Decisions or lack of decisions based on fear:
   We must be aware of the many times we make decisions or lack of decisions
   based on fear, see Fear of Man. We may not even be aware of it. God didn't give us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and self-control (2 Tim 1:7). Fear is the opposite of faith, it's the absence of faith. Fear of people is a sin that we can confess to God for forgiveness, help, and strength against.
3. Assume the worst about others:
   Gossip has done much harm in the body of Christ. When we hear something
   about a Christian brother or sister, we can believe the worst without having the facts. Gossip can destroy people's faith. There are examples of people not attending Christian meetings or fellowships because they have been wounded in the body of Christ, and that because of careless assumptions.
   (1 Cor 13:4–7). In the same way we judge others, we will be judged,
   see Do not judge others in The Sermon on the Mount.

The principles to follow are the following:

1. Obedience:
   We need to walk with God in an attitude of obedience, see Jesus and the Law.
   We need to live it out in the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we are forgiven
   and saved (see Salvation), then is time to walk in obedience to the Lord,
   see The Narrow Gate. 
2. Separation:
   We are called to a separation from a lifestyle in the world. We must live in the world but not according to the world's lifestyle and values. We shouldn't have idols in our lives, see the 1st commandment in The Ten Commandments.
   We must pray to God to deliver us from these things. 
   We can't take anything with us when we die, see
   Laying up treasures in Heaven in The Sermon on the Mount.
3. Love of God:
   This is the most important principle, see The Golden Rule in
   The Sermon on the Mount. Lack of love for God results in lack of obedience and lack of separation to the world. One way to do that is to constantly be reminded of what he has done for us, see The Crucifixion of Jesus.
   We forget that God is there to help us to love him, to restore our love relationship.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit to do this and to live a sanctified life,
see time 0:36–3:10 and 4:26–6:38 in Bible Q&A with Pastor Paul │ October 2023.

See also Some stories close related to the gospels at the end of 
The Four Gospels.