Are you have longing for peace and comfort?

Here's something you should know if you're a follower of Jesus.

You have been sanctified.

Sanctification is the act of setting something or someone apart for a particular purpose.

In scripture, the Sabbath is said to be sanctified, the tabernacle furniture was sanctified, Mount Sinai was sanctified,

and even Jesus himself is said to be sanctified, set apart by God for some special glorious purpose.

So what does it mean when the word sanctified is applied to you and me?

Well, the first thing to understand is that sanctification is a time-travelling word.

It truly is the Marty McFly of theological words.

That's because, biblically speaking, sanctification occurs in the past, the present, and the future.

It's in the past because it's already happened.

The Bible says you were sanctified by God when you were saved by him.

It's in the present because the Bible says God is currently working through everything in your life to sanctify you, meaning that he's engaged in the ongoing

project of making you more and more like his son. But there's another sense in

which our sanctification is in the future.

Scripture says our sanctification will be complete when the Lord calls us home or when he returns.

So God has set you apart, God is setting you apart, and God will set you apart.

Now, strangely, when we think of sanctification at all we tend to think of it

exclusively as the second of those three. We think of sanctification as the ongoing

process of becoming progressively more and more sanctified.

That's what theologians call progressive sanctification.

It's what's happening every day as God the Father makes us more like his son by means of his Spirit.

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