Sanctification

Sanctification is the process by which a new believer in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ replaces the love of world with the love of Jesus. It is as simple as that – and yet as complex as that. By nature, we are born subject to the law of sin. The Apostle Paul said it this way in Romans 7:

23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

The Apostle John speaks of this sin nature as a “love” of the flesh. In 1 John 2, he writes:

15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Christ-followers know that this love of world will not go away just by knowing it is wrong. We cannot “will” it away. Our crucified old nature, the corpse, exists in our flesh. We must begin the process of replacing our old mindset, our “loves”, with the LOVE of JESUS. We must fall in love with Jesus and fill our minds daily with Scripture, prayer, fellowship with our Lord, and obey His every leading … then we have something that begins to replace what is there.

Over time, the new believer will soon forget the love of the world and his or her mind will focus on, and think about more often, God’s love and His Will.