Sanctification
The process of sanctification can also be termed loosely of becoming like God, as we were all created to be like him and in sanctification we are restored to the full human potential designed by god. This has three parts or levels and includes the work done by the Holy Spirit, done by ourselves and through society. All three are required to achieve sanctification and that is the full development of the god-designed human being. The Holy Spirit makes the believer holy and sanctification is a part of it. The change does not take place immediately, and the process takes three stages. The names given to these three stages are positional sanctification, progressive sanctification and perfect or complete sanctification. (Sanctification- First Baptist Church) As we run the race to the end of our lives, Sanctification is an incessant procedure of growth. In the life of a Christian, the work of sanctification is not at all finished. By getting rid of bad habits, sanctification makes the sinner more and more like Jesus Christ. In the soul and the spirit of man, sanctification occurs. (Roman Catholic Church- Religion vs. Relationship)
Background:
Historically sanctification was unfolded in stages as a doctrine and the Church was concerned only with the three problems of the relation of grace of God regarding sanctification and faith, the relative positions of sanctification and justification and the extent of sanctification in the worldly life. The Church fathers in the beginning had written very little regarding this doctrine. There was a strain of morals and that was seen in the fact that men were taught to depend on salvation and faith with good work. The sins that humans committed before baptism were felt to be washed away through baptism, but sins after baptism had to be compensated through penance and good deeds. He was told to lead a life of virtue so that he could get merits in the eyes of the Lord. The greatest importance was attached to ascetic living. There was also a tendency to club together justification and sanctification. (Sanctification: A Reformed Theology Resource)
The first person to develop definite ideas about sanctification was Augustine, and his views were a great influence in the Church of the middle Ages. He also did not separate justification and sanctification but felt the latter to be a part of the former. He believed that total human nature had been corrupted by the fall and thought of sanctification as a new supernatural impartation of divine life. This was to give a new energy and operate exclusively within the confines of the Church and through the Church procedures. The theories given by the teachings of Augustine were developed further in the theology of the middle Ages, and were expressed in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. There is no clear distinction between justification and sanctification. Justification is however felt to include an infusion of divine grace, and thus substantial into the human soul. (Sanctification: A Reformed Theology Resource)
The grace was viewed as a type of donum superadditum used to lift the soul to a higher level, and the person to a higher level of being and through this being able to achieve the heavenly destiny of knowing, possessing and enjoying God. The grace was supposed to come from the inexhaustible merits of Christ and was to be transferred to believers through the sacraments. This was supposed to be the source of new life with all the virtues. The good work could be neutralized or destroyed through the commitment of mortal sins. The guilt committed after baptism was thought to be removed through the Eucharist for the venial sins and through the sacrament of penance for mortal sins. When one sees this from a human view point, the supernatural power...
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