By, Bishop Roger Ammons, Church Communication Minister
Does the Bible teach “progressive sanctification?” Most everyone who uses the term “progressive sanctification” denies that there is a second instantaneous work of grace, subsequent to justification, and a prerequisite for the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Although the Bible teaches that there is an instantaneous experience of sanctification, it also teaches progressive perfection. Paul prayed for the Thessalonians, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). One can be instantaneously wholly sanctified. At that moment, he is wholly or perfectly sanctified. He is as clean and pure as it is possible for him to be. In that sense, he is perfect. However, he must stay under the cleansing stream of the blood of Jesus to maintain his perfection. “Pure religion and undefiled before God… is this, To… keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). According to the grammar of the original Greek, this means that he is “to keep on keeping oneself unspecked from the world” (Robertson’s NT Word Pictures)
Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “…let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Peter wrote, “beware lest ye… fall from your own stedfastness. But grow in grace…” (2 Peter 3:17, 18). However, a Christian cannot grow as he should until he has been instantaneously sanctified.
Progressive perfection has to do with keeping oneself “unspotted from the world,” “perfecting holiness,” and “grow[ing] in grace.” One does not grow UNTO the grace of sanctification, but rather IN the grace of sanctification UNTO perfection. “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection…” (Heb. 6:1).
This study is not meant to diminish or question the principle doctrine of instantaneous sanctification, which we have experienced and hold so dear. However, our study will show that the Bible actually says much more about progressive perfection than it does about instantaneous sanctification. This study of progressive perfection will show, by the Scripture, that there are degrees of perfection: some fluid, some static, some relative, and some absolute. One short article cannot do justice to such a study. This Part One is just an introduction. Watch the coming issues for other parts of this study.
“So God created man in his own image… And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…” (Gen. 1:27, 31). A perfect God created man in His image. Absolute perfection is in God alone. Man resembled God and therefore had a relative perfection, of which God said was “very good,” but when Adam sinned, the image of God in man was marred. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive… And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit… The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven… And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:22, 45, 47, 49).
The second man Adam is God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image” of God (see Hebrews 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15). As we are beholding “the glory of the Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).
Sanctification restores man to the holy estate of Adam before the Fall, but as we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), we experience progressive perfection, which is the process of “perfecting holiness” (2 Cor. 7:1) or “the perfecting of the saints…Till we all come…unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12, 13).
Let us go on from the EXPERIENTIAL to the EXPONENTIAL as we are CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON (Romans 8:29) and renewed in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness (Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24). Thus, we will finally become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). This does not mean that we will become God. We may not fully comprehend what this means until we all get to heaven, where we will sing and shout the victory. As John wrote, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2, 3).