Sanctification is a life-long process through which we become more and more like Christ. It happens as God works in us and as we fight sin.

I read somewhere, “God loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way.”  There’s a lot of truth in that statement.  God loved us even while were sinners.  We don’t have to clean ourselves up before we can get saved.  However, once we are saved, God does expect us to change. We see in Romans 8:29, “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

What does that mean?

There’s a lot of misunderstanding about this verse, I think.   Some people are unclear about the meaning of the word “foreknew.”  Just reading it, you may think that it just means “knew before,” but the meaning is actually deeper than that mere knowledge.  It refers to God’s choosing to love us and have a relationship with us from before time began.  There’s also some confusion about the word “predestined.”  In this context, it just means that God decided something beforehand.  So, this verse is saying, “God decided before they were even born that those whom He loved would be conformed to the image of His son.” 

In a previous post (You Must Be Born Again), I talked about how we are made new through regeneration.  Today, we’re going to talk about how we are being made new as we are being conformed to the image of Christ.  This process is called sanctification. 

God’s Part in Sanctification

On the one hand, sanctification is God’s work in us. God gives us the desire and the ability to do His will (Philippians 2:13).  Without God’s influence we would not even want to do the right thing, much less be able to make the right choices.  We would all continue to follow our own sinful desires.  However, God gives us the strength to do whatever He commands (Philippians 4:13).  He has called us to be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4), so He will give us what we need to accomplish that. 

Our Part in Sanctification

However, sanctification is also something we must work for.  We must discipline ourselves to do God’s will (1 Timothy 4:7-8).  It requires effort on our part to choose to take advantage of the power and strength at our disposal so that we can resist temptation and choose to do the right thing.  It will be hard, and we will fail.  A lot.  But the longer we are saved and more we fight sin, the easier it becomes and the less we will fail.

Becoming More Like Christ

How can we know what the right thing to do is?  Jesus prays in John 17:17 that God would sanctify us in the truth of God’s Word.  We must study the Scripture to know what God expects of us.  We can read the Gospels to learn more about Christ, since it’s His image to which we are to be conformed.  If we are to become more like Christ, we must have a clear understanding of who He is. 

However, we must not focus our attention just on the Gospels, or even just the New Testament.  It’s equally important to study the rest of Scripture, because all of Scripture points to Christ. All Scripture is valuable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that we may be equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  We must be familiar with the truth of God’s Word if we are to become who He wants us to be. 

Sanctification is a life-long process.  We will fight against sin until we die, but over time the fight will get a little easier.  One day we can look back over our lives and see how much we have really changed. One day we will be able to see how much more like Christ we have become.

How do you feel about the statement, “God loves you just as you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way?”  Why does God want us to change? Share you thoughts in the comments below!

This post is part of my Bible study series called “A New Creation.”  You can find other posts and resources for this free online bible study here:

A New Creation-What It Means to Be in Christ

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.