Sanctification
Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy.
Judaism
In rabbinic Judaism sanctification means sanctifying God's name by works of mercy and martyrdom, while desecration of God's name means committing sin. This is based on the Jewish concept of God, whose holiness is pure goodness and is transmissible by sanctifying people and things.Christianity
In the various branches of Christianity sanctification usually refers to a person becoming holy, with the details differing in different branches.Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church upholds the doctrine of sanctification, teaching that:According to the Catholic Encyclopedia "sanctity" differs for God, individual, and corporate body. For God, it is God's unique absolute moral perfection. For the individual, it is a close union with God and the resulting moral perfection. It is essentially of God, by a divine gift. For a society, it is the ability to produce and secure holiness in its members, who display a real, not merely nominal, holiness. The Church's holiness is beyond human power, beyond natural power.
Sanctity is regulated by established conventional standards.
Eastern Orthodoxy
teaches the doctrine of theosis, whereby humans take on divine properties. A key scripture supporting this is. In the 4th century, Athanasius taught that God became Man that Man might become God.Essentially, Man does not become divine, but in Christ can partake of divine nature. This Church's version of salvation restores God's image in man.
One such theme is release from mortality caused by desires of the world.
Lutheranism
, taught in his Large Catechism that Sanctification is only caused by the Holy Spirit through the powerful Word of God. The Holy Spirit uses churches to gather Christians together for the teaching and preaching of the Word of God.Luther also viewed the Ten Commandments as means by which the Holy Spirit sanctifies.
"Thus we have the Ten Commandments, a commend of divine doctrine, as to what we are to do in order that our whole life may be pleasing to God, and the true fountain and channel from and in which everything must arise and flow that is to be a good work, so that outside of the Ten Commandments no work or thing can be good or pleasing to God, however great or precious it be in the eyes of the world...whoever does attain to them is a heavenly, angelic man, far above all holiness of the world. Only occupy yourself with them, and try your best, apply all power and ability, and you will find so much to do that you will neither seek nor esteem any other work or holiness."
Pietistic Lutheranism heavily emphasizes the "biblical divine commands of believers to live a holy life and to strive for holy living, or sanctification."
Anglicanism
A 2002 Anglican publishing house book states that “there is no explicit teaching on sanctification in the Anglican formularies”. A glossary of the Episcopal Church gives some teaching: “Anglican formularies have tended to speak of sanctification as the process of God's work within us by means of which we grow into the fullness of the redeemed life.” Outside official formularies sanctification has been an issue in the Anglican Communion since its inception.The 16th century Anglican theologian Richard Hooker distinguished between the “righteousness of justification” that is imputed by God and the “righteousness of sanctification” that comprises the works one does as an “inevitable” result of being justified.
Jeremy Taylor argued that justification and sanctification cannot be separated; they are “two steps in a long process”.
A 19th century Church of England work agreed with Jeremy Taylor that justification and sanctification are “inseparable”. However, they are not the same thing. Justification is “found in Christ’s work alone”. “Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, and is a progressive work.”
Reformed
theologians interpret sanctification as the process of being made holy only through the merits and justification of Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit that are then reflected in man. Sanctification cannot be attained by any works-based process, but only through the works and power of the divine. When a man is unregenerate, it is his essence that sins and does evil. But when a man is justified through Christ, it is no longer the man that sins, but the man is acting outside of his character. In other words, the man is not being himself, he is not being true to who he is.Methodist
In Wesleyan-Arminian theology, which is upheld by the Methodist Church as well as by Holiness Churches, "sanctification, the beginning of holiness, begins at the new birth". With the Grace of God, Methodists "do works of piety and mercy, and these works reflect the power of sanctification". Examples of these means of grace that aid with sanctification include frequent reception of the sacrament of Holy Communion, and visiting the sick and those in prison. Wesleyan covenant theology also emphasizes that an important aspect of sanctification is the keeping of the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. As such, in "sanctification one grows to be more like Christ." This process of sanctification that begins at the new birth has its goal as Christian perfection, also known as entire sanctification, which John Wesley, the progenitor of the Methodist faith, described as a heart "habitually filled with the love of God and neighbor" and as "having the mind of Christ and walking as he walked". To John Wesley the work of entire sanctification was distinctly separate from regeneration and was "wrought instantaneously, though it may be approached by slow and gradual steps." A more complete statement of Wesley's position goes like this:"It is that habitual disposition of soul which, in the sacred writings, is termed holiness; and which directly implies, the being cleansed from sin, 'from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit;' and, by consequence, the being endued with those virtues which were also in Christ Jesus; the being so 'renewed in the spirit of our mind,' as to be 'perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.'"This is the doctrine that by the power of God's sanctifying grace and attention upon the means of grace may cleanse a Christian of the corrupting influence of original sin in this life. It is expounded upon in the Methodist Articles of Religion:
Justification is seen as an initial step of acknowledging God's holiness, with sanctification as, through the grace and power of God, entering into it. A key scripture is Hebrews 12:14: "Follow after...holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord." The Wesleyan Church states that sanctification has three components—initial, progressive, and entire:
John Wesley taught that outward holiness in the form of "right words and right actions" should reflect the inner transformation experienced through the second work of grace.
Pentecostalism
There are two Pentecostal positions on sanctification, entire sanctification and progressive sanctification.Entire sanctification as a second work of grace, is the position of Pentecostal denominations that originally had their roots in Wesleyan-Arminian theology, such as the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, Church of God, Christian and Missionary Alliance, and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. These denominations differ from the Methodist Churches in that they teach the possibility of a third work of grace--glossolalia.
Progressive sanctification is the work of sanctification of the believer through grace and the decisions of the believer after the new birth. This is the position of other Pentecostal denominations, such as the Assemblies of God.
Quakerism
, the founder of Quakerism, taught Christian perfection, also known in the Friends tradition as "Perfectionism", in which the Christian believer could be made free from sin. In his Some Principles of the Elect People of God Who in Scorn are called Quakers, for all the People throughout all Christendome to Read over, and thereby their own States to Consider, he writes in section "XVI. Concerning Perfection":The early Quakers, following Fox, taught that as a result of the New Birth through the power of the Holy Spirit, man could be free from actual sinning if he continued to rely on the inward light and "focus on the cross of Christ as the center of faith". George Fox emphasized "personal responsibility for faith and emancipation from sin" in his teaching on perfectionism. For the Christian, "perfectionism and freedom from sin were possible in this world".
Some Quaker denominations were founded to emphasize this teaching, such as the Central Yearly Meeting of Friends.