Sanctification: God Transforms & Renews the Regenerate: We Pray, Strive & Exercise unto Godliness

Present sanctification is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit using the means of Scripture as appropriated by obedient faith. Christians are responsible to pray, strive against sin, and exercise unto godliness. Having regenerated them, God transforms and renews Christians, making them ever more holy through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Vivification by prayer:

In the model prayer, one of the requests is “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:11). So when we pray that God protects us from temptation, and deliver us from evil, and trust in Him through Christ, based on His promise in the Word, what does He do? He keeps us from temptation and delivers us from evil, progressively delivering us from evil more and more as we grow in grace until our perfect and final deliverance at Christ’s coming.

Vivification by exercise:

God vivifies His people in conjunction with their exercise of spiritual graces; as the believer, enabled by the Holy Spirit, exercises faith, hope, love, and all spiritual virtues, as he flees vice, as he practices spiritual discipline and puts in practice all the inward and outward attitudes and actions that characterize the Son of Man, the second Adam, and rejects all the evils of attitude and action that characterize the fallen first Adam, he grows in holiness. The old man is progressively put to death, and the new man grows in strength by means of exercise. By practicing holiness the Christian becomes more holy; by fighting and mortifying sin he becomes less sinful. Paul commanded Timothy to “refuse” evil and “exercise [himself] rather unto godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). Growth in godliness by means of disciplined spiritual exercise is compared to growth in physical strength by means of physical exercise (1 Timothy 4:8).

Vivification by striving:

Growth in holiness and progressive weakening of indwelling sin takes place as the believer strives against and fights sin, depending upon his sanctifying God for victory (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

Vivification by being Transformed:

The progressive restoration of the image of Christ that constitutes vivification in this life and which is consummated in glorification is powerfully set forth in the New Testament language of spiritual transformation with the morphoo word group. The Greek verb metamorphoo is used twice for the transfiguration of Christ (Matthew 17:2; Mark 9:2) and twice for the spiritual transformation of the believer in sanctification (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18). Romans 12:2 commands, “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 states, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” All believers (“we all,” 2 Corinthians 3:18), are progressively transformed into the image of Christ by the Holy Spirit. They pass “from glory to glory” in this life, becoming more like Christ as the old in them is eliminated and the new grows stronger and stronger, until the transformation is complete when they are “like him ... [and] see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). As they behold and meditate upon the glory of God revealed in the mirror of the Word their nature is transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The renewal begun by the Spirit in regeneration (Titus 3:5) is carried on by Him in believers now (Romans 12:2) until it is perfected in eternal glory. The inward transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit results in a believer being different and therefore acting differently.

Vivification by Renewal Sourced in Regeneration:

Titus 3:4-7 indicates that salvation involves both the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Ghost. The noun renewal appears, outside of Titus 3:5, only in Romans 12:2, where spiritual transformation takes place by means of “the renewing of [the saint’s] mind,” both for the purpose of and with the result that the believer “may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” A related verb for renewal appears in 2 Corinthians 4:16 and Colossians 3:10. These texts indicate that God, the Creator of the new spiritual principle within the believer and Author and Source of all spiritual growth, progressively and daily renews the believer’s inward man into His image. Scripture emphasizes the mind (Romans 12:2) and knowledge (Colossians 3:10) in the believer’s renewal. Thus, the command “be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23) closely parallels Romans 12:2’s “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God progressively renews the believer’s mind in association with the old man being put off and the new being put on (Ephesians 4:22-24). While regeneration is the work of an instant, renewal begins with regeneration (Titus 3:5; Hebrews 6:6) but continues throughout life until it is completed at glorification.

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