Modern Sanctification
Text: I Peter 1:15-16
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Doctrinal
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- State the central claim of the holiness movement's doctrine of entire sanctification — how it progressed from "inability to sin" to "no inclination to sin."
- Explain why the doctrine eliminates the Christian struggle and how I Cor. 10:12, Heb. 4:1, and Phil. 2:12 contradict it.
- Explain what the holiness movement's first argument ("be holy") actually means — why God's holiness is the reason for human holiness, not the standard it reaches.
- Explain what "be perfect" means in context — relative, imitative perfection rather than the absolute perfection of God.
- State the conclusion: in what sense is every pardoned person "perfected" — and why this is the Bible's actual teaching.
Thesis
The claim that a Christian can reach a state of sinless perfection — a condition in which sin is no longer possible or even inclined toward — contradicts the explicit warnings of I Cor. 10:12, Heb. 4:1, and Phil. 2:12, misreads the commands to "be holy" and "be perfect," and produces a theology in which the ongoing Christian struggle has been resolved by experience rather than by the final redemption. The Bible's perfection is relative, progressive, and renewed at each act of pardon — not a plateau of achieved sinlessness.
Burden
The doctrine of entire sanctification — the claim that a second work of grace produces a state in which the Christian is "quarantined against the commission of sin" — makes a compelling appeal to the language of holiness that runs throughout the New Testament. The burden of this sermon is to examine that language carefully: not to diminish the call to holiness, but to show that the commands to "be holy" and "be perfect" mean something the holiness movement has misread, and that the misreading has serious consequences for how Christians understand the ongoing struggle of the Christian life.
Introduction
"But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy'" (I Pet. 1:15-16). The text is from Leviticus 11:44, and it is the standard text for the holiness movement's doctrine of entire sanctification. On its face, it sounds like a command to reach the standard of God's own holiness — which would imply either that God's holiness is achievable by human beings, or that the command is directed at a supernatural state produced by a second work of grace.
The holiness movement built its doctrine on this and similar texts. The claim began as the assertion that a second work of grace could make the Christian unable to sin — not merely unwilling but literally incapable. Under pressure from obvious experience, it was modified: not inability to sin but no inclination to sin. In either form, the claim is that grace can produce a condition in the present life that the New Testament locates at the resurrection — a condition in which the struggle against sin has been permanently resolved.
Two arguments are made for this doctrine. Both can be answered from Scripture.
I. The Objection to the Doctrine
If the doctrine of entire sanctification is correct, the Christian life as the New Testament describes it has been fundamentally misrepresented.
There is no struggle for the Christian then. The New Testament's consistent description of the Christian life is the description of a struggle: "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please" (Gal. 5:17). Paul does not describe a struggle that has been resolved — he describes one that is ongoing. The person who has reached "no inclination to sin" has no flesh warring against the Spirit. Paul describes no such condition as available in the present life.
The doctrine violates three direct warnings. "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall" (I Cor. 10:12). The warning is specifically addressed to people who think they are beyond the reach of temptation — the person who "thinks he stands" is not being warned against pride; they are being warned that the confidence itself is the danger. "Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it" (Heb. 4:1). The fear of falling short is presented as the appropriate posture for the Christian who has not yet arrived at the final rest. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). The person who has been quarantined against the commission of sin has nothing to work out and nothing to fear. The command is directed at people who can still fail.
II. The Two Arguments of the Holiness Movement
The holiness movement makes essentially two arguments from Scripture. Both require examination.
First argument: "Be holy."
The texts: "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior" (I Pet. 1:15-16). "Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him" (Eph. 1:4). "That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless" (Eph. 5:26-27).
These texts command holiness and speak of a holiness that is both conferred and pursued. The holiness movement reads them as commanding the achievement of God's own standard of holiness — and therefore as requiring a second work of grace to accomplish what ordinary Christian life cannot.
But the reading contradicts what Scripture says about God's holiness. "There is no one holy like the Lord" (I Sam. 2:2). "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy" (Rev. 15:4). God's holiness is unique — it is not a standard that man achieves but the reality that distinguishes God from everything else. "Be holy, for I am holy" does not mean "reach the holiness of God" — it means "be holy in the way that a creature can be holy, because the God you belong to is holy." God's holiness is the reason for the command, not the content of the standard.
The command to "be holy" is a command to be set apart — to live in a way that reflects, in human and creaturely terms, the character of the God who has called you. It does not require sinless perfection; it requires ongoing orientation toward holiness, ongoing pursuit of it, ongoing reliance on the forgiveness that maintains the status of holiness when the pursuit falls short.
Second argument: "Be perfect."
The texts: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). "We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ" (Col. 1:28-29). "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified" (Heb. 10:14).
The holiness movement reads these as requiring the achievement of God's own absolute perfection, again by a second work of grace.
But the reading contradicts what Scripture records about the actual experience of the wisest and most dedicated people of God. "If they sin against You (for there is no man who does not sin)" (I Kings 8:46). "There is no man who does not sin" (II Chron. 6:36). These are not descriptions of unregenerate people — they are Solomon's acknowledgment of the universal condition of human beings before God, made in the context of the dedication of the temple.
"Perfect" in the New Testament does not mean "absolutely sinless." It means mature, complete, having reached the goal appropriate to one's stage of growth. Matthew 5:48 — "be perfect as your Father is perfect" — appears at the end of a section on loving enemies: be complete in love, as your Father is complete in love, not reserving your love for those who deserve it. The perfection commanded is the completeness of love that imitates God's character in a human and relational register — not the absolute sinlessness of God's divine nature. The person imitates the perfection; they do not reach it.
Hebrews 10:14 is the most important text: "For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified." The perfecting here is not something the Christian achieves — it is something Christ accomplishes through his sacrifice. And the tense is already complete: "has perfected." The perfection Hebrews describes is the status conferred by the once-for-all offering of Christ, not an experiential state the Christian reaches through a second work of grace.
Application
Two applications follow:
First: Do not confuse the call to holiness with the claim to have arrived at it. The New Testament's commands to "be holy" and "be perfect" are calls to ongoing pursuit, not certificates of arrival. The Christian who stops pursuing holiness because they have decided they have achieved it has misread the commands. The Christian who pursues holiness while acknowledging that the pursuit is still incomplete has understood them correctly.
Second: The ongoing struggle is not evidence of deficient grace. The holiness movement implicitly teaches that ongoing temptation and the ongoing reality of falling short are signs that a person has not yet received what they need. The New Testament teaches the opposite: the ongoing struggle is the normal condition of the Christian life in the present age. Paul struggled (I Cor. 9:27). Peter fell (Gal. 2:11). John wrote to people who had sinned (I John 2:1). The answer to falling short is not a second work of grace that eliminates the possibility of falling — it is the ongoing confession that receives the forgiveness that is always available (I John 1:9).
Conclusion
Each person is perfected, in a sense, when pardoned — and that perfecting is renewed each time pardon is received. This is the Bible's answer to the question of human holiness in the present age: not a plateau of achieved sinlessness but a status of forgiven-ness that is maintained by ongoing confession, ongoing reliance on the blood of Christ, and ongoing pursuit of the holiness that God's character demands and Christ's sacrifice makes possible.
The final perfection — the condition in which sin is no longer possible, in which the struggle is permanently and finally resolved — is not available in this life. It is what resurrection brings. Until then, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling."
Invitation
The holiness that God requires is not produced by a second work of grace that eliminates the possibility of sin. It begins with the first work: the washing away of sins in baptism (Acts 22:16), the receiving of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), the entry into Christ in whom every spiritual blessing is located (Eph. 1:3). The person who has not yet made this first act of obedient faith has not yet received the sanctification that is available "in Christ" — and without which the pursuit of holiness has no foundation.
Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Repent. Confess his name. Be baptized for the remission of your sins (Acts 2:38). And enter the ongoing pursuit of holiness that begins there, sustained by the forgiveness that is never withheld from the person who confesses.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Holy / Be holy | hagios / hagiazō | Set apart, consecrated, belonging to God — separated from what is common or profane. | Used in I Pet. 1:15-16, quoting Lev. 11:44, as the standard the Christian is commanded to pursue. | "Be holy, for I am holy" — God's holiness is the reason for the command, not the standard the command requires man to reach. I Sam. 2:2 and Rev. 15:4 both declare God's holiness as unique. The command is to be set apart in a way fitting to creatures, not to reach the divine holiness. | I Pet. 1:15-16; I Sam. 2:2; Rev. 15:4 |
| Perfect / Perfected | teleios / teleiōō | Complete, mature, having reached the goal — from telos (end, purpose, completion). | Used in Matt. 5:48 for the completeness of love the disciple is to pursue; in Heb. 10:14 for the status Christ's sacrifice confers. | "Perfect" in the NT does not mean absolutely sinless. In Matt. 5:48 it means complete in love as God is complete. In Heb. 10:14 the perfecting is Christ's act through his sacrifice, not the believer's achievement. | Matt. 5:48; Heb. 10:14; Col. 1:28 |
| Sanctification | hagiasmos | The process or state of being set apart — the ongoing work of making holy. | Used throughout as the term for the holiness movement's second-work-of-grace doctrine. | The NT uses hagiasmos for both an initial status (entered at baptism/conversion) and an ongoing pursuit. Neither use supports a crisis experience that permanently resolves the Christian struggle. | Heb. 12:14; I Thess. 4:3 |
| Quarantined against sin | (English term for the holiness movement claim) | A state in which sin is no longer possible or even inclined toward. | Used to describe the evolved form of the entire sanctification doctrine — the modification from "unable to sin" to "no inclination to sin." | The NT's own language directly contradicts this: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall" (I Cor. 10:12). The person who thinks they stand in sinless security is the specific target of this warning. | I Cor. 10:12; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 4:1 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| "Be holy, for I am holy" — the holiness movement's primary text | II.1 | I Pet. 1:15-16 |
| "No one holy like the Lord" — God's holiness as unique | II.1a | I Sam. 2:2 |
| "You alone are holy" | II.1a | Rev. 15:4 |
| "Let him who thinks he stands take heed" — against the doctrine | I.2 | I Cor. 10:12 |
| "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling" | I.2 | Phil. 2:12 |
| "Fear lest any come short" | I.2 | Heb. 4:1 |
| "Be perfect as your Father is perfect" | II.2 | Matt. 5:48 |
| "There is no man who does not sin" — Solomon's acknowledgment | II.2a | I Kings 8:46; II Chron. 6:36 |
| "He has perfected for all time" — Christ's act, not ours | II.2 | Heb. 10:14 |
| Baptism for remission — the first, foundational sanctification | Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 141. No primary text stated; doctrinal/polemical — I Pet. 1:15-16 used as the central text around which the holiness movement's argument is built. OCR corrections: "Quarnntined" → "Quarantined"; "1 Coi-. 10:12" → "I Cor. 10:12"; "JI." → "II." Doctrinal audit: the refutation of entire sanctification developed from the NT's own warnings against presumed security (I Cor. 10:12; Phil. 2:12; Heb. 4:1); "be holy" read as a creature-level standard with God's holiness as the motive, not the measure (I Sam. 2:2; Rev. 15:4); "be perfect" read as teleios (mature, complete in the relevant dimension of love/service) not as absolute sinlessness (I Kings 8:46; II Chron. 6:36); Heb. 10:14 read correctly as Christ's perfecting of the sanctified, not the believer's achievement; the conclusion (pardoned = perfected in a sense, renewed at each pardon) is careful and pastorally useful; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38).
