Some of My Favorite Sanctification Quotes
Though not an exhaustive compilation, I hope you will enjoy. 😀
Post your favorites in the comments below! 👇🏼😀📚
Francis Schaeffer
“I became a Christian once for all upon the basis of the finished work of Christ through faith. That is justification. The Christian life, sanctification, operates on the same basis, but moment by moment. There is the same basis (Christ’s work) and the same instrument (faith); the only difference is that one is once-for-all and the other is moment by moment... If we try to live the Christian life in our own strength we will have sorrow, but if we live in this moment-by-moment way, we will not only serve the Lord, but in place of sorrow, He will be our song. That is the difference. The ‘how’ of the Christian life is the power of the crucified and risen Lord, through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit, by faith moment by moment.” (True Spirituality)
“This is when we begin to make our forward steps as Christians: When I know through experience that I can lay hold of Christ’s blood by faith to cover my sins this morning, and then to cover my sins this afternoon, even if they’re the same sins. When I know this, the preciousness of Christ’s blood becomes a tremendous reality. I begin to live in the light of His presence and in the light of His work—not just in the past or in the future, but in the present.” (True Spirituality)
J.I. Packer
“God’s free gift of justification (the pardon and acceptance here and now through Christ’s perfect obedience culminating in his substitutionary sin-bearing for us on the cross) is the basis on which the entire sanctifying process rests. It is our union by the Spirit, through faith, with the Christ who died for us and whom first we trust for justification, that our subsequent life of holiness is lived. Holy people glory, not in their holiness, but in Christ’s cross: for the holiest saint is never more than a justified sinner and never sees himself in any other way.” (J. I. Packer, Keep in Step With The Spirit (Fleming H. Revell: Old Tappan, NJ, 1984), 105-106)
Charles Spurgeon
“Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Remember, holiness is a flower, not a root. It is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.” Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon, Barbour Publishing, 985.
Octavius Winslow
“The Spirit especially and effectually sanctifies by unfolding the cross of Jesus… It is by simple, close and searching views of the cross of Christ that the Spirit most effectually sanctifies the believer. This is the true and great method of gospel sanctification!” (The Work of the Holy Spirit, 127)
“Let no man dream of true mortification of sin, or real sanctification of heart, who does not deal constantly, closely and believingly with the atoning blood of Jesus.” (129)
“It is the privilege of a poor sinner to go to Jesus at his worst, to go in darkness, to go in weakness, to go when everything says ‘stay away…” to press through the crowd to the throne of grace, take the hard, the cold, the reluctant heart and lay it before the throne.” (129)
Robert Haldane
“So far from setting aside the necessity of obedience to God, the doctrine of justification stands indissolubly connected with the very foundation of holiness and obedience. This foundation is union with the Redeemer, through that faith by which the believer is justified. On the contrary, the law operates, by its restraints, to stimulate and call into action the corruptions of the human heart, while at the same time it condemns all who are under its dominion. But, through their union with Christ, believers are delivered from the law; and being under grace, which produces love, they are enabled to bring forth fruit acceptable to God.” Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1997), 11.
William Romaine
"No sin can be crucified in heart or life unless it is first pardoned in conscience. If it e not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power."
Martin Luther
“Yes, my dear Moses, I hear what you say; and it is no doubt right and true. But do tell me where am I to get the ability to do what I have unfortunately have not done and cannot do.” From What Luther Says: A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, Edited by Ewald M. Plass (Concordia: St. Louis, Missouri, 1959).
Dane Ortlund
“We feed sin by coddling it, pining after it, daydreaming about it, giving vent to it. We suffocate sin by redirecting our gaze to Christ. As our hearts redirect their gaze to the Jesus of the Bible in all his glorious gentleness and dazzling love, sin gets starved and begins to wilt.” (Deeper)
Richard Lovelace
“The anesthetic of grace is constantly needed in the healing process of sanctification along with the surgical ministry of the law. For this reason, many areas of the church which contain a great deal of [legal] thunder and lightning [Sinai], exposing at least the surfaces of sin, are full of desperately anxious and bitterly contentious people. Law without grace provokes sin—and exposes and aggravates it into some of its ugliest expressions. The counselor [or pastor] who is attempting to move people further in sanctification should therefore begin with a strong emphasis on justification and reiterate this often in the course of his work. Psychoanalysts speak of the ‘resistance’ patients have toward the discovery of traumatic material hidden in the unconscious. The same automatic fear will grip and bind Christian believers unless they are very deeply assured that they are ‘accepted in the beloved,’ received by God as if they were perfectly righteous because their guilt is canceled by the righteousness of Christ laid to their account. The human conscience is very deeply disoriented in its conviction that we must have works and sanctification to recommend ourselves to God. We must carry out a very deliberate replacement of this misunderstanding with the awareness that God simply wants honesty, openness and a trusting reliance on Christ our Savior. We cannot bear the light [shining] on our needs unless we are also in the light concerning God’s grace to meet those needs.” (Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 113)