08/19/2026
The idea of progressive sanctification has ruined the church of today. It has caused people to believe that anyone can be used by God no matter how they live. It has caused phrases like (some of them scripture taken out of context) "he who is without sin cast the first stone", "judge not lest you be judged", "you don't know their heart", "who are you to judge?", "the gifts of God are without repentance", and "we all are growing in sanctification and we have to have patience with each other" etc. as a way to excuse someone blatently living in sin but then still have some kind of spiritual leadership role in the church.
Our Sanctification, just like our Justification is NOT something that we grow in, but it is in the person of Jesus Christ and it is imputed to us. You could even say Jesus Christ IS our Sanctification just like you can say He IS our Justification or He IS our Holiness.
And so how can you be even "conditionally" (as a term people like to use) partly in Jesus Christ and partly out of Him because you are still "growing in sanctification?" But that is what you are saying when you say you are being progressively sanctified or progressively saved even ("being sanctified" or "being saved" as false translations of the Bible like to put it) because our Salvation is also the person of Jesus Christ. No, but even anyone who teaches progressive sanctification would agree, you are ether in Christ or you are not.
Where the confusion comes in, and this may have been why this teaching of progressive sanctification started, is that we are still clearly living in this flesh that is imperfect and we wrestle against. So yes we do have to see there is a growth process there, but however terms are very important and the way we say things when it comes to scripture can lead to life or death for the church.
The only growth we see in scripture is in knowledge and in faith. And it's the grace of God is what enables us to still remain in Christ and thus be holy though we are still growing in our knowledge and our faith, you could also call that growing in grace because of that. Growing in grace in not a phrase to use to prove progressive sanctification because if you read the whole scripture it says, "growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The term sanctification again means to be set apart from the profane, to be holy. There is only One as we know that is holy and that is God. Holiness cannot be something we can grow in or obtain gradually, it must be imputed. Therefore, again think of the term and what it means here, our sanctification must be imputed just like our justification. Both words sanctification and justification at their root definition speak of the holiness or righteousness that has been imputed to us while at the same time they describe different aspects of it.
Justification shows us that we have been given this gift of being legally declared as not guilty in Christ though we are guilty in ourselves. Sanctification shows us that we have been given this gift of being able to be completely seperated from the profane (sin, world, flesh, and the devil) in the way we live and guide our lives everyday.
We don't have to give ourselves over to evil anymore, we instead have a choice to walk in our sanctification, a.k.a. walk in the Spirit, or a.k.a. remain "in Christ.".
Again this is for our everyday life. We must choose to walk in what we already have been given through Christ. And "in Him" we will walk in complete victory and it is when we remain "in Him", He can use us. It's where the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit can operate. It's "in Him"! In our Sanctification! It's where the Spirit through Paul says, "you will not fullfill the lust of your flesh," so you will live a perfect, holy life in God's eyes.
Again, as said previous, you are growing in knowledge so it doesn't mean sins of ignorance won't be committed as you are walking the Spirit a.k.a. your Sanctifucation, but, that is where His grace comes in. Because of His grace He still looks at you as righteous and holy (both posistionally and conditionally) even though you are still growing in His knowledge in Him and will, in the places you are still ignorant, not please Him 100 percent of the time. Remember though it's Christ's holiness imputed, not our own. But, we must conintue to strive to grow in knowledge and faith, we can't stay stagnant, or we will frustrate His grace and will fall back (begin to walk outside of our sanctification). For God will not allow us to continue in sin (sins of willfull disobediance- you know it's wrong and yet you still do it), so that His grace may abound. No, but a person that does this will then begin to walk outside of God's grace and their Sanctification a.k.a. Christ.
This is why someone who do this having chosen to revive the old man, and live according to the ways of self (which is what we can all fall back into doing and where Paul was in Romans 7), cannot be used by God but will instead spend their time struggling with sin. They may try to make it look like they are being used by God, by some good works being done but they are in the end bringing forth nothing but only what the flesh can bring forth and that is death.
But, in actuality, most of these people claiming to be leadership in the church of today or even Christians but are living in sin, are not even saved and have never been born again. However, they can get away with what they claim and the position they have while not really living for God, because the church of today has believed the lie of progressive sanctification.
It isn't just a mis-representation of a term, but it is a mis-representation of who Christ is, because that term is another name for who He is. The church of today and it's sinful, worldly mindset they see as something to make an excuse for, is the result of that mis-representation of who He is. You get the personhood of Christ wrong even in one aspect, you get it all wrong apostatcy is the result!
The people in the church of today have failed to want to grow in the knowledge of Christ for themselves, they want someone they see on tv to do the hard work and just hand it to them on a silver platter. Well sorry, but because of that, even though it may be fed to you on a silver platter, all you are getting is that which will rot you from the inside out!! You are a target for deception and that IS what has come upon you!
