What is entire sanctification?

It is the core purpose of God’s intention for us, the heart of the Bible’s message.  God’s work of grace in our lives transforms who we are from a person captive to a sinful nature to one with God’s restored image in us.  

God is not satisfied with treating only our symptoms of sinning — lust, hatred, foul speech, and so forth. His compassion will not allow Him to be merely a “quack” doctor. He is the True Physician who has conquered our disease of sin, which leads to death. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2 RSV).

Sin is separation from life, from God. It is an unchangeable “law” of reality that the absence of life leads to decay and eternal death. But Jesus is Life (John 14:6, 1 John 5:12). When we are in Christ, the extremities of God’s Holy Love and our vile wickedness are met together in Jesus, who takes us into Himself and pours Himself into us. The unchangeable “law” of reality is that God is more powerful than sin and death and He has destroyed our inbred disease. When we give ourselves to Jesus entirely, we are given full victory and full freedom now. 

This is the message the apostles carried into the world. If the message was that this could only happen after heaven, or the deliverance would only be partial, the New Testament would never have been written because that is not good news worth proclaiming.

Grace is the Triune God’s nature of offering Himself to others.  God longs to share His life and love. He is always moving toward us to restore us to full communion with Himself; He intends to fill us with His own holy life. His presence is what makes us holy.  His life and character love us into who we truly are intended to be. Now. Free from the disease and power of sin in our lifetime.

We do not sanctify ourselves by behaving well. Sanctification, just like justification and regeneration, is an act and gift of God’s gracious self-offering toward us. 

His voice and presence, His love pursue and reach out for every person who’s ever lived. To hear Him, to sense Him, and to be able to respond to Him are all pure gifts of grace to us. We can’t even do any of those things without Him enabling us. We are saved by grace through faith.

We are sanctified by grace, by God’s self-offering, through faith.

Grace is the presence of the Triune God of Holy Love pouring His Life out to us because He is Love. 

Faith is a gift of grace from God that allows us to respond to Him and continuously receive His sanctifying love.  

Does your soul gasp for God as a parched land? Is your heart desolate within you? Does your flesh yearn for God (Psalms 63 and 143)? Cry out to the Lord and say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low” (Psalm 142:5b-6a).  

This is how we daily by faith receive entire sanctification:

Faith is absolute surrender to Jesus as Lord. 

Faith is completely entrusting to Him every aspect of our beings.  

Faith is fully intending to obey His Word entirely.

Sanctifying faith receives the grace of the life of God into our whole beings. 

This is the secret of sanctification: We receive Him as our inner life and holiness. 

The way of holiness is not something we attain to, but a life we receive. It is not a task we perform, but a gift we must receive. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  

This occurs only when we come to Him utterly needy and dependent, not after we get our act together. We receive Him and all He wants to give us, day by day by day.  

We give Jesus our lives, and the Spirit gives us His Life. Through this mutual exchange we are in Christ, united to Jesus, to Life — now and until Jesus returns.

Receive this promise:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NASB 1995).

Questions

1. What would it look like in your daily life to receive holiness as a gift from Christ rather than something you must achieve on your own?
2. Where do you sense God inviting you into deeper surrender, trust, and dependence on His sanctifying grace today?

Photo: URARA/Getty | This article was originally titled “Sanctifying Grace” in the August 2026 issue of The War Cry.