"Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
"Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?"—Heb. 13:12; 9:13, 14; 10:10, 14, 29.
And The Holy Spirit
"That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost."—Rom. 15:16. "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."—2 Thess. 2:13.
These and many other texts of scripture teach us that sanctification is a Bible doctrine. There is but one reason why some people can not see it in the Bible—their eyes are blinded. All who are willing to yield themselves to God and His word, will soon be taught this blessed truth. Jesus prayed that His disciples might become sanctified. They had not yet come into this experience. Jesus knew that they needed it. It was His desire for their highest good. They were not able to go forth and cope with the powers of sin. They had been under the teaching of the Master and in His presence, and therefore were protected by Him from the enemy; but now he was soon to be taken from them, and He knew that they must be "endued with power from on high." Therefore He implored the Father for the sanctification of the eleven; and not "for these alone," but "for them also which shall believe on me through their word." This reaches down through the entire gospel dispensation. It is His blessed will that we all shall be sanctified. As justified believers, we each are as needy of this grace as were the eleven disciples. It is [indispensable] for our spiritual welfare.
Some are disposed to look upon this matter as optional with them; but such is a mistake. The time comes in the experience of every true believer when the Holy Spirit brings before him the conditions of a definite and absolute consecration. A refusal to meet these conditions, done ignorantly, will bring a cloud over our experience of justification and, eventually, if persisted in wilfully, will bring us into God's utter disapproval. "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."—Jas. 4:17.
Sanctification is the normal state of the Christian. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are jointly interested in us, that we attain unto this grace. Our unity with the Godhead is incomplete without it, so also is our unity with each other; "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."—Heb. 2:11. A heart washed and made pure by the blood of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit will always be in perfect fellowship with divinity, and also with all other hearts of like experience. The unsanctified heart of the believer cannot be fully satisfied, because of the consciousness of the presence of the carnal nature, more scripturally called "our old man." Just what it is may not perhaps be perfectly understood by the new convert, but that something abnormal exists will soon be discovered, and there will be a longing in the heart for an inward cleansing—a normal desire for the normal experience. On the other hand, when this blessed experience is attained, there comes with it the consciousness of inward purity which fully satisfies the heart, and it can sing with the spirit and with the understanding, "Hallelujah for the cleansing; it has reached my inmost soul."
For this purpose Christ gave himself for the church—"That he might sanctify and cleanse it." God gave him to the world that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life, for our justification; but Christ gave himself for the church, for our sanctification.
The gospel commission of the apostle Paul specifies clearly the doctrine of sanctification, the "inheritance among them which are sanctified." He could not have been faithful to this commission without leading souls from "forgiveness of sins" into this "inheritance." His ministry and epistles to the different churches prove his faithfulness. Upon his first acquaintance with the brethren at Ephesus he asked them the question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" And after three years of faithful ministry in that city, upon the solemn event of his departure from them, among his last words he reminds the church of the "inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Then about four years later, while a prisoner at Rome, he writes back to them his epistle to the Ephesians, which in every chapter sparkles with beautiful gems of thought upon the subject of sanctification. In his letter to the church of Rome we are forcibly reminded that this doctrine was prominent in his teaching, employing such terms as, "this grace wherein we stand" (Rom. 5:2), "our old man is crucified," "that the body of sin might be destroyed," "dead indeed unto sin," "free from sin" (Chap. 6), "married to ... him who is raised from the dead" (Chap. 7), "present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Chap. 12) "being sanctified by the Holy Ghost" (Chap. 15). These terms and others signify the precious experiences of sanctification.
In the first and second epistles to the Corinthians we also notice the mention of this experience, and that there were some saints at Corinth that were sanctified (1:2, 30), although some were not, and were told that they were yet carnal. There were evidently only the two classes—sanctified and justified, in the church there, the same as is usually the case everywhere today. In speaking of the congregation, he says "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of God."—1 Cor. 6:11. In the second epistle, Chap. 7:1, he exhorts them: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God," and among the closing words of this letter, he says, "Be perfect."