Set apart for His good purpose

This past Sunday morning in our adult fellowship group our teacher talked about how we have been chosen for a purpose (Ephesians 1:3-6). For what purpose? To be holy and blameless before Him, to be conformed to the image of His Son, and to bring Him glory.

While we are positionally sanctified in the eyes of God at the point of salvation because of the atoning sacrifice of Christ, in order to accomplish His good purpose we who are His children go through practical sanctification in this life (I Peter 1:15, Heb. 12:14). According to Romans 12:1-2, it is presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, dying to our own will and be transformed into the image of His Son.

Webster's dictionary defines sanctification this way:
1. The act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God.

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. 2Thess. 2. 1Peter 1.

God has chosen us (Eph. 1:4), God has redeemed us by Christ's blood (1:7), and God has sealed us by His Holy Spirit (1:13). His Holy Spirit is the sanctifier:
~He abides in us (John 14:17)
~He is the One who teaches us (John 14:26)
~He guides us in all truth (John 16:13)
~He reveals the things of Christ (John 16:14)
~He reveals the things of God (I Cor. 2:10-13)

Praise God for the Holy Spirit. Because of Him, practical progressive holiness is not left up to our own devices. Yes it is a constant yielding of our will, desires, and plans to God. Yes we must daily build altars upon which we burn those things that would draw our hearts away from our Lord. This is all made possible by the grace of God through the inner working of the Holy Spirit. We are more than conquerors as we fully rely on Him to take these weak vessels and affect change.