Sanctification Quotes

• There is no justification without sanctification, no forgiveness without renewal of life, no real faith from which the fruits of new obedience do not grow.

  Martin Luther

  Real, Fruit, Christianity

  98 Copy quote

• Sanctification is not a work of nature, but a work of grace. It is a transformation of character effected not by moral influences, but supernaturally by the Holy Spirit.

  Charles Hodge

  Character, Grace, Spirit

  Charles Hodge (1872). “Systematic Theology”, p.522

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me; sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me.

  Oswald Chambers

  Ideas, Want

  Oswald Chambers (2010). “My Utmost for His Highest”, p.473, Discovery House

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sanctification means more than being freed from sin. It means the deliberate commitment of myself to the God of my salvation, and being willing to pay whatever it may cost.

  Oswald Chambers

  Commitment, Mean, Being Free

  Oswald Chambers (2005). “My Utmost for His Highest”, Discovery House Pub

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us whereby our inner being is progressively changed, freeing us more and more from sinful traits and developing within us over time the virtues of Christlike character.

  Jerry Bridges

  Character, Spirit, Virtue

  Jerry Bridges (2014). “Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ”, p.30, Tyndale House

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I fear it is sometimes forgotten that God has married together justification and sanctification. They are distinct and different things, beyond question, but one is never found without the other. All justified people are sanctified, and all sanctified people are justified. ... Tell me not of your justification, unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ's work for you, unless you can show us the Spirit's work in you.

  J. C. Ryle

  People, Temptation, Together

  20 Copy quote

• Sanctification is like a clumsy, slow walk rather than a light switch that we turn from off to on.

  Edward T Welch

  Light, Walks, Turns

  4 Copy quote

• Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the disposition that ruled Him will rule us. It will cost everything that is not of God in us.

  Oswald Chambers

  Jesus, Mean, Cost

  Oswald Chambers (2011). “My Utmost for His Highest Classic Edition”, p.88, Discovery House

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sanctification is glory begun. Glory is sanctification completed.

  F. F. Bruce

  Glory

  48 Copy quote

• If the Savior has not sanctified you, renewed you, given you a hatred of sin and a love of holiness, He has nothing in you of a saving character.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Character, Hatred, Saving

  Charles Spurgeon (2001). “Morning & Evening”, Whitaker House

  0 Copy quote

  Show source

• The growth of trees and plants takes place so slowly that it is not easily seen. Daily we notice little change. But, in course of time, we see that a great change has taken place. So it is with grace. Sanctification is a progressive, lifelong work (Prov 4:18). It is an amazing work of God's grace and it is a work to be prayed for (Rom 8:27).

  John Owen

  Taken, Tree, Grace

  30 Copy quote

• Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.

  Thomas Watson

  Sweet, Bitter, Sin

  13 Copy quote

• Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God's sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others' lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God's testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.

  Oswald Chambers

  Grace, Soul, Sovereign

  3 Copy quote

• ...,the will of God for your life is pretty straightforward: Be holy like Jesus, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God.

  Kevin DeYoung

  Jesus, Spirit, Life Is

  20 Copy quote

• Sanctification has a double aspect. Its positive side is vivification, the growing and maturing of the new man; its negative side is mortification, the weakening and killing of the old man.

  J. I. Packer

  Men, Negative, Growing

  4 Copy quote

• Lastly, we must be holy, because without holiness on earth - we will never be prepared to enjoy Heaven. ...I do not know what others may think - but to me it does seem clear that Heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man. It cannot be otherwise. People may say in a vague way, that they "hope to go to Heaven, but they do not consider what they say. There must be a certain "fitness for the inheritance of the saints in light.

  J. C. Ryle

  Men, Thinking, Light

  18 Copy quote

• Sanctification costs to the extent of "an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth and an immense broadening of all our interests in God.

  Oswald Chambers

  Temptation, Cost, Earth

  16 Copy quote

• Some Christians want enough of Christ to be identified with him but not enough to be seriously inconvenienced; they genuinely cling to basic Christian orthodoxy but do not want to engage in serious Bible study; they value moral probity, especially of the public sort, but do not engage in war against inner corruptions; they fret over the quality of the preacher's sermon but do not worry much over the quality of their own prayer life. Such Christians are content with mediocrity.

  D. A. Carson

  Christian, Prayer, War

  D. A. Carson (1992). “A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers”, p.121, Baker Academic

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• In justification the word to be addressed to man is believe - only believe; in sanctification the word must be 'watch, pray, and fight.'

  J. C. Ryle

  Believe, Fighting, Men

  J.C. Ryle (2015). “Holiness: It's Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots”, p.17, Letcetera Publishing

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• There, poor sinner, take my garment, and put it on; you shall stand before God as if you were Christ, and I will stand before God as if I had been the sinner; I will suffer in the sinner's stead, and you shall be rewarded for works that you did not do, but which I did for you.

  Charles Spurgeon

  God, Christian, Jesus

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.36, Barbour Publishing

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don't believe everything you think. You cannot be trusted to tell yourself the truth. Stay in The Word.

  Jerry Bridges

  Inspirational, Trust, Bible

  63 Copy quote

• Loving a holy God is beyond our moral power. The only kind of God we can love by our sinful nature is an unholy god, an idol made by our own hands. Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him... To love a holy God requires grace, grace strong enough to pierce our hardened hearts and awaken our moribund souls.

  R. C. Sproul

  Strong, Heart, Hands

  91 Copy quote

• Sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Reemember holiness is a flower, not a root; it is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Jesus, Flower, Roots

  Charles Spurgeon (2009). “Essential Works of Charles Spurgeon”, p.985, Barbour Publishing

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• By justification we are saved from the guilt of sin…by sanctification we are saved from the power and root of sin

  John Wesley

  Roots, Guilt, Sin

  John Wesley, John Emory (1835). “The Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, A.M.: From the Latest London Edition with the Last Corrections of the Author, Comprehending Also Numerous Translations, Notes, and an Original Preface, Etc”, p.236

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, HE is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is now doing for me. Hallelujah!

  Charles Spurgeon

  Trust, God, Faith

  C. H. Spurgeon (2006). “Morning by Morning”, p.269, Hendrickson Publishers

  353 Copy quote

  Show source