”You Were Sanctified; You Were Justified”

(1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Introduction: All of us who are Christians here tonight, have been

called out of the dark morass of sin into the kingdom of God’s
beloved Son. We were all of us sinners, under the just sentence of
hell, and we would have certainly gone there if it had not been for
the grace of God through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The only
thing that may differ between us is what evil practice we were
engaged in when the Lord called us. Perhaps it is listed in our
text here this evening, although this list is far from
comprehensive. Some of us may have been involved in premarital
sexual relationships. All of us were idolaters, in that we
worshiped not the true God, but a god of our own making. Some of us
may have even fallen into adultery. There may be someone here who
was what the text calls effeminate, or a catamite, a man or a boy
who allows himself to be misused in a homosexual manner, or there
may be someone here who was involved in homosexuality. Maybe some
of us were given to stealing, or to covetousness, or to drunkenness,
or to abusing others with our mouths, or to robbery. The fact is
the Lord called all of His people out of the mire of sin. Even as
our Lord said, ”IT IS NOT THOSE WHO ARE HEALTHY WHO NEED A
PHYSICIAN, BUT THOSE WHO ARE SICK; I DID NOT COME TO CALL THE
RIGHTEOUS, BUT SINNERS” (Mark 2 : 1 7 ) . The righteous here are those
who think themselves to be righteous in themselves and don’t see
their need of Christ, while the sinners are those who see their sin
and wickedness and reach out to Christ for their deliverance.
But this text goes on to tell us, that such as these will not
inherit the kingdom of God. This is not to say that if a Christian
has ever committed one of these sins that he is thereby excluded. A
Christian is not yet perfected, as we saw this morning, and so is
capable of committing any of these sins. But by committing one of
these sins, the Christian does not thereby become what is described
here. If a Christian falls into fornication, but comes to his
senses and repents, he is not therefore a fornicator. Committing
adultery does not make one an adulterer. However, if someone gives
himself over to that sin, then he may be so labeled. The difference
is what the pattern of the person’s life is. Is it marked by
continuing righteousness with occasional falls? O r is it a life of
flagrant sin, with their giving themselves fully to that sin? This
is not to minimize the seriousness of all sin, even to fall into any
of these sins once is a serious matter, but it is to distinguish
what Paul is saying in this text.
But the tremendous truth which is expressed by Paul here is that
such were some of you, but you were delivered from that sin. You
were a slave to sin; at that time you reveled in it, but now you are
free. By the grace of Christ you washed yourself clean in the blood
of Christ. You were sanctified and justified in the name of Christ
and in the Spirit of our God. By this justification, you were set
free from the guilt of your sin, and by this sanctification you are
being set free from its power. And this is what I want us to focus
on this evening. We have spoken much about justification and
sanctification. They are terms that we often use. And perhaps we
understand them fairly well. But what I want us to see this evening
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is how they compare and differ with each another. And I want you to
see that,

Justification is a one time act of God’s justice, but

sanctification is a process which lasts our entire life.

First I want you to see that justification and

sanctification are always joined and are never separate; second,
that while justification is the crediting to our account of
Christ’s righteousness, sanctification is the increasing ability
to do righteous acts; third, that in justification sin is
forgiven, while in sanctification it is put to death; and
fourth, that justification frees all believers entirely from
God’s wrath and is equal in all, but sanctification is never
completed in this life, and is not equal in all.

I. Sanctification Will Always Be Present in the Life of the One Who

Has Been Justified.
A. The Blessings of Redemption Always Come Together as a
Package, and Are Never Separate.
1 . One of the debates among the different branches of the
Christian Church is the order in which the blessings of
redemption are bestowed, and this is an important issue.
a. For instance, it is important for us to believe that
the regenerating power of God must first quicken us
to life before we can exercise saving faith.
b. This is to believe in the sovereignty of God in
salvation, for unless He first works and raises us
from spiritual death, we would never believe.

2. But it is also very important to see that these

blessings always come together, and are never given
alone.
a. If God makes someone alive, then that person will
have saving faith and will trust in Christ.
b. If that person has saving faith, then God will
justify them; He will forgive all of their sins, and
count them as righteous in His sight.
C. If that person is justified, then he will be adopted
into the family of God. It is impossible that God
would cleanse an individual and not take him into
His own household.
d. And if that person is made alive, given saving
faith, and cleansed from all the guilt of his sin,
he will, he absolutely must begin the process of
sanctification.
e. Our text tells us this this evening, as well as many
other verses of Scripture, such as 1 Corinthians
1:30, which reads, ”BUT BY HIS DOING YOU ARE IN
CHRIST JESUS, WHO BECAME TO US WISDOM FROM GOD, AND
RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SANCTIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION.”

B. If You Have Been Justified by the Blood of Christ, Then You

Will Grow in Holiness.
1 . It is true that our text this evening is talking about a
sanctification which is actually as completed as our
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justification is the moment that we believe in Christ.

a. It is referring to that positional holiness that we
have immediately upon having faith in Christ.
b. He says, "BUT YOU WERE SANCTIFIED." This is the
holiness in which we stand in Christ.

2. But it is nonetheless true that if we stand before God

in the perfect righteousness of Christ, that He will be
working that same holiness in us.
a. It is one of the means by which we might know
whether or not we have been justified by God.
b. If we see in our lives an increase of righteous
desires and deeds, then we may know that we have
been forgiven.

11. In Justification We Are Given the Perfect Righteousness of

Christ, While in Sanctification We Are Actually Enabled to
Perform Righteous Acts.
A. We Are Declared to Be Perfectly Righteous in the Sight of
God Only for the Righteousness of His Son Imputed to Us.
1 . We are not able by keeping the Law to earn a perfect
righteousness.
a. Our best works without the grace of God are as
filthy rags. Isaiah writes, "FOR ALL OF US HAVE
BECOME LIKE ONE WHO IS UNCLEAN, AND ALL OUR
RIGHTEOUS DEEDS ARE LIKE A FILTHY GARMENT; AND ALL
OF us WITHER LIKE A LEAF, AND OUR INIQUITIES, LIKE
THE WIND TAKE US AWAY" (64:6).
b. And even the best of our works with the grace of God
are still dirtied by sin, and unacceptable to God.

2. But in justification, the perfect obedience of Christ to

all the Law of God is imputed to us.
a. His absolutely flawless record of lawkeeping is
laid to our account. God looks at us as if we had
done precisely what His Son did.
b. It is pictured in the Scriptures as garments of
clean linen or as a brilliant white robe adorning
the saints.
c. A beautiful picture of this is in Zechariah's
account of Joshua the high priest. He writes, "THEN
HE SHOWED ME JOSHUA THE HIGH PRIEST STANDING BEFORE
THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, AND SATAN STANDING AT HIS
RIGHT HAND TO ACCUSE HIM. AND THE LORD SAID TO
SATAN, 'THE LORD REBUKE YOU, SATAN! INDEED, THE
LORD WHO HAS CHOSEN JERUSALEM REBUKE YOU! IS THIS
NOT A BRAND PLUCKED FROM THE FIRE?' NOW JOSHUA WAS
CLOTHED WITH FILTHY GARMENTS AND STANDING BEFORE THE
ANGEL. AND HE SPOKE AND SAID TO THOSE WHO WERE
STANDING BEFORE HIM SAYING, 'REMOVE THE FILTHY
GARMENTS FROM HIM. ' AGAIN HE SAID TO HIM, 'SEE, I
HAVE TAKEN YOUR INIQUITY AWAY FROM YOU AND WILL
CLOTHE YOU WITH FESTAL ROBES.' THEN I SAID, 'LET
THEM PUT A CLEAN TURBAN ON HIS HEAD.' SO THEY PUT A
CLEAN TURBAN ON HIS HEAD AND CLOTHED HIM WITH
GARMENTS, WHILE THE ANGEL OF THE LORD WAS STANDING
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BY” (Zech. 3:1-5).

d. In justification we are clothed in the perfect
righteousness of Christ.

B. But the Ability to Do What God Commands Us Comes to Us

Through Sanctification.
1 . Justification gives to us that righteousness as a
possession, so that we are positionally sanctified. In
principle, we are already perfect before God.
2. But in sanctification we are given the power to actually
do righteous acts.
a. In justification we say that God has imputed, or
credited, the righteousness of Christ to our
account.
b. But in sanctification, He actually infuses, or pours
into our souls the grace, or power, of Christ,
giving us the ability to live a godly life.
c. In this case, the illustration used by the Roman
church to picture justification may be valid: Our
souls are like a container which is filled to
various levels with the grace of God. The more
grace that is poured in, the more power we have.
d. And it is the power to do what the Christian yearns
for more than anything else: to be like Jesus
Christ, to live as He lived.

III. In Justification Our Sin is Pardoned, But in Sanctification It

Is Subdued.
A. God Forgives Us all the Guilt of Our Sins for Christ’s Sake
Al one.
1 . Just as Christ’s righteousness was imputed to us in
justification, so our sins are imputed to Him.
a. Hardly a fair exchange, you might say.
b. No, it is not a fair exchange, but it is a gracious
exchange.
c. You take all of your demerits and trade them for
merits. You take your poverty and exchange it for
r iches.

2. And so in justification, we stand before God completely

cleansed of all of our sins.
a. It is the removal of our filthy garments.
b. It is the washing away of all of the guilt that we
earned through our wicked deeds.
C. Every time we sin, we become guilty, and we
therefore become indebted to God’s justice.
d. But in justification, God forgives us of that guilt,
because Christ bore it all on His body on the tree.
e. He does not take upon Himself the ownership of the
sin, as though He had actually committed it, but the
guilt which we had incurred to God’s justice is
transferred to Him. He paid the penalty.
f. ”HE MADE HIM WHO KNEW NO SIN TO BE SIN ON OUR
BEHALF, THAT WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF
GOD IN HIM” (2 Cor. 5:21).
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B. But the Power of that Sin Is Broken and Subdued through

Sanctification.
1 . The guilt of sin is removed in justification, but the
pollution of sin is cleansed in sanctification.
a. It is like the little boy who likes to play in the
mud. After you have washed his clothes and removed
the dirt from them, you still need to change his
desire to run back into the mud.
b. So it is with sanctification. The soil is removed
in justification, but the desire is changed through
sanctification.

2. In sanctification your soul is being cleansed of the

remnants of sin which are still present.
a. The reigning power of sin is broken, ”KNOWING THIS,
THAT OUR OLD SELF WAS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM, THAT OUR
BODY OF SIN MIGHT BE DONE AWAY WITH, THAT WE SHOULD
NO LONGER BE SLAVES TO SIN” (Rom. 6 : 6 ) .
b. But there is still much sin in your soul which is
very active, that needs to be put to death, ”FOR IF
YOU ARE LIVING ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, YOU MUST DIE;
BUT IF BY THE SPIRIT YOU ARE PUTTING TO DEATH THE
DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU WILL LIVE” (8:13).
c. God gives you the power through His Spirit to put it
to death.

IV. And Lastly, Justification Perfectly Frees Us From God’s Wrath

And Is Equal in All Christians, But Sanctification Is Never
Complete in this Life and Differs in Each of Us.
A. Justification Is a One Time Act of God’s Grace Which All of
God’s Children Partake Of Equally.
1 . It is a declarative act on the part of God, which happens
only once. He declares us to be not-guilty for Christ’s
sake.
2. This justification is perfect and is equal in the same
degree in all Christians.
a. It is an absolute: your garments are either filthy
or they are clean. You either have a perfect
righteousness, or you have no righteousness.
b. All of God’s children have the same perfect
righteousness of Christ imputed to them. It cannot
get any better than that.

B. But the Process of Sanctification Is Never Finished in This

Life, and Our Progress Depends Upon Our Own Cooperation With
God’s Grace.
1 . Justification is complete, but sanctification is an
ongoing process.
a. God need make His declaration but once; however, our
warfare against sin will continue the rest of our lives.
b. As long as we are in this flesh, we will never be
completely sanctified.

2. However, some of us will make more progress than others.

a. Even though we all stand before God in the same
perfect righteousness of Christ, this does not mean
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that we are all equally pious or godly.

b. We may even differ widely among each other.
(i) Some may be struggling to spend 10 minutes in
prayer, while others struggle to spend an hour
or three hours.
(ii) Some may be seeking to sanctify the Lord’s Day,
while others are seeking to sanctify all their
days to the Lord.
(iii) John wrote, ”I AM WRITING TO YOU, LITTLE
CHILDREN, BECAUSE YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU
FOR HIS NAME’S SAUE. I AN WRITING TO YOU,
FATHERS, BECAUSE YOU KNOW HIM WHO HAS BEEN FROM
THE BEGINNING. I AM WRITING TO YOU, YOUNG MEN,
BECAUSE YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE EVIL ONE. I HAVE
WRITTEN TO YOU, CHILDREN, BECAUSE YOU KNOW THE
FATHER. I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU, FATHERS,
BECAUSE YOU KNOW HIM WHO HAS BEEN FROM THE
BEGINNING. I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU, YOUNG MEN,
BECAUSE YOU ARE STRONG, AND THE WORD OF Gon
ABIDES IN YOU, AND YOU HAVE OVERCOME THE EVIL
ONE” ( 1 John 2: 12-14). It will depend upon how
much you are striving, and whether or not you
are doing so with the means which God has
appointed. Because this is different for each
one of us, each of us will be at different
stages of growth.

V. Uses. How may we apply this text to our lives?

A. This Again Gives to Us One of the Marks of God’s Grace to
Look for to Strengthen Our Assurance that We Are Christ’s.
1 . Growth in holiness is one of the things that you can look
to in your lives to assure you that you are Christ’s.
a. Many people profess to know Christ in our world who
are far from the grace of God.
b. There are no promises of salvation in the Bible to
those who simply make a profession of faith. You
can say something as many times as you want to, but
that won’t make it anymore true.
c. The real question is whether or not you are rightly
calling Jesus your Lord and Savior.
d. If you are trusting in Him alone for salvation,
submitting to His rule, and growing in your
obedience to Him, and all of this out of a true love
to God and to His Son, then you can have assurance
that your profession is not just a empty shell. but
a reality.

2. But be very careful that you do not deceive yourself.

a. If there is no love to Christ, if there is no
obedience, if there is no growth in holiness, then
neither have you been forgiven of your sins.
b. You need to call upon Christ tonight to save you
from the guilt of your sins. You need to turn from
them all and embrace Him in faith in order to be
delivered from God’s wrath.
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B. Secondly, This Warns Us Never to Trust in Our Own Righteous

Works for Salvation, but in Christ’s Righteousness Alone.
But It also Affirms that God Does Give Us the Power to Do
Acts of Righteousness and He Expects Us to Do Them.
1 . This text reminds you that your works of obedience never
saved you and never could.
a. Your works will always fall short; you cannot keep
the law of God perfectly for even one moment.
b. It is like trying to swim from here to China non-stop.
You don’t have the physical ability to do so.
c. Neither do you have the ability to keep God’s Law
perfectly; you must admit that to yourself, and
trust in Christ’s perfect work alone.

2. But, on the other hand, this does not mean that God
expects nothing of you.
a. You may not be able to swim to China, but you can
swim a short distance.
b. The unbeliever is like a swimmer with his arms and
legs paralyzed; he cannot even get to the water.
c. But as a believer, you have the ability to do
something; even though what you do still falls
infinitely short of the mark because of the sin
which remains.
d. But God still requires that you do all that you can.

C. Thirdly, This Encourages Us that All of Our Sins Have Been

Removed and that We Will Never Be Condemned for Them, But It
also Calls Us to Strengthen Our Warfare Against Sin.
1 . On the basis of this text, you can know that your sins
are forgiven you for Christ’s sake.
a. Your guilt has been removed; you have been delivered
from everlasting damnation.
b. The devil now has no basis upon which to accuse you,
for Jesus has born all your guilt.

2. But this does not mean that the battle is finished.

a. The war is won, but there are yet many battles to
fight.
b. ”FOR THE FLESH SETS ITS DESIRE AGAINST THE SPIRIT,
AND THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH; FOR THESE ARE IN
OPPOSITION TO ONE ANOTHER, SO THAT YOU MAY NOT DO
THE THINGS THAT YOU PLEASE” (Gal. 5:17).
c. You must continue to set the whole of your strength
to mortify, or put to death, all the remaining sin
that is in your members.
d. It is a lifelong struggle, but you must gain the
victory, and you will if you are in Christ Jesus.

D. And Lastly, This Stirs Us Up to Thankfulness for God’s Mercy

and Calls Us to a More Disciplined Use of the Means of Grace
to Further Our Growth into the Likeness of Christ.
1 . You ought to give thanks to God that He did not make
your salvation depend upon whether or not you would live
up to a certain level of holiness. Christ has done it
all; it is finished; and it is handed to you as a free
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gift of His grace.

2. But you should not let this fact cause you to sit back
and let the forces of the devil run over you.
a. The victory is yours, but you have to take it.
b. You must continually take ground in your life against
the forces of the devil, the world, and your flesh.
C. Press on to maturity; grow out of the infant stage
to that of the young man; grow out of the young man
stage to that of the father.
d. You will only be able to do this through the most
strenuous effort. Lay aside, therefore, the things
that get in the way, and run with endurance.
e. You must take the Lord’s calling and the things of the
Lord very seriously and not let the devil talk you into
believing that all is done and all you need do is rest.
He has made many shipwrecked through such lies.
f. People of God, get serious about the race; stir yourself
up to a diligent use of the means of grace; discipline
yourselves for the purpose of godliness; lay aside
everything that gets in your way, and strive to cross
the finish line as a victor in Christ. Amen.