Last week I began a thought about God’s eternal plan of salvation. That plan to restore us to His fellowship and deliver us from sin and punishment for our sin was described by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15.Now Paul said that God’s plan of salvation includes a process by which we can become more like Him—sanctification. We may refer to this as “growing in faith” or maturity. But Sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s work to set us apart for God. He’s working in us to make us more like God’s Son.Jesus said in John 16:8 that the Spirit, “when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” to lead a person to faith. At conversion, we are set apart for God. The apostle Peter in Acts 2:38 says that when we repent and are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins, we receive the Holy Spirit.The Spirit continues His work to set us apart in our daily life. It is a process of change. The more we understand God’s will and way for our lives, the Spirit helps us to leave old habits behind and begin to act the way a Christian should. The purpose is to bring believers to spiritual maturity and change us into the character of Christ. In other words, the Holy Spirit works “on” a person before He can ever work “in” a person. A person must hear the gospel and respond to the gospel before God’s Spirit can do His thing in us.The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit is a necessary aspect of salvation! His work is that we are to be set apart from the secular, sinful world and to that which is holy and reserved for God.Now salvation and sanctification will not happen until we put our “belief in the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13-14). Faith must only be based on God’s truth! Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”Where does faith come from? Romans 10:17 affirms that, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” You see, the Scripture is the foundation of our faith. It’s in the Bible that we discover what is right, and what is wrong. The separation ...
