Sanctification is Definitive, Not Progressive: Resting in Your Identity in Christ
Orientation
The teaching of progressive sanctification wrongly burdens believers with the impossible task of making themselves holy through self-effort.
- It creates a legalistic system where acceptance feels dependent on your performance.
- It leads to frustration, discouragement, and a sense of perpetual failure.
- It misplaces the burden of sanctification from Christ's finished work onto your striving.
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? (Galatians 3:3)
— Galatians 3:3
Clarification
Sanctification is not a process you perform, but a positional reality you receive by faith in Christ.
- You are not a party to the covenant; you are a beneficiary of the Everlasting Covenant made between the Father and Jesus.
- Your old self was crucified and buried with Christ; your new self is already pure, holy, and righteous in Him.
- Sin in your life is the flesh's residue, not evidence of an unsanctified identity.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)
— 1 Corinthians 6:11
Structure
Biblical growth is not progressive sanctification, but the Spirit's work as you reckon on your finished identity in Christ.
- Flesh cannot subdue flesh; only the Holy Spirit can subdue the flesh and produce fruit.
- Walking in the Spirit means yielding your members to God, agreeing with your new-creation reality.
- Renewing your mind aligns your soul with the Spirit's truth, enabling resistance to sin over time.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Romans 6:13)
— Romans 6:13
Weight-Bearing Prose
The doctrine of progressive sanctification is a legalistic construct foreign to Pauline revelation. It inverts the gospel order, making sanctification a human work subsequent to justification. Paul’s framework is definitive: you were sanctified positionally in Christ (1 Cor 1:30, 6:11). This is the gift of the Everlasting Covenant, secured by the Father with the Son alone. You are the heir, not the covenant-maker.
The flesh—your old Adamic nature—is the source of sin. Human effort to fight sin is flesh striving against flesh, which Paul declares futile (Gal 3:3). The law, including internalized commands for self-improvement, only stirs up more sin (Rom 7:5). The alternative is not passivity but a different agency: the Holy Spirit. The Spirit subdues the flesh. Your role is to walk in the Spirit (Gal 5:16). This walk is constituted by three Pauline actions: reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to God (Rom 6:11), yielding your members to God as instruments (Rom 6:13), and renewing your mind to align with the Spirit’s testimony of your new identity (Rom 12:2). Growth is not an increase in sanctification—that is complete—but an increase in your soul’s agreement with it, resulting in greater conformity to Christ’s image and more effective resistance to sin’s reign. Failure to walk in this reality explains why believers still sin; it is a failure to believe what is true, not a failure to become more holy.
Integration
Your sanctification is not a project for you to complete. It is a finished work for you to rest in. Christ is your sanctification. He is your life. Any good that appears is His fruit produced in you as you yield and agree with His Word. There is no pressure here, only a call to cease striving and to believe what God says about you. You are already holy in Christ. You are already righteous. When you fail, it is not a setback in your sanctification; it is a reminder to return to the truth of your identity. The Spirit is within you, testifying to this reality. Let your mind be renewed by this assurance. Your security and your standing are anchored in the covenant God made with His Son, and you are the beneficiary of that unbreakable promise. Rest here. Christ has done it all.