Foundations:
The Essentials of Our Faith
Based on Hebrews 6.1-3, this Bible study explores and explains the topics described by the Biblical author as “elementary” and “foundational.” These topics are just as fundamental to our faith today as they were in the first century.
Sanctification: A $3.00 word
When you accept Christ as your Savior, you are sanctified, that is – you are made perfect again in the eyes of the Father, your sin shielded by the substitution of the Son. We can think of this as a past tense use of the word, which suggests a completed work. That work was completed by Jesus Christ on the cross.
There is also a present tense to this word, whereby we are being daily made into the image of our Savior, that is, perfect before God. We are daily walking back to being the person God intended us to be. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that we’re being renewed daily.
Finally, there is a future tense to the term, which is our promise that we will be sanctified, which refers to the judgement at the end of days. This we will address in the Eternal Judgment section.
We are focused primarily on the present tense of sanctification in this study. We can liken this process of sanctification with building a temple for the Spirit inside ourselves. We will show how the Holy Spirit partners with our personal spirit in this process of sanctification.
