The third cornerstone of our salvation is Jesus Christ our Sanctification.
Jesus Christ is the corner stone of our sanctification as a result of His resurrection from the dead, and His appointment as High Priest who lives forever and has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.
Such a High Priest meets our need – One who is holy, blameless, pure, and set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Both righteousness and holiness (sanctification) is a state which has been conferred upon believers because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence we are admonished to “Put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
As living stones we are integrated into the cornerstone of holiness by “God the Father who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” This spiritual state has to be perfected by cleansing ones self from every defilement of body and spirit, and making holiness perfect in the fear of God.
This necessitates our separation from everything that defiles as we have been instructed saying; “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For, we are the temple of the living God.
As God has said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2Corinthians 6:14-18).
Christ the cornerstone of our sanctification has called His people out of the world, and prayed to the Father on their behalf saying; “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world anymore than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John17:14-19).
It is also by the authority of Christ our sanctification that Paul issued a letter to the church saying; “I have written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler, with such a man do not even eat.”
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you” (1Corinthians 5:9-13).
A messenger of Christ our sanctification has issued a warning saying; “Come out of her, My people so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (Revelatons 18:4).
Jesus Christ is the corner stone of our sanctification as a result of His resurrection from the dead, and His appointment as High Priest who lives forever and has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.
Such a High Priest meets our need – One who is holy, blameless, pure, and set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Both righteousness and holiness (sanctification) is a state which has been conferred upon believers because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hence we are admonished to “Put on the new man, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
As living stones we are integrated into the cornerstone of holiness by “God the Father who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” This spiritual state has to be perfected by cleansing ones self from every defilement of body and spirit, and making holiness perfect in the fear of God.
This necessitates our separation from everything that defiles as we have been instructed saying; “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For, we are the temple of the living God.
As God has said, “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty” (2Corinthians 6:14-18).
Christ the cornerstone of our sanctification has called His people out of the world, and prayed to the Father on their behalf saying; “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world anymore than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify Myself, that they too may be truly sanctified” (John17:14-19).
It is also by the authority of Christ our sanctification that Paul issued a letter to the church saying; “I have written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler, with such a man do not even eat.”
“What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you” (1Corinthians 5:9-13).
A messenger of Christ our sanctification has issued a warning saying; “Come out of her, My people so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues” (Revelatons 18:4).
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