Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without

blame before Him' (Eph. 1:4).

A reference to Ephesians 5:27 and Colossians 1:22 will show that this

purpose has been fully established by the Work of Christ:

'That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having

spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and

without blemish'.

'In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and

unblameable and unreproveable (unreproachable) in His sight'.

Thus it will be seen that the death of Christ procures this wondrous

blessing of sanctification, unto which we were chosen before the foundation

of the world.  In the next Scripture it will be seen that the sanctification

of the Spirit is directly connected with the blood of Christ, and the Spirit

of God never leads to sanctification apart from this:

'Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through

sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the

blood of Jesus Christ' (1 Pet. 1:2).

This same truth is typically set forth in Leviticus 14 in the cleansing

of the leper:

'The priest shall take some of the blood ... and put it upon the tip of

the right ear ... and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the

great toe of his right foot' (Lev. 14:14).

'The rest of the oil ... upon the blood ... ' (Lev. 14:17).

'The priest shall put of the oil ...  right ear ... thumb ... great toe

... upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering' (Lev. 14:28).

Beware of any so-called sanctification that would apply the Oil without

first applying the Blood, or would seek to put the Oil on any other place

except 'upon the place of the blood'.

For the benefit of the reader who may not be sure, the words 'saint',

'sanctify', 'holy', 'holiness', are words from the same root in the original

of the New Testament.

We have already referred to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we turn to it

again for further teaching on the subject of sanctification.  Verse 29 gives

the divine object in the method of salvation.  God hath chosen the foolish,

the weak, the base, the despised, yea, the things which are not -- 'that no

flesh should glory in His presence'.  Verse 31 bears a similar witness, 'He

that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord'.  Verse 30 comes in between these

statements and reads, 'But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who became to us

wisdom from God, both righteousness, and sanctification and ("as well as"

Greek particles kai ... te) redemption'.  Christ became unto us

sanctification precisely in the same way and degree in which He became unto

us righteousness.  'He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that

we might be made the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Cor. 5:21).  So with

sanctification, it is imputed to the believer as absolutely as righteousness

is.  'If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not