God…chasteneth…us…for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.
—Hebrews 12:7, 10
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
—2 Timothy 2:21
To sanctify anything is to set it apart—to consecrate it—to God and to His service. The temple at Jerusalem was holy; that is to say, it was dedicated to God, to serve Him as a dwelling place. The priests were holy, chosen to serve God and ready to work for Him. In the same way, the Christian ought also to be sanctified, at the Lord’s disposal, ready to do every good work.
When the people of Israel went out of Egypt, the Lord reclaimed them for His service as a holy people. He said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Exodus 7:16). Set free from their hard bondage, the children of Israel immediately entered the service of God. Their deliverance led to their sanctification.
Again in this day, God is forming a holy people for Himself, and Jesus sets us free so that we may join them. He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). It is the Lord who breaks the chains by which Satan tries to hold us in bondage. He wants us to be wholly free to serve Him.
Because believers still cannot understand that sanctification means an entire consecration to God, they cannot really believe that healing will quickly follow the sanctification of the sick one. Good health is too often for them only a matter of personal comfort and enjoyment that they may dispose of at their will. God cannot minister to this kind of selfishness. If they understood better that God requires His children to be “sanctified, and meet for the master’s use,” they would not be surprised to see Him giving healing and renewed strength to those who have learned to place their entire bodies at His disposal, willing to be sanctified and employed in His service by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of healing is also the Spirit of sanctification.