Just when you thought it was your job to change, to be cleansed and purged of your old life of sin, to persevere in the process of sanctification – God’s will is revealed and life becomes so much easier! Listen to this sermon

'Progressive sanctification' by Yates Jarvis (zonkio.com)

God’s Will for Our Sanctification
By Apostle Aje Pelser
Preached at Harvester Reformational Church, Cape Town 2006

Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
Heb 10:15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
Heb 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

When Jesus said His yoke is easy and His burden is light, He meant it. So why do Christians often get caught up in works after serving God for a while? While the efforts of many believers to live a holy life are sincere, the source of that holiness can never be works, only Christ. Trying to do it mentally or though your own will power is bound to fail because of our sinful nature.

We have to surrender to the will of God to sanctify us through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
We need to say: “OK God, I can’t do it! Let Jesus Christ’s offering sanctify me.”

This acknowledgement can only be made through receiving the following revelations about God’s will in this short passage of Scripture:

1. New Testament realities
A New Will and testament replaced the Old. Jesus ushered in the New Testament, a covenant between God and His Son cut in blood on the cross of Calvary, for the atonement of the sins of mankind.

2. Jesus Christ’s role in God’s Will
This will of God – is what Jesus Christ understood to be his mission on earth – “In the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will O God.” Hebrews 10:7
God wills us to be sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all. That is the will that Jesus came to live out on earth. This same will is what we draw on for guidance daily. This will of God is the force that draws us to repentance and cleanses us from our sins. God wants to sanctify us by the blood of Jesus even more than we desire to be sanctified.
This is good news because, when something is God’s will, our chances are better!
All we have to do is believe and accept that will of God, that He wants to sanctify us by the blood of Jesus Christ, offered once and for all.

3. Believe the Benefits of God’s Will
The benefits of receiving God’s will for you life is mentioned further on in the passage from Hebrews:
Jesus’ perfects us as we are being sanctified by His offering
God writes His laws on our hearts and minds. Or to state it more plainly: he helps us to think and act differently and changes the source and intent of our thoughts and actions.
How many times haven’t we all failed to live God’s will perfectly? We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

A preacher of condemnation is bound to make you feel guilty at this point, but a preacher of righteousness would urge you to read further:
“being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one that has faith in Jesus.”

4. God is the Justifier
God is the Justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. God’s will initiates the process of sanctification. That means it is possible for the worst sinner to change, to be sanctified, delivered and turned into a radiant child of God. No other religion can do this. No other faith in no other name has this level of sanctification power. Faith in Jesus Christ, the acceptance of God’s will to sanctify your spirit, soul and body through faith in the offering of the body of Jesus Christ on the cross, is the only way to true purity and ultimate sanctification.

5. Jesus has already sanctified you
All we have to do is receive God’s will for our lives. Confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Saviour, that his offering is the source of your sanctification according to the will of God. Submit to the ongoing process of sanctification in the different areas of your life committed to the body of Christ manifest in a local church.

Further Word Studies:
Etymology of the word “Sanctification” in a Biblical Sense: The root is found in the Old Testament in the Hebrew verb קרשׁ, ḳādhash, in the New Testament in the Greek verb ἀγιάζω, hagoázō. The noun “sanctification” (ἁγιασμός, hagiasmós) does not occur in the Old Testament and is found but 10 times in the New Testament, but the roots noted above appear in a group of important words which are of very frequent occurrence. These words are “holy,” “hallow,” “hallowed,” “holiness,” “consecrate,” “saint,” “sanctify,” “sanctification.” International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia