Let's get it clear here, technically speaking, the words; Sanctification, Holiness, and Saint mean the same thing. They are identical words. They are identical in meaning because they are translated from the same Greek word "HAGIOI," meaning;  "to be made as God is in essence," "made God's own," "belonging to God, to be as it were, exclusively His". But we are to understand also that each of these words Sanctification, Holiness, and Saint, are used to express different angles of the same idea, just as a coin has two different faces, "a head", and a "tail", and each part gives a different view of the same coin. These words help us to look at the same thing from their different angles. Having said this, let's progress.

The Bible declares that we have been sanctified once and forever. The Greek word is "Hagiazo." The traditional or theological definition tells us it means, "set apart." Religionists define sanctification as; "a progressive work of the Holy Spirit and man that makes us freer and freer from sin and like Jesus Christ in our actual lives." However, this definition is absurd in light of the Pauline revelation. This so because, it obscures the true meaning of this terminology, especially when it is viewed from the understanding of the Pauline revelation that the New Creation is not a work in progress, but a completed or finished work already (Col. 2:10). Therefore, such religious definition lacks Biblical coherence, because it comes to us mangled by the machinery of religion. It's not just quite right.  It doesn't hit the heart of the thing. From Paul's revelation of truth, to be sanctified does not necessarily mean "set apart for God's use". It means much more than just being set apart for God. This is because, if all that sanctification means is that we are just "set apart" for God or "set apart for His use," then it does not carry the full profundity of what the word means according to the Pauline revelation. To be sanctified carries a deeper and richer meaning than the traditional definition that most Christians ascribe to it. Being "set apart" is simply one of the privileges of sanctification, it's not its actual meaning.

What Sanctification Means: To be sanctified means; "to be made God's own," or "to belong to God."  (Ref; The Complete Word Study Series, by Spiros Zodhiates). This is so because in the New Testament Greek, the expression "God's People," is translated from two major Greek words, which are "LAOS," and "HAGIOI." 

[1] Laos: This word means primarily God's chosen people, which was initially used as a designation for the Jewish people. But when they rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah, the word was then applied to the New Israel, which is the Church. (Ref: Translators New Testament). [2] Hagioi: (God's People.) If you notice, this is the root Greek word from which the words sanctification, holiness, saints, etc, have been derived. In the New Testament, this word Hagioi is used to describe Christians as God's people who have been set apart for God, and thus "belong" to God, just as Israel of old belonged to God, and were in a special sense God's people, and thus were set apart for God's service. This is the sense of the verb in Acts 26: 18, and many other contexts. Often this word is equivalent to Christians. (Ref: Translators New Testament). It is therefore clear from the above explanation that to be sanctified means to [1] to belong to God. [2] made God's own possession or people. Based on the reality that we have been sanctified (made God's own), we have by this means been set apart for His service. God made us His own (i.e. He sanctified us) through the New Birth. This is a one-time act of God, it is unrepeatable, and is irrevocable. This should be clear enough for common sense to understand.

Now the point to understand about sanctification is this; You cannot belong to God gradually or progressively. Because we through the New Birth, have been made God's own, i.e. sanctified, the effect of this is that [1] it sets us apart from the rest of the world [2] we now share the same spiritual purity as God. To be sanctified doesn't mean we were "cleansed," or "washed". It is not a "purification process," whereby impurities are removed from us gradually or progressively. This is because there are no impurities in the new man that has already been created pure in Christ Jesus, by the Almighty God Himself. For if there be any slight impurity in the New Man (our Born Again spirit) in Christ, whether little or otherwise, requiring any form of purification, whether gradual or otherwise, then the New Birth would be in vain. It would mean that Jesus Christ did an incomplete work. The New Birth is not a "washing" or "cleansing," nor is it a "purification process." On the contrary, it is the recreation of our human spirit. We were not washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ, nor were we cleansed, or purified by it. On the contrary, we were recreated. What happens in the New Birth is the total replacement or recreation of a person's spirit. The Old spirit man is gone, and a brand new spirit comes into being, taking the place of the old. (2 Cor. 5:17,18; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26). This brand new spirit does not need any further cleansing or washing, because, it is created new with the same exact purity of Jesus Christ Himself. Those who teach that sanctification means to be cleansed or washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, think so because they do not understand the New Birth. We are sanctified through the New Birth. It is once for all, and forever. (Heb. 10:10), meaning that it is not done repeatedly. Therefore, Sanctification is not a process, as religionists erroneously teach. It is not progressive. The Bible declares that whatever the LORD does lasts forever, nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be removed from it. "Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed; You can't add anything to it or take anything away from it. God does this so that people will stand in awe of Him." (Ecc. 3:14). Jesus is the one who sanctifies or makes a person Holy through the New Birth. And once He's done it, no one can add to it, reduce it, or change it. We have often heard persons speak of sanctification as a progressive work, of which our old nature is made gradually better by the Holy Spirit; and, moreover, that until this process has reached perfection, until our fallen and corrupt nature has become completely subdued and completely sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we are not fit for heaven. This view is complete nonsense as far as the God and the Believer is concerned. This is so because in the first place, as Believers, we do not have any old, fallen, or corrupt nature, let alone subduing it. Know for sure that the old nature was crucified with Jesus Christ on the cross, and was removed in the New Birth. "Let us never forget that our old man was crucified(put to death, destroyed) on the cross with Jesus, so that by so doing, the power of sin over us, was destroyed, in order that we would never again be slaves to sin." (Rom. 6:6). 

"Those who are in Christ, (that belong to Him) have crucifiedthe old man (old nature, corrupt nature, sinful nature) with all its passions and desires." (Gal. 5:24). Notice what Paul is saying here; "was crucified" and "have crucified" are both past tense. This implies that the Believer does not have any old man to crucify any longer. There's really nothing left for the Believer to crucify anymore. "I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20). Here Paul is saying that the old man (i.e. his old self) no longer lives, but that Christ is now the one living in him, and that Christ who is now his new life has replaced (i.e., taken the place of) the old man. This means that the old man is forever gone, and no longer exists in the believer. Does anyone need more proof about this truth? Consider also this scripture. "Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old things (the old man, old nature, corrupt spiritual nature) has disappeared. A new man (a new spiritual being with a new nature) has come into existence." (2 Cor. 5:17). Can there be any further argument? None! The matter is forever settled by scripture.

Another thing we also need to understand is that, the Word of God never teaches us that the Holy Spirit has for His objective the improvement, either gradual or otherwise, of the "natural man," nor of the "flesh." Concerning the natural man, Paul expressly declares that, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. 2:14). And the "flesh" on its own part, no matter how well it is improved, shall never inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Therefore, any improvement of the flesh (of our behavior or morals), is not Biblical sanctification in reality. These two passages are clear and conclusive on the point. If the "natural man" can neither "receive" nor "know" "the things of the Spirit of God," and if the "flesh" in all its efforts and improvements (no matter how good it can be made to be), can still never inherit the kingdom of God, then how can that "natural man," or "flesh" be sanctified by the Holy Spirit, who knows that these things shall never inherit God's kingdom? That would be a total waste of time. Is it not plain that, to speak of "the sanctification of the natural man, or of our outer man, or of the flesh (our behavior, or morals)," is totally opposed to the direct teaching of 1 Cor. 2:14? As scripture has pointed out, "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50), no matter how good it is, or good it may try to become. Therefore, it is clear that sanctification is not about the improvement whether gradual or otherwise of the "flesh" (of our behavior or morals), or of the "natural man". On the contrary, sanctification is totally a spiritual thing. It occurs only in our Born Again spirit, and it is a gift. You can't do anything to merit it. You cannot work for it, and you even don't need to ask God for it. A person becomes sanctified the moment they are born again. It belongs to you as much as Eternal Life belongs to you. God gave Eternal Life. God gave Redemption. God gave wisdom. God gave me sanctification, and God gave Himself in the person of His Son to us so that “He that has the Son has the Life.” If you have Eternal Life, you have the nature of God. If you have the Nature of God, you have Righteousness. If you have righteousness, then you automatically have sanctification. You are sanctified already.

Today's teachings on ‘sanctification’ by many religious Church groups has become a serious stumbling block in the lives of many Christians, because of the legalistic view they attach to it. In many of these cases today, sanctification is presented as, "a gradual and progressive process or experience, whereby we are to prayerfully seek sanctification, so that through the power of the Holy Spirit, our flesh becomes totally crucified, bringing us to perfection, whereby we are able to completely live a sinless and obedient life to God so that we will be able to keep all His laws, commandments, rules and regulations, requirements, etcetera." To the person suffering from a religious stinking thinking, this view may sound sensible on the surface, but when studied in the light of our redemption in Christ, and what the New Testament teaches about our sanctification in Christ, we find that this view is a total failure, full of unrealistic demands and false doctrine. This form of false teaching is common across many denominations today. It’s the kind of teaching that promotes works, self-help or law mentality, which of course is used to keep believers under bondage to legalism, and control by advocates of legalism. It’s not 'Good news,’ because the burden to seek sanctification in the first place lies on the Believer, because you are the one that must always ask the Holy Spirit for it. In addition to that, the teaching also advocates that the effort required to keep the Believer sanctified comes from The Believer. In other words, you can lose your sanctification if you are not careful enough. This is totally unthinkable, unacceptable and a washy wash (lacks clarity and coherence with the New Testament). Sometimes we even hear such false teachings go on to say that we are in covenant with Jesus, because of our relationship with Him, thereby because He has saved us, we in return have to obey the law, be holy, purify ourselves, and seek sanctification ourselves. No! That is false teaching. It's not the Gospel truth. Understand this, we are under the Everlasting Covenant which God the Father made with Jesus. We had no part to play in it, we are just the recipients of it through faith in Jesus Christ. We can’t break the covenant because we are not a party to it. We are not the ones who personally made the covenant with God, and you cannot make any other covenant with God today. He will not accept any other covenant you try to self-righteously make with Him. The only covenant He accepts is the one He made with Jesus Christ, of which we are just the beneficiaries. There is, actually, no such thing in the Bible as ‘progressive sanctification’. This is a man-made doctrine that has been used to keep us under law. The Gospel truth is that our old man has already been crucified and buried, in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and our new man is risen in Christ Jesus. This New Man in Christ is who we are now, through the New Birth, and he is pure, holy, sanctified, righteous, justified. Any sinful act in our conduct today comes from the unrenewed mind. It occurs simply because; our natural human mind or thinking (the unrenewed mind) refuses to acknowledge that the old man became dead and buried on the cross of Jesus Christ, and has spiritually been forever removed from us the moment we were Born Again. This explains the reason Paul advises us to have our minds renewed. (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). And because Christ is our life now (Col. 3:4), He is the one that produces anything good in us; we can do nothing by our flesh or self-effort, to make us holy or sanctified. (Jhn. 15:5). We don't even need to pray for sanctification. It's pointless praying for something that you already have in Christ and through Christ. God won't even answer such baseless prayers for something He's already given to us in Christ, and made us to be. Telling God to sanctify you is buffoonery. It's indeed a foolish and unscriptural thing to do. Yet Christians do it. Religious teachers tell us we must fight sin in our lives, fight against the flesh and overcome sin to make ourselves more sanctified. This is ridiculous. The Bible never teaches us to fight sin. That's not the message of the Gospel. Religion may teach you to fight sin. Church dogma may teach you to fight sin. Denomination may teach you to fight sin. Bible schools and seminaries may teach you to fight sin. Sunday school teachings may teach you to fight sin. Even world renown Bible scholars and General Overseers may teach you to fight sin. But the Bible will never teach you to fight sin. There's nothing to fight. Sin is already dead. It died with Jesus Christ on the Cross. (Rom. 6:10; Heb. 9:26). Jesus became sin on the cross. The Father made Him to become sin for us on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21), and when He died, sin died with Him, because He died as sin. Permit me to announce here, at this point, this good news to you that "Sin is already dead and buried." The only place it exists now is in your unrenewed thinking. How can you still be fighting with something that is already dead and buried, or better said, wiped out of God's sight, by Jesus Christ? The only thing the Holy Spirit through Paul tells us now to do is that; "we are now to reckon ourselves dead to sin." (Rom. 6:11). The only remedy against the flesh is to walk in the spirit. (Col. 5:16, 25). Walking in the spirit, is not about fighting your flesh, it's not about trying to use fasting and self-denial to kill your flesh or physical body. The problem is not your physical body. The problem is the unrenewed mind. When the mind of the Believer is continually renewed and governed by Christ consciousness, it results to effortless transformation of our way of life.

Understand also that Jesus Christ is our sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). This implies that to have Jesus Christ is to have sanctification. You cannot have Him progressively, partially, or gradually. Anyone who has Him has Him in full. Your knowledge of Him may increase progressively, but you already have Him in full. What you need now is to grow in your knowledge of Him. The more you know Him, the more this knowledge will cause the effects of our sanctification to progress outwardly in our lives.

You see, you are either SANCTIFIED once forever or not at all. No such thing as “progressive sanctification”. “Progressive sanctification” is NOT supported by any scripture, but “sanctified” is used to describe every believer in Christ. Take for example, what Paul said to Believers at Corinth. "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that ARE SANCTIFIED in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:" (1 Cor. 1:2). 

Jude the Apostle, likewise says the same thing as Paul. "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that ARE SANCTIFIED by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, [and] called:" (Jude 1:1).

Notice from those two passages above, that the early Church believed and taught the early Christians that everyone who is Born Again (Believers in Christ) is already completely sanctified. Our Born Again spirit is already totally sanctified. Concerning this, Paul declares that we are already complete in Christ. If we are complete in Christ, and of course we are, what then is lacking? Nothing! "and God has made you complete in Christ. Christ is in charge of every ruler and authority."  (Col. 2:10). The doctrine of "progressive sanctification/holiness," is a lie. It's a religious hoax, with the aim of keeping Believers who subscribe to that fraudulent teaching, under bondage to legalism, and to keep them from knowing who they are, their rights and privileges in Christ, and Satan is the one behind this religious deception and delusion. This also proves that the liars who use it are not even sure of their salvation under their own doctrine. If you have to progress for your own sanctification, then it means you are indirectly accusing God or the Holy Spirit that He did not do a perfect work in you in Christ. And remember, in Christ, God never does anything in halves. Whatever He does in Christ is complete. You can't change or add anything to it to make it more complete. (Ecc. 3:14; Col. 2:10). Those who believe that they are to progress in their sanctification, believe so because they think that they not actually justified by faith, and as such, they haven't entered into the faith rest. (Heb. 4:3-11). Here Paul is saying that Israel as a Nation has not yet entered into God's rest. Although God is still waiting for them to receive Christ and enter into His rest. The Law of Moses never gave them rest. Its purpose was never to give them rest. Its purpose was to make the sins of the men under the Law, to be more obvious, and to magnify their sins, thereby making the people more conscious of sins. Concerning this, Paul, in the following passages, tells us why the Law of Moses was given to the Jews under the Old Covenant. He says;

"Why then was the Law given? What was its purpose? It was given in order to show what wrongdoing is, thereby increasing, and magnifying sin. But it was only supposed to last until the coming of Abraham's descendant (Jesus Christ), to whom the promise was made. The Law was given to Moses by angels, and he in turn gave it to the people, because he acted as their mediator." (Gal. 3:19). 

"The Law was introduced in order to increase sins (failure)..." (Rom.5:20^a).

By this, we understand that the Law of Moses can only show a man what is wrong, but it can never provide a cure for the man. It was never meant to cure anyone of their sins, nor provide them salvation. It also magnifies sin and increases failure. It gives knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:20, KJV). It gives birth to sin consciousness.   Again Paul says!

"Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those (the Old Testament Jews) who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God's judgment. Nobody can have God's approval by following and obeying Moses' Teachings (i.e. the Law). Moses' Teachings (the Law) only shows people how sinful they are. (Rom. 3: 19, 20). 

The Law shows people how sinful they are, makes them guilty, and brings them under judgment. It makes them sin conscious. From all these, one can see how meaningless, and utterly futile it is trying to serve God today by law-keeping. It can only lead to frustration, as it did the Israelites under the Old Covenant.

Get this clear, under the Mosaic Covenant (the Old Covenant), nobody was blessed because they obeyed the Law and Commandments of Moses. The blessings came to them only as a result of the animal sacrifices they performed to atone for their sins. The blood of those bullocks, goats, and pigeons, was only a shadow of the perfect blood of Jesus Christ, which was shed on the cross once and for all for the sins of mankind. It is foolhardy for anyone today to think that they can gain God's approval, approbation, or blessings, by bringing themselves under the Law, trying to obey it. But thank God today that Jesus Christ has fulfilled and abolished the Law as a means of serving God, and as a means of seeking His approbation. (Rom. 3:20, 28; Gal. 2:16; Gal. 5:4; Eph. 2:15). Jesus Christ has taken take away sin, but He also took away that which gives sin its power, which is the Law. (Heb. 9:28^a; 1 Cor. 15:56). The rest of God is Jesus Christ and all that He has accomplished for us in His perfect substitutionary work. Anyone who has entered into Christ, by being Born Again has entered into God's rest. This rest is rest from trying to please God and gain His approbation by works, performance, or by trying to keep the laws and commandments of Moses. Therefore every person who is Born Again has already entered into God's rest and should be resting in faith, rather than trying to gain God's approbation through meritorious efforts, or law-keeping. We are to be resting in [1] the assurance of all that Jesus Christ is to us, and [2] all that He has accomplished for us in His finished work, and [3] what He through the Holy Spirit, has made us in the New Birth, what we have become already in Him, our oneness with Him, our ability, rights, inheritance, and privileges. Therefore the believer who thinks that sanctification is progressive is actually still living in doubt of all the testimony that God declares concerning us in Christ. Such Believers are living in doubt of their oneness with Jesus Christ. And not living in God's rest, or the faith rest. Hebrews. 2:11 says, "for both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Acts 26:18; Heb. 2:12; Psm. 22:22-25).

Calvinist theologians define sanctification as; the process of being made holy only through the merits and justification of Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit that is then reflected in man. This view is however wrong. This is so because; sanctification is not a process. God never does anything by halves. There is no such thing as a half justification, nor is there anything as half holiness, half righteousness, or half justification, nor is there such a thing as half sanctification. The idea of a member of the family of God, or of the body of Christ, wholly justified, but only half sanctified, is at once opposed to scripture, and revolting to all sensibilities of the Divine nature. Sanctification cannot be attained by any works-based process but is obtained only through the work and power of the Holy Spirit at the moment of the New Birth. When a man is unregenerate, (i.e. not Born Again), it is his essence (unregenerate spirit man) that sins and does evil; because that is its nature. But when a man is Born Again, it is no longer the man (in his essence, i.e. his regenerated spirit) that sins, but the man is acting outside of his nature. In other words, the man is not being himself, he is not being true to who he is.

Having said that, another thing that destroys the idea of progressive sanctification is our standing in Christ. We have perfect (complete, total) standing in Christ. Complete sanctification is as fully included in the word "salvation" as is righteousness, redemption, justification. We did not get Christ by effort, but by faith, and when we laid hold on Christ, we received all that is in Christ completely, nothing lacking, nothing missing. Our standing is in Christ, and if we are in Christ for one thing, then we are in Christ for all things. We cannot be in Christ for one thing, and at the same time be out of Him for another thing that is in Him. That is to say, we cannot be fully in Christ for righteousness, and yet be out of Him, or partially in Him for sanctification. When we received Christ, we were taken completely off the old grounds of the old nature with all its belongings, at the moment we were recreated; at that moment when we received Jesus Christ, we forever lost the old man with its old nature and its old legal standing, and in its place, we received a new man with a new legal and vital standing in Christ. Based on this change in our standing and spiritual personality; from the old to the new, we are now looked upon by God as ones in Christ. We are no longer "in the flesh," but "in the Spirit." (Rom. 8:9). God sees us only in Christ, and as Christ. We have become one with Christ forever. "As He is, so are we in this world." (1 Jhn. 4:17). Such is our absolute standing. We are already like Him, as far as God is concerned. So if Jesus is completely sanctified, then so are we also. There is no such thing as sanctification in or of the flesh. Our standing in Christ is a settled and eternal position of every Believer. There is but one and the same standing for every child of God, i.e. every member of Christ. Our knowledge, experience (i.e. walk), understanding, intelligence, and gifts manifested may vary, but our standing is the same. Christ is our standing, and since Christ is our wisdom, Righteousness or justification, Sanctification, and redemption, (1 Cor. 1:30), then it implies that we have equal wisdom, equal Righteousness, or justification, equal Sanctification, and equal redemption in Christ. Therefore, no Believer is more sanctified than the other. We have the same or equal sanctification. But the effect of this sanctification in our lives varies to the degree that our mind is dominated by Christ consciousness. From all this, you can understand that there is no such thing as progressive sanctification or progressive holiness. The man-made theory of progressive or gradual sanctification is a hoax, orchestrated by religionists to keep believers under the yoke of self-effort and legalism.

There is nothing progressive about Sanctification, or Holiness. We do not grow in Holiness. We do not grow in sanctification. But we can grow in our knowledge, consciousness, or awareness of our Holiness, or of our sanctification, such that the "effects" of it become more and more evident in your life.

Some people speak about sanctification as the process of transformation. Sanctification is not Transformation. They are not the same thing. Sanctification as already stated is once and forever for every member of the Body of Christ. It is never a gradual or progressive process. It is an instantaneous spiritual phenomenon, and take place at the moment a person is born again. (Heb. 2:11; 10:10,14). Nev