08 - All Five Sanctifications Linked

Taking God’s electing decree as fundamental to every aspect of the believer’s saving experience,1 nowhere is this combination of the various sanctifications more evident than in Paul’s magnificent affirmation in Romans 8:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Note how Paul used his opening declaration concerning the believer’s positional sanctification: ‘No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... Set... free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death... The righteous requirement of the law... fulfilled in us’, to move, without any break, straight into progressive sanctification: ‘Fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit’. He went on: