6. HOLINESS. SANCTIFICATION
6. HOLINESS. SANCTIFICATION
The word is translated in the A.V. both ‘sanctification’ and ‘holiness;’ but there is another word, , always translated ‘holiness,’ and it is well to see the distinction between them.
Both words may be traced to , ‘holy,’ but is holiness in its nature and quality. It occurs but three times: “the Spirit of holiness” in Rom 1:4; the Christian should be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2Co 7:1; and Paul prayed for the Thessalonian saints that their hearts might be established “unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.” 1Th 3:13
is more the result and activity of sanctification that produces holiness. It occurs in Rom 6:19; Rom 6:22; 1Co 1:30; 1Th 4:3-4; 1Th 4:7; 2Th 2:13; 1Ti 2:15; Heb 12:14; 1Pe 1:2
, a kindred word to the above, also signifies ‘holiness’ in its essence, perhaps in the most absolute way, having a kind of middle place between and . It occurs only in Heb 12:10, unless it should be read in 2Co 1:12, ‘holiness’ instead of ‘simplicity,’ as adopted by several Editors and the R.V. It is His holiness, the holiness of God Himself in its own nature, of which believers are to be partakers – the end of all His gracious discipline