Brother Diestelkamp then provides an excellent definition of sanctification: "Sanctification doesn’t mean abstinence, it means spiritual purity through submitting to a relationship with God through Christ."
He goes on to explain, "Sanctification is reasonable. It helps us arm ourselves to make good decisions. It puts our self-worth and self-esteem in God’s great love, not in someone else’s fickle love. It connects us with God who wants us for eternity, not just for momentary passing pleasure. It even helps us develop refusal skills as we learn in Christ to “….make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14).
Sanctification answers the question, “What do we do with ourselves?” We serve the Lord! Now the answer to the question, “Why did God give us sexual desires and sex?” Marriage! (1 Corinthians 7:1-5).
Near the end of his article, brother Diestelkamp writes, "Sexual faithfulness is really about sanctification. It is about our purity, faithfulness and oneness with God. It is reasonable to choose the way that leads to eternal life. It is not reasonable to act like unthinking animals. It is reasonable that in Christ we act like the sanctified people (saints) He has made us."
Brother Diestelkamp concludes his article with a quote from Ephesians 5:3, “But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints.“
Beloved, with all of the sexual immorality going on around us in today’s immoral society, let us heed the clear admonitions of Scripture that are brought out in brother Diestelkamp’s article to remain pure in an impure world (1 Timothy 5:22; cf. 1 Timothy 4:12).
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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