On Becoming a "Temple People"

*Note: This post is part of a series that was originally written within my denominational context (Brethren in Christ U.S.). As a result, it contains assumptions that the readers will share a broad familiarity with denominational stances that some readers might not be familiar with.

It is from the Wesleyan movements that the Brethren in Christ inherited a rich understanding of holiness and sanctification in the life of the church. However, in recent years there has been a growing concern among the Brethren in Christ that our wider church family is losing its attachment to views and values that marked our theological heritage.1 The work of “reaffirming our identity” has become a central part of the Brethren in Christ’s Project 250 commitment2 as well as other focuses in the denomination. This work is all the more important in light of wider struggles in American evangelicalism that impact our denominational family.

Ours is an age in which evangelical Christianity in America is increasingly framed along political lines rather than theological ones. In this politically polarized time, there is a strong tendency to elevate political party alignments over a commitment to the teachings of Jesus. The effect of this trend has been an increase in self-identifying Christians whose attitudes and actions are characterized by vindictiveness and hatred of “others,” especially foreigners and the poor. We have also witnessed Christian language and imagery exploited in situations of extreme violence, including the January 6^th, 2021, insurrection at which Christian flags and “Jesus Saves” signs appeared alongside rioting and chants to hang the Vice President.

This distressing situation has many explanations, one of which is that many Christians lack firm rooting in a genuine theological worldview. Such is certainly the case when it comes to the idea of sanctification. Christians of many stripes are familiar with the phrase from the Scriptures “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” But many of us are less certain of what it means to “be holy,” and our uncertainty can make us vulnerable to wrongful teaching that in turn produces wrongful actions. This resource is designed to introduce a Brethren in Christ perspective on sanctification. In it we will explore three major themes:

1. Sanctification means to be set apart for God.

2. Sanctification is becoming what God has made us.

3. Sanctification is ultimately not what we do, but what God has done in us.3

My hope is that this resource, coupled with others produced by the Brethren in Christ U.S., will promote reflection and conversations about just what it means to be a holy/sanctified people, and how that vision for the church can be a positive witness in our divided times.

You were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.

(Revelation 5:9–10)

God’s call for our sanctification begins with a claim that he has upon those who follow Jesus. We have been purchased at the cost of Jesus’s own life and with a particular purpose in mind: to become “a kingdom and priests to serve our God.” The ideas of kingdom and priesthood go very far back in the Scriptures. This was the identity given to the people of Israel after God delivered them from slavery in Egypt (Exodus 19:4-6). This identity is reaffirmed for the people of God (Jew and Gentile) who choose to follow Jesus (1 Peter 2:9). Through his death and resurrection, we have become a part of God’s special possession – “a people for his name … that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name” (Acts 15:14–17).

As God’s people, we are “set apart” through his redemptive work in Jesus Christ. This has been done not so that we can claim membership in some exclusive club, or brag about God’s choice of us over others. In fact, the call to be a “kingdom and priests” people is fundamentally a call to service – service of God through obedience to his commands, and service of others by representing God to them and offering his reconciliation found in Christ. To be “set apart” is not simply to be set apart from others, but rather to be set apart for God, for his church, and for the wider human family. In this way we participate in the promise given to Abraham, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).

Sanctification brings to our theological worldview the idea that God equips his people for transformation. This is in contrast to the tendency of some churches to pursue converts rather than form disciples. Such a mindset is what theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once called “cheap grace” – the idea that God provides forgiveness but neither demands nor equips his people for costly discipleship. As in Bonhoeffer’s day, the fruit of such teaching is churches and church members who claim Jesus’s forgiveness while participating in and promoting systems of violence, war-making, and hatred-of-others. But God’s call for his people has always been that they become a different, “set apart” people, whose lives are transformed. His work of salvation is indeed an unmerited gift, but the scope of that salvation includes our transformation into greater likeness of his own holy image.

Although we are still works in progress, we ought not look exactly like the world around us, only with a sprinkling of Jesus on the side. Nor are we to be so wholly “set apart” that the world is unaware of our existence. God’s intended distinctness for his people is a means by which he desires to draw others to himself. A holy people, committed to the teachings of Jesus, and exhibiting supernatural love for others, is a part of his strategy to rescue the nations. As the Lord says, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.

(1 Peter 1:1–2).

These words from the apostle Peter were written to Christians who were shunned from their home communities as a result of their commitment to Jesus. They were “exiles” in their own countries, and like the exiled people of God of an earlier era, they were called to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city” (Jeremiah 29:7). Peace and prosperity could be found through living in a manner that turned their communities to God himself (1 Peter 2:11–13). This work was no accident, but a part of God’s plan for humanity from the very beginning of time. We know this because of the opening words of this letter, which ground the experience of sanctification in the foreknowledge of God.

In some church traditions the idea of “foreknowledge” quickly conjures up images of God selecting individuals for salvation before time. But in these verses we see that God’s foreknowledge is attached to his plan for the sort of humanity he is creating among those who are “in Christ.” His plan, and his election, is that through the sanctifying work of the Spirit we should become obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood. In other words, God has always intended for his people to become fully obedient to the teachings of Jesus and in so doing, to be made holy. Holiness is not a nice bonus on top of the experience of salvation – it is a part of what it means to be the redeemed people of God. “Our sanctification was God’s plan from the beginning.”4 His goal is a people who wholeheartedly follow Jesus. The means by which God accomplishes this goal is through the sanctifying work of the Spirit.

What sanctification looks like is spelled out a bit further in the letter. Peter reminds his audience that they are called to be “obedient children” and therefore should avoid evil desires. Instead, they should “be holy” because God himself is holy (1 Peter 1:14–15). Peter stresses that following God’s example of holiness is a process of purification tied to a posture of obedience (1 Peter 1:22). In strongly Wesleyan phrasing, the Brethren in Christ reiterate this connection between holiness and obedience:

“When we accept the grace that God provides, sanctification becomes real in us. There are two scriptural conditions: He will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) and “to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32). Praying and obeying, walking in the light as he is in the light (1 John 1:7), and purifying and consecrating our lives before God are the ways to realize the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit.”5

Continuing commitment to a life of obedience yields a refinement of our heart’s motives, so that we become more like Christ: “As the Spirit works in the life of the believer, he or she is led forward in sanctification to a full surrender and commitment of the motives and will to Christ. This results in freedom from the control of sin and in empowerment to live the holy life.”6 Genuine victory over sinful inclinations is possible.

Importantly, sanctification results not only in the avoidance of clear sins, but also in a deep, practically expressed love for God’s people. “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22). In Wesleyan terms, this is what it means to have “perfected love” – a heart posture that is pure in intention, obedient in commitment, and grounded in Christian love for those in whose company the work of discipleship is carried out.

“As you come to him, the living Stone, … you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

(1 Peter 2:4–5)

Why all this fuss about obedience and holiness? A bit later in his letter Peter gives us an answer, but in a way that might be easily overlooked. Our sanctification, planned by the Father, carried out by the Spirit’s power, for obedience to Jesus Christ, is about us becoming a “temple people” for the triune God. The words “spiritual house” in this verse are particularly important. In Greek, the equivalent term for house is used in several contexts to refer to a temple.7 References to the holy priesthood and spiritual sacrifices make it clear that the temple should be in the back of our minds when reading this verse. In fact, temple imagery goes back earlier in the letter, with Peter’s words at the start of his letter that we should be sprinkled with his blood (1 Peter 1:2).8 Our sanctification – our growth in holiness through partnering of our obedience with the Spirit’s power – is the lived experience of becoming God’s temple people.9 It is an integral part to the church becoming God’s supernatural dwelling place on the earth. On some Sundays at our church, we sing a song called ‘Sanctuary’.10 The chorus has some words that are relevant to this discussion:

Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I’ll be a living Sanctuary for You

Sanctification is the Lord’s preparation of us as a people to more fully become what he desires us to be: a sanctuary in and with whom God in all his fullness he can dwell.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

(2 Corinthians 3:18).

The work of sanctification is not ours alone. Our sincere desire to live in obedience to Jesus Christ is empowered by God himself through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. This is because God’s desire is our transformation into his own image – a holy people following a holy God. Paul describes this transformation by retelling the story of Moses, whose face shone brightly whenever he encountered God’s glory on Sinai. We encounter God’s glory, not on mountaintops surrounded by smoke and fire, but in the person of Jesus Christ. As we contemplate Jesus in prayer, Scripture reading, church fellowship, and service to others, we experience his glory. And through these experiences we are transformed further into his image.

Such is far different from the effort-based approach of self-help and pop psychology books. Sanctification of our hearts and motives is ultimately the result of God working in and through us to become who we are destined to be “in Christ.” Of course, this does not mean that we play no role in the process. We must prepare our hearts and commit ourselves to obedience, which God cannot force us to do. But God will supply the means by which our commitments lead to genuine transformation via his Holy Spirit.

Throughout the history of the church, including that of the Brethren in Christ, there have been some efforts to declare a single set of experiences as the total explanation of what sanctification looks like.11 But sanctification is not a human action that can be replicated by following a pre-determined pattern. Making sanctification into an experience that manifests in one particular way is to deny that it is fundamentally the work of God, carried out in diverse ways and among diverse people. The Spirit is at work throughout his church. Some individuals experience intense moments of immediate growth accompanied by genuine victory over sin. Others experience gradual daily victory. Both groups are brought into greater conformity with the image of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. How this unfolds may look different from person to person, but God has promised to respond to open and obedient hearts by providing the Spirit for transformation and renewal.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

(1 Peter 2:9)

As we have seen, sanctification is the God-led, Spirit-empowered process by which we become who we are meant to be: a people set apart for God to dwell among. These words from Peter summarize the call to holiness well. God’s people have come from different families, different social backgrounds, and even different countries. But in Christ we have become “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.” This status has been freely granted, but it has been granted to us with a specific goal in mind: the praise of God and the redemption of the world. Through sanctification, we draw closer and closer to this divine vision, and in so doing praise him with our worship, our work, and our love for others.

• Brethren in Christ U.S., Articles of Faith & Doctrine: “Life in the Spirit”. Available at: https://bicus.org/about/what-we-believe/articles-of-faith-and-doctrine/the-holy-spirit-and-the-church

• Brethren in Christ U.S., Accents & Issues: “God’s Call to Holy Living”. Available at: https://bicus.org/about/what-we-believe/positions

• Brethren in Christ U.S., Accents & Issues: “Sanctification”. Available at: https://bicus.org/about/what-we-believe/positions

• Luke L. Keefer Jr., “Getting at Essential Issues in Sanctification” Brethren in Christ History & Life 6.2 (December 1983): 168–209.

• Luke L. Keefer Jr., “The Purpose of Holiness: The Triumph of God’s Will” Brethren in Christ History & Life 26.3 (December 2003): 310–321.

• Matthew R. Peterson, “Three Streams: The Brethren in Christ U.S. Theological Heritage (Part Three – Wesleyanism)”. Available elsewhere on this blog.