… you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

— 1 Corinthians 6:11b

He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

— Titus 3:5

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

— Hebrews 10:10

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

— Romans 3:23-24

yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

— Galatians 2:16

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and love from Christ to you.

It’s the unworthy grace of God’s saved children that they have been washed, sanctified and justified. Those who have been believers for any length of time will eventually find themselves asking this question — Does real change occur in the Christian life? After all, the closer to Christ we become, the more we are aware of our own sin and the many ways that we continue to fall short of the glory of God. After a lifetime of serving Jesus, Paul still understands himself to be sinful and in need of God’s grace.

Yet, we should not despair of making real progress in holiness. The same Paul who sees himself as the foremost of sinners after years of serving Christ also proclaims that Christians undergo a holy transformation. Paul does not say that a true Christian will never commit sins; Paul’s point is that the once-in-a-while sinful behaviors of Christians do not constitute their practice or lifestyles. We believers were initially washed, sanctified and justified in Christ and the gradual transformational process will be going on and on through the guiding operation of the indwelling Holy Spirit.