I have started in a new thread:
http://christianforums.com/showthrea...5#post48512535

In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. The struggle begins. "If any man come to Me and hate not his own life, he cannot be My disciple." Being sanctified means “to be separated from sin”. The key to sanctification then, is to know and obey the truth which is the Word of God in our hearts. When we got saved, we were justified which is "declared righteous". Justification cannot be separated from sanctification. We are declared righteous in justification, and then the process of making us righteous begins to function in this sinful world.

Sanctification is a progress towards holiness which is spiritual growth. That’s becoming increasingly separated from sin and separated unto Jesus Christ who knows no sin. The process of sanctification goes on all our life long and it will never be completed until the day we die. There is no virtue in exposing yourself to error. Truth sanctifies and sanctification is between our justification and our glorification. Progressing in our sanctification and our spiritual growth and it only happens as we live in the environment of the truth and respond to that truth, and obey that truth, and avoid anything that diminishes our understanding of that truth or perverts that truth.

One of the perverts is behavior modifications. Many Christians do NOT see the total depravity of man due to sin because they treat the symptoms of sins instead of the heart (where sin is actually located); and they aim for change that is not true sanctification. Is behavior modification more helpful than sanctification? According to Romans 8:9, the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the mark of all who are truly born again: "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him."

Quotes related:

To be heavenly-minded we must think heavenly thoughts. A. W. Tozer

God must have all our thoughts it we would experience the sanctification of our minds. A.W. Tozer

One of the heaviest problems in the Christian life is that of sanctification: how to become as pure as we know we ought to be and must be if we are to enjoy intimate communion with a holy God. A.W. Tozer

A notable heresy has come into being throughout our evangelical Christian circle-the widely accepted concept that we humans can choose to accept Christ only because we need Him as Savior, and that we have the right to postpone our obedience to Him as long as we want to! A.W. Tozer

To give God back to us was the chief work of Christ in redemption. To impart Himself to us in personal experience is the first purpose of God in salvation. To bring acute God-awareness is the best help the Spirit brings in sanctification. All other steps in grace lead up to this. A. W. Tozer

The entire Bible teaches that true obedience to God and His Christ is one of the toughest requirements in the Christian life. Actually, salvation without obedience is a self-contradicting impossibility! Humans do not want to admit it, but the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans long ago that "by one man's disobedience" came the downfall of the human race! A.W. Tozer

"...if ever a monk could get to heaven through monastic discipline, I was that monk....And yet my conscience would not give me certainty, but I always doubted and said, 'You didn't do that right. You weren't contrite enough. You left that out of your confession.' The more I tried to remedy an uncertain, weak, and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more I daily found it more uncertain, weaker, and more troubled." Martin Luther