@Sidon :
Ultimately, "How to be sanctified" is the same to me as "How to be saved"...
There is no "magic formula" and there is no step-by-step method that He has given to us as obstinate sinners, that will ever result in our achieving a state of grace with the Lord above.
If that were the case, then we could potentially boast in those things, and not the Lord's grace and mercy alone towards us.
That is why the Scripture says, "
not of works, lest any man
should boast."
Our faith, our belief, our works, our desires as sinners have no bearing on who He decides to save, for his works were finished before the foundation of the world.
He will have mercy upon whom HE will have mercy ( Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:14-18 ).
He decides who, out of all of us who are responsible before Him for our willfully committed sins against Him and our hatred of Him and His Son as a race ( that's all of us, even His people who were enemies in their hearts and minds before He changed our hearts ),
Who to save and who to reserve for everlasting punishment in the Lake of Fire that burns forever and ever.
In other words,
I see that a person believes on His Son because they are
already saved, from His vantage point...chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world.
They can do nothing to earn any of it, and they never could.
He blesses them and has set His love on them out of His own free will, and that is why they trust Him;
We love Him because He first loved us ( 1 John 4:19 ).
That said, I take my leave of your threads and wish you well, sir,
and may God's blessings from on high be upon you in this life and in the life to come.
