The Big Idea
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us sanctification.”
1 Corinthians 1:30
In the second devotional on sanctification, Chambers focuses on its life side—the gift of Christ’s own perfect qualities imparted instantly to the one who enters by faith into the realization that Christ became our sanctification. This is not imitation but impartation: Christ’s holiness actually exhibited through our humanity.
The Simple Takeaway
Two Christians are both trying to live more holy lives.
Person A is working hard at imitating Christ—studying His responses, trying to copy His patience, attempting to replicate His love—discovering that willpower and good intentions produce occasional improvement but not the deep transformation they know they need.
Person B has stopped trying to imitate and started drawing: drawing from Christ’s own holiness that has been placed within them by the Spirit—not generating patience but receiving Christ’s patience, not working up love but expressing the love of Christ that now dwells in them.
Chambers calls readers from the exhausting project of imitation to the receiving posture of faith that accesses Christ’s own qualities—not as models to copy but as gifts already given and available to be expressed.
One Question to Sit With
In the area of your Christian life where you are working hardest—is your effort primarily imitation or primarily drawing from Christ? And what would it look like to shift from one to the other?
Commentary
“The mystery of sanctification is that the perfect qualities of Jesus Christ are imparted as a gift to me, not gradually, but instantly once I enter by faith into the realization that He ‘became for me sanctification.’”
Sanctification is instant gift, not gradual achievement
Chambers is emphatic and surprising: the impartation of Christ’s holiness is not slow and incremental—it happens the moment faith genuinely grasps that Christ became our sanctification. This does not mean the expression of that holiness in daily life is instant, but the basis on which it rests is given completely at once.
“Sanctification means nothing less than the holiness of Jesus becoming mine and being exhibited in my life.”
Christ’s actual holiness, not a copy of it, becomes ours
The holiness that is sanctification is not a general principle, a moral quality, or a religious attitude—it is the specific holiness of Jesus Christ becoming ours and finding expression through our particular humanity. The standard is not ‘reasonably holy’—it is His holiness, which is why it can only come as a gift.
“The most wonderful secret of living a holy life does not lie in imitating Jesus, but in letting the perfect qualities of Jesus exhibit themselves in my human flesh.”
Imitation fails where exhibition succeeds
Imitation starts from outside and works inward; exhibition starts from inside and works outward. The first asks ‘what would Jesus do and how can I do it?’ The second asks ‘Christ is in me—what does He want to express through me here?’ The difference in direction is the difference between exhausting effort and living grace.
“Sanctification is ‘Christ in you.’ It is His wonderful life that is imparted to me in sanctification—imparted by faith as a sovereign gift of God’s grace.”
Faith is the instrument that receives sanctification’s gift
Chambers identifies how sanctification is accessed: by faith, as a sovereign gift. Not by moral effort, not by spiritual discipline, not by years of practice—though all these have their place—but by the act of faith that genuinely receives what God has given. This is available right now, not after more preparation.
“Sanctification means the impartation of the holy qualities of Jesus Christ to me. It is the gift of His patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, and godliness.”
The specific qualities of Christ are what is imparted
Chambers catalogs what is actually given: not vague spiritual enhancement but the specific, identifiable qualities that marked Jesus’ own life—patience, love, holiness, faith, purity, godliness. These are not being cultivated in us; they are being given to us as real gifts from the One who possesses them in fullness.
“Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy—it is drawing from Jesus the very holiness that was exhibited in Him, and that He now exhibits in me.”
We draw the holiness itself, not merely power to produce it
This distinction is precise and important. Many people approach sanctification as though Jesus provides the strength and they do the holiness-production. Chambers says it is simpler and more radical: we draw the holiness itself from Him, and it is His holiness—not ours—that is then exhibited through our lives.
“Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation.”
The single most important distinction in sanctification
Chambers reduces his whole argument to this one sentence. Imitation is a human project; impartation is a divine one. The exhausting project of moral self-improvement is imitation—always falling short, always requiring more effort. Impartation is receiving what Christ gives and simply living from it. These are fundamentally different endeavors.
“I slowly but surely begin to live a life of inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness—’kept by the power of God.’”
Sanctification produces a distinctive quality of life over time
Chambers closes the two-part study by describing the fruit: not dramatic transformation overnight but a slow, sure settling into a quality of life characterized by ‘inexpressible order, soundness, and holiness.’ The word ‘inexpressible’ is telling—this quality of life cannot be manufactured or explained by human means; it is kept by God’s own power.