What comes to mind when you think of the Holy Spirit? If you’re a believer, hopefully you envision a comforter, a guide, a person who tells you the truth by illuminating God’s Word. In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is referred to as a Comforter, but we must remember that He is also a Sanctifier. 

The Father redeems us through the Son, and the Holy Spirit guides us towards the new life that redemption has bought. Paul speaks of this plainly: “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Sanctification is not a side project; it’s the Spirit’s central mission.

When the Spirit sanctifies us, He cleanses us (continuously) from whatever distorts God’s image in us. Sanctification is not self-improvement with religious language attached; it is participation in the Spirit’s ongoing work of renewal.

It’s not unusual for people to conflate justification and sanctification. However, the difference between the two is that one is a decisive act, in which God declares a righteous, and the other is a process. It gets problematic when believers unconsciously treat justification as the finish line rather than the starting point. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against this distortion when he spoke of “cheap grace.” Bonhoeffer was hinting at the need for authentic transformation, not just a grace that forgives sin without renewing the sinner’s mind. For this reason, the Holy Spirit’s role in a believer’s life cannot be overestimated. 

Athanasius famously declared that “the Son of God became man so that we might become Godly.” Salvation offers the gift of being rescued from guilt and the restoration of the divine image in our lives. And as we’re filled with the Holy Spirit, we begin to imitate Christ. Holiness is not an impossibility that’s reserved for saints of another era. It’s the ordinary and expected fruit of a life yielded to the Spirit who comforts, convicts, and sanctifies.