II Corinthians 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:”
In I Corinthians 1:2 Paul refers to those in the Church as “them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints”. Here he refers to “all the saints which are in all Achaia”. It is clear that our sanctification is from and by God and that He has established an eternal union between Himself and those that He has “sanctified”: “he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one” (Hebrews 2:11). Furthermore, it is by the exclusive “will” of God that “we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10) and “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). We are told that “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Peter refers to the “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit” (I Peter 1:2). Jude refers to “them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called” (Jude 1:1). In this context, a “saint” is one that God has “sanctified” according to His “will”. Through “sanctification”, one is made to be a “saint” by the exclusive “will” and authority and power of God. To be a “saint” is to have been chosen by God “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), set aside by God for His glory, called by God to worshipfully serve and obey Him, and to have been made holy by our Lord’s “blood” sacrifice. Paul told the Church at Corinth that “ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11); inseparably associating our sanctification with our spiritual washing and justification which is “by the Spirit of our God”. There is also a practical sense of sanctification, in which, by our behavior, we distinguish ourselves as a people sanctified to God; for example, “the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband” (I Corinthians 7:14), “this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (I Thessalonians 4:3), and “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (II Timothy 2:21). Therefore, we must conclude that the “saints” of God are Commanded and obligated to live a saintly life in our Lord’s service, not to obtain Eternal Salvation, but because our Lord “hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (II Timothy 1:9).