God’s Work of Sanctification: Growing in Christ Through Ordinary Grace

Show: Anchored in the Word with Dave Jenkins

Podcast: Servants of Grace

Host: Dave Jenkins

Show Summary

Sanctification doesn’t usually feel dramatic. It often feels slow, ordinary, and sometimes even invisible. Many Christians wrestle with honest questions like: “If God is at work in me, why do I still struggle?”

In this episode of Anchored in the Word, Dave Jenkins explains what sanctification is (and what it isn’t), how it differs from justification, and how believers can recognize biblical evidences that God is truly at work in their lives. This episode offers encouragement for discouraged Christians by anchoring spiritual growth in God’s promises and the Spirit’s power through ordinary means of grace.

Audio

Video

Episode Notes

What sanctification is: God’s ongoing work of making believers more like Christ.

What sanctification is not: Justification—our once-for-all declaration of righteousness in Christ.

Why sanctification feels slow: We notice failures more than progress, compare ourselves to others, and God often grows us through ordinary obedience and trials.

Biblical signs of growth: growing hatred of sin, love for righteousness, conviction rather than condemnation, and the slow growth of spiritual fruit.

How God grows His people: through His Word, prayer, the local church, repentance, and the ordinary means of grace.

Key Scriptures

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Philippians 1:6

Romans 8:29

John 17:17

Hebrews 12:10–11

Galatians 5:22–23

Galatians 5:16

Hebrews 10:24–25

Philippians 2:13

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