Proposition 3

The early Christians were called sanctified persons by the Apostles.

Paul addressed all the disciples in Rome as saints or sanctified persons. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he calls them all the sanctified under Christ Jesus. "To the church of God that is in Corinth, to the sanctified in Christ Jesus." Paul argues with the Hebrews that "by the will of God we have been sanctified through the offering of Jesus Christ once for all." "For by this one offering he has forever perfected (the conscience of) the sanctified." It was so common for the Apostles to address their disciples as sanctified persons that sometimes they are identified this way in the opening of their epistles. For example, Jude, addressing the entire Christian community, begins his general epistle — "To the sanctified by God our Father and preserved (or saved) by Jesus Christ; to the called." "The sanctifier and the sanctified are all from one family," says the Apostle to the Gentiles. Therefore, the sanctifier addressed the sanctified as his brothers, and the brothers addressed the disciples as sanctified. But once again, we must listen to Paul, who connects his sanctification with the name of the Lord Jesus. He says, "But now you have been sanctified by the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."16