The following are eleven suggestions for reformulating the Church of the Nazarene’s article ten on sanctification.  These statements are meant to be suggestive, not definitive or authoritative.  I offer them as constructive statements in light of my previous fifteen suggestions for what should be changed in the article.

Following each suggestion, a brief sentence is provided as an example of language that might be used to convey the central notion being considered.  Effort has been made to make these sentences easily understandable.  The assumption is that an easily understood reformulated article ten will be more influential in and potentially more unifying of the denomination.  

1. A Holy God   A doctrine of holiness should begin with a statement about God as the author and exemplar of holiness.  Because God’s primary attribute is love and our theological tradition emphasizes the integral relation between holiness and love, the opening statement in the article should express a loving God’s holiness. 
1. Ex.  “Our loving God is holy, and God desires that we be holy people.” 

2. God Acts First   A well-formulated article ten should emphasize sanctification as God’s acting first to make possible our response.  Sanctification involves divine call and creaturely response.
1. Ex. “God acts to make sanctification possible.  God calls us to respond appropriately to the invitation to be holy.”

3. Christ-like Love   The themes of love – God’s love for us and our response of loving God and others as ourselves – ought to be the primary focus of article ten on sanctification.  This love is best revealed in Jesus Christ. To be holy is to love in a way analogous to how Jesus loved.
1. Ex. “God’s call to be holy people involves calling us to Christlikeness, which means living lives of love.”

4. Other Facets of Holiness   The statement on sanctification should acknowledge that the Bible presents many meanings or facets of holiness.
1. Ex. “Biblical writers describe various facets of holiness, including purity, entire devotion, cleansing, being set apart, following codes for living, perfection, etc.”

5. Personal and Communal   Our sanctification is best understood as both personal and communal.  The statement on sanctification should account for both corporate identity and individual piety.
1. Ex. “God’s call to be holy is both individual and corporate.  The Church plays a crucial role in God’s desire that people be holy.” 

6. Crisis and Process   Language in a reformulated article ten should suggest that sanctification often involves dramatic moments.  During these moments, profound transformation instantaneously occurs.  But the article should also suggest that sanctification more often involves less dramatic moments.  The holy life involves both crisis experiences and the life-long process of Christian formation.
1. Ex.  “God's sanctifying work is expressed in dramatic instants, but it is also expressed in ordinary events throughout the developing Christian life.”

7. Secondness   The article should implicitly affirm Christians whose lives have been characterized by two definite experiences.  But it should regard the two definite experiences as descriptive of some Christians not prescriptive for all.  The emphasis should be upon what William Greathouse calls “furtherness” rather than upon secondness.
1. Ex.  “We believe that God continues to transform Christians beyond the initial transformation that occurs at regeneration.”

8.   Sin   The article should address the efficacy of sanctification in response to sin.  While sanctification should be seen primarily in positive terms, it should also address the sinful acts and habits with which we must deal.

             a.  Ex. “Sanctification cancels guilt, breaks sinful habits and propensities, and frees the Christian from living a life oriented toward sin.”

9. Empowering to Love   Sanctification should be understood primarily as the empowering to love rather than the eradication of a body of sin.  But the call to “take off” the sinful habits that destroy should also be understood as part of what it means to become holy.
1. Ex. “The life of holiness involves cooperating with God who empowers us to love and develop Christ-like virtues, while getting rid of the habits of sin.”

10. Virtues and Acts of Kindness   An adequate doctrine of sanctification combines an emphasis upon developing the inner life – character formation – as well as doing good to others, including helping the poor and marginalized.
1. Ex. “The holy life also involves the renewal of the Christian’s heart and mind, as well as loving service and giving.”

11. Trinity   Statements on sanctification should be implicitly Trinitarian.  But the members of the Trinity should not be identified with particular facets or actions of sanctification (e.g., no need to identify holiness with the “baptism of the Holy Spirit,” as if the Father and Son are uninvolved in holiness).
1. (See references to God above.)