The sanctification spoken of in this passage is not the practical sanctification of the believer spoken of in other scriptures, and which must be relative or a question of degree, but that far deeper sanctification of the Spirit which is absolute. It is, as William Kelly puts it, that “effectual work of divine grace, which first separates from the world a person, whether Jew or Gentile, unto God.” The order in which the truth is presented clearly shows that it cannot be practical sanctification. Practical holiness follows on being justified by the blood, whereas the sanctification in this passage precedes the blood.

Moreover, the elect are set apart through the Spirit to come under the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ. By faith in Christ, the believer comes under the shelter of the precious blood which cleanses from all sin, and sets him before God in peace.

When the Spirit of God works in a sinner, it is in order that the life of Christ may be produced in him, and that he may come under the efficacy of the death of Christ, which removes everything contrary to God. Thinking only of ourselves, we should have put the blood first, for it is by the blood alone we can approach God. But Scripture first presents the great positive end that God has in view when His Spirit begins to work in our souls, namely, to reproduce the life of Christ.

From this verse we learn that we have come into relations with every divine Person in the Godhead. We have been elected according to the foreknowledge of God the Father; we have been sanctified by the work of the Spirit in us; and the Father’s election and the Spirit’s work are in view of our obeying as Christ obeyed and coming under the sprinkling of the blood of Christ.