What does First B Jackson teach about sanctification?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on sanctification starts with a clear distinction between position and practice. A person's position before God is binary: either in sin or in Christ, either in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. That line is crossed by belief, and it is fixed. But what life looks like after that crossing is another matter entirely. Pastor Van, Pastor Gary, and others have described the Christian life not as a straight line from dark to light but as a path that moves in hills and valleys, generally forward, driven entirely by the work of the Holy Spirit. That slow, uneven growth toward holiness is what the Bible calls sanctification, and it runs from the moment of belief all the way to death, when glorification waits on the other side.
The teaching here is consistent about what moves sanctification forward and what does not. It is not willpower, and it is not straining after spiritual improvement on your own terms. The one command Paul plants in the middle of Romans 6 is to yield, to present yourself as an instrument of righteousness, and Pastor Ray has spent time showing why that single imperative sits surrounded by indicative statements of what God has already declared true. The indicatives describe what God has done; the imperative describes the one thing asked of the believer in response. Pastor Carl made the same point using Paul's language in Galatians about walking by the Spirit so that the desires of the flesh do not get satisfied, and illustrated it with the image of two wolves fighting inside a person: the one that wins is the one you feed.
Pastor Ray, in the series through 2 Peter, put it plainly: sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, but believers can participate in that work by submitting their will to God's. When you fall, you admit it and get back up. The striving is toward complete surrender, not toward self-improvement on your own terms. And in the 2 Corinthians 3 series, the same Pastor Ray traced that transformation all the way to its source, the unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord and being changed from one degree of glory to the next. The engine of that change is the Spirit of the Lord, not human effort, and the destination is conformity to the image of Christ.
Taught from Romans 6:1-23 · 2 Corinthians 3:1-18 · Ephesians 4:17-24 · Romans 8:1-11 · 2 Peter 3:14-18
The passage taught · 1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 21, 2026 Grace and Peace, Always Paul closes Ephesians with grace and peace, then opens Philippians with the same. A study of how joy, unity, and humility flow from the gospel.
- June 21, 2026 Hills and Valleys: Walking Out the Faith Pastor Van closes Ephesians and opens Philippians, tracing grace, peace, and the call to humble, joyful service through Paul's final greetings and opening words.
- May 3, 2026 Walk Worthy: Put Off, Put On Pastor Mark opens Ephesians 4 by grounding the call to walk worthy in the solid truth of chapters 1 through 3, tracing the path from darkness to light.
- May 3, 2026 First Be, Then Do The pastor walks through Ephesians 4, showing how who we are in Christ comes before how we live, and why being precedes doing in the Christian life.
- June 16, 2019 Grow in Grace and Knowledge Peter closes his letter with a call to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, while watching for false teaching and trusting God's patience as an invitation to salvation.
- March 24, 2019 From Glory to Glory A Wyoming pastor traces God's glory from Moses' radiant face through the law and the cross, showing how believers are being transformed into Christ's image from glory to glory.
- March 24, 2019 From Glory to Glory A sermon on how God transforms believers from one degree of glory to the next as they behold Christ, drawn from Exodus 34, 2 Corinthians 3, and Romans 8.
- June 26, 2016 No Condemnation: From Romans Seven to Romans Eight Romans 7-8: a Jackson, Wyoming pastor walks through Paul's struggle with sin and shows how the Holy Spirit makes victorious Christian living genuinely possible.
- June 5, 2016 Yield to Righteousness for Your Sanctification Romans 6 shows that believers are freed from sin and called to yield daily to God's Spirit, not the flesh, as the path toward sanctification and eternal life.
- June 5, 2016 The Free Gift Is Eternal Life Romans 6 shows that the wages of sin is death but God's free gift is eternal life. Pastor Carl walks through what it means to yield to righteousness and grow in sanctification.
Mentioned along the way
- May 17, 2026 Awake Sleeper and Rise from the Dead Ephesians 5 calls Christians out of darkness and into light, which means leaving behind corrupting speech, sexual immorality, greed, and foolish talk to walk as saints.
- May 17, 2026 Awake, Sleeper, and Rise from the Dead A verse-by-verse look at Ephesians 5:3-14 on corrupt speech, sexual immorality, greed, and what it means to walk as a child of light rather than darkness.
- January 7, 2024 If You Are Saved, Act Like It Peter calls scattered, persecuted believers to hope fully, live holy, fear God, love deeply, and crave God's word, all grounded in the mercy of Christ.
- January 26, 2020 Strengthen the Weak and Make Straight Paths Hebrews 12 sermon on strengthening the weak, pursuing peace, and guarding against bitterness before it spreads and defiles those around you.
- July 22, 2018 Gotta Serve Somebody Titus 2 sermon on what it means to willingly serve Christ, live self-controlled lives, and adorn the gospel through everyday work and conduct.
- January 22, 2017 The Sufficiency of Christ Paul's letter to the Colossians opens with a case for Christ's total sufficiency against competing worldviews, a grateful prayer, and a petition for growing in God's will.
- May 29, 2016 Dead to Sin, Alive to God On Memorial Day, Romans 6 connects the sacrifice of fallen soldiers to Christ's death and resurrection, and what it means to die to sin and walk in new life.
- May 29, 2016 Reckon Yourselves Dead to Sin Romans 6 asks whether grace is a license to keep sinning. Pastor Mark walks through Paul's answer: those who died with Christ are freed from sin's power to walk in newness of life.
- September 23, 2015 WWW Be Right (31) Romans 6 shows that sin no longer has power over believers. We died with Christ and rose to new life, free to walk in His righteousness and strength.
- January 11, 2015 The More Excellent Way Pastor Aaron walks First Baptist Jackson through 1 Corinthians 13, showing that love is indispensable, behavioral, and permanent, and asking each of us how we actually measure up.
- November 30, 2014 The Message of the Cross Is Where It's At A review of 1 Corinthians traces one steady theme through every chapter: the message of the cross is foolishness to some, but God's power to all who believe.
- August 31, 2014 Such Were Some of You The pastor walks through 1 Corinthians 6, addressing believers taking disputes to secular courts and the call to live as people who have been washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ.