The Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier?

Recently, while preparing for my small group's Bible study time, I ran across two very disturbing passages of Scripture!

2 Thessalonians 2:13

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

and 1 Peter 1:2

[God's elect] have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:

Do you see what I am talking about? Are you as freaked out as I was when I read this? Probably not-mostly because I'm a nerd, and probably only I would find this crazy, interesting and even somewhat disturbing (disturbing only because I had never been taught this idea in Sunday School, and I am 33 years old, and still had never heard this idea!) I was struck by the mention of the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. I immediately had a detailed discussion with Matt, my husband, about it. In the past, I never saw The Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. I always saw Jesus as the one who makes us holy, and free from sin. As a child and young adult, I always heard about Jesus' sanctifying work on the cross. However, the verses clearly state that the Holy Spirit is the one who does the sanctifying. So...my thought process was how does that all fit together? Plenty of passages also mention Jesus' sanctification. So, who does what? What Matt showed me was that Jesus made the way for sanctification to be possible. He did the work on the cross that provided the gift of freedom from sin. It is the Holy Spirit that actually comes personally into our lives, and wipes our slate clean.

How cool is that? I thought it was very interesting to picture it that way. It was like Jesus hands the baton off to the Holy Spirit to finish the work He started. I couldn't help but think of the church and how we each are called to use our gifts-one is a hand, one is a foot, etc. We each have different gifts that are useful in helping the church out. It seems that the Trinity is similar. Each part of the Godhead has their own function as well..In this case, Jesus died to create the gift of sanctification, in fact He created the ability to be sanctified, and the Holy Spirit enacts it into our lives, and moves in us to make us holy.

It might sound weird, but for some reason I visualize it as a painting. We are the canvas, the Holy Spirit is the artist, and Jesus supplied paints (His sanctification) to the artist. The Holy Spirit then paints our canvas to Jesus' likeness, thereby sanctifying us. I just saw it as a cool new way to look at it. I sware, you can read the Bible a zillion times, and still find something new to intrigue you! And I guarantee--- I will find a way to incorporate that piece of doctrine into my next Sunday School Class!!!!!!!

Holy Spirit,
Thank you for moving through my life each day to sanctify me and make me more like Christ. I pray that each day you will have a little less work to do on me! Amen