Early Christian Beliefs About Entire Sanctification
Early Christian writers taught that believers should be cleansed, renewed, and made holy by God. Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Origen, and the early liturgies connect holiness with baptism, repentance, obedience, and the Holy Spirit. Cyprian even speaks of daily sanctification, which makes the view more like a continuing work than a one-time finish. The evidence is strong for ongoing holiness, but thin for a clear early doctrine of full sinless perfection in this life.
141 early-church witnesses · 245 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about entire sanctification?
Early Christian writers taught that believers should pursue real holiness, but they usually spoke of sanctification as a process of being cleansed, renewed, and kept holy rather than a simple one-time claim of complete sinless perfection. Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Origen, Hermas, Justin Martyr, and the liturgical prayers all connect sanctification with baptism, repentance, obedience, and the Holy Spirit.
Cyprian especially speaks of daily sanctification, while Origen and others describe believers making progress toward higher purity. The evidence is broad for ongoing sanctification and serious moral cleansing, but thin for a clear, universal doctrine of entire sanctification as total freedom from all sin in this life. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians strongly taught sanctification as real cleansing and growth in holiness.
- Cyprian speaks of daily sanctification, not a once-for-all finished state.
- Origen and Clement describe believers advancing in holiness and purity.
- The early evidence supports serious moral change, but not a clear universal teaching of sinless perfection.
Questions Answered by the Sources
What did early Christians mean by sanctification?
Early Christians usually meant sanctification as being cleansed from sin and set apart for God. Clement, Cyprian, and Origen describe holiness as purity, renewal, and growth, not just a label.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
... apostles, for ours. To this point the divine apostle says: “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor; not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles who do not know the Lord; that none of you should overreach or take advantage of his brother in any matter, because the Lord is the avenger in all such things, as we also told you before and testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Therefore he who despises, despises not man, but God, who has also given His Holy Spirit to you.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 Therefore the Lord was not prohibited from this sanctification of ours. If, then, one of them should say in reply that the martyr is punished for sins committed before this embodiment, and that he will again reap the fruit of his conduct in this life, because such are the arrangements of the divine administration, we will ask him whether the repayment takes place by Providence. For if it is not of the divine administration, the divine arrangement of expiations is gone, and their hypothesis falls to the ground. But if
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
All indeed who attain to the divine gift and inheritance by the sanctification of baptism, therein put off the old man by the grace of the saving layer, and, renewed by the Holy Spirit from the filth of the old contagion, are purged by a second nativity.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
and sanctify our body and soul, and grant us the favour to be made pure from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 2 Corinthians 7:1 and may obtain the good things laid up for us, and do not account any of us unworthy;
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness
...Send out, O God, Your good grace, and sanctify our souls, bodies, and spirits. Turn our thoughts to holiness, so that with a pure conscience we may bring to You a peace offering, the sacrifice of praise.
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. Mark Supporting witness
...her of life, Author of grace, Creator of worlds, Founder of knowledge, Giver of wisdom, Treasure of holiness, Teacher of pure prayers, Benefactor of our souls, who gives to the faint-hearted who put their trust in You those things into which the angels desire to look: O Sovereign Lord, who has brought us up from the depths of darkness to light, who has given us life from death, who has graciously given us freedom from slavery, who has scattered the darkness of sin within us through the presence of Your only begotten Son, now also, through the visitation of Your all-holy Spirit, enlighten the eyes of our understanding, so that we may partake without fear of condemnation of this heavenly and immortal food. Sanctify us completely in soul, body, and spirit, so that with Your holy disciples and apostles we may say this prayer to You: Our Father who art in heaven, etc.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
... of Your hand, John 10:29, for there is no other God like You, for You are the one on whom we rely. Sanctify them by Your truth, for Your word is truth, John 17:17. You who does nothing out of favor, You whom no one can deceive, deliver them from every sickness and every disease, every offense, every injury and deceit, from fear of the enemy, from the dart that flies in the day, from the harm that walks about in darkness. And grant them that everlasting life which is in Christ Your only begotten Son, our God and Savior, through whom glory and worship be to You, in the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen. After this let the deacon say, "Let us attend." And let the bishop greet the church and say, "The peace of God be with you all." And let the people answer, "And with your spirit." And let the deacon say to all, "Greet one another with the holy kiss." And let the clergy greet the bishop, the laymen greet the men, and the women greet the women. And let the children stand at the reading desk, and let another deacon stand by them so that they may not be disorderly. And let other deacons walk around and watch the men and women, so that there may be no disturbance,
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Early Liturgies, Liturgy of Adaeus and Maris Supporting witness
.... Purge away our impurities, and sanctify our lips. Join the voices of us who are so small with the holiness of seraphim and archangels. Glory be to Your tender mercies, because You have joined what is earthly with what is heavenly.
Did early Christians teach ongoing sanctification?
Yes. Cyprian says believers need daily sanctification, and Origen says believers make progress to higher degrees of perfection. This points to holiness as something believers keep receiving and growing in, not only something they already fully possess.
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness
...ollution and ignorance are cleansed and taken away, he may make so great an advance in holiness and purity that the nature he received from God may become worthy of Him who gave it, being pure and perfect, so that the being which exists may be as worthy as He who called it into existence. For in this way, he who is such as his Creator wished him to be will receive from God power always to exist, and to abide forever. That this may be so, and that those whom He has created may be unceasingly and inseparably present with Him, who IS, it is the business of wisdom to instruct and train them, and to bring them to perfection by the confirmation of His Holy Spirit and unceasing sanctification. By this alone are they capable of receiving God. In this way, then, by the renewal of the ceaseless working of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in us, in its various stages of progress, we shall perhaps at some future time, although with difficulty, be able to behold the holy and blessed life. Since it is only after many struggles that we are able to reach it, we ought to continue in it in such a way that no satiety of that blessedness should ever seize us. But the more we perceive its blessednes
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness
Whence also the working of the Father, which confers existence upon all things, is found to be more glorious and magnificent, while each one, by participation in Christ, as being wisdom, and knowledge, and sanctification, makes progress, and advances to higher degrees of perfection;
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
Well, because He says, Be holy, even as I am holy, Leviticus 20:7 we ask and entreat, that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in that which we have begun to be.
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
And this takes place when man, purified in the heavenly laver, lays aside his infancy together with all the pollution of his past life, and having received an increase of divine vigour, becomes a perfect and complete man.
More related quotations from this section 1 shown
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness
Glory to God who has sanctified and is sanctifying us all.
Did the early church connect sanctification with baptism?
Yes. Cyprian repeatedly links baptism with remission of sins, sanctification, and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Other writers also speak of people being cleansed and made holy through the saving laver.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
And therefore, in order that, according to the divine arrangement and the evangelical truth, they may be able to obtain remission of sins, and to be sanctified, and to become temples of God, they must all absolutely be baptized with the baptism of the Church who come from adversaries and antichrists to the Church of Christ.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
If he attained remission of sins, he was also sanctified.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
...s of the same name not have power in the laying on of hands, if, as they claim, it had power in the sanctifying of baptism? For if someone born outside the Church can become God's temple, why can the Holy Spirit not also be poured out on that temple? For the one who has been sanctified, with his sins taken away in baptism, and has been spiritually remade into a new man, has become fit to receive the Holy Spirit, since the apostle says, "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Galatians 3:27. He who, after being baptized among the heretics, is able to put on Christ, can much more receive the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent. Otherwise, the One who is sent would be greater than the One who sends, so that a person baptized outside may indeed begin to put on Christ, but not be able to receive the Holy Spirit, as if Christ could be put on without the Spirit, or the Spirit could be separated from Christ. Moreover, it is foolish to say that although the second birth is spiritual, by which we are born in Christ through the washing of regeneration, someone may be spiritually born among the heretics, where they say that the Spirit is not. For water alone cannot c
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
But if discipline is frequently prescribed everywhere in Holy Scripture, and the whole foundation of religion and faith comes from obedience and fear, what is more fitting for us to earnestly desire? What should we want more, and hold more firmly, than to stand with deep roots, and with our houses founded in a solid mass on the rock, unshaken by the storms and whirlwinds of the world, so that through the divine commands we may come to God's rewards? We should also consider and know that our bodies, after being cleansed from all the filth of the old corruption by the sanctification of the life-giving washing, are God's temples. They must not be violated or polluted, since the one who does violence to them injures himself. We are the worshippers and priests of those temples. Let us obey Him whose people we have already begun to be. Paul tells us in his epistles, in which he has shaped our way of life by divine teaching, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a great price; glorify and bear God in your body." 1 Corinthians 6:14 Let us glorify and bear God in a pure and chaste body, and with more complete obedience. And since we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, let u
Did early Christians say believers should be perfect and holy?
Yes, they strongly called believers to holiness, purity, and perfection of life. But most of these texts sound like an aim to pursue and grow in holiness, not a full claim that every believer becomes sinless now.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Direct teaching
For sanctity, as I conceive it, is perfect pureness of mind, and deeds, and thoughts, and words too, and in its last degree sinlessness in dreams.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
..., and you shall be to Me sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Let us then, he says, perfect holiness in the fear of God. For though fear produces pain, "I rejoice," he says, "not that you were made sorry, but that you showed readiness for repentance. For you sorrowed in a godly way, so that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world works death. For see what earnestness this very thing produced in you, that you sorrowed in a godly way; yes, what clearing of yourselves; yes, what compunction; yes, what fear; yes, what desire; yes, what zeal; yes, what revenge! In all things you have shown yourselves clear in the matter." 2 Corinthians 7:1-11. Such are the preparatory exercises of gnostic discipline. And since the almighty God Himself gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Chr
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Hermas, The Shepherd (Pastor) Supporting witness
...test the true and the false prophet by my directions. Test the man who has the Divine Spirit by his life. First, he who has the Divine Spirit proceeding from above is meek, peaceable, and humble, and keeps away from all iniquity and the vain desire of this world, and is content with fewer wants than other men. And when asked, he makes no reply. Nor does he speak privately. Nor, when a man wishes the spirit to speak, does the Holy Spirit speak. It speaks only when God wishes it to speak. When, then, a man having the Divine Spirit comes into an assembly of righteous men who have faith in the Divine Spirit, and this assembly of men offers prayer to God, then the angel of the prophetic Spirit, who is appointed for him, fills the man. And the man, being filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks to the multitude as the Lord wishes. Thus, then, the Spirit of Divinity becomes manifest. Whatever power, therefore, comes from the Spirit of Divinity belongs to the Lord. "Hear, then," he says, "about the spirit that is earthly, empty, powerless, and foolish. First, the man who seems to have the Spirit exalts himself and wants the first seat, and is bold, impudent, and talkative, and lives in the m
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
After this we say, “Hallowed be Your name.” We do not mean that God needs to be made holy by our prayers. Rather, we ask Him that His name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is God made holy, since He Himself makes holy? Because He says, “Be holy, even as I am holy,” Leviticus 20:7, we ask and plead that we who were sanctified in baptism may continue in what we have begun to be. And we pray for this every day, for we need daily sanctification, so that we who fall away daily may wash away our sins by continual sanctification. And the apostle declares what this sanctification is that is given to us by God's condescension, when he says, “Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor those who abuse themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor deceivers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such indeed were you; but you are washed; but you are justified; but you are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God.” 1 Corinthians 6:9. He says that we are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. We pray that this sanctification may remain in us. A
Common Questions
Did early Christians teach sanctification as an ongoing work?
Yes. Cyprian speaks of daily sanctification, and Origen describes believers making progress toward higher perfection.
Did early Christians connect sanctification with baptism?
Yes. Cyprian and other writers link baptism with cleansing, renewal, and being made holy.
Did they teach that believers could be completely holy?
They strongly urged holiness, but the surviving evidence is mixed on whether they meant complete sinless perfection in this life.
Source Index for Entire sanctification
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 245 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 141
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 104
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.