The biblical order of experience places sanctification after the ____.

• A. conversion
• B. faith
• C. justification
• D. new birth

Answer: (D)

Sanctification follows regeneration. In this view, receiving new life in Christ—being born again by the Spirit—creates the spiritual condition in which ongoing holiness can unfold. The new birth is the moment of spiritual life, and sanctification is the ongoing process of growing in that life—becoming more like Christ in thought, word, and deed. You can’t enter into the journey of holiness without first being alive to God through the new birth, which is why sanctification is placed after it.

Conversion, faith, and justification are steps that relate to coming to Christ, but the specific sequence described here treats sanctification as something that begins and progresses once a believer has been made alive through the new birth.