This is part of a series on patriarchy, headship, authority, and submission. See this index.

This series on sanctification in marriage began its life in response to an ongoing topical discussion of marital sanctification at the Sigma Frame blog. In my previous essay, I noted how marital sanctification was not a regenerative act of salvation. Many who still make this assertion argue that a woman is regeneratively sanctified through raising children, citing Scripture:

They believe that it is through marriage—through her husband sanctifying her—that a woman gains salvation. I will argue below that this view is incorrect.

Yet there is a lesser view that is also incorrect. A few years ago, Jack at Sigma Frame cited this very verse, taking the stance that having and raising children was not itself sanctifying per se but was indeed a regenerative act as part of an overall plan of sanctification.

This is a clear belief in the personal development within the wife that facilitates sanctification.

What do all of these views have in common? The idea that the actions of persons serve to regenerate someone, either directly or indirectly. These views violate the teachings of Scripture.

What we find in the writings of Paul is that a single women—with no family—is better placed to serve the Lord. How can a woman with no husband be sanctified by the husband she does not have? How can a woman—with no husband or children to sanctify her—better serve Christ than the married woman? Well, the premise is plainly absurd.

At this point we are compelled to note that in each other instance in Paul’s Pastoral Epistles of the word ‘saved’ refers to the salvation of everlasting life, not earthly virtue or holy living.  There is no doubt that being married and having children results in positive changes to both men and women, but the bearing and raising of children is not a virtuous process of holy self-improvement. Nor are any of these human acts—of themselves—sanctifying, for no act of man or woman can save:

As we saw in Ephesians 5 in the previous essay, the acts of faith, love, and holiness that Paul mentions here are acts of obedience to—and imitation of—Christ. They spread the Word of God through personal example. And indeed, spreading the Word of God is the only role a Christian has in the process of sanctification, which comes entirely from God at his discretion. It is entirely indirect, as it is God who uses it within another: the hearers  respond to the Word, not us. Many women (and men too) will be saved through Christ by the example of Christ within us. It is not we who sanctify, but Christ within us.