This discipline is meant to produce a healthy sorrow for sin in their hearts, leading to repentance and restoration rather than despair. The Holy Spirit, as the agent of sanctification, points not to himself but to Christ. The believer's attention is directed not to the Holy Spirit but to Jesus himself. The local church plays a key role in sanctification. Scripture knows nothing of an isolated model of sanctification which takes place apart from human relationships.
Christians are to live as pilgrims and strangers in society.
However, though we are not to be conformed to this world neither are we to withdraw from it. Human efforts may try to imitate such virtues, but the stark contrast with the real fruit exposes the hypocrisy. Biblical sanctification stresses the grace of God. Though sin is tenacious in its impact upon us, we must realize that God's grace provides for deliverance from evil habits and the failures and foibles of our past. Those who promise total sanctification in this life often deny the reality of sin and call it something else.