When God Refines: Why Holiness Takes Both a Moment and a Lifetime

I grew up in a tribe where the word "sanctification" was a hot-button issue. It was controversial primarily because many people misunderstood it. And it was confusing because of the way that many people applied it.

So I have had to wrestle with Scripture over the years to come to a clear understanding of what exactly sanctification means. One of the metaphors that helped me to clarify the concept is the ancient refining processes of gold and silver. You have enough basic knowledge to know that refining gold and silver takes a lot of fire.

There are several places in the Bible where God refers to either refining His people like gold or refining His people like silver. But there are only a few places in the Bible where God refers to Himself as a refiner of gold and silver in the same breath. It’s rare to see the two paired together. One of those places is in Malachi 3, where God promises to come near, not just to judge His people, but to purify them. 

Malachi 3:3 (NLT): He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. 

The passage paints an image of God sitting like a refiner before a fire, working carefully to make His people pure. God still does that for His children.

As I reflected on that passage recently, it struck me that gold and silver require different purification methods. Each metal reacts differently to heat. And after the metals have been purified, each one requires a different kind of care. This concept resonated with me so strongly because there are two general perspectives in the Bible about how God makes us holy. I suddenly realized that the refining processes for gold and silver compare uniquely to those two different perspectives. One happens in an instant. The other takes a lifetime.

The Gold: When Holiness Is Given

Gold, even in its raw form, is already valuable. Its value doesn’t have to be created—it has to be revealed. Ancient refiners would place raw gold into a crucible and heat it to incredibly high temperatures. As the fire burned, the impurities would rise to the surface and be skimmed away. What makes gold remarkable is that once it’s pure, it stays pure. It doesn’t tarnish. It doesn’t corrode. It doesn’t lose its brilliance over time.

That’s what our position in Christ is like. I didn't earn holiness when I placed my faith in Jesus Christ. He gave it to me. He clothed me with righteousness that was not my own. He declared me clean, not because I had lived a pure life, but because He had. That moment, something changed instantly and permanently in how the Father sees me. I became holy because I was placed in the Holy One.

This is what theologians call positional sanctification. But the terminology is not as important as the truth. And the truth is this: When God looks at me through the lens of Christ, He sees purity. He sees value. He sees gold.

The Silver: When Holiness Is Formed

But I don’t always feel like gold. Some days I feel more like tarnished silver—dull around the edges, shaded by life. The refining of silver tells another part of the sanctification story.

Unlike gold, silver doesn’t hold its shine. It has to be refined multiple times, often using other metals like lead, which are introduced in the process to help draw out the impurities. The temperature for refining silver is not quite as intense as the fire used for refining gold, but the process for silver takes longer and is repeated more often. And even after it’s been purified, silver still tarnishes. It reacts to the environment around it. It has to be polished again and again to restore its shine.

Does that ring a bell for you? It certainly did for me because that’s what daily life in Christ looks like. Even though I’ve been declared holy, I’m still in the process of becoming holy. I don’t live perfectly. I still wrestle with pride, distraction, workaholism—impurities that rise to the surface not just once, but over and over again. And yet God, in His mercy, keeps putting me in the fire—not to destroy me, but to refine me. That’s what the theologians call progressive sanctification. It’s God shaping me into someone who looks more and more like Jesus, over time, through trials, through discipline, and by grace.

The good news about silver is that it’s worth the effort. You don’t give up on it just because it tarnishes. You polish it. You tend to it. You refine it. So does God with us.

Two Fires, One Purpose

When I think about both metals—the permanence of gold and the persistence of silver—I start to see the complete picture of holiness working in my life. I don’t need to chase the approval of God. He has already refined me like gold. And I don’t need to despair when I see my flaws. He is constantly refining me like silver.

I’ve met too many believers who lean too hard to one side or the other. Some believe they’re instantly holy and forget the call to grow. Others live in a constant state of trying to prove their worth to God, forgetting He has already given them His righteousness. But the beauty of sanctification is that it’s not one or the other. It’s both. He gives me value the moment I believe. And He works in me for a lifetime to make that value visible.

So here is my encouragement to you.

Let the Fire Do Its Work

You can rest in the finished process of your position in Christ. That’s the gold. You don’t need to earn what He’s already given. But also, you must embrace the continuous process of being refined to be more like Christ. That’s the silver. That’s where the fire keeps burning. That's where the Word and the Holy Spirit keep polishing off the tarnish.

Don’t be afraid of the process. It means you’re in the hands of the Refiner. And He never wastes the heat. He uses it to make you holy, not just in status, but in substance. He sees both your eternal value and your present need. He has refined you like gold. He will continually refine you like silver.