What does 1 Corinthians 7:14 mean?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘The Christian Philosophy of Man’ (1994).

For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.' (1 Corinthians 7:14)

To start with, I think it is helpful to notice the verb. The unbelieving husband is made holy—sanctified. Now you will immediately see that you couldn't substitute the verb justified for 'sanctified', could you? Not in that verse.

Sometimes we use our terms carelessly. Justified, sanctified—what is the difference? But here the difference is exceedingly important. You could never say an unbeliever is justified. Why not? Because you can't be justified without faith. How is a person justified? We're justified by faith (Romans 5:1). So, to say an unbeliever is justified would be a contradiction in terms. That is absolutely impossible. To be justified he'd have to be a believer; he'd have to believe. There is a very big difference then between justification and sanctification.

Again, the new birth. How is somebody born again? Our Lord makes it clear: 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life' (John 3:14–15). You can't be born again without faith. You could never say the unbelieving husband is born again through the wife.

You can, however, say that an unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, for sanctification is not the same as justification or the new birth. It is a verb with many different levels of meaning. In the Old Testament for instance, a pot could be sanctified. If Mrs Jones lent one of her saucepans to the priests to cook some of the meat of the sacrifices in, then that pot became sanctified. She never got it back actually! You see, it had touched the holy things and therefore it was sanctified. The pot wasn't born again or justified, of course, but it was set aside for God's use.

What is the opposite of being sanctified? Well, something that is impure. When it comes to human relationships, and marriage in particular, forget now about being a believer or not. You can talk about a girl who's not a believer, but you could say she is a pure virgin: 'chaste' (KJV). You don't mean that she's born again; but she is pure, chaste. And marriage is meant to be, even amongst unbelievers, a pure thing. In that sense, a sacred thing. But there are perversions at that level.

Now then, suppose a woman and a man are married. She gets converted, but her husband is still an unbeliever. Is their relationship impure? 'No,' says Paul. It is still a sacred thing at that level and their children are sacred (1 Corinthians 7:14). They are not 'the children of whoredom', as the Old Testament would say (Hosea 2:4). They are not the result of some impure perversion.

And finally, now that the woman has become a believer, she is sanctified at the higher sense, isn't she? She is set apart for God and it has a sanctifying effect on her life. Does that mean that she has to put her husband away because he has not had that experience? No, not necessarily, if he's content to live with her. She will be in that sense a sanctifying influence on him as a Christian wife, and in the sight of God their children will not be perversions or abominations or the result of an unclean relationship. They will be regarded as sacred.

That's what I take it to mean, but it gives no ground of course to believing that somehow the children of believers are automatically saved and born again.