The Theology of Holiness Part 7

And thus when Jude tells us that we are sanctified by G.o.d the Father, He means not only that we are separated unto the gospel of life and salvation, set apart to G.o.d and His service, but, also, that G.o.d the Father has made ample provision in the death of His Son for all Christian believers to be cleansed from every stain of moral defilement, delivered from inbred sin, sanctified wholly, made perfect in love, and filled with the Spirit. We repeat, therefore, that it will be a matter of eternal thankfulness and grat.i.tude to the redeemed soul, that the source of all these unspeakable blessings is in the infinite grace and love of G.o.d.

Everywhere throughout the Old Testament, the holiness of G.o.d is brought prominently forward and insisted upon. And His own holiness is presented as a sufficient reason why His people should be holy also.

"Be ye holy, for I am holy," which command and declaration are repeated and endorsed by the Apostle Peter in his first epistle, "But as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy."

As G.o.d the Father, therefore, is Himself infinitely holy, and He requires all His children to be holy even in the present life, it goes without saying, as already shown, that He makes provision in His gospel for them to be made and kept holy. And it is precisely the standard of G.o.d's holiness which is set before us by the Saviour as the mark at which we also are to aim, and aim not vainly nor unsuccessfully. "Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Not that our perfection or our holiness can be equal to His in degree. That would make the finite equal to the infinite, and would be an impossibility and absurdity, but that we are to be perfect in our sphere as He is perfect in His, that we are to be holy with the same kind of holiness that appertains to Him, in a word, that we are to be perfect in love as He is perfect love, and that we are to be delivered from all sin, not by any effort or any merit of our own but by His unmerited grace in Christ Jesus. Let us rejoice and praise His name that we are sanctified by G.o.d the Father.

CHAPTER XII.

SANCTIFIED BY G.o.d THE SON.

As the source of our entire sanctification is in the unmerited love and grace of G.o.d the Father, so the ground of it is in the blood of Christ the Son. Justification and Sanctification are by no means identical, but as regards the origin, the ground, and the means, they are precisely parallel. We are told that justification is by grace, and, again, that it is by the blood of Jesus, and, still again, that it is by faith. It is, therefore, G.o.d's grace, it is Christ's blood, it is man's faith by which we are justified. The originating cause of our justification is the grace of G.o.d. The procuring cause is the blood of Jesus Christ. The instrumental cause is our own faith.

And all this is equally true of our entire sanctification. We are not justified in one way and sanctified in another. We are sanctified as well as justified by the grace of G.o.d. We are sanctified as well as justified by the blood of Christ. We are sanctified as well as justified by our own faith.

All gospel blessings are founded upon the vicarious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He "of G.o.d is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, (justification) and sanctification and redemption."

And sanctification, no more than justification, releases us from our dependence upon the atonement. If we are either justified or sanctified today it is not because we deserve it, but because Christ died for us.

If we shall be either justified or sanctified at any future period of our eternity, it will not be because we deserve it but because Christ died for us. And so forever and forever we shall need the merit of His death, and we shall rejoice to join in the song of redemption "unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto G.o.d and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." We are everlastingly linked to the atonement of Jesus Christ, and this both for the pardon of past sins, and the entire cleansing of the heart.

"Thou shalt call His name Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins," which signifies, I apprehend, both the forgiveness of sins already committed and saving them from the commission of sins in the future. Here, then, we have justification and regeneration. "Behold the Lamb of G.o.d who taketh away the sin of the world." This must mean the sin of our nature, the sin that dwelleth in us, the sin that doth so easily beset us, in a word, inbred sin. And to have the inbred sin taken away means nothing more and nothing less and nothing else, than entire sanctification. Yes, beloved, we are sanctified by G.o.d the Son.

"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Here we have a positive statement that upon certain conditions to be fulfilled by us, we shall experience a cleansing from outward sin, and inward sin, and sin of ignorance, and conscious sin, and open sin and secret sin, and all sin. There is no mistaking the length and breadth and all comprehensiveness of this glorious promise. Beloved, let us walk in the light as He is in the light, and so know, for ourselves, that this wondrous declaration is divinely true.

And this is a result of His atoning sacrifice, which result He had in view, no less than the removal of our guilt when He laid down His life for us. "Wherefore, Jesus, also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." Glory to His Name.

He died, therefore, not alone that we might be saved from guilt and condemnation and penalty, but that we might be saved from sin, or sanctified wholly. And I would that every one of my Christian readers might unite in the hymn.

"The cleansing stream I see, I see, I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me.

It cleanseth me. Yes, cleanseth me."

CHAPTER XIII.

SANCTIFIED BY G.o.d THE HOLY GHOST.

As already intimated all the persons of the adorable Trinity are concerned in the work of entirely sanctifying a human soul. And this is naturally to be expected, because G.o.d is one Trinitarianism is not Tritheism. In essence one, in personality three, such is the revelation of Holy Scripture in regard to the eternal G.o.dhead. The Bible reveals the fact, but does not reveal the how. We bow in adoring grat.i.tude and love before an incomprehensible mystery, and rejoice in believing even without understanding.

Now the Holy Spirit is regarded by nearly all Christians as distinctively and specially the Sanctifier, "The renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour," is spoken of in the epistle to t.i.tus in direct connection with the "was.h.i.+ng of regeneration," and seems intended to be experienced just after it. Possibly the renewing here spoken of, may signify only the change of heart wrought by the Holy Ghost at the new birth, but possibly, also, the apostle had in mind the entire cleansing of the heart from sin. And in that case the renewing need not be any more gradual or progressive than the was.h.i.+ng, which all admit to be instantaneous.

Peter, in describing, to the Church at Jerusalem, the occurrences which he had witnessed at the house of Cornelius in Cesarea, used this language: "And G.o.d which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Evidently here the chief of the apostles gives us to understand that the giving of the Holy Ghost, and the purifying of the heart by faith, are co-instantaneous and identical experiences. And if this be so, the Holy Ghost, who is a Divine person, and not a mere influence, must be the effective agent in purifying the heart, that is to say, it is He who by His Divine energy sanctifies us wholly.

And with this agree the words of John the Baptist: "I indeed baptize you with water, unto repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." For what purpose is this fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost? Most certainly that it may consume the inbred sin of our nature, as fire consumes the chaff, or destroys the alloy that the gold may be left pure.

Paul in his epistle to the Romans uses the following language, viz: "That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of G.o.d that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." This great apostle was the first to clearly understand the perfect equality between Jew and Gentile in the gospel of salvation, and as he made hundreds of Gentile converts in His extensive missionary journeys, and offered them up with their own consent and co-operation in entire consecration to G.o.d, they were sanctified by the Holy Ghost.

The same apostle says to the Thessalonians, "We are bound to give thanks always to G.o.d for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because G.o.d hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." This is the true election and the true salvation, a salvation from sin, through sanctification of the Spirit and this is to be obtained by faith.

And the apostle of the circ.u.mcision uses language very similar in addressing the Jewish Christians who are scattered abroad, and whom he addresses as "Elect according to the foreknowledge of G.o.d the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Comparing these two citations we observe again, that the blood of Jesus Christ is the ground of our sanctification, and by a continuous sprinkling we may have a continuous cleansing, and also that the Holy Spirit is the effective agent in applying that precious blood, and in sanctifying our souls, on condition that we believe the truth. G.o.d help all Christians to be not faithless, but believing.

CHAPTER XIV.

SANCTIFIED BY THE TRUTH.

We have just seen that the Spirit operates in the work of sanctification in connection with belief of the truth on our part. And with this agree the words of our Lord in His intercessory prayer.

"Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is truth." The word here is not the eternal Logos, but G.o.d's revealed truth as given in Holy writ.

And it is a statement of the highest importance, made by Him who is the truth, that the medium or means of our sanctification is in the truth of G.o.d as made known to us in the gospel of His Son. Here, again, the Apostle Peter gives expression to the same sentiment when he says: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through l.u.s.t." If we are favored to escape the corruption that is in the world, we are sanctified wholly, and this is effected, Peter says, not by works of righteousness, not by resolutions or penances, not by striving to do holiness, before we seek to be holy, but by faith in the promises of G.o.d. These promises are very numerous, and varied in character on the pages of the Bible. By seizing upon them as written specially for us, we make them our own, and they become in and by Jesus Christ yea and amen, that is to say, we realize them in our own experience to be the truth, and thus when we read "This is the will of G.o.d even your sanctification," or, "The very G.o.d of peace sanctify you wholly," or, "I will circ.u.mcise your heart,"

or "I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes," immediately the truth is impressed upon our hearts as a glorious reality, and we are enabled to reckon ourselves dead, indeed, unto sin, and alive unto G.o.d, and to realize that the Saviour's prayer is answered and we are in His own blessed words, sanctified "by the truth." If any reader will take a concordance and look for the word truth, and search out the pa.s.sages containing it, he will be convinced that, however men may look at it, we have to do with the Lord G.o.d of truth, and that His estimate of truth is so high that He will by no means countenance any person or anything that liveth or maketh a lie.

And if we would honor Him, we must honor His truth, the truth that is to make us free from the bondage of inbred sin, the truth which we are commanded to buy, whatever may be the price, and sell it not, the truth which the Lord desires in the inward parts as well as upon the lips, the truth of G.o.d, the truth of holiness, the truth by which we are sanctified, the truth of the word.

And then we shall find in our own experience that "A G.o.d of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He," that He will send out His light and His truth that they may bring us to His holy hill and to His tabernacle, that He has given us a banner, even the banner of holiness to the Lord, to be displayed because of the truth, and we must never let it trail in the dust, that His truth shall be our s.h.i.+eld and buckler, and that while the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Glory be to His precious name forever, who is the truth.

CHAPTER XV.

SANCTIFIED BY FAITH.

The faith-faculty was given to man at His first creation. Adam believed G.o.d and was obedient and happy, and the first thing that the wily tempter attacked, and, alas, with too much success, was man's faith.

"Yea," hath G.o.d said, and "Ye shall not surely die." First, a question.

Then, a doubt of G.o.d's truth; then, a doubt of His love, and the rest was easy. Man stood so long as he did stand by faith. He fell when he did fall by unbelief.

G.o.d could not be G.o.d if He did not have faith in Himself. Man could not be the child of G.o.d if he did not have faith in G.o.d. Faith binds us in the closest spiritual union with our Father in heaven. Unbelief severs this bond of union and separates us from our Creator and Redeemer.

Beloved, let us have faith in G.o.d.

"Ye are all the children of G.o.d by faith in Jesus Christ." This is the Christian's pedigree. It is true that in a broad and subordinate sense all men are the children of G.o.d since He created them all. And this was known even to a Greek poet, as quoted by Paul at Athens, "For we are also His offspring." But we must not fail to remember that in John's gospel we have this statement, viz: "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of G.o.d, even to them that believe on His name." So that it is through faith that we become the children of G.o.d, not only by creation, not only by adoption, but by birth, "Ye must be born again." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of G.o.d abideth on him." Now, the faith-faculty, or the grace of faith, or the power of believing G.o.d's truth, when it is presented, is given to all mankind. But the exercise of that power which is actual and saving faith, often requires the cooperation of the human will. And, therefore, G.o.d commands us to believe, and holds us responsible for obedience to that command. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned." R.V.

Thus, it is that we are saved by faith. And this is true not only in religion, but in science as well, and not in science only, but in daily life and daily business as well. Many of the well-established truths of science are matters of faith, and not of demonstration. All intelligent people believe that there is a hidden force which they call the attraction of gravitation. n.o.body can tell what it is, n.o.body can prove its existence. It is received and adopted by faith, and serves as an excellent working hypothesis. That is all. Those who accept the undulatory theory of light are necessitated to believe that all s.p.a.ce is pervaded by an exceedingly tenuous fluid which is called ether, and that it is in this medium that the waves of light from self- luminous bodies are produced. n.o.body has demonstrated the existence of this ether. It is, for the present, accepted by faith, and explains the phenomena of light better than any other hypothesis propounded. Science is saved by faith. The home is saved by faith. If want of confidence comes between the husband and wife, or between parents and children, farewell to all the enjoyment of home life.

Finance, commerce, trade are all saved by faith. When business men, manufacturers or merchants lose faith in one another, or in their government, investments cease, machinery stops, panics occur, and hard times are complained of. As faith is the bond that binds men to G.o.d, so it is the bond that binds men one to another. When confidence is lost, all is lost. Even a solvent bank may be broken, from a sudden run upon it, caused by want of faith. Now, as faith is the substance of things hoped for, because it makes them real, as it is the evidence of things not seen, because it convinces the mind of the actual existence of the invisible, let us apply this thought to the matter in hand that, namely, of entire sanctification.