The Theology of Holiness
by
Dougan Clark
Part 2 out of 2
dead, indeed, unto sin, and leave to Him to make the reckoning good.
But we must not fail to reckon ourselves alive as well as dead. And to
be alive to God means, in this connection, to be responsive to every
intimation of His will, to love Him perfectly, to be, to do and to
suffer joyfully all that He may determine concerning us, in short, to
be sanctified wholly. Oh, beloved, what a blessed reckoning is the
reckoning of faith! How vastly does it transcend all the reckonings of
logic or mathematics. For, by it, we experience a continual deadness
to sin, and a continual holiness of heart and life.
For it must be clearly understood that Paul is not asking us to fancy,
or imagine, or hypothecate. He is not telling us that if we believe a
thing to be true, the believing will make it true. He is not persuading
us to reckon without factors and with no result. The factors in his
direction are God's promises and commands, alike in the Old Testament
and in the New, urging His people to be holy, and promising to make
them so, and our acceptance of the provision He has made for our
cleansing, by faith, and then by the reckoning alluded to, the result
is secured.
In foggy or cloudy weather, mariners at sea are often compelled to
resort to what they term dead-reckoning. Sometimes for days together,
the sun is hidden by clouds, and no observation can be taken with the
usual instruments for determining latitude and longitude. Then the
captain ascertains by the compass what direction he is pursuing, and
by the log, the rate at which the ship is sailing, and thus by marking
out his daily advance on a chart, he is enabled, with astonishing
accuracy, to determine when and at what point he will sight the shore
toward which the voyage is directed. What he reckons becomes real, when
he tells the passengers, "Within five minutes, we ought to see the
Irish coast," followed within the specified time by the cry from the
lookout, "Land, ho!"
To the Christian believer, the Bible is both compass and log and chart.
Sometimes, he enjoys the witness of the Spirit clear as the sunshine,
assuring him that he is going in the right direction, and informing
him as to his whereabouts in Christian experience, but when not thus
favored, he can still move on by faith, he still has his compass and
his chart, and he can still employ the dead-reckoning, and go forward
with a holy trust that in due time he shall land in the heavenly port.
Praise the Lord.
To comment in detail upon all that the great apostle of the Gentiles
has written in reference to entire sanctification would require a
volume instead of a single chapter. I must, therefore, content myself
with a few selections, and leave the reader to pursue the subject for
himself in the inexhaustible mine of the Pauline Epistles.
In Romans 6:13, we have the best description of consecration that is to
be found anywhere. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God." And, again, in the 19th verse, "For as ye
have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity, unto
iniquity; even so, now, yield your members servants to righteousness,
unto holiness."
Here, the apostle clearly teaches us that consecration is not the same
thing as entire sanctification. The one is an act proceeding from man
to God, the other is an act proceeding from God to man. It is man who
consecrates; it is God who sanctifies.
Perfect consecration is an entire surrender of a personal human being
to a personal God. The term members may well be understood to include
all bodily organs and powers, all mental faculties and sensibilities,
and all appurtenances, such as time, money, influence, culture, health,
and, in short, the whole personal, individual man, with all his
belongings. The surrender must be complete, absolute, unreserved and
forever. Body, soul, spirit, time, talents, possessions, all that we
have and all that we are must be His, wholly His, and His to all
eternity.
Such a consecration cannot be made by any one who is not already a
Christian believer. Paul informs us, explicitly, that he is not calling
upon sinners "dead in trespasses and sins," to consecrate themselves,
but upon converted persons, "those who are alive from the dead." How
thankful we ought to be that he has settled that point forever. Sinners
may repent, but only Christians can consecrate. Whatever surrender the
sinner may and must make in order to be saved, the believer must make a
broader, deeper, fuller, more complete surrender of a different
character and for a different purpose. In repentance, the sinner gives
himself away as a dead sacrifice, and his purpose is to receive pardon
and life. In consecration, the Christian yields to God his living and
regenerated faculties and powers, and his purpose is that he may be
sanctified wholly, filled with the Spirit, and used to the utmost
extent of his capacity for the glory of God.
Consecration does not mean the giving up of our sins, or vices, or
depraved appetites, or forbidden indulgences. We cannot consecrate our
alcohol, or our tobacco, or our opium, or our card-playing, or
dancing, or theater-going to God. He wants none of these things. All
actual and known sins must be abandoned at conversion. Our consecration
is for a deeper work, that is to say, for the removal of inbred sin,
which, after all, is not accomplished by our consecration, though that
is an essential preliminary, but by the baptism with the Holy Ghost
and fire.
The essence of consecration is in the sentence, "Yield yourselves unto
God." When you yield yourselves, you yield everything else. All the
details are included in the one surrender of yourself. Changing the
emphasis, we may read again, "Yield yourselves unto God." Consecration
is not to God's service, not to His work, not to a life of obedience
and sacrifice, not to the church, not to the Christian Endeavor, not to
the missionary cause, nor even to the cause of God; it is to God
Himself. "Yield yourselves unto God." Your work, your service, your
obedience, your sacrifice, your right place and your allotted duty will
all follow in good time.
Consecration is the willingness, and the resolution and the purpose to
be, to do, and to suffer all God's will. Its essence, already given in
the words of Paul, is given also in the words of the Saviour. "Not My
will but Thine be, done," which is beautifully versified by Frances
Ridley Havergal, in the couplet,
"Take my will and make it thine,
It shall be no longer mine."
Consecration being a definite transaction, and made once for all, does
not need to be repeated unless we have failed to keep it. To consecrate
over and over again is like a husband and wife marrying over and over
again. We are consecrated just as we are married. The vow is upon us,
and in the force of that vow, we walk all our days. All we have to do is
to remember day by day that we are wholly the Lord's, and see to it that
nothing is taken from the altar. Those who have kept their consecration
complete should testify to its maintenance upon all suitable occasions,
and never deny it by word, deed or silence.
Many years ago, I saw a form of consecration in an English periodical,
which is here given very slightly modified, and which has been adopted
by many. Let all my readers unite with the author in entering into this
personal yielding to God.
I am willing
To receive what Thou givest,
To lack what Thou withholdest,
To relinquish what Thou takest,
To suffer what Thou inflictest,
To be what Thou requirest,
To do what Thou commandest.
Amen.
In this connection, we may add that when the consecration is complete,
it becomes, comparatively, an easy matter to believe. Entire
sanctification like justification, and, indeed, all other gospel
blessings and experiences, is to be received by faith. But so long as
the surrender to God is not complete, faith refuses to act.
When all obstructions are removed by an act of heartfelt and sincere
consecration, then it becomes as natural and as easy to believe as it
is to breathe, after everything that hinders breathing is removed from
the air passages. We hear much complaint among Christians of a want of
faith. If they only had more faith, they imagine that all would be
well. When the disciples of old asked Jesus to increase their faith, He
told them, in effect, to use what they had. If it were only a mustard-
seed faith, He assured them that it would remove mountains. And we may
justly conclude that the difficulty with most seekers after entire
sanctification is not in a want of faith so much as in an incomplete
surrender. The carnal mind dies very hard. It attaches itself to one
worldly thing or another, and refuses to be sundered from what it
loves, and while this is the case, the individual cannot believe that
God gives him the unspeakable blessing of heart purity. But when all
the preliminaries have been attended to, and there is nothing else
needed but to trust in Jesus, then faith can appropriate His promises,
and in so doing realize their fulfillment.
Another class of seekers is very much concerned about the witness of
the Spirit to assure them that the blessing has been received. Probably
in these cases the very point that has not yet been consecrated to God
is the feeling, or the witness, which they so much desire. "It often
happens," says Dr. G. D. Watson, "that a patient, who has been cured of
some contagious disease, has to have a certificate on leaving the
hospital. In such a case the certificate does not cure him, but
certifies that he is cured. How absurd for a patient just entering the
hospital to clamor for his health certificate before receiving the
doctor and taking the remedies. In like manner, it is useless for a
seeking soul to be clamoring for the witness and waiting for the
feeling before receiving Jesus and fully trusting Him for the cure. We
are not to trust in the experience, but the Saviour who imparts the
experience."
Let us now return to Paul. In his first epistle to the Corinthians,
second and third chapters, he tells us of three classes of persons: the
natural man, the spiritual man, and the babe in Christ. The natural
man, he tells us, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; they
are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned. Such is a description of the unregenerate
wherever and whenever they are found. Their standard of judgment is not
that of the Holy Spirit. They are blind to the truth of God and deaf to
the story of salvation. Being without spiritual life they are, of
course, without spiritual judgment. And yet, just such persons are in
all our churches, and the number is by no means small. And often it
strangely happens that these are the very individuals who are
noticeably forward in expressing their opinions on the right way of
managing a church. Fine and costly edifices, artistic music,
entertainments and theatricals, eloquent preaching or lecturing,
something to be proud of and to draw the crowd--these are the things
which in their view make the church of their choice a success; but as
for the conversion of sinners, as for the spread of the gospel at home
and abroad, as for the sanctifying of believers, as for the things of
the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto them. What they need is a
deep and pungent conviction, a true repentance, a living faith and a
sound conversion. May God hasten it in His time.
"He that is spiritual," says our apostle, "judgeth or discerneth all
things, yet he himself is judged or discerned of no man." The spiritual
man is the man who has been baptized with the Spirit and filled with
the Spirit, and in whom the Spirit abides as an ever-present Guide,
Comforter and Friend. In short, he is the man who is wholly sanctified
and saved to the uttermost. I should not, of course, affirm that such a
one is always remarkable for depth or soundness of judgment, for, as
his religion is in his heart rather than in his head, the heart may be
perfect while the head may be weak. And yet holiness, or rather the
Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart, does have a wonderfully illuminating
influence upon the understanding. And the spiritual man, however many
things he may be ignorant of, does understand the condition of the
natural man, because he has been there, while he is not understood by
the natural man because the latter has not been where he is. And the
same is true of the relation of the spiritual man to the carnal
Christian or babe in Christ. He, also, is understood by one who has the
Spirit, while he is himself incapable of judging or discerning the
position of the latter.
Paul assures the Corinthians that they are "yet carnal," and still he
asserts that they are "babes in Christ." Such persons, and their name
is legion in all denominations of Christians, are not wholly natural,
neither are they wholly spiritual. They are babes in Christ, and,
therefore, they may thank God that they are in Christ. They are
converted, they are believers, they are disciples, they are justified;
but they are not wholly sanctified, and not wholly delivered from the
carnal mind. Their state is a mixed one, partly spiritual, partly
carnal.
Oh, let such as these make an immediate and complete and irrevocable
consecration to God, and let them ask for the baptism with the Holy
Ghost and receive Him by faith in His sanctifying and empowering
offices, that so they may become, not partly, but wholly spiritual. Oh,
that spiritual men and women may increase and abound in all our
churches. Amen.
In 2 Corinthians, 7:1, the apostle of the Gentiles bases the
experience of entire sanctification on the glorious promises of God.
"Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God." To cleanse ourselves is shown by the
Greek tense to be an act done definitely and once for all. It means,
therefore, to put ourselves under the conditions of cleansing by a
definite act of consecration to God. It means to place ourselves in
co-operation with the Holy Spirit, who is distinctively the Sanctifier
and Cleanser. It means, also, that we are to seek and find the baptism
with the Holy Ghost and with fire, in order that our hearts may be
purified by faith, and then to continually avoid all sources of
temptation and all incentives to evil, so far as we may; and
continuously realize and experience the holiness which Christ has
instantaneously wrought in our souls through His Holy Spirit.
Filthiness of the flesh signifies undue indulgence of sensual
appetites, as in gluttony, drunkenness and licentiousness, which was
probably very prevalent at Corinth. Filthiness of the spirit is
illustrated by idolatry and pride, nor must we forget that the spirit
is often polluted also through pampering the body.
Paul's wonderful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, has been so admirably
treated of by Dr. Daniel Steele, that I shall content myself with
referring the reader to his book on "Love Enthroned," page 123, and
pass on. A single remark, however, may properly be made. That prayer,
undoubtedly, embodies all that we mean by entire sanctification and the
filling of the Spirit and more.
In 1 Thess. 5:23, we have another prayer of the great apostle in which
entire sanctification is expressly petitioned for. "And the very God of
peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray God your whole spirit and soul
and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." The very
form of the expression in the first clause indicates that it is
possible to be sanctified wholly and possible to be sanctified
partially. All Christians are cleansed from the pollution of sins
committed, that is to say, from the pollution they have acquired by
actually sinning. And thus the Corinthians are addressed by Paul as
sanctified, although, manifestly, many of them were not holy in heart
and life. On the other hand, the apostle prays that the Thessalonians
may be sanctified wholly, although as a church they were already in a
healthy and prosperous condition, the only exception being a few
members who were too neglectful of their outward business and too much
disposed to be busy-bodies. So we may conclude, without hesitation,
that all Christians are partially sanctified, while many good
Christians are not wholly sanctified.
But provision was made in the gospel for the entire sanctification of
all believers, otherwise Paul would not have prayed for it. And not
only for their entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous act
of God, as shown by the Greek tense, but, also, for their continual
preservation in blamelessness, though not in faultlessness, until the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And lest they should stagger through
unbelief he adds, "Faithful is He that calleth you. You are not to do
it. He will do it for He is able."
And this experience extends to the whole man, the spirit which takes
hold of and communes with God, the soul with its emotions, affections,
desires and volitions; the body with its appetites and its powers all
made holy and preserved holy. Glory!
One more citation only and I will leave the reader to his own
researches in the rich storehouse of the Pauline writings. Taking it
for granted that Paul is the author of the Hebrews, let us read chapter
7:25 of that profound epistle. "Wherefore, he is able, also, to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth
to make intercession for them." To the uttermost refers, undoubtedly,
not only to time but to quantity. It means entirely, perfectly,
altogether, through and through. And if he is able he is also willing.
Oh, that all my readers, with the writer, may praise God now and
evermore for salvation from the uttermost to the uttermost. Amen.
CHAPTER VIII.
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY PETER.
In the first place, Peter sanctioned all the writings of his beloved
brother, Paul, and this probably at a period when Paul was either dead
or separated from his ministerial work by imprisonment. There is a
tradition that both the apostles were put to death on the same day at
Rome, the one by crucifixion, choosing himself to have his head
downward because unworthy to die just like his Master--the other by
beheading, because he was a Roman citizen, which was deemed, at Rome,
too honorable a position to be subjected to the ignominious death of
the cross. Even if this should be true, yet Peter's second epistle, in
which he endorses Paul's teachings, and gives to his writings the same
authority as to the rest of the Bible, seems to have been written but a
short time previous to his own martyrdom. The mature judgment of
Peter, therefore, was that Paul was an inspired writer of Scripture,
and that what he had given to the churches through his epistles, and
left as a permanent legacy for the church universal, is to be received
as gospel truth. And this will apply to his copious and frequent
allusions to entire sanctification, as well as to the various other
subjects treated of by his inspired pen. On the subject of holiness,
therefore, Peter and Paul are as one; and we need not be surprised that
in the very first sentence of his first epistle, he addresses the
Christians of the Jewish dispersion in Asia Minor--though by no means
excluding the Gentile converts--as elect according to the fore-
knowledge (not predestination) of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit, which must include entire as well as partial
sanctification, unto (not unconditional happiness or misery,) but unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, in one
grand outburst of salutation from his glowing heart, he associates
sanctification of the Spirit, the blood of sprinkling, and the
obedience of faith. Neither Peter nor Paul stops in the midst of his
earnest appeals to men's hearts, in order to give a lecture on
Systematic Theology, but both scatter seed-thoughts all over their
inspired pages, which are abundant in fruitage to the candid and
reflecting mind. And right here we remark that Paul to the
Thessalonians employs the same expression, sanctification of the
spirit, in connection with belief of the truth, and thus putting the
apostle of the circumcision by the side of the apostle of the
uncircumcision we have sanctification by the blood of Jesus,
sanctification by faith, sanctification by the Holy Ghost, and even in
a subordinate sense, sanctification by obedience, and all this without
the slightest inconsistency or contradiction.
And as Peter starts out by calling God's people to holiness, he
continues by reminding them that their hope is to be fixed upon "an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you." What more natural than that those who are
expecting to inherit a holy heaven, should themselves seek while here
to become a holy people? Surely we should desire a meetness for our
inheritance as well as a title to it.
After speaking of the "trial of their faith being much more precious
than of gold which perisheth," the apostle utters forth an imperious
call to entire sanctification. "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." Thus he quotes from the words of
the great lawgiver in Leviticus--that Moses, whom all Jews have
delighted to honor, and shows at a glance that the Old Testament, as
well as the New, bears witness to the holiness of God, and makes that
fact a sufficient reason for the command and requirement that His
people should be holy, also.
Our Heavenly Father, then, is a holy God and dwells in a holy heaven.
Is it not most reasonable and most fit that He should require all who
are to dwell with Him forever in that holy place, to be holy also? And
in order to find an abundant entrance into that everlasting kingdom,
we must be made holy while still clothed in flesh and sojourning upon
earth. Nothing that is not already pure and holy can pass through the
gates of pearl into the eternal city, the New Jerusalem.
Holiness is what constitutes the family likeness between our Father in
heaven and His children both on earth and in heaven. A lady was
accosted in the streets of a western city by a stranger, who asked her
if she was not the daughter of such a one, naming him. She replied,
with some surprise at the question, in the affirmative. "I knew you,"
said the gentleman, "by your resemblance to your father who was my
particular friend twenty-five years ago, away back in the State of
Maine." And the lady was delighted that the lineaments of her father's
countenance were so impressed upon her own that she should thus be
recognized even by one who had never seen her before as her father's
child.
Ah! beloved, have we the likeness of our Heavenly Father so imprinted
upon our faces and upon our walk and upon our conversation that all who
know Him shall recognize His features in us? Oh, for more of the family
likeness which shall stamp us as sons of God wherever we are and
whatever we do. "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
In comparison with the precious "blood of Christ" Peter characterizes
silver and gold, which men call precious metals, as "corruptible
things," and then gives the striking exhortation, "Seeing ye have
purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto
unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a
pure heart fervently," and all this on the basis of the new birth which
they had already received "of the incorruptible seed by the word of
God."
Why, Peter, although a fisherman and an unlearned and ignorant man, yet
when thou writest under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, it is almost
as hard to keep up with thee as with thy beloved brother, Paul!
See how holiness is, as it were, piled up and repeated in various ways
in the sentence quoted above. (1), "Ye have purified your souls." Yes,
and it was Peter who spoke before the council at Jerusalem in reference
to Cornelius and his household, and said that God "put no difference
between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." The word
"purify" is derived from a Greek root which means "fire." Souls are
purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the result is a continual
"obeying the truth," and (2), the positive side of this purification
is "unfeigned love of the brethren," and this is love with a pure heart
and fervent, the same love which John calls perfect love, and the
standard of which is in the words of the Lord Jesus, "As I have loved
you that ye also love one another."
Was ever more holiness crowded into a single verse? Peter had never
been to a Theological Seminary, but he had listened through three
eventful years to the blessed teachings of the Lord Jesus, and he had
been filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and without
aiming at system or explanation, he has compressed more sound theology
into a single verse than we find in many a voluminous treatise and many
a lengthy commentary and many an eloquent sermon.
And then in the rapturous eloquence of inspiration he tells us how to
grow in grace. "Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile, and
hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," and his
last exhortation at the end of the second epistle is, "But grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."
Peter, by no means, teaches us that we grow into grace, or that we grow
into entire sanctification. We first become receivers, and get grace
before we can grow in it, and we must first receive entire
sanctification before we can grow in it. Like all other gospel
blessings, this is the gift of God, and is forever, therefore,
unobtainable by any process of growth. But Peter says in effect, in
order to grow in grace you must do two things. (1), Lay aside
everything that hinders growth, specifying malice, guile, hypocrisies,
envies, evil speakings. Now it is plain as the sun at noon-day that all
these things are the fruits of the carnal mind. And so in a single
thought the exhortation is to lay aside, or put off, or give up to
destruction, the depravity of our nature, the inbred sin which doth so
easily beset, and which so long as it exists, will be an insuperable
hindrance to all rapid and symmetrical growth, and (2) desire, and of
course, partake of the sincere milk of the word. Ah, here is wisdom,
the secret of successful growth, in the spiritual as in the natural
world, is first to become healthy, and then to take plenty of
nourishment. Holiness is spiritual health, and implies the absence of
inbred sin which is always spiritual disease. The child that is healthy
and gets plenty of pure milk will grow and develop rapidly. The time
will soon come when he can eat and digest meat and still strengthen and
expand his physical organism on this richer diet, and thus he will
finally become a large and strong man. But the child may be healthy and
still not grow because it is starving for want of food. Or, it may have
plenty of the most wholesome food and still not grow because disease
prevents it from assimilating the nourishment. Sound health and plenty
of food, with proper exercise, are the essentials of the right kind of
growth. Now the Holy Bible contains not only milk for babes, but strong
meat for strong men. It has been remarked by another that if Christians
would be giants they must eat giants' food. And the essential requisite
for appropriating either the milk or the meat is to have a sound
spiritual constitution and that means simply entire sanctification.
Peter is right again. We grow by the sincere milk of the word after we
have gotten rid of that which always and everywhere obstructs true
growth.
Of course my reader will not understand me to say, any more than Peter
himself says, that we experience growth in grace simply by a head
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. I do not forget that it is not the
written word but the Eternal Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who
is the bread of life. Nor do I forget that we feed upon His broken body
and His shed blood, not by intellect, not by reason, not by culture,
not by learning, but by faith.
But after all it is the Bible, or rather it is Bible truth, whether
presented on the pages of inspiration or in the preached word, which is
the great instrumentality employed by the Holy Spirit, in bringing men
to Christ, and in feeding and nourishing and strengthening and edifying
the church which has thus been gathered to Him. And so both Peter in
speaking about the "sincere milk of the word," and Paul in referring to
the "strong meat," by which term he characterizes the deeper spiritual
truths of revelation, are leading us to Jesus, the true bread, the
living bread, the bread of life.
Our apostle passes next to a most glowing description of the Christian
priesthood, and again the leading idea of holiness flashes from his
pen, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by
Jesus Christ." Again, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people." Here is our title of nobility,
beloved, and who of us would exchange it for an earldom, or a dukedom
or a kingdom? Not I at least.
The Jews of old received spiritual blessing very largely, and even
temporal blessing also, through the mediation of an outward priesthood.
And the family of priests were chosen and ordained of God Himself. "No
man taketh this honor unto himself but he that is called of God, as was
Aaron."
But under the Christian dispensation all God's saved people are priests
as well as kings, and the sacrifices which they offer are spiritual
sacrifices, the body as a living sacrifice to be consumed like a whole
burnt offering in His service, "the fruit of the lips giving thanks to
His name," and the doing good and communicating, that is to say, a life
rich in faith and good works, such are the sacrifices with which God is
well pleased. But to be a Christian priest in the sense here described
must involve and does involve the idea of entire sanctification.
Peter's words will not allow us to doubt that the priesthood of
believers is a "holy priesthood."
Afterwards, the chief of the apostles exhorts his readers to take ill
treatment patiently when they have to suffer, not for doing wrong but
for doing well, and reminds us of the example of Christ, "Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled,
reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed
Himself to Him that judgeth righteously; who His own self bare our sins
in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live
unto righteousness," winding up with a terse expression of the great
doctrine of the atonement "by whose stripes ye were healed."
Paul would have us "dead to sin" by reckoning. Peter would have us
"dead to sins" by making no response to the suggestions of Satan or the
temptations which he may present to us. To be dead either to sin within
us or to sins without us, implies holiness of heart, that is, entire
sanctification. Praise the Lord for the perfect agreement of His two
great apostles in regard to this glorious doctrine.
Still further, Peter speaks of the "holy women" of old, and exhorts
Christian women to be like them, particularly in adorning themselves
not with gay attire, but with inward and spiritual graces. And in his
second epistle, he alludes to "holy men of God," speaking through the
Old Testament as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And here we have
the best possible definition of inspiration, in regard to which volumes
have been written, and very different views expressed by equally
learned and candid men. But what can be more satisfactory to the
humble, Christian mind than just to feel that when he reads his Bible,
he is perusing the words of "holy men of God who spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost." Such a mind will find no difficulty about
inspiration.
In the last chapter of his second epistle, Peter rebukes the unbelief
of the scoffers, who then believed, and whose successors still believe
that the present order of the material universe will continue for an
indefinite period, if not, indeed, forever. He assures us that the Lord
has not forgotten, that He is not slack concerning His promises, but
that the very reason why the sinful world has been spared so long is
because of God's long suffering and mercy, "not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance." And, then, having
declared that the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved
unto fire, that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night,
that the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up, he exclaims with most
appropriate words, "Seeing then, that all these things shall be
dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy
conversation and godliness," and this in order "that ye may be found of
Him in peace, without spot and blameless."
Praise the Lord for the doctrine of entire sanctification as taught by
the apostle of the circumcision. Amen.
CHAPTER IX.
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JOHN.
John, before Pentecost, was emphatically a Son of Thunder. He could
forbid a man to cast out devils in the name of Jesus, because the man
was not of his own particular fold. He was ready to imitate Elijah by
calling down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans who would not
extend the rites of hospitality to his Master. He was eager to have the
highest possible place in the coming kingdom of his Lord, and this at
whatever cost. But after Pentecost, John was par excellence the
apostle of love. Not that his character became anything like putty. He
could still rebuke evil and denounce Diotrephes, and forbid the elect
lady to receive or countenance any who did not uphold the true, sound
doctrines of the gospel. He was still a son of thunder against heresy
and immorality, but he was preeminently, after his baptism with the
Holy Ghost, a son of consolation. His soul seems absolutely absorbed in
the love of God, and his exhortations to the churches, seemed all to
concentrate in two special points, love God and love one another. His
heart was made perfect in love on the day of Pentecost, and he never
lost the blessed experience. He retained the blessing because he
retained the Blesser. The Holy Comforter was his abiding guest and
keeper.
The gospel of John contains many of the most profound and spiritual
truths that ever fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus. And the only
distinction which John accords to himself, and that always with the
greatest modesty and humility, is "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
He begins his gospel with a sublime assertion of the Deity and
preëxistence of Christ as the Eternal Word, then tells of the
incarnation, how the Word became flesh, and we beheld His glory, how
although He was the Light of the world, yet the world knew Him not, and
though He came unto His own (the Jews) yet His own received Him not,
but as many as did receive Him, whether Jews or Gentiles, to them gave
He power to become the children of God, and this through a new birth,
not of human blood, or title, or pedigree, not of man in any way
whatever, but of God. It is not sufficient, therefore, to be a child of
God by creation, which, indeed, all men are, but by adoption, by the
reception of the Divine nature by birth. And this new birth is more
fully unfolded to the Jewish Sanhedrist, Nicodemus, both as to its
necessity and its nature. "Ye must be born again." "The Son of man must
be lifted up." The new birth is of water and the Spirit. The water is
the water of life, the gospel offered freely to all, with its cleansing
and refreshing and vivifying properties so well symbolized by water,
and the Holy Spirit is the effective personal agent by whom the
regeneration is wrought in the heart of the penitent sinner, though His
operations may be as inexplicable as the wind, which bloweth where it
listeth, and is known only by its results. Then we have the hinge-text
of salvation, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal
life." Thus, in this marvelous discourse with Nicodemus, we have God's
love or God's grace as the source of our salvation, Christ crucified as
the ground of it, and the Holy Spirit as the Divine Agent of its
accomplishment. Glory be to the Triune God.
Not only the discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus on the new birth, but
His discourse, also, with the woman of Samaria on true worship is given
by John alone. It is remarkable that not to a Jewish Rabbi, not to the
Scribes and Pharisees, not to a Jew at all, but to a heathen or semi-
heathen woman, Jesus made the first recorded, positive declaration of
His Messiahship, and showed her that as God is a Spirit, so they that
worship Him must do so, not in any specific locality, such as Jerusalem
or Mount Gerizim, and not by any prescribed form or any outward ritual,
but in spirit and in truth. No wonder that her heart was immediately
and completely captivated by so grand and glorious a revelation, and
that, at once, she left her waterpot and went her way to become a
preacher of righteousness to her fellow-townsmen.
Passing over the fifth chapter, with the appeal to the Jews to search
the Scriptures and the assurance that they testified of Him; and the
sixth chapter, with its story of complete self-abnegation, when after a
stupendous miracle, the people were disposed to take Him by force and
make Him a king, but He departed into a mountain Himself alone, and the
next day, the wonderful discourse upon the bread of life, which sifted
away from Him a large proportion of those who had been so ready to
proclaim Him King, and brought out of the core of His heart those
pathetic words to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?", we come to the
seventh chapter and the feast of Tabernacles, at which, on the occasion
of the priest pouring water from the pool of Siloam, out of a golden
pitcher into a trumpet-shaped receptacle above the altar, amid the
rejoicings of the people, Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst let
him come unto Me and drink." "He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture
hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water." The
Scripture referred to is, probably, Isaiah 58:11, and, perhaps, other
similar passages. "And the Lord shalt guide thee continually, and
satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones, and thou shalt be
like a watered garden and like a spring of water, whose waters fail
not."
But the beloved disciple himself gives us an extremely valuable
inspired commentary on these words of the Lord Jesus, in order that
readers in all ages might make the true spiritual application which is
intended by them. "But this spake He of the Spirit which they that
believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given,
because that Jesus was not yet glorified." These remarkable words seem
to clearly imply that notwithstanding the presence and operation of the
Spirit in the former dispensations of God's grace, yet He was to be
poured out on all God's children under the gospel in a sense and to an
extent, which so far transcends the highest manifestation of His power
in Old Testament times that in comparison it is said the Holy Ghost was
not yet given, or, literally, the Holy Ghost was not yet. And this
wondrous outpouring was to be after the glorification of Jesus and as a
consequence of that glorification. So that Pentecost, with its untold
wealth of privilege, could not be realized till after the death,
resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we are clearly informed that what the church of the hundred and
twenty received on the day of Pentecost, namely, the purifying of their
hearts by faith and the enduement of power, that is to say, entire
sanctification, with all its blessed accompaniments, was not a
privilege confined to apostolic times, and to the opening of the Holy
Ghost dispensation; for Peter boldly assured the wondering multitude
that the promise of the same blessed experience "is to you and to your
children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
shall call." And thus it is for the church and for every individual
believer, until Christ Himself shall come again. God help all
Christians everywhere to see and to believe and to realize it. Amen.
In the eighth chapter, we are told how Jesus showed the slavery of sin.
"Every one that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin," and coupled
with this the glorious announcement that, "If the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Yes, Jesus came to free us not
simply from the guilt and the condemnation and the penalty of sin, but
from that which brings guilt and condemnation and penalty, even from
sin itself.
Here is true Christian liberty, and it does not mean license, it does
not mean do as you please, it does not mean the liberty of making your
own choices, but it does mean be pleased with what pleases God, and in
this manner after all you will do as you please, it means the glad
acceptance of God's choices. And so, after all, you do have your own
way because it is God's way, it means liberty and choice to do
everything right and nothing wrong, or to do right in all directions
and wrong in none. May God bring all His children out of slavery and
into freedom for Jesus' sake.
In the memorable discourse of the Lord Jesus with His disciples at the
last supper, as given by John in the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of
his gospel, He told them of the blessed Comforter, "which is the Holy
Ghost," whom the Father would send in His name, and as to the method of
His coming He says, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My
Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with
him." Here, I think, beyond a doubt, that the "We" refers to the Father
and the Son, and the manner of Their coming and indwelling in the heart
of the believer is through Their representative, the Holy Spirit. And
if this be true, how is it possible that such a heart in which Father,
Son and Holy Ghost abide, should not be sanctified wholly?
In his first Epistle, the beloved apostle develops beautifully the
doctrine of perfect love. He declares that God's children must not walk
in darkness or sin, and that those who do so cannot, truthfully, claim
to have fellowship with Him. "But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another," (which implies
fellowship with God) "and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
from all sin."
This is a very striking and all-important statement. The verb is in
the present tense, and denotes a present and a continuous action. It
cleanseth persistently and continuously. You trust in Jesus this
moment, and the blood cleanseth now, another moment and it cleanseth,
and thus on, without intermission or cessation. And the cleansing is
from all sin, sin committed and sin inbred, sin in act, word or
thought, sin outward and sin inward, sin open and sin secret, sin of
knowledge and sin of ignorance, literally and truly all sin. If this
does not mean entire sanctification, what use is there in language as
an expression of thought? Surely none.
But the objection is strongly urged by some that the next verse assures
us that "If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us." But why sunder this verse from its appropriate
connections? Were there not Pharisees in the time of Christ who would
not admit that they were sinners, and would not accept the baptism of
repentance from John the Baptist? And did not the Apostle John live to
see the germs of incipient gnosticism showing themselves in the church,
assuming, like modern Christian science, that all evil is in matter,
the soul is immaculate, and some Gnostics even believing that it was
possible to have fellowship with God while living in all kinds of
sensual indulgence and licentiousness, and moreover denying the reality
of the incarnation of Christ, as also of the crucifixion and
resurrection? These were the Docetists or Phantasiasts, so well
described by Longfellow:
"Ah, to how many faith has been
No evidence of things unseen,
But a dim shadow, which recasts
The creed of the Phantasiasts,
For whom no man of sorrows died:
For whom the tragedy divine
Was but a symbol and a sign,
And Christ a phantom crucified."
Now John in the passage referred to, tells us that on certain
conditions it is possible to experience through the blood of Christ,
which means simply the merits of His atoning and vicarious sacrifice, a
complete cleansing from all sin, and then turning to those who deny
that they are sinners, he exclaims, and if we say that we have no sin,
and therefore do not need this cleansing, and can do without this
atonement, then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. How
much more rational is such an interpretation than the exposition which
makes one verse contradict the other, and represents the apostle as
first assuring us that we may be cleansed from all sin, and then
declaring in effect. "But be sure to remember that this cleansing is
never really affected, and you are never really without sin."
There are so many rich and blessed teachings in this epistle that we
must needs make selection and leave many passages to be carefully and
prayerfully pondered by the reader, with the assurance that there is
very much gold to be found for the digging; but we would call attention
in a special manner to John's description of perfect love. "There is no
fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
It is clearly to be inferred from these expressions that whilst all
Christians do and must love God, yet there is a stage denominated
perfect love, which many Christians have not yet reached. And this
stage of religious experience is marked distinctly by the absence of
fear. Most certainly our apostle does not mean for us to understand
that we shall ever get beyond that reverential and filial fear, which
is the right and proper accompaniment of our childlike relation to our
Heavenly Father. But he specially describes the fear that will be
gotten rid of as tormenting fear, and this fear he declares that
"perfect love casteth out." Now we can readily see the reasonableness
of this statement. Fear about the future, whether as to temporal or
spiritual things, fear of evil tidings, fear of man, fear of death, in
short, all tormenting fear is caused by the presence of inbred sin. As
a matter of course, therefore, when sin is cast out, fear is cast out
with it. Now perfect love is the positive side of entire
sanctification; it implies the absence of inbred sin and the unmixed
love of God occupying the soul. Such love, therefore, most truly must
cast out fear.
The impenitent sinner neither fears nor loves God. The awakened sinner
fears him, but does not love Him. The justified believer both fears and
loves. Sometimes the fear is in the ascendant and sometimes the love.
The entirely sanctified believer loves with all his heart, and has no
tormenting fear. Praise the Lord.
And the beloved apostle instructs us also as to the method of obtaining
the blessing of perfect love. It is by the prayer of faith, and the
prayer of faith involves the idea of a preceding entire consecration.
"For," says John, "if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our
heart," which probably signifies that He also will condemn us, and,
therefore, we cannot utter a believing prayer for such a blessing as
entire sanctification while we are not wholly given up to the Lord, for
while that is our case, our heart will continue to condemn us.
But he continues, "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence
towards God." And again, "This is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we
know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of Him."
Nowhere is the philosophy of the plan of full salvation more
beautifully portrayed than in these precious words. We are shown here
that (1), the seeker of entire sanctification must be wholly
consecrated to God. (2), That he must pray in faith. (3), That he must
pray according to God's will. (4), That then he may know that he has
the very thing he asks for. Here is wisdom. Let every seeker act upon
it. Amen.
Nor does John leave us in doubt as to the witness of the Spirit to our
conscious cleansing. "If we love one another" (i.e. with a true and
pure and unselfish and self-sacrificing Christian love) "God dwelleth
in us and His love is perfected in us." "Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." Now to
have God's love perfected in us, and to have Him to dwell in us, can
mean nothing less than entire sanctification, and we know this, as John
tells us, by His Spirit. We have, therefore, the witness of the Spirit
to perfect love as well as to adoption.
CHAPTER X.
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JAMES AND JUDE.
James and Jude were brothers. They were also "brethren of the Lord."
Whether this expression means actual brothers, namely, children of
Joseph and Mary, or whether it means only cousins, also whether these
two men were apostles or not, are questions which I leave to the
Biblical critics. Receiving without argument their respective epistles
as belonging to the inspired canon, I am to inquire what their teaching
is in reference to the one theme of this book, that is, entire
sanctification.
James, as a writer, is intensely practical. As Bishop of Jerusalem he
presided specially over the Jewish Christian Church, and his epistle is
addressed "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," i.e., to
the Jews of the Dispersion, primarily, no doubt, to the Christian Jews,
but also secondarily and by way of warning to the unconverted Jews.
James was "zealous of the law." He fully agreed with Paul and with
Peter that the yoke of circumcision and the Mosaic law was not to be
imposed upon the Gentile Churches, but he, no doubt, strongly insisted
that Jewish converts should be still very careful to observe the
outward law. His epistle is like Matthew's gospel, and savors strongly
of the Sermon on the Mount. As a bishop and overseer of a Jewish flock
of Christians, while he fully assented to Paul's teaching on
justification by faith, he, nevertheless, urged upon the people with
vehemence that they should show their faith by their works and that
they should be "doers of the word and not hearers only." As Paul
completely demolishes the doctrine of salvation by the works of the
law, so James in his epistle offers us an inspired and a vigorous
protest against every form of Antinomianism. Thus the two writers, both
moved by the Holy Ghost, present the two aspects of gospel truth so
plainly that he may run that readeth. "We are saved by faith, not by
works," says Paul. "Aye," says James, "but we are saved in good works,
not out of them," and we must be careful to maintain good works, not in
order to be saved, but because we are saved. Good works are necessary,
not as the ground or the cause of salvation, but as the fruit and
resultant and test of the salvation which we have received by faith.
James, therefore, is not antagonistic to, but only complementary of the
great apostle of the Gentiles.
And mark how he strikes or aims right at the mark of Christian
perfection in the very beginning of his epistle. He assures us that if
we let patience have her perfect work, we shall be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing.
Christian perfection, then, according to James. is perfect patience.
Christian perfection according to John, is perfect love. Christian
perfection, according to Paul, is maturity or being "thoroughly
furnished unto all good works." Christian perfection, according to
Peter, is in being established, strengthened, settled. Surely none but
a caviller will find any want of harmony between these different modes
of expression. They all imply deliverance from sin, which is always
instantaneous, and some of them imply a mature Christian character,
which is always gradual.
James gives a vivid description of inbred sin under the name of lust.
"Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and
enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth (actual) sin;
and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death."
We cannot doubt that James, like the other writers of the Bible,
believed in a personal devil, for he speaks of a wisdom which is
"devilish" and if a man is enticed to sin by the natural depravity of
his heart, we must not overlook the fact that the enticement implies an
enticer, and that the wicked spiritual adversary of our race knows how
to adapt his baits to the peculiar form in which inbred sin is
strongest in each individual, and thus, if possible, to entrap and
destroy him. Depravity exists by nature in all, but in one man it is
particularly felt in the direction of covetousness, in another, of
pride, in another, of ambition, in another, of sensuality. Satan's
temptations in the first of these would most likely be something which
holds out the prospect of getting gain by sinning; in the second, it
would be something to feed his intense admiration of self, to cherish
his pride; in the third, it would be the hope of political or some
other kind of power on the condition of sacrificing principle; in the
fourth, it would be the gratification of bodily appetites as in
drunkenness, gluttony, or licentiousness. Thus the trap is set for
every man, and the trapper is wary. God save us from his wiles.
And as Peter tells us to lay aside inbred sin, as it exists in the form
of malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and shows itself in
evil speakings, so James tells us to lay apart "all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness," or "overflowing of wickedness." Ah,
beloved, most truly did Jesus say that the heart of man is a fountain
of wickedness, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts and all
actual sins; yes, there is by nature in each one of us a superfluity of
naughtiness, an overflowing of wickedness, a natural depravity, an
inbred sin, and this must be "laid apart," it must be gotten rid of by
bringing and subjecting the heart where it dwells to the fiery baptism
with the Holy Ghost, and then shall we be in a position to receive,
with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls.
St. James speaks of the "law of liberty," and of the "royal law," the
latter being, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and both mean,
I apprehend, just what we have already alluded to as the law of love.
"Love," says Paul, "is the fulfilling of the law," and this is liberty,
and this is royalty, the freedom to do God's will because we love it,
and to have all the antagonisms to that blessed will expelled from our
hearts, and all lawful affections and passions subdued and subjected to
Him who is our King, and who reigns without a rival in our hearts.
"I worship Thee, sweet will of God,
And all Thy ways adore;
And every day I live, I seem
To love Thee more and more."
If this is not the true liberty and the true royalty, where shall we find
them? Not on earth, at least.
James does not spend words in exhorting us to seek more religion, but
he tersely defines pure religion. And that is what we want. It does not
depend upon age, nor size, nor growth. A stalk of corn may be pure as
soon as it raises itself above the surface of the ground. Another stalk
may be impure and diseased when it is many feet in height. A Christian
may seek and find pure religion and undefiled, very soon after he is
born again. Another Christian may spend years and years in seeking more
religion, and yet not become the possessor of purity of heart.
This pure religion, according to our author, consists in works of
beneficence and love as to its outward manifestations, but its true
inward principle is in keeping one's self "unspotted from the world."
Oh, that all my readers with myself, may thus keep themselves unspotted
from the world, which involves the idea of being sanctified wholly, and
in the end "may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless."
But an objector here interposes with a quotation from James which is
supposed to preclude the possibility of living without sin. "In many
things we offend all." But this expression is not to be thus
interpreted. To make it mean that all Christians must continue in the
commission of sin to the end of their lives, would not only be doing
violence to that which is the very trend of our author's teaching,
namely, a spotless morality and a pure and holy life, but it would also
prove too much. For a little further on we read, in reference to that
unruly evil, the tongue, "Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and
therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of God,"
and again, "Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may
obey us, and we turn about their whole body." Surely no expositor would
maintain from such language that James was a tamer of horses and a
profane swearer. The truth is, that James, out of kindness and
courtesy, includes himself among his hearers or readers, and means to
show us how liable we are to give offence through rash and ill-advised
words, and then, on the other hand, he does not fail to mention the man
who does not offend in word, and who is able, by the grace of God, to
bridle the whole body, that is, to live without sin, and whom, again,
he styles a "perfect man."
Our author further informs us that heavenly, divine wisdom is first
pure, then peaceable. The carnal Christian, or babe in Christ, would
often reverse this arrangement. He is clamorous for peace, often to the
extent that he would have a wisdom that is first peaceable and then
pure, but the Holy Ghost puts purity first, and He is always right. No
compromise must be made with error in doctrine, or evil in practice,
even for the sake of peace. But when we become possessors of a wisdom
which is first pure, then, also, the other qualities follow in proper
succession, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated and the rest.
Listen, again, to the stern moralist and preacher of holiness, "Cleanse
your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded." Here,
again, we can but thankfully admire the perfect accuracy of the Holy
Ghost, as regards the method of full salvation. To cleanse the hands is
to obtain pardon and absolution for what we have done, and it is always
the first work of the unsaved man to repent and seek the forgiveness of
his sins. When this forgiveness has been obtained, then his hands are
cleansed, but he may still be double-minded. He may still be unstable
in all his ways. His spiritual course may still be zig-zag. His life
may still be a series of sinning and repenting, and sinning again and
repenting again, till he cries out in his misery, "O wretched man that
I am, who (not what) shall deliver me from this body of death?" And
then James's prescription comes home to him, "Purify your hearts, ye
double-minded." Seek and obtain the blessing of entire sanctification,
and, henceforth, with one mind and one purpose, run joyfully in the way
of Christ's commandments. Justification first and entire sanctification
afterwards. First cleanse your hands, then purify your hearts. And with
this agree the words of the Psalmist, "Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?" "He that hath clean
hands," that is, whose sins have been pardoned, "and a pure heart,"
that is, who has been sanctified wholly. The teachings of the Holy
Ghost are marvelously harmonious in the Old Testament and the New.
Finally, James assures us that the "prayer of faith shall save the
sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." And not only physical but
spiritual blessing may be received in the same way for "If he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." His conclusion is that
"The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working,"
R.V., but I prefer to regard the Greek participle in the original as in
the passive voice, and then the meaning would be, as suggested by Dr.
S.A. Keen in his Faith papers, "The prayer of a righteous man being
energized" (by the Holy Ghost) "availeth much."
I should understand the "prayer of faith," therefore, to be a prayer
begotten in the heart of the believer by the Holy Ghost, and with the
prayer is communicated also the corresponding faith, and when this is
the case, the answer is sure. Faith, in this use of the word, is a
special gift, and may be given to some and withheld from others, also
given at one time and withheld at another, just as God in His infinite
and unerring wisdom may decide. This kind of faith is one of the
special gifts of which we have an account in the 12th of 1st
Corinthians, and differs, therefore, from the grace of faith or the
power of believing the gospel unto salvation when it is presented,
which is given to all men, and for the exercise of which, by actually
believing, all are held responsible. "He that believeth shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be condemned."
And it is Jude, the brother of James, who exhorts his readers to pray
in the Holy Ghost, the very same kind of praying which James calls the
prayer of faith, and about which Paul also declares that "the Spirit
Himself also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for
with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the
hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
A Holy Ghost prayer, therefore, such as Jude alludes to, is a prayer
that is energized by the Holy Ghost. It is not the Holy Ghost who does
the groaning, but He causes the heart of the consecrated believer to
groan, by kindling those intense desires after some specific blessing,
which often are, indeed, too deep for clear expression by utterance,
and with the groanings, also, the faith is given, which takes hold of
God's Almightiness for the answer. Such prayers do, indeed, move the
hand that moves the world, and whether it be for the healing of the
sick, or the conversion of sinners, or the entire sanctification of
believers, or the supply of temporal needs, or anything else which the
Holy Spirit may suggest, the blessing is sure to come.
I am not forgetting that the assistance of the Holy Spirit is needed,
and that it is obtainable in all true prayer, but ordinary prayer must
be founded upon the promises of God and an exercise of will power to
believe those promises, and therefore, it must be accompanied, in order
to be effectual, by ordinary faith, the act of believing. Extraordinary
prayer must be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of
faith must come directly from Him. So that we have ordinary prayer,
ordinary faith and ordinary results in the one case, while in the
other, we have extraordinary prayer, extraordinary faith and
extraordinary results. Praise the Lord.
Jude tells us that as Christian believers we are to "hate even the
garment spotted by the flesh," that is, to keep entirely clear of all
the pollutions of sin, symbolized by the garment of the leper which was
regarded as unclean, and which passage, when spiritually interpreted,
must mean the unspotted holiness of the true Christian. And as to the
question of one's ability to live without sin, he commits us to the
care of Him who is "able to keep us from falling," the very thing we
need and which we cannot do for ourselves, and "to present us faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." First, then, we
are to be sanctified wholly, then kept from falling by the power of
Christ through the indwelling Spirit. Finally, presented without spot,
blameless and faultless in the presence of God's glory in heaven. And
this is the gospel according to Jude.
CHAPTER XI.
SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE FATHER.
There is one expression in the epistle of Jude, which I purposely
omitted in the preceding chapter, that it might have a more prominent
place in the present one.
Nowhere else in the Bible are we expressly declared to be "sanctified
by God the Father." It is cause of rejoicing, however, that every
person of the Godhead, every member of the adorable Trinity, is
concerned in the sanctification of a human soul. And this fact, like
many others, points to the extreme importance of the subject on which
we are treating; for if the working of God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit is required, and is brought into active operation
in order to cleanse our hearts from the pollution of sin, and fit us
for heaven, then it must be in the estimation of the triune God, a
matter of prime necessity that we should be thus cleansed. If God,
therefore, regards it as an essential that we be sanctified wholly, let
us beware of the thought that it is only optional, that it is possible,
if possible at all, only for the few and not for the many, and that it
can be done without, or what is practically too nearly the same thing,
postponed until we see, or think we see, the near approach of death.
What every person of the Godhead is urging upon our acceptance now,
let us not dare either to reject or postpone. "Behold, now is the
accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
Paul said to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, "And now, brethren, I
commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to
build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified."
Ah, beloved reader, we can never estimate the debt we owe to the
unbounded grace of God. Grace means unmerited favor. Grace is God's
infinite love in active working for the salvation of man. And, the
source of our sanctification, just as of our justification, and indeed
of every gospel blessing provided for us, is the grace of God. And when
our souls are stirred up to ecstatic gratitude and love, by the thought
of the "unspeakable gift" of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the
unspeakable blessings derived from and through Him, let us not forget
that behind it all and over it all, is the broad and incomprehensible
declaration, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son."
Absolute sovereignty, authority, supremacy and paternity belong to God
the Father. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the
Holy Spirit. Neither the Son nor the Spirit, nor both together, ever
send the Father. The Father "created all things by Jesus Christ." Jesus
Christ cast out devils "by the Spirit of God." The Son reveals the
Father, for "no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." And the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus,
for "no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." "He
shall testify of Me." "He shall take of Mine and show it unto you." "He
shall not speak of Himself; but what He shall hear" (from the Father
and the Son) "that shall He speak."
Thus the greatest gift that God the Father has given or could give to
His creature man is the gift of His Son. The greatest gift that God the
Son has given to man after He gave Himself for us is the gift of the
Holy Ghost, for it is not only said, "I will pray the Father and He
shall give you another Comforter," and "whom the Father will send in My
name," but also, "If I depart I will send Him unto you," so we may say
in general terms, that the Holy Ghost as a personal sanctifier,
energizer and Comforter, is the promise of the Father and the gift of
the Son. And it may be added that the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit
to man is the gift of entire sanctification or perfect love. Glory be
to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And thus when Jude tells us that we are sanctified by God the Father,
He means not only that we are separated unto the gospel of life and
salvation, set apart to God and His service, but, also, that God 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 gratitude to the redeemed soul,
that the source of all these unspeakable blessings is in the infinite
grace and love of God.
Everywhere throughout the Old Testament, the holiness of God 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 God 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
God'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 God the Father.
CHAPTER XII.
SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE SON.
As the source of our entire sanctification is in the unmerited love and
grace of God 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, God'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 God. 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 God. 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 God 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 GOD 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 God is one Trinitarianism is not
Tritheism. In essence one, in personality three, such is the revelation
of Holy Scripture in regard to the eternal Godhead. The Bible reveals
the fact, but does not reveal the how. We bow in adoring gratitude 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 Titus in direct connection
with the "washing 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 washing, 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 God 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 God 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 God, they were sanctified by the Holy Ghost.
The same apostle says to the Thessalonians, "We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God 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 circumcision uses language very similar in
addressing the Jewish Christians who are scattered abroad, and whom he
addresses as "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God 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. God 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 God'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 God 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 lust." 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 God. 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 God even your sanctification," or, "The very
God of peace sanctify you wholly," or, "I will circumcise 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 God, 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 passages containing it, he will be convinced
that, however men may look at it, we have to do with the Lord God 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 God, 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 God 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 shield 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
God 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 God said, and "Ye shall not surely die." First, a question.
Then, a doubt of God'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.
God could not be God if He did not have faith in Himself. Man could not
be the child of God if he did not have faith in God. 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 God.
"Ye are all the children of God 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 God 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 God, even to them that believe on
His name." So that it is through faith that we become the children of
God, 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 God
abideth on him." Now, the faith-faculty, or the grace of faith, or the
power of believing God'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 coöperation of the human will. And,
therefore, God 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. Nobody can tell what it is, nobody
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 space 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. Nobody 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 God, 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.
Paul in his valedictory to the Ephesian elders said to them, "And now,
brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is
able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all them which
are sanctified," and in the commission to Paul himself the Saviour
says, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and
from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of
sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is
in me." And as mentioned elsewhere, sanctification of the Spirit is
used by the apostle in direct connection with belief of the truth.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the instrumental means of entire
sanctification is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "This is the
confidence," says the beloved John, "that we have in Him, that if we
ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that
He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him."
Let the consecrated believer, then, ask for a clean heart, ask for
perfect love, ask for entire sanctification, ask for the baptism with
the Holy Ghost, and he knows he is asking according to the will of God.
Then, according to John, he knows that he is heard, and knows also by
faith, because it is God's promise that he has the petitions he desired
of Him. That is to say, when he thus prays, he is to put forth the act
of faith, by an actual volition and will to believe that he has the
clean heart, the perfect love, the entire sanctification, the Holy
Ghost baptism, which he asked for. And this will be honoring God by
taking Him at His word. It will be the first evidence that he is
sanctified wholly, the evidence of faith, and the other evidence, the
witness of the Spirit may be prayed for and waited for, but, in the
meantime, he can and must rely with unwavering confidence upon the
evidence or witness of faith alone. God never sends the witness of the
Spirit till we honor Him by accepting the witness of faith.
I said we must believe by an act of the will. And some reader may
object to this statement by asserting that faith or belief is not a
matter of volition, but a matter of evidence. But I am not asking any
one to believe without evidence. I am asking him simply to give its
rightful force to the evidence. It is not for want of evidence that any
earnest, consecrated seeker is failing to believe that Christ is able
and willing to sanctify him wholly, and to do it now. He asserts it in
many forms and repeats it again and again as His Divine will that His
people should be holy, and if He is not able to make them holy here and
now, His omnipotence is impugned, and if He is not willing to make them
holy here and now, He must desire them to continue longer in sin, which
thought would impugn His own holiness.
No, it is not for want of evidence, but because the faith-faculty has
become weakened and paralyzed by sin, and now we must determine to
believe, by putting our will on to the side of faith, and allowing it,
no longer, to remain on the side of unbelief. Many a seeking soul has
come out into the fullness of salvation by singing the hymn:
"I can, I will, I do believe
That Jesus saves me now."
The man who came to Jesus with his right hand withered, was told to
stretch it forth. He might have said where is my evidence that it will
do any good to try? But he put his will into the obedient attitude. He
willed to stretch it forth, and made the effort, and with the obedient
will the power came from Jesus, and he stretched it forth and was
restored. To every one of weak and paralyzed faith, I say, nay, Jesus
says, "Stretch forth thy hand of faith, I am here to be responsible
for the result." Believe and receive and confess and rejoice. Beloved,
we are sanctified by faith. Glory to the Lamb.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONCLUSION.
I trust it has been sufficiently demonstrated that the doctrine and
experience of entire sanctification are fully and clearly taught in
Holy Scripture. All the way from the patriarchs to the apostles in the
law, in the types, in the Psalms, in the prophets, in the history, in
the gospels, in the epistles, we find that God requires His people to
be holy and to be holy now, that He makes it, therefore, their
privilege to be holy, and that He has made ample provision, in the
sacrificial offering of Christ, for them to be made holy.
"For their sakes," says the blessed Saviour, "I sanctify Myself that
they also might be sanctified through the truth," or as the margin,
"truly sanctified," or as the Revised Version, "that they themselves
also may be sanctified in truth." The Lord Jesus Christ most assuredly
did not need to be made holy, but all His redeemed children being
subjects of inbred sin do need it. As for Him, He was the "holy thing"
that was to be born of the Virgin Mary. "He knew no sin," He "did no
sin," He was "holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners,"
and, therefore, when He says "I sanctify Myself," He means nothing more
nor less than I consecrate Myself, or I set Myself apart, but in the
other clause where the term sanctify is used in reference to His
people, it must mean that they may be cleansed from all sin entirely
sanctified, made holy or pure in heart. He sets Himself apart,
therefore, to the work of redemption and salvation that He may have a
holy people on earth, as without controversy He must and will have a
holy people in heaven.
We have shown that entire sanctification is coetaneous with the baptism
with the Holy Ghost, in fact, that the two experiences are in an
important sense identical, or, at least, so related to each other that
whoever has one has the other. It is Christ and none other who baptizes
with the Holy. Ghost. "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and
fire," not as some imagine, I think erroneously, that there are to be
two baptisms, first that of the Holy Ghost, and afterwards that of fire
in the way of affliction or persecution, though plenty of these are
promised and experienced by those who would live godly in Christ
Jesus, but simply that He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost under
the similitude of fire, that is, that dross and tin and reprobate
silver, or, in a word, all inbred sin may be consumed.
Nor is it correct to say that there are "many baptisms" of the Spirit.
The Holy Ghost baptism is received by the consecrated believer once
for all, and is never repeated unless by unfaithfulness or backsliding
he falls from the precious grace which this baptism confers upon him,
from Christ through the Spirit, and again comes in repentance and
confession to do his first works, and again to be filled with the
Spirit and cleansed from all sin. And even in that case the Holy Ghost
seldom or never repeats Himself, by giving the same emotional
experience as at first, but may and must be received and retained by
faith, and the amount of feeling and the kind of feeling which He will
arouse must be left to Himself entirely, I mean to say that the
experience may be lost and may be regained, but seldom with the same
phenomena of consciousness as at the first. Do not speak, then, of
having had many baptisms of the Spirit, but seek and find the one
baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire. Do not say that you are desiring
or that you have had a fresh baptism with the Holy Ghost, but let your
thoughts and prayers be directed to the one baptism which cleanseth
and endueth and anointeth.
But I would not be misunderstood on this point. The Psalmist says, "I
shall be anointed with fresh oil," and to every sanctified child of
God, there may and do come seasons of refreshing, also of girding and
filling, and fresh anointing for particular services, which are
sometimes called fresh baptisms, but which are not to be confounded
with the one true abiding Pentecostal experience. These blessings are
not to be undervalued or lightly esteemed, but they come because we
already have the Blesser Himself as a personal indwelling Presence and
Power.
Many teachers of holiness inculcate the doctrine that we are first
sanctified by the blood of Jesus, and afterwards filled or baptized
with the Holy Ghost. This opinion would necessitate three separate
experiences, where, I think, the Scripture only speaks of two. We
should have (1) pardon, (2) entire sanctification by the blood, and (3)
the filling of the Spirit. There would thus be a separation between the
removing of inbred sin from the heart, and the baptism with the Holy
Ghost. This baptism would, then, be only a qualification for service.
It is regarded by these teachers, as only given for an enduement of
power, to do the work to which we are called. And the practical result
of this error, for such with due deference I must regard it, is that
some will be very anxious to obtain the baptism with the Holy Ghost to
make them strong or powerful in their work, but will ignore, or even
deny, the doctrine of entire sanctification. Dr. S. A. Keen tells us of
a minister who wrote to him that he did not take much stock in
sanctification, but that he was very desirous of the Holy Ghost
baptism, in order that he might have increased power in the ministry of
the word. And, indeed, this seems to be a very prevalent idea, that we
are to be baptized for service, but not for cleansing.
I trust that no reader who has followed me through the different
chapters of this book will imagine, for a moment, that I under-value,
in the slightest degree, the precious blood of Christ, nor do I forget
that it is that blood which, as we walk in the light, cleanseth us from
all sin. I think I have sufficiently stated elsewhere that the blood of
Jesus is the procuring cause of our sanctification, as well as of our
justification, and that we are forever dependent upon the atonement
for the one blessing as well as the other. The blood of the Son of God
is the ground of our sanctification, but it is the Holy Spirit who is
the effective agent in destroying the depravity of our hearts.
It is true that our Saviour received the Holy Ghost, and that God
anointed Him for the great work of redemption. And in His case, the
word used is anointed or descended, and not in any place baptized. He
needed not the work of entire sanctification, and, therefore, He is not
said to have been baptized with the Holy Ghost. As a man, He did need
the energizing for His work, and, therefore, He is said to have been
anointed. Beloved, let us not separate what God has joined together.
The entire sanctification of the heart and the Holy Ghost baptism are
coetaneous experiences, and must not be divorced.
And now, beloved reader, I have accomplished my task. I have shown that
like a golden thread the doctrine of entire sanctification runs through
the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It is found in patriarchal
times, it is in the law and the prophets, the types and the ceremonies,
the gospels and epistles, everywhere showing us that we have to do with
a Holy God, and that we as His children are required to be holy men
and women.
To all who shall read this book, I testify that by the grace of God,
and the blood of Christ, and the sin-consuming baptism with the Holy
Ghost, this poor man, the chief of sinners, is saved to the uttermost.
Glory to His name.
And to you, my readers, I bid farewell, and say, May He "make you
perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." Amen.
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