2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

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INBRED SIN AS A ROOT In the past a great deal of ridicule has been poured upon the efforts of the pioneers to describe the carnal nature as the root of the tree whose branches become developed habits of sin and whose evil fruit is likened to transgression and the results of a sinful life. In a previous passage I have attempted to give a modern estimate of the meaning of inbred sin. Nevertheless, long contemplation of the subject fails to shake my opinion that the figure of a tree, whose roots are carnality and whose fruits are transgression, is still a valid parable of this evil element in the human life. It is true that Dr. W. E. Sangster, in his recent book, "The Path to Perfection", mildly censures the idea of eradicating sin, or of thinking of sin as “a thing.” He condemns the idea that sin can exist in the heart like a cancer or a rotten tooth. However, we are only using figurative language when we speak of the “root of bitterness” (Heb. 12:15). If we were debating with physical scientists, who think of “things” as being physical substance like rocks, stones, trees, etc., we might have as great a debate over whether the soul itself is a “thing” as whether the nature of sin is a “thing.” Viewed from the physical standpoint, a transgression that pollutes human nature is not a “thing,” but a relationship to God. That, of course, is true. Nevertheless, throughout the Bible writers describe this condition as filth and pollution, from which we are washed by the blood of Christ. (Just what is dirt? It is merely soil -but out of place!) Just what shall we call that instinctive pattern of evil laid down in the very constitution of human nature, corrupting the life of all human society everywhere. It is a tendency toward sin, just as there is a tendency in a straightened wire spring to return to its former condition. Strictly speaking we know that this tendency in the spring to coil is not a thing in the spring. Nevertheless, it is a pattern in the spring, and it represents a certain conformation of the materials of the spring. Those materials lack the inner pattern of arrangement that makes them tend to lie straight. They possess a bent which makes them curve. INBRED SIN AND DIVINE JUSTICE Perhaps the weightiest objection in popular belief to the doctrine of inbred sin is that it would be unjust for God to allow children to be born into the world handicapped by an inherited nature of sin at the moment when they are as innocent as lambs. The answer to this is that in the Arminian view of inbred sin, it is first of all the lack of something; it is the lack of the image of God, and inherited sin is the inheritance of the poverty of Adam and the poverty of the race. A man with ten million dollars may through poor management lose it all and his child will inherit his poverty. In logical language we might say that the child did not inherit anything, but to the child his inheritance will seem a very positive evil. This question as to whether sin is something, like a cancer, or whether it is nothing, like blindness, being, as it is, the absence of something, has puzzled theologians for ages. Undoubtedly it is easier to understand the doctrine of inbred sin as being a reasonable consequence of Adam’s transgression if we think of it as the loss of something — just as blindness is not the addition of something, but the loss of something, i.e., the loss of sight. Inbred sin is the loss of the image of God. Experience shows us that such poverty and such negative consequences of a parent’s sin do fall upon children all over the world and in all times; and it is a waste of words to say that it is not just, for it is obviously a part of the nature of the universe. We do not mean there is nothing positive in the nature of inbred sin. We regard the positive evil of inbred sin to be corruption arising from a lack of the image of God. We
might illustrate it in this way: A person lacks adequate calcium in his bones. On account of this lack the weight of his body makes his leg bones bend until they are badly deformed. The deformity illustrates the corruption of man’s nature arising from the defect due to the lack of the image of God. Blindness is certainly a positive evil, and yet it arises from the lack of sight. That usually comes from a defect in the eye itself. Another objection is: How can there be any distinction between regeneration and entire sanctification? The answer is that in regeneration all the sins of the individual are forgiven, the corruption of his nature arising from his own misbehavior is removed, but the inherited depravity, or bent of his nature, is not removed. There is still a lack of the perfect image of God. This lack is compensated in the heart of the Christian by the supernatural grace of God, but it is not completely made up until he is entirely sanctified and his heart is purified by faith. Another objection is of a self-contradictory nature. People who do not believe in inbred sin and those who believe it is all removed in conversion or by baptism or by confirmation, nevertheless pour their ridicule on those who believe it is removed by faith through entering His rest and the atoning work of Christ. Infidels, atheists, and liberal Christians have no right to ridicule this cleansing, because they all teach that people are not born with a sinful nature; and if that is true, then our claim to be free from that nature is — or ought to be considered perfectly reasonable by them. This is no more than they claim for themselves. Members of the old ritualistic churches should not ridicule us for professing this experience; for they themselves profess to have received it in baptism or in confirmation. Christians who believe that we are sanctified only at death should find no fault with those who claim to have received that experience earlier in life. RESULTS OF THE REMOVAL OF INBRED SIN Harm has been done by leading young converts to expect emotional and ecstatic experiences which may not be realized. In estimating the meaning of deliverance from inbred sin it is important to remember that this does not mean a deliverance from human nature itself as God first gave it to man. A study of biology reveals the fact that the very existence of man’s life is dependent upon a few very positive urges. We might liken these to the cylinders in an automobile engine. The most important of these urges are (1) hunger for food, (2) a desire for human fellowship, (3) the sex urge, (4) escape from pain, (5) the urge to self-fulfillment — achievement, (6) self-preservation. If you have seen a different way of arranging or naming these urges it is immaterial; for uniformity is not essential here. These are the general principles and, for the most part, all sin in a person’s life takes place through the abuse and misuse of these urges. This fact is so certain that it has led many Christians to identify these urges with the nature of sin itself. Consequently, they suppose that deliverance from the nature of sin means deliverance from these urges. Now it is obvious that deliverances from these urges would end any person’s life unless he were confined in an institution under expert, professional care. Therefore it is important to remember that deliverance from inbred sin cannot possibly mean destruction of these instincts by which human life is maintained and made vigorous. A destruction of carnality can be nothing other than the cleansing of these urges from the fever of sin, so that they will be more amenable to the control of the Christian conscience and will. It is well also to remember that even the experience of entire sanctification is the endowment of a vast spiritual potentiality which will be realized in each given individual only in part, and quite largely in proportion to his light and his spiritual sensitivity. This is a fact of the Christian life which multitudes of Christians ought to know. It is natural for
Page 1 and 2: THE MEANING OF SANCTIFICATION By Ch
Page 3 and 4: man is slain, another man is drowne
Page 5 and 6: most, if not all, specific instance
Page 7 and 8: views, because nearly every Christi
Page 9 and 10: transformed into the image of Chris
Page 11 and 12: conceivable methods of obtaining th
Page 13 and 14: an obscure feature of rock formatio
Page 15 and 16: Stanley Jones is an outstanding exa
Page 17 and 18: Christ. It is heaven begun here on
Page 19 and 20: sin: “We believe, also, that this
Page 21 and 22: which fully purifies the heart from
Page 23 and 24: state, which would make all of its
Page 25 and 26: Kepler ecstatically as he worked ou
Page 27 and 28: Here it could be said that it is no
Page 29 and 30: a perverted tendency to man’s wil
Page 31 and 32: northern latitudes and never saw an
Page 33: process as follows: METAPHORICAL EX
Page 37 and 38: times, from the dawn of their exist
Page 39 and 40: thy seed, and my blessing upon thin
Page 41 and 42: While it is correct that the instin
Page 43 and 44: FEATURES OF THE VICTORIOUS LIFE Hav
Page 45 and 46: ecause a few of them stand in a per
Page 47 and 48: shalt break his neck: and all the f
Page 49 and 50: "Holiness is the glorious fullness
Page 51 and 52: which Wesleyan theologians call inb
Page 53 and 54: in order to give each its proper tr
Page 55 and 56: eing manifested in one respect by a
Page 57 and 58: consecration. He needs to tarry in
Page 59 and 60: undoubtedly the deepest saint would
Page 61 and 62: itemized form the solemn covenant t
Page 63 and 64: thine be done. [53] The famous Bapt
Page 65 and 66: make it eternal. No experimenting w
Page 67 and 68: 25 as pertaining to the time of Chr
Page 69 and 70: Ghost at their Baptism.” [60] Thi
Page 71 and 72: sinner.” The conditions of pardon
Page 73 and 74: est.” Other instances of the aori
Page 75 and 76: especially horrified at an instanta
Page 77 and 78: fullness of the Spirit? If gradual
Page 79 and 80: earnest effort is enjoined. The wor
Page 81 and 82: completed whole. See Alford on II T

2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

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