2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

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God in some special sense. The priests of the sanctuary belonged to God — they were holy. But if even an unclean animal was unworthy of sacrifice on God’s altar because of its uncleanness, it is far more apparent that a man or a people who belong to God must be like him in moral character. Before tracing the moral nature of holiness it is important to note that use of the word holy in a ceremonial sense extends to the New Testament itself. Jesus said that the temple sanctifies the gold (Matt. 23:17). This is, of course, a ceremonial use of the word, as no moral purity can be attached to gold. The saints at Corinth, both Jews and Gentiles, were thoroughly familiar with the idea that the Gentiles were unclean — ceremonially defiled — to the Jews. There the question arose: Should a Christian husband or wife live with an unclean, unbelieving, heathen companion? The Apostle Paul says yes; in Judaism the unclean thing defiled the clean, but in this case the unbelieving husband or wife is sanctified by the believing companion, “else were your children unclean; but now are they holy” (I Cor. 7:12-14). The unbelieving partner is ceremonially cleansed from his heathen defilement, and his part-heathen child also is not partaker of the heathen defilement. Both are ceremonially clean and not repugnant to the true Israel of God. Of course, the Apostle is not preaching infant baptism, because, if the child of the heathen by being made ceremonially holy in this way was fit for baptism, by the same reasoning the unbelieving partner would also be fit for baptism; -and this no theologian has ever maintained. JUSTIFIED CHRISTIANS CEREMONIALLY HOLY It will solve one of the biggest problems in the doctrine of sanctification if we clearly see the point that this same idea of ceremonial holiness was applied to all Christians from the moment of their conversion. “As such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I Cor. 6:11). This text has baffled holiness preachers for many generations; for the term sanctified is applied even before that of justification, and if a person is sanctified before he is justified critics are certainly warranted in questioning as to how he can be sanctified as a second work of grace after justification. The answer is very simple when we remember that all Christians are sanctified in the ceremonial sense that ancient Israel was a holy people. But in the same epistle the Apostle Paul pointed out the carnality in the hearts of these sanctified people, which proved that their sanctification was only formal and ceremonial and was by no means an entire sanctification of the nature in the complete enduement of moral purity. THE HOLINESS OF GOD Regarded from a historical standpoint, it is evident that the first conception which the people of Israel would form of the holiness of God would be that of the supreme power which lays claim to a man’s possession, and later they understood that he lays claim to the man himself. At the beginning, God’s holiness was interpreted to mean his possessiveness; throughout long ages of time the idea was gradually revealed that the man whom God owned and controlled ought to be inwardly, morally, like God. But what was God like? Revelations of the moral quality of God’s holiness undoubtedly came slowly, like the rising of the winter’s sun; little by little the light stole into the hearts of men, revealing that the holiness of God is his supreme moral excellence. It is the perfect balance of a supreme excellence of all moral attributes, conceived not as a mere transitory whim but as an eternal faithfulness — a granite character of unchanging, moral perfection which, viewed from the standpoint of our world, projects itself as unchangeable and immovable will into all the future relations of God to his creatures. Dr. William Newton Clarke has defined it is follows:
"Holiness is the glorious fullness of God’s moral excellence, held as the principle of his own action and the standard for his creatures..." Thus holiness is not God’s character alone, or God’s self-consistency alone, or God’s requirement alone. It is all three. It is his character consistently acted out by himself and unalterably insisted upon with us men. [42] HOLINESS IN HUMAN NATURE We do not doubt that the moral image of God restored to the soul of a Christian endows that person with a finite and limited image, or copy, of the divine perfections in their moral aspects. But here it is important to realize that we are viewing the reflection of an infinite sun as it is seen in the finite, imperfect, or incomplete, in the weak and fallible mirror of human nature. Viewed in this imperfect mirror, what is the form holiness takes? Now we are at the point where most of the mistakes regarding Christian perfection have arisen. If we think of a reflection of a perfect image of God, free from all distortions of ignorance, narrowness of mind, feebleness of reason, limitations of social customs and conditioning we shall form a false definition of holiness in human nature; for we shall expect the reproduction of the very being of the infinite God within finite humanity, instead of a reproduction of his image. We shall be attempting to define human nature as free from human limitations and superior to human finiteness. All of this is futile, and this is perhaps the point where Christian perfection has been most liable to misconception and abuse. PERFECT LOVE In his recent scholarly work on Christian perfection, Dr. W. E. Sangster emphasizes the inappropriateness of the term “Christian perfection.” He thinks that the use of this term by the Wesleys was extremely unfortunate and that the expression “perfect love” would have been better from every standpoint. It would have been more scriptural, more philosophical, and likewise more acceptable to the general public. It would have relieved the doctrine of an unnecessary load of ridicule and misconception. Elsewhere, it has been pointed out that love is the fulfilling of the law. [43] And I feel constrained to describe the form which holiness takes in the Christian as being expressed by perfect love. In this conception we are not dealing with Pharisaical conceptions of law and the philosophic tricks of moral casuistry. We drive the drill of reason and conscience through all the hard rocks of legalism into the pool of rich oil which lies in the heart of undivided love and devotion to God as revealed in Christ. In this region we come into harmony with the popular thought and conscience of the whole world. Everywhere men really believe that “love is the fulfilling of the law;” and wherever it can be shown that man has acted with loyal and devoted sympathy and inward, personal attachment to the purposes of the law, all juries and all courts everywhere incline to be satisfied with the defense. The Scriptures teach that such an attitude satisfies God. THE MEANING OF LOVE Love to God by no means signifies sentimental attachment to certain ritual, dogma, theories, or outward religion in and of themselves; it is love for God as a person as revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Such love inspires the intellect with appreciation of, and devotion to, the principles of the
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 and 34: process as follows: METAPHORICAL EX
Page 35 and 36: might illustrate it in this way: A
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: shalt break his neck: and all the f
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
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Page 77 and 78: fullness of the Spirit? If gradual
Page 79 and 80: earnest effort is enjoined. The wor
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2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

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