2. The Meaning of Sanctification - Enter His Rest

earnest effort is enjoined. The word labor in Greek is radically the same as haste in
Joshua 4:10. “And the people hasted [aor.] and passed over.”
Heb. 13:12: “That he might sanctify [aor.] the people suffered [aor.] without the gate.” I
Pet. 1:15: “So become you [aor., by an all-surrendering act of faith] holy in all manner of
conduct.” Verse 16 (according to the received text): “Become ye [aor.] instantaneously
holy, for I am holy.” The aorist in these verses indicates a transition from sin to holiness,
and not a progress.
I Pet. 3:15: “Sanctify [aor.] the Lord Christ in your hearts.” Says Wiesinger, endorsed by
Alford: “The addition of ‘in your hearts’ is added to the Old Testament quotation, to
bring out that the sanctification must be perfected in the inner parts of a man, and so keep
him from false fear.” “Care only for this, that your heart may be a temple of Christ; then
nothing will disturb you.” This implies that there is a time when he becomes completely
enthroned in the heart. Hence the precision of the aorist: Sanctify once for all a place for
the Lord Christ, or Christ as Lord, in your hearts. See the critical reading of Christ for
God. Verses 15-16 show the results in this life.
I Pet. 5:7: We copy Alford’s note: “CASTING [aor., once for all, by an act which
includes the life] ALL YOUR anxiety [’the whole of,’ not every anxiety as it arises, for
none will arise if this transference has been effectually made] UPON HIM.” The
parentheses are Alford’s.
II Pet. 1:19: We have the highest authority for reading this without a parenthesis, which
some put in, obscuring the sense. No passage of Scripture more strikingly describes the
writer’s Christian experience, first of painful doubt and then of cloudless assurance; first
a spasmodic clinging of the intellect to the external evidences of miracle and prophecy,
and then the sunrise — Christ manifested, the daystar in his heart. There are in this verse
four verbs in the present tense, have, do, take, shineth, representing the alternation of
light and darkness in early Christian experience. The lamp feebly glimmers in a gloomy,
or, literally, dirty place, giving just light enough to see impurities, but not fire enough to
consume them. In this twilight state doubts harass the soul, and there is an intense
wishing and watching for the day's dawning and the rising sun. To the patient waiter there
is at last a tropical sunrise. The darkness flees, the filthy place is cleansed.
But how is this shown in the Greek text? Note the two aorist verbs dawn and arise,
“putting an end,” says Alford, “to the state indicated by the present participles above.”
What this daystar is Grotius, De Wette, and Huther best explain, who think that some
state in the readers themselves is pointed at, which is to supervene upon a less perfect
state. Says Huther: “The writer distinguishes between two degrees of Christian life; in the
first, faith rests upon outward evidences; in the second, on inward revelations of the
Spirit; in the first, each detail is believed separately as such; in the second, each is
recognized as a necessary part of the whole. And hence, being in the former is naturally
called a walking in a dismal, dirty place, in the light of a lamp or candle, while the being
in the latter is a walking in the morning.” Alford adds: “This latter I believe to be nearly
the true account.” Let us see what is taught here: (1) Two states of spiritual life,
symbolized by lamplight and sunlight. (2) The aorist tense marks a sharply defined
emergence from the first to the second, by the glorious King of day arising in the heart.
This we believe to be a correct exegesis of this highly figurative and beautiful text. It
accords with the experience of all who have entered into the definite experience of perfect
love.
II Pet. 2:20: “After they escaped [aor.] the pollutions of the world through the full
knowledge [epignosis] of the Lord,” etc. Verse 22: “The sow that was washed” [aor.].
Heb. 10:2: “Once purged [perfect], a cleansing once for all and permanent.” Such have no