Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

elief of the truth." Peter tells those to whom he writes that they were "elect" -- saved -- "through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience" -- enabling them to obey. "The God of peace, himself,
sanctify you wholly." says Paul again. Here the work that God does, instead of being regarded as
"incidental to the main fact," is made much more prominent than what man does in separation and
consecration, the former fitting him for the service or "obedience" to which he devotes himself in
the latter just as all admit that the new birth is far more important than the acts which condition it.
So in Romans xii. 1, 2, where the work or process of ceremonial sanctification under the old
dispensation is referred to and applied to us now, the three things in this work are clearly set forth.
(1) Man's separation from, or his not being "conformed to, this world." (2) His consecration to God's
service and being thus made "holy" or sacred unto him: "Present your bodies" -- yourselves -- "a
living sacrifice" -- become "holy, acceptable unto him." (3) Spiritual transformation that fits one for
doing God's will: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove," or know
and do, God's "good and acceptable and perfect will." The separation and consecration are made with
reference and in order to the much more important resulting work of transformation, renewal,
cleansing, and empowering that fit him for obedience to God's will -- the service to which he
consecrates himself in sanctification.
The consecration of the temple, type of the human temple, was followed by the fire that consumed
the offering made in connection with it, and by the temple's being filled with the glory of the Lord.
The burning and the filling, the work of God, seem much more important than the words of
consecration used by Solomon or even the act of giving or consecrating it by the people. The latter
would have been worthless without the former. These were doubtless symbols of the baptism of fire
and the filling of the human temple with the Holy Ghost at our complete consecration to God and
full faith his Son, as at Pentecost and afterwards.
Paul's wonderful prayer in Ephesians iii. 14-19 referred to the sanctification of the individual or
Church as Solomon's did to that of the temple. One of the figures used in that prayer is believed to
have come from the temple, and the principal things referred to in it are what God does for the
individual through Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is our being "strengthened with might by the Spirit
in the inner man," our "experiencing" the wonderful love of Christ through his being enthroned and
"dwelling" in our hearts, and our being "filled with all the fullness of God." Our separation and
consecration are assumed, and special attention is called to these important results of those acts and
of faith, as the chief things in our sanctification -- something which follows, rather than "antedates,
regeneration," and which may be "experienced" by the "inner man."
We might cite the lesson of Pentecost, but as the full significance and meaning of that wonderful
manifestation of sanctifying power is in dispute, we will defer consideration of its lessons to another
chapter.
It would be easy to show that the Fathers of Methodism and her leading authors -- from Wesley,
whom one of these writers calls "the greatest man who ever spoke the English language," down to
Dr. Summers, who, another of them says, is "the greatest theologian of Southern Methodism" -- all
hold the view of sanctification presented above, in opposition to that of the writers referred to. So
does Dr. Mudge and all the best writers on that side. Professor Joseph Agar Beet, D.D., the