Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

4. St. John teaches the same lesson when he calls young converts "little children," older Christians
"young men" and maturer ones "fathers." The distinguishing characteristic of the "young men" was
that they were "strong" and, in that strength, had "overcome the wicked one." That of the "little
children" was that they had had their "sins forgiven" them -- were converted -- but had not been
made "strong," and had not, in the same sense, "overcome the wicked one." They were weak and
unestablished, and were more liable to yield to the power of Satan. That of the "fathers" was that they
had "known him that is from the beginning" -- had, after being baptized or strengthened by the Spirit,
grown richer in the knowledge of Christ and His salvation.
5. That had been the teaching of their Lord before they wrote their epistles. His regenerate
disciples were to "tarry at Jerusalem," to be "indued with power" or strength "from on high," by
having the whole Godhead take full possession of them. It was not until they had been thus filled
with the Spirit -- the Trinity -- that they were completely saved from moral weakness, spiritual
depravity, and that perfect harmony was restored to man's disordered nature, and he was brought into
full communion and fellowship with his offended God. It is the work of sanctification to secure this
complete restoration -- to bring the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, back to man's enervated and polluted
nature, securing purity and the "power" to keep pure. It is when God, especially in the person of the
Spirit, takes the place in man's nature that he occupied before the fall that this complete work is
done.
The following passage from Professor Beet is in harmony with this view. He says:
"The Spirit of Christ is the agent of the spiritual contact with Christ which imparts to us His
presence and reproduces in us His life. As we have seen, every impulse of the Spirit is toward God,
and he is given to us that He may fill our hearts, become soul of our soul, and lead out toward God
our thoughts, purposes, words, and actions. And he is the bearer of the power as well as the holiness
of Christ. By His omnipotence the Spirit of God rolls back and completely neutralizes the evil forces
within us, so that they no longer defile us, and in spite of these bears upward our entire being in
absolute devotion to God."
Hence we half agree with Dr. Mudge in the following: "Instead of 'cleansing,' then, we would
suggest that of 'empowering' as a much better term to use, and one less liable to mislead, for the
effect of God's incoming to the heart of man." For the "empowering" of the soul by the Spirit, as at
Pentecost, involves its "cleansing" from the defilement resulting from past weakness, and such a
daily infusion of "strength" as enables it to keep clean.
As more or less clearly showing the difference between regeneration and sanctification, we give
the following illustration, the use of which, we think, is justified by our Lord's teaching in the parable
of the sower:
As a plat of ground, the heart is overgrown with the thorns and briers of sin. In justification this
growth is removed, leaving the roots of these thorns and briers in the soil. In regeneration good seed
is sown in the heart from which immediately springs the plant of faith bearing the fruit of love, joy,
and peace. At the same time, or very soon thereafter, "shoots" from these thorn and brier roots spring
up, and tend to "choke" the plant of faith. In sanctification these roots -- "the remains of the carnal