Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

This view is sustained by the general teaching of the Bible as to God's design in and method of
revelation to our race under all dispensations. That method is to make a revelation of both law and
gospel, of both justice and grace; and that design, in every such revelation, is not to "condemn" but
to "save" men. In His first revelation after the fall, the gospel assurance that "it shall bruise thy head"
came before the statement of the law of toil and suffering under which man should in the future live.
So, later on, in unfolding to Abraham and Jacob this primal promise, God preached the gospel to
them before the formal law was given through Moses; and after that law was enacted, a still fuller
revelation of the gospel of atonement and grace was made in the Levitical services that pointed to
Christ. And all along through the prophetic ages the stream of gospel light flowed on "pari passu"
with that of law, until at Pentecost they became coincident and confluent in man's experience and
life, the great law and gospel of love being written upon the fleshly tables of His heart through the
full gift of the Holy Ghost.
On no other theory can we defend the divine administration in heathen lands. If the light which
God gives them through tradition, nature, and the Spirit contains no gospel -- proves only a condition
of responsibility and guilt, and not one of salvation -- then it is an unmitigated curse rather than a
gracious blessing. It is designed and adapted to ensnare their feet and drag them to death, rather than
to direct their footsteps and help them to life.
And the writings of the heathen, as well as intelligent observation among them, tend to confirm
this view. A learned critic in his note on Romans ii. 15 well says:
"All the writings of the ancient pagans show most decisively, that, notwithstanding the great
prevalence of practical iniquity, there was a clear and universal understanding among them of the
great distinctions between right and wrong. The vices and crimes enumerated by the apostle though
every where practiced, were still everywhere understood to be vices and crimes. As such, they were
denounced by the philosophers, satirized by the poets, and forbidden by the laws; and thus there is
abundant evidence that when the people committed such iniquity themselves, or encouraged it in
others, they did or encouraged what they distinctly and certainly knew to be wrong."
And this knowledge between right and wrong is designed to save rather than to damn them. It is
designed and adapted to have them, in a less degree, it may be, than did Job and Cornelius, "fear God
and work righteousness" up to the measure of light and grace -- the word and Spirit imparted to
them, and thus find acceptance with him. This is the type of piety under the dispensation of the
Father in all ages and in all parts of the world. [2]
2. It is believed that the leading characteristic of the piety and religious experience under the
dispensation of the Son was and is, that to the fear and obedience developed under that of the Father
is added a greater or smaller measure of peace -- peace that tones down, modifies, and relieves that
fear -- peace that may be often mixed with that fear, as well as with some measure of love and joy.
The most prominent doctrine of that dispensation was the mediation of Jesus Christ, in which the
gentler and more merciful side of the divine character was presented. It was the doctrine of a
Redeemer set forth in type, animal sacrifice, and prophecy, as the Reconciler, in which the placability
of God was exhibited. This doctrine was specially emphasize in his life and death, as the