Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

We are aware that some critics construe this passage differently, and understand St. Paul in the
fourteenth and fifteenth verses virtually to restate and amplify the doctrine of the twelfth and
thirteenth verses. Meyer is not very clear or decided, leading rather to the latter view. This fact may,
however, he attributed to dogmatic reasons -- His denominational bias -- and his failure to note the
force of the aorist tense, writing before special attention had been called to its force. Dr. Clarke,
possibly for the latter reason, seems inclined to the same view. Yet, in His note on a parallel passage
to which he here refers, he gives this definition of "perfecting the saints": "This perfection or
rejointing of the soul implies the purification and placing every faulty passion and appetite in its
proper place; so that the original order, harmony, unity, and purity of the soul may be restored" -the
work of spiritual baptism. On the same verse he defines it as "the graces that constitute the mind
of Christ, such as brotherly love, charity, harmony, unity, and order." Such "perfecting" or
"perfection of the saints" -- a perfection of quality or nature -- perfect purity of heart and "unity" of
soul in love to God and man may come instantaneously with the baptism or gift of the Spirit of
anointing and power.
And so may we "come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." All this may come with or be
involved in such a baptism of the Spirit as came at Pentecost. For such "unity" or oneness of faith
and love, and such illumination of the Spirit, or "knowledge of the Son of God," were prayed for and
predicted by our Lord. And a "perfect man" -- perfect or pure manhood -- using the term "man"
generically -- may result from a cleansing of the soul from spiritual imperfection. And "the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ" may mean that condition of soul in which we receive the
"fullness of the Spirit" or "all the fullness of God," and Christ takes up His abode in our hearts. And
the aorists in this passage indicate a momentary and finished action, as in a baptism. Alford's version
is, "Till we all attain [aorist] unto the unity of the faith," etc. Dr. Steele says:
"The perfecting of the saints is here expressed by a definite and momentary arrival at a point when
faith merges into knowledge, when a Saviour believed becomes a Saviour fully realized. This
transition from faith to full knowledge is a crisis expressed by an aorist. It is when the Paraclete
purges the film of inbred sin from the eye of the soul, and Jesus, as a living, loving, glorified, and
complete Saviour, is manifested to the spiritual vision. Then the child, the imperfect believer,
becomes a perfect man [perfect in nature], and reaches the fullness of Christ; that is, the abundance
which he has to bestow, a fullness excluding all sin, but capable of eternal increase."
And Paul seems to condition this "eternal increase" -- the soul's growth up into Christ -- on this
baptism of purity, love, and power: "That we henceforth be no more children" -- weak and
unestablished -- "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine," etc. "But" -being
established and strengthened by this baptism of power, and "speaking the truth in love" --
"being sincere," margin -- "may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ."
It is admitted that the gift of "apostles," etc., is one of the antecedent conditions of this growth,
as it was of this baptism or confirmation, but the latter seems to be the proximate condition of such
growth. After a certain time in their history they were to be no more like "children" -- weak and
unsteady in their faith and lives -- but strong and uniform in their service. When was that time? Was
it immediately after the giving of the "apostles," etc.? Rather, was it not at a sharply defined crisis