Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

In controverting the above, Dr. Gordon says:
"On the contrary, it seems clear from the Scriptures that it is still the duty and privilege of
believers to receive the Holy Ghost by a conscious, definite act of appropriating faith, just as they
received Jesus Christ at conversion."
Again says Dr. Gordon:
"To say that in receiving Christ we necessarily receive in the same act the gift of the Spirit seems
to confound what the Scriptures make distinct. For it is as sinners that we accept Christ for our
justification, but it is as sons that we accept the Spirit for our sanctification ... It is a fact that Christ
has made atonement for sin; in conversion faith appropriates this fact in order to our justification.
It is a fact that the Holy Ghost has been given; in consecration faith appropriates this fact for our
sanctification."
Once more he says:
"We cannot emphasize too strongly the divine crisis in the soul which a full reception of the Holy
Ghost may bring."
And he warns us not to "conceive of the Christian life as only a gradual growth in grace."
Dr. Gordon quotes other distinguished, scholarly, and pious authors, such as Moberly, Owen,
Jukes, Kelly, Moule, Godet, and others, who hold and teach substantially the same views. We have
not space for giving his quotations from these authors. We will, however, give a few lines from the
Rev. Andrew Murray, found in his Spirit of Christ. He says:
"In the words of Ezekiel we find, in the one promise, this twofold blessing God bestows through
his Spirit very strikingly set forth. The first is, "I will put within you a new spirit"; that is, man's own
spirit is to be renewed and quickened by the work of God's Spirit. When this has been done, then
there is the second blessing, "I will put my Spirit within you," to dwell in that new spirit ... The
importance of recognizing this distinction can easily be perceived. We shall then be able to
understand the true relation between regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The former
is that work of the Holy Spirit, by which he convinces us of sin, leads to repentance and faith in
Christ, and imparts a new nature. Through the Spirit God then fulfills the promise, "I will put a new
spirit within you." The believer is now a child of God, a temple ready for the Spirit to dwell in. When
faith claims it, the second half of the promise is fulfilled as surely as the first. As long now as the
believer only looks at regeneration and the renewal wrought in his spirit, he will not come to the life
of joy and strength which is meant for him. But when he accepts God's promise that there is
something better than even the new nature, than the inner temple, that there is the Spirit of the Father
and the Son to dwell within him, there opens up a wonderful prospect of holiness and blessedness."