Holiness Part 2

4. THE BIBLE DESCRIBES THE GREAT BLESSING OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IN OTHER WAYS AND BY DIF FERENT FIGURES, thereby showing it in various aspects. Entire Sanctification is, for example, spoken of as—

(a) A clean heart, or inward purity.

‘Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me’ (Psalm li.10).

‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God’ (Matthew v. 8).

‘Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned’ (I Timothy i.5).

(b) Holiness, or entire freedom from sin. ‘Holiness’ literally means wholeness, or spiritual health.

‘That we might be partakers of His holiness’ (Hebrews xii.10).

‘To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness’ (I Thessalonians iii. 13).

‘God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness’ (I Thessalonians iv. 7).

(c) Perfection, or perfect love. The words ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ are frequently used in the Bible in reference to Christian character; they denote being fully fit or quite ready for the purpose appointed, and God’s people are in this condition when filled with love. Christ made it clear that the perfection required is perfection in love, for, after showing that God, in His perfect love, sends sunshine and rain on good and evil alike, He said :—

‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew v. 48).

That is, if we are fully given up to lives of love and goodness in our sphere, and according to our ability, as our Heavenly Father is in His sphere, we shall be perfect before Him. Other Bible passages similarly urge perfection:—

‘That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works’ (2 Timothy iii. 17).

‘That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God’ (Colossians iv. 12).

‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. ‘He that feareth is not made perfect in love’ (I John iv. 18).

‘Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness’ (Colossians iii.I4, R.V.).

(d) Living a blameless life. That is, a life in which God Himself sees nothing to condemn.

‘That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world’ (Philippians ii. I5).

‘Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (I Corinthians i. 8).

(e) Being the dwelling-place of God Himself, or being filled with God’s Spirit.

‘If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him’ (John xiv. 23).

‘Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit’ (Isaiah Ivii.15).

‘To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God’ (Ephesians iii.19).

(f) Fulfilling the law; that is, doing all that God requires. ‘Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law’ (Romans xiii. 10).

(g) Following the Lord fully; that is, like Joshua and Caleb, wholly given up to God and fully trusting Him.

‘Caleb ... and Joshua … have wholly followed the Lord’ (Numbers xxxii. 12).

‘My servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed Me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went and his seed shall possess it’ (Numbers xiv, 24).

(h) Being’ dead unto sin’ and’ alive unto God.’ That is, completely severed from sin (as a dead body is severed from all previous surrounding connections), and in living union with God (as a live person is in vital touch with things around him).

‘Reckon ye… yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God’ (Romans vi. ii).

‘He that is dead is freed from sin’ (Romans vi. 7).

‘That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness’ (I Peter ii. 24).

(i) Having sin, or the sinful nature, ‘crucified,’ ‘destroyed,’ ‘put off;’ that is, done away with.

‘Our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed’ (Romans vi. 6).

‘Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds’ (Colossians iii. 9).

‘They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts’ (Galatians v. 24).

(j) Being made altogether good, and hence having a ‘conscience void of offence.’

‘Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit’ (Matthew xii. 33).

‘For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to youward’ (2 Corinthians i. 12).

‘Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men’ (Acts xxiv. (6).

(k) Walking with God; that is, enjoying continually the friendship of God and communion with Him.

‘Enoch walked with God; three hundred years’ (Genesis v. 22).

‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John i. 7).

‘What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?’ (Micah vi. 8).

(l) Rest of soul; that is; rest from inward conflict and from anxious care.

‘We which have believed do enter into rest’ (Hebrews iv. 3).

‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls’ (Matthew xi. 29).

‘Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls’ (Jeremiah vi. 16).

(m) Likeness to God in character.

‘Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Romans viii. 29).

‘Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world’ (1 John iv. 17).

‘Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness’ (Ephesians iv. 24).

(Complete and unabridged from the 1922 Doctrine Book)