Holiness Part 4

3. THE IDEA THAT ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION CANNOT ‘TAKE PLACE UNTIL NEAR OR AT THE TIME OF DEATH IS CONTRARY TO THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE, for—

(a) The Bible nowhere states or suggests that we cannot be entirely cleansed from sin while in health and strength; all its commands and promises about holiness relate to the present, and it plainly says that we ought to be holy in this life.

‘That we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life’ (Luke i. 74, 75).

(b) The Bible nowhere states that the soul’s connection with the body is a hindrance to its entire sanctification, but it shows that the body, with all its appetites, powers, and members, is to be sanctified to God.

‘Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’ (Corinthians vi. 20).

‘That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body’ (2 Corinthians iv. 10).

‘Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God’ (Romans vi. r3).

(c) The Bible teaches that it is the Blood of Christ, and not ‘the last enemy,’ that cleanses from sin.

‘The blood of Jesus Christ … cleanseth us from all sin’ (I John i. 7).

4. UNBELIEF CONCERNING THE POSSIBILITY OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION IS DUE TO VARIOUS CAUSES, the chief of which are as follows :—

(a) Some conclude that Holiness is impossible because many earnest Christians neither teach it nor believe in it.

To this we answer that it is true the subject is seldom written or spoken about, and that comparatively few enjoy the experience, while many do not believe in it. At the same time our standard must not be the opinions or attainments of men, but the Word of God, which, in many ways, shows Holiness to be possible.

‘We dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise’ (2 Corinthians x. 12).

‘ To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them’ (Isaiah viii. 20).

(b) It is sometimes claimed that certain Bible passages deny the possibility of Holiness.

To this we answer that the Bible, as a whole, clearly teaches Holiness, and that the passages referred to only seem contrary to such teaching when taken from their context.

Examples of such passages are:—

i. ‘If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’
(1 John i. 8).

This cannot mean that Holiness is impossible, because the previous verse says, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ ... cleanseth us from all sin,’ and the following verse says, ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’

The right interpretation is that those who say they have no sin, when they have, are self-deceived and assert what is untrue, whether they be sinners who say they have never sinned, or professing Christians who continue sinning and yet say they have no sin because their sins are imputed to Christ.

ii. ‘For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again’ (Proverbs xxiv. 16). The correct meaning is shown by the context; it is trouble and not sin, into which a just man falls (see verse 10).

iii. ‘In many things we offend all’ (James iii. 2). The explanation is that the word ‘we’ is frequently used by speakers when referring to people generally with no intent to include themselves as individuals. The context plainly shows that the ‘we’ here used has no reference to James and saved people (see verses 1, 3, and 9).

(c) Some say that if all sin were destroyed the Christian would have no fight, and they quote: ‘The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’ (Galatians v. 17).

To this we answer that this passage, as the context shows (see verses 7, 16, 24, 25), does not describe the experience proper to saved — not to mention entirely sanctified — people. The sanctified soul has no enemies within, but has a fierce conflict with the Devil outside.

‘Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith’ (I Peter v. 8, 9).

‘Put. on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Ephesians vi. II).

(d) Others disbelieve in Holiness because they think that some sin is necessary to keep us humble. Our answer is, that this is simply saying we must sin ‘that grace may abound,’ which is condemned by Paul (Romans vi. 1). To say that sin is necessary to keep us humble, is to infer that sin is more powerful than the grace of God.

(e) Some claim that they have never seen a holy person. We reply that possibly they have avoided the company of, and refused association with, holy people, or it may be that when they have met holy people they have failed to recognise them as such because of their own unbelief in holiness. The Scribes and Pharisees said even of Christ, ‘He hath a devil.’

(f) Some say that an entirely sanctified soul would no longer need the Blood of Christ. We answer that the Blood that cleanses is continually needed to keep us clean, and the power that saves from sin is needed to keep from sin. To assert the contrary is like saying that a fruit-bearing branch no longer needs to be united to the vine, or that a perfectly light room no longer needs the sun.

(g) Many consider Holiness impossible because they misunderstand it. Owing to wrong teaching, or lack of teaching, they confuse it with the idea of sinless perfection or with something else which it is not (see Section I, paragraph 5, of this Chapter).

(h) Sometimes unbelief is due to evil in the person’s own heart. At some time in the past he has been brought face to face with the fact that God wants to cleanse him fully, but his unsanctified nature has made him unwilling for all that this would mean, so he has shut his eyes to the light. If he consecrates himself fully to God, he will soon see that holiness is possible.

(From the 1922 Doctrine Book - complete and unabridged)