WHERE SANCTIFICATION IS SYMBOLICALLY TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE
First, it is notably seen in the arrangement and division of the tabernacle and temple into the holy and most holy places. Why this division? What did God design to teach, if not the two experiences of regeneration and sanctification? Several things at once arrest our attention: one is that a veil separated the two places, just as a veil hides the sanctified life from the regenerated man today. Again, it required a fresh application of blood to enter into the most holy place. The fact of a second faith in, or applying of, the blood of Christ, in order for the soul to enter into the sanctified life, is here powerfully taught. Still again, the rarity with which the inner sanctuary was entered is deeply significant. Furthermore, that which was found in the most holy place is equally suggestive and confirmatory as well. There was the ever present law, the manna that never corrupted, and the perpetual manifestation of the glory of God. These things, looked at from the sanctified experience, mean the law written on the mind, the continual feeling of the soul on Christ, the hidden manna, and the perpetual presence of God in the heart and life.
The rending of the veil, at the death of Christ, declared that the blessing, known to but few before, could now be entered upon and enjoyed by all. As Peter, explaining sanctification on the day of Pentecost, said: “The promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
Second, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the second cleansing of the temple. If any man should ask why a second purifying of the heart is needed, the reply might properly be given: Why should the temple require a second cleansing? Was not one sufficient? Does Christ do things imperfectly? The writer firmly believes that the double work was done not only to show how pure and sacred the temple of God should be, but also to shadow and typify the two distinct blessings of Christianity. When we remember that the word of God says that we are the temple of God that twofold purification becomes all the more significant.
Third, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the second touch laid upon the eyes of the blind man. It actually seems that this miracle was wrought by the Lord to refute all gainsaying and doubting directed against the reasonableness and necessity of a second work in the soul.
Fourth, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the two baptisms of the Bible; the one of water, and the other of fire and the Holy Ghost. Commentators agree that the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost are one. It is idle to say that men had not received forgiveness of sin before Christ came. All through the ages men have known the joys of pardon. In John the Baptist’s time there was remission of sins granted to multitudes. They were baptized at or near the time of this remission of transgressions, so that the baptism became a synonym of, or represented, the greater work of pardon or regeneration. The expression “born of water,” we are firmly convinced, had no other meaning. The distinguishing feature of Christ’s coming was that he should “baptize with fire and the Holy Ghost.” If only pardon and conversion were meant by these words, in what respect were we advantaged of his coming? and what great distinguishing mark of his work and kingdom do we have?
If, when the Baptist said of him, “he shall baptize you with fire,” he meant only that he would forgive and convert the people, then he is convicted of uttering a foolish and needless thing! It is equivalent to saying that you will bring a man something that he already has. And, in this instance, John is seen holding up as a distinguishing mark of the Messiah that which really was no distinguishing or peculiar mark at all. By a resistless logic, then, we are driven to see the second blessing, or the experience of sanctification, in the words of John the Baptist: “I baptize you with water for the remission of sins, but he who cometh after me, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” This blessing had been rarely enjoyed before Christ came. But after his coming it should be the privilege of all. It should become a general blessing. The Most Holy Place, typifying the blessing, was entered rarely; but the Son of God would rend the veil, and now all the people could enter in, and all become holy. So read the prophecies. And this was to be the crowning, declarative, distinguishing mark of the Messiah.
The Saviour recognized and alluded to the two blessings or works in his words to Nicodemus, when he said: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Fifth, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in two washings mentioned in the Old Testament. The first is in Isaiah i. 18: “Come…though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Here is regeneration. The invitation is clearly given to the sinner; the chapter and verse quoted point plainly to that fact. As a pardoned man, he is as white as snow. Now turn to Psalm li. 7, and read how a child of God prays who has discovered remaining corruption in his heart: “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Here is sanctification. The regenerated soul is white as snow, but snow is not perfectly pure. As it comes through our atmosphere of dust, smoke, soot, and gases, it becomes, in a measure, defiled. The skeptical, by the use of a microscope, will be convinced of this fact. See the beautiful agreement between figure and fact. Snow is not perfectly pure; neither is the regenerated soul. Defilement is there–a dark, disturbing something which, for want of a better name, we call inbred sin, or depravity. Sanctification takes that one defilement out.
The first baptism makes you “white as snow; “the second baptism,” or washing of fire, makes you “whiter than snow.” Isaiah was inviting to regeneration; David was praying for sanctification. Sixth, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the highway and way mentioned by Isaiah, in chapter xxxv. verse 8: “And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness.” No one can read the verse without seeing that two ways are spoken of here. One is a highway, and the other a way. And the striking fact is that the way is in the highway. It is in a measure hidden, just as sanctification is a hidden life. Another striking fact is that the verse says that “the way” (not the highway) shall be called the way of holiness. Why is it that two ways should be spoken of here in reference to the kingdom of Christ? From the simple fact that there are two ways in the kingdom of Christ along which his people walk. The highway is known to all. The regenerated life, for certain reasons, is a highway; it is seen by all and known to all. But there is another way, called a way–one that is not so evident at first as the other, from the fact, perhaps, that in a sense it is in the highway, but mainly for reasons that we have no time to mention and dwell upon at this moment. But it is deeply significant that it is “the way” that is in a measure hidden–so hidden that I thought for years that this glorious affirmation of the text was predicated of the highway; that it is this obscure way that is called the way of holiness. The three distinguishing features of this way are the perpetual companionship of God, the absence of the animal in appetite and ferocity, and the constant joy and triumph of the soul. All these appear in the ninth and tenth verses. This state any one who has received the second blessing will tell you is the glad and holy experience of the sanctified heart.
Seventh, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the home of Bethany in the lives of the two sisters. No one can doubt that both of them loved the Lord. To love Christ requires regeneration. The household of Bethany was a Christian home, where Christ always found affection, rest, and welcome. But it is not less evident that, while both sisters were Christ’s followers, yet Mary possessed something that Martha did not. That quiet restfulness; that absorbed sitting at the Master’s feet; that silent way of giving; the very richness of the gift, are all unmistakable marks of the holy heart. Moreover, Christ settled the fact by his own words: “Mary hath chosen that better part, which shall never be taken away from her.” Let the reader turn to I Corinthians xii. 31, and read: “Covet earnestly the best gifts; and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.” The light in this verse throws light on the other. The “better part” and the “more excellent way” are one and the same. It was not temperament in Mary that made her different from her sister Martha. Christ shows this by the words: “She hath chosen that better part.” You can’t choose your temperament. In a word, she had entered by a volitional act of her own into the more excellent way–the way in the highway, the way that Paul describes in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, and which chapter is nothing but a description of the sanctified life.
Eighth, the second blessing, or sanctification, is seen in the two parables of the hidden treasure and the purchased pearl of great price. The finding of the treasure stands for conversion, and the obtainment of the pearl for sanctification. The two parables stand in marked contrast to each other, and bear the distinct features of the two experiences. The finding of the treasure was a surprise–the man stumbled on it; whilst the pearl of great price was sought after. In almost every instance conversion comes upon the soul with the unexpected suddenness of revealed buried treasure, while sanctification is obtained with a full recognition of what is to come.
It is never sought and found with the despair of a sinner, but with the intelligent purpose and desire of a child of God, who is convinced that there is this blessed experience awaiting him. There is a vast difference between a wayfarer who stumbles upon treasure and a merchantman who seeks discriminatingly a certain rare form of wealth. The sinner finding pardon is the wayfarer; the Christian obtaining sanctification is the merchantman.
Another difference seen is in the evidently dissimilar circumstances of the two men. The merchantman stands out clearly revealed as greater in his possessions than the wayfarer. This appears in his business character and in the things he purchased, which were not little fields or strips of land, but pearls of great price. So is the difference seen in the sinner seeking pardon and the Christian seeking holiness.
The Christian comes more richly endowed than the sinner. He comes with a clear conscience, with the fruits of the Spirit, with growth in grace, with a devoted Christian life, and, pays them down; lays them all on the altar, perfumed with the blood of Christ, as he pleads for the blessing of holiness, the pearl of great price. Then there is a difference manifest in the consciousness of different values. The buried treasure might be much or little, but a pearl of great price is lifted immediately into the highest grade of riches. There is no doubt but that he who obtains pardon feels and knows that he has a treasure in his soul. He calls it such, and rejoices accordingly. But all the time there is a peculiar feeling that the value could be increased, that something could be added, that he could be spiritually richer.
In the possession of the second blessing the feeling is different. The soul is thrilled with a sense of satisfaction. The man knows that he has “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ,” that he has the “better part,” that he now possesses and enjoys the pearl of great price. Ninth, the second blessing, or sanctification, is in the two anointings of the leper. Let the reader turn to Leviticus, chapter xiv. and verses 14-17, and he cannot but be impressed with its symbolic teaching as he compares it with other utterances and events mentioned in the Bible. Leprosy stands invariably for sin, the leper for the sinner. When he was to be made clean, it is remarkable that the cleansing was effected not by one, but by two anointings. And the two anointings were made all the more distinct by the use of two different things. The leper was first anointed with blood, and then after that he was anointed with the holy oil of the sanctuary. The blood was taken from the slain lamb, which typified Christ, while the oil always stood for the Holy Ghost. The oil was put upon the blood, not instantaneously, but afterward. The passage referred to says that, after the second anointing, the leper was clean. Take this symbolic scene with you to the day of Pentecost, and what a new light falls upon that occasion! We notice, with profound emotion, that the two scenes are one; that upon the bloodwashed assembly is poured the unction or anointing of the Holy Ghost. Further on we see that upon the blood-washed Cornelius falls the Holy Ghost; that on the blood-washed disciples of Ephesus came the same baptism or anointing. It is always the oil on the blood. That is the second blessing. In the Scripture oil is the instrument of healing. Malachi refers to all this when he says: “Unto them that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”
Tenth, the second blessing, or the blessing of sanctification, is seen in the two crossings made by the children of Israel–one over the Red Sea, the other the river Jordan. For portions of this striking thought I am indebted to Rev. George D. Watson, author of “White Robes.” As the two crossings took place under the special direction of God, and as they were so markedly different, it stands to reason that they were typical of two different spiritual truths, and experiences. He that educated and prepared us for the sacrifice and death of Christ by the lamb, taken from the fold, slain in the afternoon, eaten with bitter herbs, with no bones broken, and resting on a spit the shape of the cross; he that taught the resurrection by the miracle of Jonah’s life; and his own descent from heaven, and satisfying and sustaining power by the manna that fell from the skies, would surely in as remarkable a way typify and symbolize so wonderful a blessing as sanctification in some striking and forcible way.
The two crossings are thus intended of God. The passage of the Red Sea teaches all that occurs at conversion, and the passage of the river Jordan illustrates sanctification. The contrast between the two is marked. At the Red Sea the Israelites were fleeing from an enemy, and were delivered. At the Jordan they were not in flight; but were drawn by the goodness and beauty of the land of Canaan, and entered into rest. How beautifully this describes the two experiences! Again, at the Red Sea the children of Israel were in great haste, while at the Jordan you see evidence of calm and deliberate action. This, again, strikingly brings out the two blessings. Conversion is found in a hurry; but the blessing of sanctification comes invariably after deep reflection, and full deliberation and conclusion of mind.
Again, at the Red Sea the Israelites went down into the sea a multitude of empty-handed and unarmed fugitives; but at the Jordan they went in fully armed. How clearly appears here the state of the flying penitent seeking safety, and the consecrated Christian coming with all his powers to God, seeking a life of perfect rest and holiness!
Again, at the Red Sea the children of Israel stepped into a dry and open path between the waters–not a wave or pool was left in their course, but at the Jordan they had to place their feet in the water before the waves receded, and the path became open.
This most strikingly illustrates the entrance into and upon the two lives of regeneration and sanctification. In the way of pardon the path is clear; we flee through prayer into the experience. At such a time we are weak, and could not stand any difficulty flung before us; but, in obtaining the blessing of sanctification, our faith is naturally much stronger, and so the way is not open at first; we actually have to put our feet into the waves before they recede–in other words, we claim the blessing by a strong faith before there is an indication or assurance of the great salvation. In a very special manner here the faith precedes the work and the witness.
Still again, there is seen a very great difference in the emotional life after the two crossings. At the Red Sea the Israelites were in perfect transports. They sung, they danced, they struck the timbrel, and the burden of the song was their deliverance from the Egyptians. At the Jordan, instead of ecstasy, there seems to have been an unutterable sense of peace, a calm and holy joy and triumph. As you read the description you cannot but feel the intense but voiceless emotion of the multitudes. It was an hour too blessed and holy for noisy cymbals. The memories of the past, the recollection of the mistakes and wandering of forty years, the remembrance that triumph had been offered them long before, the tender mindfulness of the pity and longsuffering of God meanwhile, together with the overpowering thought that “Canaan, sweet Canaan,” so long wished for and sought after, was at last theirs–contributed an experience so tender, so melting, and so powerful that the desire was rather to sit or stand in the presence of God in a holy joy and triumph too deep for earthly language to express. Who that remembers the experience of conversion but will recall the fact that the song sung then was over a present and personal deliverance. It was the joy of pardon and escape; and in countless instances manifested itself in an exuberant and overflowing gratitude to God. In the blessing of sanctification, while there are frequent instances of rapture, yet the rule is that the entrance upon the Canaan, or restlife, is marked by a profound and unutterable peace. It is a curious fact that the strongest winds do not produce the highest waves. On the contrary, by their tremendous force they level them. So in the spiritual life I have discovered that the deepest experience of joy is oftentimes accompanied with the least demonstration of a noisy kind. The people that shout loudest are not always the happiest. I have seen people absolutely too full to speak. The eye, the voice, the face declared a fullness that no language could have conveyed as powerfully.
Sanctification is a deeper experience than conversion. It involves a perfect surrender, an absolute and final consecration, and the utter extermination of sin in the heart. Naturally we would look for great demonstrations. And so it is in the case of some ardent temperaments, and also when God is pleased to call attention to the doctrine in certain skeptical communities. But the rule is, in the majority of cases, the bestowal of a peace–a peace that often enters gradually, spreading, deepening, and sweetening as it goes, until the entire nature is thrilled and filled with it. A sense of unmistakable holiness is realized. The consciousness fills you that every part of the soul and body has been reached. A sense of being inwardly healed, an exquisite experience of purity is felt, while the soul fairly melts with a baptism of perfect love. And through it all and in it all the Spirit of God whispers to the soul: “This is sanctification!” All this frequently takes place with little outward emotion or demonstration. The wind has leveled the wave.
It is not Arabia, but Canaan that has been entered, and Joshua is happier than Miriam. It is not a life of hard-fought battles that is entered upon, but a constant experience of easy victories. Not a desert wandering has been inaugurated, but a blessed entrance upon rest, while the soul is rejoicing in a land flowing with milk and honey, “where the flowers bloom forever, and the sun is always bright.” And so the peace of God–not peace with God (for that stands for the experience of pardon as shown in Romans v. 1), but the peace of God–bathes the soul like the light falls continually and eternally upon the hills of heaven. It is a peculiar peace. It is the peace of sanctification. You will recognize it by the features I have mentioned. But aside from that, you will recognize it by the voice of the Sanctifier, who is enshrined within it, saying: “Child, you are clean.”
Tag: Wesleyan
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 12
SANCTIFICATION IS A STATE OR CONDITION WITNESSED TO BY THE HOLY GHOST
Had you thought that the Holy Ghost witnesses to every state in the spiritual life? Every sinner that lives has the witness of condemnation. The Spirit bears witness with his spirit that he is a child of sin and Satan, and on the road to everlasting death. Moreover, the Spirit bears witness to grades of sinful life and character. The Holy Ghost has long ago told the wicked man how corrupt and perverse and abandoned he was, and how he was surpassing others in iniquity.
Likewise the Holy Ghost bore witness to your conversion. He declared to you, indescribably, that you were a child of God, pardoned of your sins and washed from your personal guilt and transgressions. Again, he brought from the Trinity your call to preach, and bore witness to it. And on a certain occasion of the past, after you had been agonizing in prayer for days respecting the salvation of some dear one, he bore witness to your spirit that the prayer was heard, and that the answer would come in due time. Do you remember how you arose instantly from your knees without another doubt, and how silly your confidence seemed to outsiders and how precious to yourself?
Moreover, the Spirit has borne witness to your spirit of inbred sin, convicting you afresh, as he did Isaiah, of inward uncleanness. You have felt it on sudden calls of responsible religious duty, unexpected calls to preach or to pray with the dying or to direct a penitent sinner to Christ, or you have been made powerfully to feel it under a sermon on holiness, or when you were a very sick man with little hope of recovery. These are the favorite times of the Spirit to tell the Christian he has something wrong in him. Finally, when you fully and forever consecrated yourself to God and trusted Christ for sanctification the Holy Ghost bore witness to the blessed work done in the soul.
The fact that you cannot grasp now or understand this witness does not affect or alter the matter a particle. A man of the world cannot comprehend the Spirit’s witness to conversion; a Christian layman cannot take in the Spirit’s call to the ministry, and a regenerated man cannot realize how the Holy Ghost can witness to any state or experience different from the one he enjoys. I certainly cannot be expected to know how a place looks until I see it. Do you remember your disappointment and surprises on this line? Nor can I know a book until I read it, nor have a satisfactory idea how certain fruit tastes until I eat it. A blind man has no conception of colors, and, though you may pile description upon description of this world, he has a most confused and incorrect notion of what nature is, and if his sight is restored is amazed at what he beholds. It is exactly so in the spiritual life: the things of God have to be experienced in order to be understood. And this law prevails in all the ascending and successive steps of religious experience. The higher experience yet to come is like an undiscovered land to me until I go through. Of necessity it is a mystery until my experience of the grace solves and clears it up. I may even believe there is such a grace and witness; but until that grace has become mine, and I have heard the Spirit saying to my heart “Child, you are clean,” how can I speak intelligently and explain the work and word satisfactorily to others?
There may be a road leading to a distant city; but until I have traveled that road, and in a sense made it mine, it is bound to be an unknown thoroughfare to me. But, mark you, although strange to me it may be thoroughly known to others. Hence it is that the scoff and denial of the experience and witness of sanctification comes with a poor grace from one who confesses that he has never sought or obtained the blessing. This is tantamount to saying that he does not believe in the existence of London because he has never been there, or he doubts that Jenny Lind had a voice because he never heard her sing; or, closer still, that he heard her sing one song, but does not believe that she ever sung another song in a different key. The denial of the witness of sanctification when sifted down merely means that the brother who denies it has simply never had the witness himself.
He thinks that the Spirit has but one song for the soul, and speaks in one key, and testifies to but one fact. Such a man denies the existence of a sensation or emotion or experience because he has never had his intellect or sensibilities stirred in that direction. He demands to understand a thing before complying with conditions the observance of which alone can bring one into the knowledge and experience of the thing itself.
Such a principle adopted and applied in life would stop every wheel, revolutionize and reverse the working of the greatest laws in the kingdom of nature and grace. Suppose an unconverted man should say to a Christian: ” I do not believe that the Spirit of God witnesses to your pardon; I can’t understand it, have never felt it myself, and don’t believe a word of it.” What, think you, would be the feeling of that regenerated man? Would there not be a half-sad, half-amused stirring of the heart? Do you think he would agree with the unconverted man, and give up his experience because of the ignorance of the other? And what would he reply? He would unquestionably say that he doubted not that his unbelieving friend was sincere and that to him there was no witness of pardon; but that nevertheless there was such an experience, and it would come to all who complied with the conditions laid down in the Bible of repentance and faith. So, the skeptical smile and word turned on the man enjoying the blessing of sanctification does not in the leastwise disconcert him or cause him to doubt the experience of purity and the voice of the Spirit declaring the fact to him continually.
Nor is he puzzled to understand the secret of the unbelief of his brother in regard to the witness and the life of sanctification. He knows that the blessing simply has not come to him; that the voice of the Holy Ghost that has said many blessed things to him has not yet uttered the thrilling words, “Child, you are clean; I have made your heart pure; I have sanctified you wholly;” and he knows that when the conditions of a perfect consecration and a perfect faith are complied with then will the experience be set up, and the witness come, and not till then.
My beloved reader, let me ask: Shall the Holy Spirit be kept to one string on the golden harp of redemption, confined and kept down to one note, made to testify to just a single fact all through the changing life of a Christian, and that fact his pardon? Is there no such thing as purity and holiness in the dispensation of the Holy Ghost? Can’t he produce these conditions? And if he does, will he not witness to his work, and let a man know that he has a pure heart and is now sanctified?
Your reply is that you can see in the Bible where the witness to pardon and conversion is taught, but not where the witness to sanctification appears. Suppose you turn to I Corinthians 2. 12: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Is not purity, or holiness, one of the works of God? If we obtain it, this verse says that the Spirit will let us know. Now turn to Acts 15. 8, and read: “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost.” The verse that follows tells what had happened–that God had sanctified their hearts by faith, and now he sends the Holy Ghost to bear witness to the purity imparted. Now let the reader turn to Hebrews 10. 14, and see the fact stated clearly and unanswerably: “For by one offering he hath forever perfected them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.”
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 11
SANCTIFICATION IS OBTAINED BY FAITH
No man can create by any energy or power of his own a “pure heart.” When David wanted that he looked up. No man can evolve out of himself as beautiful and heavenly and blessed a thing as holiness. If he could do so, he would perform a greater work than Christ. It is granted by all that Christ pardons. But if a man can, by certain duties and religious performances, produce holiness of heart, he has outstripped Christ, for a holy man must certainly take rank over a simply pardoned man, both on earth and in heaven. This being so, you would be entitled to greater praise and honor in heaven than the Son of God. The song you would sing about the throne would be: “He pardoned me, but I made myself holy. Christ Jesus is made unto me wisdom and righteousness, but I am made unto myself sanctification.” See to what an absurdity of conclusion we are brought by starting out with the idea that holiness is obtained by the works of the law. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?” “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?”
The writer has just been informed of a still more flagrant error. It was advanced from the pulpit by one of the leading ministers in our Church. He said that holiness was obtained by meditation! The verse he quoted to prove his statement was Proverbs xxiii. 7: “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Let the reader turn to the verse and read it in its connection, and then stand amazed at such an exposition and application of Scripture. The brother’s idea is not far from the East India conception of holiness. The pagan devotee sits down, crosses his feet, fixes his eyes upon them until they get crossed, falls into a brown study, and waits for holiness. Certainly that man knows nothing of the Bible and nothing of the truly religious life if he has not discovered that all spiritual blessings come by pure faith. It is through faith we are converted. It is through faith we have received ten thousand pardons and consolations and deliverances since that day. And it is through faith we come into the blessing and enjoyment of sanctification.
In proof we quote only three passages from the word of God. The first is Galatians iii. 2, 3, 11, and 14: “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” “For the just shall live by faith.” “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” The whole passage is overwhelming. But I call attention mainly to the last line. What is this promise of the Spirit that was to be had through faith but the blessing of sanctification which Christ told his disciples to tarry for at Jerusalem? “Wait,” he said, “for the promise of the Father.” The second chapter of Acts tells us that they obtained it; and it came through faith. Take another passage–this time in Acts xv. 8, 9: “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” Now mark you, these italicized words were spoken of believers. This purification was a work subsequent to regeneration. It is identified with the blessing of Pentecost, and it was obtained by faith! One more, and we conclude this point. Acts xxvi. 17-18: “Unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”
Reader, do you realize that this is Christ speaking to Paul; that it is Christ who presents here two classes in the spiritual life, the forgiven and the sanctified, and that he divides them clearly, not only by terms, but by the word “and,” which we have italicized. And do you notice that he says that this second class had been sanctified by faith in him? This verse, to my mind, is unanswerable.
If, as I have shown by God’s word, the blessing of a holy heart can be secured instantaneously, and is to be obtained through faith, why not have the pearl of great price right now? Why not believe and be filled now with all “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ?”
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 10
SANCTIFICATION IS AN INSTANTANEOUS WORK OR BLESSING
We are not simply led, but driven to this conclusion. Sanctification certainly does not take place in eternity. Vain is the hope of purgatorial fires. Here on earth is the time and place of probation; here the Spirit strives and purifies, and here is the blood applied. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sin beyond the grave.
The writer stood once in the Mechanics’ Hall of the World’s Exposition. Hundreds of workmen were busy in the midst of flying wheels and cutting saws, and all manner of instruments, in making and shaping different kinds of vessels. Suddenly the 6 o’clock bell sounded, and at once every wheel stopped, and saws became motionless, and all instruments were laid aside. The workmen put off their working garments and left the building. The hall was closed and given up to silence and darkness; and I noticed that whatever was unfinished at the 6 o’clock bell remained unfinished. The complete was left complete, but the unfinished remained an uncompleted, imperfect thing. It was a solemn illustration to me of spiritual things. So, I thought, are we being operated on by the instruments of God’s grace. He is trying in life to perfect us, to make us holy. But the time is coming when life shall end, probation will be over forever, and eternity begin.
The knell of death will be the signal; and when that happens, the Spirit and the blood and the Word will be removed, the divine Worker will withdraw, and the door will be shut. Then it shall come to pass that whatsoever is incomplete shall remain incomplete. The imperfect shall abide in imperfection. The Scripture settles this question in Revelation 22. 11. God is looking into the world of spirits in eternity after the work of life is over, and here is what he says: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still.”
Again, sanctification cannot take place through death. If we say that death makes the soul holy, then do we ascribe a power to it that the Scripture only attributes to the blood of Christ. This would make death our Saviour, and so rob the Son of God of his glory. Indeed, if we wait for death to purify us, we make it even greater than the Saviour; for in that we have postponed the obtaining of holiness until the hour of dissolution we have thereby declared that we looked to death to do what Christ could not and had not done for us. Let us bear in mind that there is nothing in death to purify. It is not an entity, nor a creature, with intellect and force, but a simple dissolution of soul and body; a mere ceasing to live is called death. What is there in a negative state like this to purify the soul? The Bible settles this second point by two unmistakable verses. The first is in Ecclesiastes xi. 3: “If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.” Look out, my brother; God says as you fall in death so shall you lie forever.
Death will simply crystallize your character. The other verse that teaches that holiness is to come in life, and not in or through death, is found in Luke 1. 73-75: “The oath that he swear to our father Abraham, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.” It is evident from reason and from the plain word of God that we can look for sanctification or holiness in this life.
Now comes the question: “At what time of life?” Will any one say not till old age? Where in the Bible are the young excused from holiness? Will any one say after a number of years we may expect it? Show me a passage where God’s word teaches such a thing! Will any one postpone the blessing of a holy heart even until tomorrow, or to any time in the immediate future? Show me a verse where God commands us to be holy tomorrow! Point out the passage where he says next week or next year we must be holy. Does any one say we will come into it gradually? My reply is: “Show me the verse in Scripture that we are sanctified or made holy gradually. At once you quote the verses, “Grow in grace” and “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” But neither of these passages refer to sanctification. The expression “perfect day,” Dr. Clarke says means the “endless felicity of heaven.”
The words “grow in grace” bear not the slightest allusion to the work of sanctification. As we have previously shown, the words are different, have different meanings, and refer to different works. Consecration and growth in grace are man’s work, but sanctification is the work of Almighty God. Men consecrate gradually, and grow in grace gradually; but when God regenerates or sanctifies the soul he does it instantaneously.
Let us sum up the foregoing points: If sanctification cannot take place in eternity, nor at death, nor is to be deferred to old age, or to a year hence, or even until tomorrow, then are we driven to the conclusion that it is to be had at any moment, and that moment may be now. Several facts confirm us in this conclusion.
First, the necessities of the case. The very uncertainty of life teaches me that the work should be quickly done. Tomorrow I may be gone; the next hour may find me dead–nay, the next minute may witness my soul flying from the body to the God who gave it. If the blessing of sanctification be a gradual work, then would we be undone.
Second, our knowledge of the power of God prepares us for the instantaneous blessing. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? He speaks, and it is done. He that converts a soul in a second, can he not sanctify in a second? Look at it, reader; if God can take a perfect giant of sin and make him a babe in Christ in a moment, can he not take a babe in Christ and make him a perfect man in Christ Jesus in a moment?
If God can instantaneously make a spiritual man out of a sinner, he can, with even greater ease, make a holy man out of a Christian.
A third argument for the instantaneous nature of sanctification is found in the will of God. The Scripture says: “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” Will any one dare to say that God wills our sanctification or holiness some time in the future, and not today? The one conclusion to which the mind is irresistibly drawn from this last thought is that the present moment is the time for sanctification. A fourth fact or argument for the instantaneous nature of this blessing is found in the glory of God. It is not to God’s honor that the hearts of his people should be defiled or unholy a single second of time. But the sooner that soul purity is obtained and lived naturally and necessarily will God be that much more glorified in a man who reflects the divine Spirit and image in every thought, emotion, speech, and action of life.
Still another argument we urge to prove that sanctification is the work of a moment is found in the tense in which the commands for our sanctification or holiness is presented. Study these commands, and you will find they are all in the present tense, or couched in forms to show an instantaneous work, “Be ye holy” is an unmistakable injunction for a present state and life. The passage in Hebrews, “Let us go on to perfection,” that at first seems to suggest a gradual work, teaches a definite and distinct state to be obtained, while the verb conveys the idea of being borne on immediately into the blessing.
The final proof is the statement of God’s word. Read Malachi iii. I: “The Lord, whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple.” Who is this temple? Paul answers: “Ye are his temple.” So has it ever been with those who received this unspeakable blessing; it came suddenly, not gradually.
Now turn to 2 Corinthians 6. 2. God in this passage forever settles the question by telling us what is his time. The verse reads “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” This removes all doubt, for is it possible that God is willing to pardon me now, and not willing to make me holy now? Does he desire a single sin to remain in us a moment? Is he not willing to give his people a full salvation the instant they will accept it? The book answers: “Behold, now is God’s accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Chapter Nine Chapter Eleven
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 8
SANCTIFICATION IS AN EXPERIENCE
Here we turn from God’s work to consider its effect upon man. This effect produces an experience. If there were no such distinct work, there would be no distinct experience, and the testimonies of the regenerated man and the man who claims sanctification would be the same. There would be no sharp dividing line, no distinguishing mark and trait by which one could be told from another.
I thank God there is such an experience, and thousands of people in the land, representing every disposition and temperament and age and walk in life, can and do attest the same fact that there is such an experience. The writer has known God as a Pardoner, and sweet was that knowledge; and God as his Saviour and Comforter, and gracious and blessed have been those experiences. But there is something better still, and that is to know him as one’s Sanctifier.
He that has not seen him in that light, and felt his power in that direction, has come short of the deepest and most gracious views and experiences of God, and continuing to live thus must undergo a loss that, to the mind, seems irreparable. Very briefly we sketch this experience: It is an experience of deep spiritual content and satisfaction. The old craving and yearning felt for something better in the religious life has been met and fulfilled in this blessing. The pearl of greatest price has been found, the good for which it had long sighed.
The clean heart, the restful heart, long prayed for, has come, and now there is an inward spiritual satisfaction most precious and indescribable. It is an experience of fullness. There is no afflicting sense of barrenness or emptiness. Salvation is felt within. The cup that was often half empty, and sometimes seemed altogether empty, is now a full cup. The loaves are always on the table of the heart, and there seems to be twelve loaves enough for self, and plenty to spare. A delightful fullness pervades the experience. It is an experience of peculiar joy. I refer not to ecstasies. Great floods of joy come to the regenerated and sanctified alike at times. But I speak here of the joy of salvation–a sweet, quiet, holy joy that nestles in the center of the soul, and never leaves.
“Woman,” said Christ, “if you had asked me I would have given you a blessing that would have been like a well of water, springing up continually within you.” He spoke of sanctification. And the joy I refer to here and the water Christ spoke of to the woman mean one and the same thing. Truly you cannot better describe this joy than by likening it to a fountain or well of water springing up within you. An experience of joy is one thing; the joy of salvation, another. The former comes and goes; the latter abides continually.
It is this abiding joy of salvation that enables the possessor to do what seems impossible to many Christians, although Paul exhorts to this end, and that is to “rejoice always.” The frequent “praise the Lord’s” of the sanctified man may appear mechanical and parrot-like to many Christians; but, so far from that, these praises and verbal rejoicings arise as naturally to the lips as the waters of an inexhaustible spring gurgle up from its clear depths and flow over its pebbly brim.
The writer praises God this morning for the quiet, tender joy of salvation that, like a fountain hidden away in the depths of his soul, has been flowing for nearly a year. Morning, noon, and night; on the street, at home or in the study; in company or alone, the joy of salvation–a full salvation–is always there. The fountain was there before, but choked by the great stone of inbred sin. This is now removed, and so, without an obstruction, the spiritual spring flows on and up into the heart and voice and face and life. The blessing promised the Samaritan woman has come. The well of water, springing up, keeps the soul from thirst, and imparts a freshness and gladness to the experience and life that may well be described even on earth as “everlasting life.” It is an experience of constant and easy victory over sin. There are temptations that beat on the sanctified heart. Satan tries to come in. He stirs up all kinds of adversaries against the soul, both fleshly and spiritual. But, to the delight of the man enjoying the blessing of sanctification, he finds that the old-time painfulness and difficulty of the struggle is gone. There is no inward convulsion; no war within, while victory comes swiftly and perfectly through the blood of the Lamb. Sometimes the conflict is protracted for hours, perhaps days; but, glory to God! during the entire time of resistance there is a consciousness of perfect ability to stand through Christ, a willingness to wait patiently on the Lord, and a certainty of triumph in the end that is blessed, and yet most difficult to describe. The difference of the spiritual conflicts in the regenerated and sanctified lives may be illustrated by the difference seen in the battles of the Israelites fought in the wilderness and those fought in the land of Canaan. Their enemies fairly melted away before them in the Holy Land. Songs, shouts, praises to God and steady advances were all that was needed in most cases in Canaan. And so in the sanctified life, on account of the perpetual sprinkling of the blood of Christ on the heart, and the constant reliance on the blood by that heart, there is a consequence of confidence, boldness, gladness, songfulness, and aggressiveness that is simply irresistible and all-conquering. I press an additional feature as a distinguishing characteristic of the victory ending the spiritual conflicts of the sanctified. And that is, while often in the regenerated life the battle ended with an experience of inward discomfort and twinges of condemnation, such is not the case with the sanctified man. With him the conflict begins, continues, and ends with a happy consciousness of purity and power, with the heart’s approval and with God’s approval. It is an experience of glad testifying. Does the reader know what it is to wish for a spiritual lamp that burns all the while, whose oil never gives out; but, being connected with the heavenly olive-trees, would be fed continually, and therefore burn steadily? Has the reader ever sat still in an experience-meeting with a cold heart, and waited until sufficiently warmed up by hymn or testimony of other people before giving his experience? If so, have you not wished for a deeper and more permanent work of grace; one that would enable you at all times and at any time to arise and give a bright, glad testimony about the Saviour’s work in your soul? This, thank God! is one of the peculiar marks of the sanctified life–the power of a constant, glad testifying. Hundreds of times the writer has been impressed with this attribute, or characteristic, of the sanctified. They don’t wait to be warmed up–don’t have to wait–for the full salvation is in them. There is no harp-hanging on willow-trees, no lamentation over inward sins and corruptions, no deploring over or confessing to a proneness to depart from God. There is a notable absence of all this in the testimony of a sanctified man, but, instead, the gladness, the preciousness, and the blessedness of a full and present salvation gives a ring to the voice, a freshness to the experience, a light to the face, and a triumph to the soul that is evident to all, and profoundly impresses all that hear. It is an experience of perfect submission to God. After the full surrender of the will to God in the act of consecration, and after the fall of the sanctifying fire, that will becomes harmonized and sweetly accordant with that of God. No reluctance now to do God’s will–no struggle to do it – but an instant yielding and a quick flying to do the divine behest the moment that the command of desire is revealed.
It is an experience of natural meekness. My meaning is that the meekness of the sanctified man is not the result of a strong restraint upon the feelings, but is a genuine quietness and longsuffering of spirit as natural as breathing. Sanctification has taken out that spiritual gunpowder that ignited and exploded under the spark of provocation, and now there is both deliverance from sudden out-bursts and from the smoldering fire of resentment as well. The faculty or disposition that responded angrily to insult is dead. The swelling throat, mounting color, shaking voice, choking speech, and prickly, nettled feeling, spreading up from the spirit into the body itself, are things of the past. A great meekness that can endure long and be kind has settled upon the man and keeps him calm and unresentful. It is an experience of purity. Here is something that has to be felt to be understood. Many are skeptical in regard to it as a distinct experience. Happy in the sense of pardon, acceptance with God, and cleansing from personal guilt, they insist this is all. But it is not all, as the craving of their hearts often declare, and as the converting Spirit of God endeavors to impress upon them. There is an experience of purity as clearly distinct from the experience of pardon as one individual life is different from another. In all the fluctuations of mere emotion this delightful sense and consciousness of purity remains. The Holy Ghost constantly bears witness to his own work, saying, continuously and momentarily, “Child, you are clean;” while the soul, with a vision of its own, and with cognitions peculiar to itself, recognizes the work and the fact of purity as one would recognize the white-robed majesty of Mont Blanc towering before him. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” said the Saviour. So there must be such a state. He that has it not will not claim it; his tongue will cleave to the roof of his mouth, he will, stammer and hesitate and commentate and circumnavigate when asked: “Are you pure?” O it is hard to testify to a condition or possession to which the Holy Ghost has never borne witness. But when he speaks, then you can speak, and how gladly and exultantly you will testify even in the midst of lowering and unbelieving faces that the blood has made you pure!
It is an experience of faith. By this I mean you find yourself believing, as it were, naturally. Where you formerly doubted, you now trust. Sanctification seems to place faith in the heart as a fixed state, and in the hand as a never-idle weapon. Faith becomes not a fitful exertion, but the attitude and movement of the soul. It becomes an experience. You can walk in it, live in it, in the midst of most trying circumstances, consciously sustained by it, as once in the regenerated life you were upheld by delightful experiences. It is an experience of perfect love. The love that follows the blessing of sanctification is perfect in that all anger and bitterness and unkindness of spirit is ejected. You can now love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and not only do kindly but feel kindly to those that despise and injure you. It is perfect in that no amount of opposition or persecution can embitter you; and, still more remarkable, that, no matter what may be the provocation, you are not conscious of an inward struggle with a spirit of wrath or hate before arriving at the point of pardon and love. Thank God that sanctification brings a love that can suffer long and still be kind; that can look across the table and see a man who is trying to injure you, and yet even, as Christ did, reach over to him and hand him a sop of kindness! It is an experience of unbroken inward rest. There is no feature of the sanctified life more marked than this. As you first become conscious of it, you hardly realize what a blessed treasure you have. But as days and weeks and months slide by, and it still remains, then the understanding begins to take in with a deeper appreciation the blessedness of the sanctified life. To your surprise and delight you discover that this rest goes with you as the pillar of fire did with the Israelites. When you go forth, it is with you; when you stop, it is with you. In company, in solitude, in the night, in the early morning, at the desk, in the midst of a Babel of voices–there
is this rest always abiding within. Like your shadow it goes with you–only it is any thing but a shadow. The reader will remember that one of Christ’s great promises to his people is rest. “I will give you rest!” Often in the alternations and fluctuations of my regenerated life I have wondered if this was what Christ referred to, if this was all that he could do and give. Thank God, I have found that I had done him great wrong; that he can give unbroken rest, and that, when he gives it, he does not propose to take the gift away. And to all who come as he directs will he give, as a second blessing, a rest that nothing can destroy! But, asks one, are there no experiences of sorrow? Is no trouble felt? Do temptations and bereavements cease to affect you? My reply is that sanctification does not destroy a single susceptibility or sensibility of the human nature God made. It only destroys sin. This being so, the sanctified man will weep as Christ wept, and groan as Christ did over certain things: There are times when he will say with his Lord, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful;” and the kiss of the betrayer will pierce like an arrow. And yet, marvelous and blessed to relate, the holy calm, that unbroken rest, still abides in the heart. Did you ever see it raining and the sun shining at the same time? “Behold, I show you a mystery.” And yet not a mystery unsolvable. For the Greek word “mystery” means “a secret that is to be revealed.” May you come into this secret speedily! Christ died to bring you within the veil, into the secret place. You will remember that I likened the joy of salvation to a fountain springing up within the heart. Now, over this fountain bend the balmy atmosphere and tranquil light of a deep spiritual rest. Then let a rainfall of sorrow descend like a shower through the light upon the face of the fountain. Now, what is the result? I have seen the answer in nature, and possess it daily in my soul. Here it is. The rainfall does not stop the flowing of the fountain, nor quench the light, nor destroy the balminess of the air. Then after a little the falling drops cease, the cloud passes away, but the fountain and the light and the atmosphere remain, and remain, as they had been all along, undisturbed and unchanged. There are two things in nature that, in a measure, describe the rest of sanctification. They came to me in answer to the question of my mind: How much will the unrest of this world affect the rest of a sanctified soul? There will be some natural movement through and upon the sensibilities; but how deep will it go? At once I obtained the answer on the sight of a tree caught in the grasp of the wind. I noticed that the top waved, but the trunk and roots were steady and still! Again, I thought of a body of water, whose surface may be agitated by the winds, but whose soundless depths are unmoved! The quiet, the stillness, the rest of untouched depths lay in unruffled tranquillity far beneath. There will be no gusty exhibition of grief, no boisterous outflow of a natural sorrow in the life of the sanctified. The unbroken calm and rest, deep within, will steal into the face, affect the voice, tranquilize the life, and, even in the midst of falling tears, enable him to say, with the light of heaven in the countenance: “It is the Lord, let him do whatsoever seemeth him good.” The Christian world knows well the severe trials that fell like a storm upon the Saviour the last night of his life. The light of the next morning revealed their effect upon flesh and blood in the pale, haggard, suffering countenance; but, blessed be God, the calm and peace of an indwelling holiness was still there! Nothing could destroy the soul-rest of Christ. It remained unbroken through a life and death unparalleled for suffering. This rest he offers Christian believers. It is the rest of a heart made holy by his blood and kept pure by his constant indwelling. He that obtains it will find that he has Christ’s own peace, the rest of purity and holiness which nothing can destroy.
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Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 7
SANCTIFICATION IS A DISTINCT WORK OF GOD
In this chapter some points will not appear that would come properly under this head, because anticipated, and in a measure discussed, in previous chapters. Sanctification is a doctrine. It is as much so as repentance, faith, and regeneration. The word is a distinct word, has a distinct and peculiar meaning, and refers to something that is not found in repentance, faith, or regeneration, and that something is holiness. By its position in the Hymn Book and theological standards, and by the clear way in which it is urged in the Scriptures, we cannot but see that sanctification is a doctrine in itself, recognized as such by man and taught as such by God.
Let us not fall into the mistake here that repentance is a distinct thing, and conversion a distinct thing, but that sanctification is a hazy, indefinable, indefinite, never-to-be-realized state, and thereby lose sight of its individuality as a blessing, and strip from the Bible one of its grandest doctrines. But let us mark how Christians are urged to go to it, and to possess it, and see in these repeated commands the proof that it is a cardinal truth and teaching of the Word of God. Sanctification is the work of God. The Bible says “the blood cleanses,” “the altar [Christ] makes holy,” and still again “the God of peace sanctify you wholly.” In another place Christ prays the Father to “sanctify” his disciples. In still other places the expressions used in description of the blessing of holiness are “the baptism of the Holy Ghost,” “the anointing and sealing of the Holy Ghost,” and “the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” There are many others, but these suffice to show that while all the persons of the Trinity are credited with the work, yet no other being but God is recognized as the Agent and Accomplisher. Still again, by this constant recognition of God in the Bible as the Sanctifier we are shown that sanctification is not man’s work and that as a consequence it cannot be growth in grace, which is always made incumbent as a duty upon man. Conviction is a work of God in the soul of a sinner. No man could produce such a result. Regeneration is a work of God in the soul of a believing penitent. Redemption is the final work of God upon the bodies of his slumbering saints; at his voice and through his power they will come forth from the grave in radiant resurrection forms. Sanctification, or holiness, is the work of God in the soul of a Christian believer. In full view of these distinct and separate operations of the power of God, Paul says: “Christ is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” The very position of these words show the separateness and distinctiveness of the work. Christ’s command also substantiates the idea. This command to the disciples was to tarry until they obtained not simply a blessing that would disappear in a day, but a work that would transform them into totally different men. See Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 8. We could say much on this point, but refrain. You who read these lines have felt the convicting power of God, and you have experienced the converting power of God, and you are later on to feel the resurrecting power of God, but have you yet felt the sanctifying power of the Almighty? If not, you are a stranger to him at that point. And if you will not feel it, then you will pass into eternity knowing certainly some of the marvelous operations of grace, but not having felt the most wonderful and blessed work of all that God performs upon the soul in this earthly life. What is this work, and in what respect does it differ from regeneration? Let me say that many have been taught to believe that regeneration does every thing for the soul. My reply to this is that the Bible calls regeneration a new birth–says it makes us new creatures, but never intimates that it makes us holy. It never calls it a baptism of fire. A baptism of fire would hardly be the proper swaddling-clothes for a newborn babe. In striking confirmation of this, I notice that I never heard a Christian liken his conversion to an experience of fire. That experience comes later, and belongs to a different work. Some claim that regeneration has done everything for them. Christ’s blood, they say, made them perfectly pure and holy at conversion, and all that is needed now is time for development. and a steady growth in grace. To this I offer several facts in reply: One is that I never heard but one regenerated person in my life claim that his heart was perfectly pure and holy, and he did it then with a hesitation and slowness that was remarkable and painful.
Another is that if there are a number who make this claim, they do it under the supposition that the inbred sin of their hearts is only temptation. Great is this mistake! Still another fact is that they have evidently mixed and confounded passages in the Bible bearing on the two subjects of regeneration and sanctification. They have taken verses of Scripture that refer exclusively to the sanctified life and used them to describe the life of the regenerated. One that is often thus twisted is the famous passage in Ezekiel: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” This was a promise made to believers, and therefore could not be conversion! Again, if regeneration saves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and from all idols of heart and life, then are regenerated men, like angel visits, few and far between!
Regeneration is a new birth, a change of masters, the implanting of a new life and love, the cleansing away of personal sins, and the removal of that depravity that results from personal transgressions, so that the man is a new creature, and can say: “Old things have passed away; all things have become new.” But all has not yet been done. Something still is left to be accomplished, as is evidenced by the command of Scripture to seek it, tarry for it, go on to it, and other like expressions. Moreover, the prayers of regenerated people, who are always asking for a clean heart, and the desires of regenerated people, who are living in the light and growing in grace both alike point to a something in the spiritual life that they have not.
The originator of this prayer and desire is the Holy Ghost, who is urging and drawing on to the higher blessing–to establishment in holiness. To resume, then: sanctification is a work of God in the soul, and this is the work:
First, it is the utter destruction of inbred sin, or inherited depravity, in the heart. This sin is called by various terms in the Bible and in religious nomenclature. “The body of sin,” “the law of sin and death,” “the flesh,” “the carnal mind,” the “old man,” and “proneness to sin,” are some of the names given to describe the dark principle of evil that rules in an unconverted life and that struggles for mastery in the heart of the regenerated Christian. Call it by what name you will, this is the thing that is destroyed in sanctification, and that is not destroyed in regeneration. Regeneration gives me power over it; sanctification kills it.
Second, it is a cleansing and purification. The instrument is the baptism of fire. Nothing purifies like fire. The baptism of water and all that it symbolizes is not equal to the baptism of fire. Ask a Christian, after he has felt this work of God, if his heart is pure, and there will be no hesitation, no slowness, but with the rapidity of the lightning’s flash he will say: “Glory to God! I’m pure. The blood has made me clean.”
Third, it is a filling or fullness of the Spirit, such as was never realized before. Then, says the Scripture, “were the disciples filled with the Holy Ghost,” as if this experience had not been theirs before. They had received the Holy Ghost, Christ had breathed the Spirit upon them; but at their sanctification they were filled. Paul, writing to the Romans, calls it “the fullness of the blessing.” God evidently descends in a manner and a measure upon the soul in sanctification that he does not in any previous work or condition of grace. Christ alluded to this in John 14. 23, when, speaking of the blessing, he said: “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” God comes to abide in the sanctified heart.
We cannot linger here, but call attention to the order of the divine work–the destruction, the purifying, and then the coming of the divine Blesser to take complete and final possession! It is a proper and necessary order, and an order observed in all cases, though for explainable causes sometimes one may be felt with pre-eminent clearness and force over the other. In my own case I was peculiarly conscious of the destruction, as by fire, and the fullness. After the recognition of these consciousness took hold of the feature of purity, saw and rejoiced that it was there, and now after twelve months still sees that it is there, and rejoices over it as an unchanging possession. – Beverly Carradine
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 6
SANCTIFICATION IS NOT GROWTH IN GRACE Here is where multiplied thousands fall into error. They have confounded two separate and distinct things. They have, in insisting that holiness and growth in grace were the same, made the work of man and the work of God identical. It is a very grave error. It is more than grave — it is calamitous. So long as the Church supposes that sanctification is a gradual growth in grace, so long will God’s people be kept out of the blessing of a holy heart.
How Satan smiles when he sees the Church seeking holiness in a direction and on a plane where it can never be found! He is not the least alarmed so long as God’s people look to themselves or to time or to growth, or to any thing but the blood of Christ, for holiness. While Christians thus wander about, he assumes a still easier attitude or position on his throne, and continues to smile. That entire sanctification is not growth in grace appears from several facts or considerations.
First, the words themselves. They are entirely different. One is agiasmos; the other, auxanete de en chariti. This fact alone should convince. Again, the meanings of the words are different. If they meant the same, why should the Spirit use different words. One means holiness; the other does not. One refers to a state; the other to a growth. One refers to a removal; the other to an addition. One signifies a death; the other a life. One is an impartation; the other an expansion and development. One takes away uncleanness and impurity; the other is the growth of purity.
One refers to a completed work; and the other to an, indefinite progress. And now, lest the last two expressions be misunderstood, we amplify by saying that the completed work referred to is the death of inbred sin or depravity, and that the indefinite progress is the growing holier all the days of the sanctified life; that sanctification is purity, but growth in grace is the maturing of purity.
Again, that they are not the same appears from Christian testimony. Did you ever hear a Christian admit that he had grown into the possession of a holy heart? You, my reader, may have been growing in grace for twenty, thirty, forty years. Have you obtained the blessing of a holy heart yet? No; nor will you ever obtain it that way. Many, many times at experience-meetings you have testified to listening hundreds that you were growing in grace, and yet never have you come into the possession of holiness. Has it not occurred to you that it is a long road you are traveling? You may be gray-haired now, and still you do not possess what you have been struggling for all your life. Does it not occur to you that it would be wise to try another route? You certainly ought to be convinced by this time that holiness of heart is neither growth in grace nor is it to be found by growth in grace. The other striking fact in connection with the thought of Christian testimony is that all the people you have ever heard claim the blessing of holiness testified that they obtained it instantaneously, by faith in the blood of Christ. The two testimonies agree. Both in different ways affirm–the one negatively, the other positively–that sanctification is not growth in grace, nor is it obtained by growth in grace.
The crowning proof that holiness is not growth in grace appears from the word of God. The Bible establishes the fact by teaching plainly that entire sanctification is an instantaneous work. It also confirms the thought and places it beyond all peradventure by a distinct recognition of the two works, and by specific commands relative to them. No one can read them without being impressed. For when the Bible speaks of the duty of growth it turns to man and says, “Grow in grace;” but when it speaks of sanctification it looks to God, and says, “The very God of peace sanctify you wholly … Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
My beloved reader, why have you not this blessing? Have you sought it? or have you spoken and written against it? Have you believed or doubted? Remember, it is obtained by earnest, humble seeking, with consecration of self to God and faith in Christ for the blessing. If you have not sought for it, and if you do not believe in the attainment of it, who wonders that you have not obtained it? Christ’s words are as applicable to the converted man as they are to the man of the world: “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine.” – Beverly Carradine
Many people just do not want to believe God’s Word.
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–Pastor Ward Clinton
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine4
SANCTIFICATION IS NOT A RECOVERY FROM BACKSLIDING
The supposition of many who have not realized this grace in the soul is that it is the recovery of the first love, or return from a more or less backslidden course. The idea is urged again and again, by different writers who are opposed to sanctification, that the professed possessors of the blessing had really drifted through unfaithfulness into a condition of darkness, fear, and even sin; and in looking for a second cleansing or sanctification have mistaken their recovery, or restoration of religious joy, for the blessing of sanctification; and, thus deluded, proclaim the fact that they have received the second blessing, when they have only been recovered from the life and course of a backslider.
This is certainly very different from the teaching of a famous little volume, called “Christian Perfection,” written by one of the most eminently pious men that ever lived, which says that entire sanctification is preceded by a gradual mortification of sin and ardent aspirations after holiness; in a word, by conditions and experiences the opposite of backsliding. According to this definition of sanctification, that it is nothing but a recovery from backsliding, we are necessarily led to infer that the Thessalonians, whom Paul so highly commended in his Epistle, saying that they were “ensamples” through their labor of love, patience of hope, and joy in the Holy Ghost, that they were really a set of backsliders. And when he wrote, “and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly,” he meant that he hoped the God of peace would recover them from their present backslidden condition. Truly this definition and explanation of entire sanctification, or the second blessing, as given by the doubters of the work, is enough to make Wesley turn over in his grave, and to cause the admirers of Fletcher and Carvosso and Clarke and Benson and McKendree to blush for those consecrated men of God. So, according to this explanation, these holy men were backsliders. Who is ready to credit this? Who, after reading their lives and their own statements and descriptions of the blessing of sanctification, can believe such a thing of them? Read the “Life of Fletcher,” and see how the definition fails to agree with the facts. Open the “Life of Carvosso,” and see how, after his conversion, he pressed steadily on, living in prayer, and never resting until he obtained the blessing of sanctification.
Now we turn to Bishop McKendree he is giving his experience: “Not long after my conversion Mr. Gibson preached a sermon on sanctification, and I felt its weight. When Mr. Easter came he enforced the same doctrine. This led me more minutely to examine the emotions of my heart. I found remaining corruption, embraced the doctrine of sanctification, and diligently sought the blessing it holds forth. The more I sought it, the more I felt the need of it, and the more important did that blessing appear. In its pursuit my soul grew in grace.” Then he goes on to describe when and how the blessing of sanctification came upon him. Where does the backsliding come in here? When did he lose God? On the contrary, he tells us that as he sought the blessing his soul grew in grace.
Now let the reader turn to Mr. Wesley’s volume on “Christian Perfection,” and read certain paragraphs on pages 37, 61, and 78, and he will find that the author calls the blessing a total death to sin and an entire renewal in the love and image of God obtained instantaneously, received by faith, and witnessed to by the Holy Ghost. In none of these instances can you find anything favoring the idea of a recovery from backsliding. On the contrary, it is represented as a sudden uplift and deliverance granted a soul that had been previously growing in grace; that it is a second and distinct work done in and for not a backslidden, but a consecrated life.
With great shrinking I mention my own experience in the same breath with such superior and holy men. But God calls upon me to witness here, and by my tongue and pen to protest humbly, but firmly, against this degrading definition of sanctification. God knows that I have not been a backslider. He knows that for over twelve years the rule of my life, rarely broken, has been never to lay my head upon my pillow until I felt a sense of acceptance with him; while every day I have felt his peace and presence in my soul.
Evidently the blessing I received on June 1, of last year, was not a recovery from backsliding.
Chapter Three Chapter Five My books on Amazon
–Pastor Ward Clinton
Sanctification by Beverly Carradine 1
CHAPTER 1
MY REASON FOR WRITING The following are some of my reasons for writing upon the subject of entire sanctification:
First, I am trying to reach a class that, like myself, have lived in a kind of bondage all their Christian lives; have longed for perfect spiritual rest, and knew not how to obtain it. I speak to them.
Then there is such a thing as a rising generation. They need to be taught concerning this doctrine. If we are not to declare openly that which our elders and superiors have known beforehand, what is to become of this advancing host of young people? Such a policy would put an end to the gospel itself. Still again, there are occasional articles in our papers striking at and ridiculing the doctrine of entire sanctification. Some of them remind me of Joab’s interview with Abner. One hand is stretched forth in seeming kindness, when suddenly the other drives a hidden sword to the heart of the doctrine. In all conscious personal weakness and unworthiness I appear in this book pleading for an experience that fills me and thrills me at this writing, and as a defender and upholder of a doctrine that I know now to be true, because it has been transformed into an experience in my soul, and become a blessed reality in my life. It has been suggested that what I call facts in my experience may be fancies. Glory be to God! it is no fancy that Christ has kept me from sin for months, and that my soul in all that time has been filled with perfect peace and rest and love. It is not a fancy that God has in a moment lifted me into a state which I have been vainly trying to reach for a number of years. These are facts that stand out like Mont Blancs above the range of ordinary experiences. “One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.” One experience in the converted or sanctified life is worth ten thousand theories. Furthermore, it is proper to say that there is not such general and accurate knowledge of sanctification among the people as some think. The fact of the blessing maybe believed in, but the manner of obtaining it be unknown, because unproclaimed. Hundreds of Methodists in this city had never heard, until a short while since, a sermon on sanctification, in which the blessing was held up as obtained instantaneously through consecration and faith. The Carondelet Street congregation, one of the largest and noblest in the Connection, listened with wonder; not at the doctrine, but at the method of obtaining the blessing. Some doubted and drew back; but others, to the number of thirty, have entered into the sanctified life. There are multiplied thousands in the land who know not the way of entrance into the sanctified life, and thousands more who are in ignorance of sanctification itself. Ask them what it is, and nine out of ten will reply that it is a growth in grace, while the Scriptures plainly teach that growth in grace is man’s work, and sanctification is the work of God. Because of these things I cannot but write and speak of the things I have seen and felt. – B. Carradine
–Pastor Ward Clinton
Christian, Be Diligent
Matthew 10:40 [Jesus said:] He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
10:41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
What completely different spheres of duty are assigned to the clergy and the laity! And we are told that he who labors with great earnestness in the work of a clergyman has a reward of peculiar splendor within reach, inasmuch as “They who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.” But it is evident from this text that the same reward is attainable by others who have never been called to the clergyman’s work. They who have not been “prophets” may “receive a prophet’s reward,” and if an individual have upheld a clergyman in his arduous and most responsible calling, strengthening him by such assistances as the occasion demands, sustaining him when assailed, cheering him when disheartened, and all out of love for his office, and desire for his success, so that he receives the pastor in the name of a pastor, we may say of such an individual that in God’s sight he takes part in the clergyman’s labors. [and shall be rewarded by his Lord]. – H. Melvill, B.D.
Be blessed, be encouraged, and whatever you do, whatever your line of labor is, do it as though you are doing it for our Lord, Jesus, The Christ — Pastor Ward Clinton
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