INTERPRETING CHRISTIAN HOLINESS by Westlake Taylor Purkiser

Chapter Two: THE HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF HOLINESS

W. T. Purkiser (1910-92) was a prolific writer, respected scholar, and well-loved preacher within the Church of the Nazarene who also had a significant voice in the larger evangelical Christian community. He authored and contributed to some of the most widely disseminated and enduring works in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.

Christian holiness not only has a basis in the Bible, It also has a history in human understanding. God's truth never changes. Men's understanding of that truth does change. Theology, like all other human disciplines, is constantly changing -- pushing forward, and sometimes regressing.

It is because important insights are often lost that we need a basic acquaintance with the history and literature of the Wesleyan movement. Generations, like groups of people within any generation, may become provincial and cut off from the experience and thought of the Church universal.

One of the major problems of our age is its rootlessness, its lack of any sense of continuity with its past. Part of this, as Kenneth Keniston has pointed out, is due to the rapidity of change in these times in which we live. Because change comes so fast, we suffer an intensification of the present -- a heightening of the now until we have come to talk about the "now generation," the "now people." We are, as Keniston described it, "stranded in the present." [1]

Traditionally, to be sure, church people are a conservative crowd. Most of us dislike any change we can't jingle in our pockets. But change is with us, and Thomas Wolfe was most certainly right when he wrote, "You can't go home again . . . to your childhood . . . back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time." [2]

But having conceded this much to the present, and the changing future, we still need the perspective that comes from at least some awareness of the past. Not all the brilliant theologians and Bible scholars have been born in the twentieth century by any means. The same advice might be given to theological reconstructionists that has been offered to young protesters against the "Establishment": "Don't scuttle the ship before you have learned how to build a raft."

A sense of history provides the correctives needed for some of our one-sidedness. We need the balance that can be found in many of the older holiness classics, such as:

John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection

Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

A. M. Hills, Holiness and Power

Daniel Steele, The Gospel of the Comforter and Milestone Papers

J. A. Wood, Perfect Love and Purity and Maturity

H. A. Baldwin, Holiness and the Human Element

Thomas Cook, New Testament Holiness

And the sound, practical wisdom of George D. Watson, Samuel Logan Brengle, S. A. Keen, Beverly Carradine, and a dozen more.

Men are still writing, and in the Kingdom the new wine may be as good as the old. But the past has insights in it which we need to correct some of the overcompensations we have made -- the swing of the pendulum past center point.

Two items are particularly important in the present.

I One is the common, modern version of Wesleyan "eternal security." It differs from Calvinistic eternal security in that it relates to entire sanctification rather than to justification and the new birth. It is the notion that in the experience of holiness we have a sort of deposit of grace sufficient for the rest of life, and that sanctification is an end to be gained which when reached insures an easy slide down the slope into the Pearly Gates.

Put in such bald terms, no one would own up to such a view. But in one form or another it is surprisingly common among holiness people. Here the historical interpretation of Christian holiness can help.

Let us hear again the words of John Wesley, and let us inscribe them on the fleshy tables of our hearts:

The holiest of men still need Christ as their prophet, as "the light of the world." For he does not give them light, but from moment to moment: the instant he withdraws, all is darkness. . . . God does not give them a stock of holiness. But unless they receive a supply every moment, nothing but un holiness would remain. [3]

If the Bible makes anything clear, it is that the cleansing which is the heart of holiness is not only a cleansing that begins at a definite point of consecration and faith, but it is also a cleansing which continues moment by moment. This is the meaning of the verb in I John 1:7, which literally reads, "If we are walking in the light as He is in the light, we are having fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son is cleansing us from all sin." It begins to cleanse, and it keeps right on cleansing completely and continuously.

The experience of entire sanctification is not an end but a beginning, not a goal but a starting place. True, it is an end of carnal strife and confusion within the soul. It is an arrival at a realization of God's will for all His people. Yet the end of carnal strife and confusion is for the sake of a beginning of peace and victory. And the point of arrival is but a portal that leads onto a highway stretching across all of life and on into eternity.

We do not retain the grace of God by hoarding it, like the man in the parable -- wrapping it in a napkin to bury for safekeeping. We retain it by risking it in the marketplace, investing it in the commerce of human life, spending it freely on others in the assurance that it will return increasing dividends.

The light is present as long as the windows are open to the sun. The holiness to which God calls us is the sanctifying presence of the Lord of Glory moment by moment.

Puzzles as to "how carnality gets back into the heart" of a person who backslides after he has been sanctified are completely artificial. If the light is lost, "all is darkness." Without a supply of holiness every moment, "nothing but unholiness would remain." Carnality returns as blindness comes when sight is lost, as poverty returns when a fortune is squandered, as disease recurs when the laws of health are violated, and as death and corruption invade a branch when it is cut off from the vine (John 15:1-6).

Holiness is not a storage battery to be used whenever and wherever, apart from the ultimate source of its energy. Holiness is a throbbing, pulsating connection with the divine Dynamo.

Holiness is not a tank of water. It is a pipeline directly into the Reservoir.

This is the truth in May Whittle Moody's familiar lines:

Dying with Jesus, by death reckoned mine;

Living with Jesus, a new life divine;

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Moment by moment I'm kept in His love

Moment by moment I've life from above.

Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine,

Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine.

Hannah Whitall Smith in The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life says that, in the ongoing life of holiness, our part is continual surrender and continual trust. [4] There is a "once-for-all" surrender in the moment of full consecration, and there is a "once-for-all" act of appropriating faith. But the going and growing life in the Spirit requires that we continually surrender and continually trust.

Holiness is not only a work of grace; it is the workings of grace. It is not only an act of God; it is a relationship begun at a given time and place and renewed and maintained day by day.

This is so familiar to us in human relationships that it is hard to see why we find the idea so difficult, in our relationship with God.

There is, for instance, an obvious difference between a wedding and a marriage. The wedding is a "once-for-all" event, permanently identified with a time and place, a calendar and a geography. The wedding is unrepeatable. By its very nature, it, establishes what both God's law and human ideal intend to be a permanent, union.

But the marriage is not a "once-for-all" event. It is an ongoing relationship.

When the wedding is over, there is nothing more we need to do about it. But we have to work at the marriage.

The wedding may take place in church or chapel. The marriage is lived daily in the home, and its implications pervade every other possible association between men and women in the shop, the office, the school, the marketplace, or wherever people are together.

Need it be said that homes which fail do not fail at the time of the wedding, but in the course of the marriage? The test does not come during the beauty of the wedding. The test comes when "moonlight and roses turn to daylight and dishes." The test comes after the "billing and cooing," when there are too many bills and not enough "coos.

"Which things," as Paul would say, "are an allegory."'

All that is true about the wedding, and more, is true about the moment when the child of God first enters the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. It, is "once-for-all." It begins what is meant to be a permanent state of affairs. It has a time and a place. It is complete. It alters everything that happens, every relationship and every decision, from that time on until the end of life.

And all that is true about the marriage, and more, is true of the processes wherein God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. The life of holiness is a daily life in the home, the shop, the office, the school, the marketplace. It, is not history; it is biography. It is never completed. It never ends.

Just as one cannot have a marriage without a wedding, so one cannot have the ongoing life without the experience of grace that initiates it. But just as the wedding has little value unless it is followed by a sound marriage, the experience of grace doesn't mean much unless it is the beginning of a deepening and ever richer relationship.

Oswald Chambers wrote, "The test of life 'hid with Christ in God' is not the experience of salvation or sanctification, but the relationship into which these experiences have led us."

Chambers went on to explain that "experience is absolutely nothing if not the gateway only to a new relationship. The experience of sanctification is not the slightest atom of use unless it has enabled me to realize that the experience means a totally new relationship. The experience may take a few moments of realized transaction, but all the rest of life goes to prove what that transaction means."

The problem, Chambers said, is that "people stagnate because they never go beyond the image of their experiences into the life of God which transcends all experiences.

"We must beware," he warned, "of turning away from God by grubbing amongst our own experiences." [5]

II A second item wherein we may learn from history lies at the opposite end of the spectrum from the matter just considered. It is the view commonly held today that a act of sin in the sanctified life immediately cuts off the soul completely from God and plunges it into total rebellion and complete depravity once more.

Here again the Wesleyan classics can help us. The older holiness writers -- and by this I mean such people as S. A. Keen, G. D. Watson, Daniel Steele, M. L. Haney, Hannah Whitall Smith, Thomas Cook, and Beverly Carradine -- almost without exception said that a sanctified Christian involved in an unpremeditated act of sin (what Thomas Cook called a "surprise sin") could be immediately forgiven and fully restored by confessing that sin and receiving forgiveness through our divine Advocate with the Father.

This view is based directly on I John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

These verses are set in the context of one of the finest expressions of cleansing from all sin and all unrighteousness in the New Testament (I John 1:6-10). Nor are they in conflict with the strong statements of I John 3:6-9, where the grammar shows that repeated sins are in mind.

The purpose of John's writing in fact is "that ye sin not," (verse 1) -- and the grammar is such as to imply, "not even a single time." The apostle chooses his words carefully. He does not say, "When every Christian sins," or even, "When any man sins." The sin is not expected. There is no suggestion that it is necessary. The statement is, "If any man sin," and the conditional form of the statement implies the possibility of its opposite.

Yet when defeat comes, when there is an impulsive and unpremeditated transgression of God's law, the case is not hopeless. There is an instant remedy. Immediate confession brings immediate forgiveness and cleansing. Christ is the "Mercy Seat" for His own in the moment of tragic defeat as well as "for the sins of the whole world."

It is true that some have not recognized this possibility. They have suffered a bit, perhaps, from what someone has called "hardening of the categories," and have been quite vehement in the claim that a single act of sin under any circumstances plunges the sanctified soul into complete depravity and necessitates a definite two-stage restoration involving forgiveness followed later by entire sanctification.

The result of this hardened view is one of two extremes. On the one hand, the Christian trapped into sin may go into despair and throw over his entire covenant with Christ, lapsing into total backsliding. Or, more commonly but even worse, he may cover his sin, rationalize, excuse, or deny it, and thereby drive it into his subconscious. There it festers and poisons the soul and comes out in legalism, rigidity, and a critical, judgmental, suspicious, and defensive attitude toward everybody and everything. Other people must be torn down in order to build up the crippled ego.

In extreme cases, actual physical collapse takes place for which there is no medical cure. For while the conscious mind may reject the truth, the heart does not forget.

What we need to remember was said by the "fathers" in many ways:

John Wesley: "A believer may fall, and not fall away. He may fall and rise again. And if he should fall, even into sin, yet this case, dreadful as it is, is not desperate. For we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. [6]

M. L. Haney: "One act of disobedience brings defilement, and with it comes the consciousness of impurity, and the only refuge is immediate flight to Christ, that the stain may be washed out. Satan will tempt you to throw away all that God has previously done for you, and send you back to the beginning to repent and believe for justification, and the substitution of a new consecration for the former one, that you may believe and be sanctified. . . . Don't listen to him; but go straight to Christ with that one offense, and let him heal the wound thus made, and you will again be pure in his sight. If you delay, you will be almost certain to add other offenses, for one sin paves the way to another, and every moment of delay increases your danger. Therefore hasten while the wound is fresh, and be healed in Christ's all-cleansing blood." [7]

S. A. Keen: "There may come spiritual failures to the fully-saved soul, such as temporary disobedience, inadvertent yieldings to temptations, impulsive indulgences in wrong feelings, occasional lapses into sin. . . . The anchor that can hold the soul in this fierce storm, is to know that such spiritual repulses do not forfeit the gracious state of cleansing from all sin, unless they come from a preceding repudiation of its consecration and trust, or are immediately followed by the cancellation of the same. The soul must know, whenever such spiritual calamities come, that an immediate confession to God, and a reassertion of its trust in the all-cleansing blood, will prevent the forfeiture of its experience, and bring an immediate renewal of the witness to full salvation." [8]

Hannah Whitall Smith: "In this life and walk of faith, there may be momentary failures [defined in the context as conscious, known sin], which, although very sad and greatly to be deplored, need not, if rightly met, disturb the attitude of the soul as to entire consecration and perfect trust, nor interrupt, for more than the passing moment, its happy communion with its Lord." [9]

Daniel Steele: "So long as love to God is the undiminished motive there can be no career of sin. But faith may become weak and love may decline. Then under the pressure of temptation the child of God may commit a single sin, as [I John] 2:1 implies, and have recourse to the righteous Advocate with the Father, and thus retain his birthright in the kingdom of God. Or he may with Judas pass out of the light into so total an eclipse of faith as to enter upon a returnless course of sin entirely sundering him from the family of God, and enrolling him as a 'son of perdition,' a 'child of the devil,' whose characteristics he has permanently taken on.""

None of this is to excuse sin or treat it lightly. It ought never to happen in the sanctified life. But if it does, it must be dealt with honestly and forthrightly. We have been much less open and clear about this whole matter than our fathers, and much to our detriment.

It, must be recognized, to be sure, that there is premeditated sin, calculated and presumptuous, which is in itself an indication of a backslidden heart. A person so involved, however, had long since lost the sanctifying fullness of the Spirit. When he comes back after his sad journey to the far country, he comes as a rebel to be forgiven and restored. He must then make his consecration anew and receive anew the fullness of the blessing of the gospel.

Even in such a case, there need be no more than a moment of time between the renewed sense of forgiveness and prayer for the cleansing touch.

Without obscuring some real differences between piety in the Old Testament, and in the New, this is what happened in David's restoration after his sin with Bathsheba as recorded in Psalms 51. Here, with but a moment between, is the prayer for forgiveness of specific sins and transgressions (verses 1-4), and the plea, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (verses 7-10).

1. Quoted in Sheldon Garber, ed., Adolescence for Adults (Chicago: Blue Cross Association, 1969), pp. 74-75. 2. You Can't Go Home Again (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941, p.706. 3. A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1966, reprint), p. 82. 4. (Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Company, reprint), p.32. 5. If Thou Wilt Be Perfect (London: Simpkin Marshal, Ltd., 1949, reprint), p.85. 6. Sermon on Matthew 5:13-16. Works, V, 301. 7. The Inheritance Restored, Fourth Edition Revised and Enlarged. (Chicago: The Christian Witness Co., 1904), p.171. 8. Salvation Papers (Cincinnati: M. W. Knapp, 1896), pp.97-103. 9. Op. cit., p.163. 10. Half-Hours with St. John's Epistles (Boston: Christian Witness Co., 1901), Comment on I John 3:9, loc. cit.

Coming Next: THE THEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF HOLINESS

INTERPRETING CHRISTIAN HOLINESS by Westlake Taylor Purkiser

W. T. Purkiser (1910-92) was a prolific writer, respected scholar, and well-loved preacher within the Church of the Nazarene who also had a significant voice in the larger evangelical Christian community. He authored and contributed to some of the most widely disseminated and enduring works in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.

PREFACE

Christian holiness has three aspects. There is a grace to receive, a style of life to be lived and a truth to be understood. It is with the truth or doctrine of holiness that we are here concerned, together with some of its implications for life.

The doctrine of Christian holiness is the conviction that, within the limitations of our humanity, the sanctifying grace of God is sufficient to free the Christian heart from the power and presence of inner sin, to fill it with pure love for God and man, and to impart power for Christian life and service in this present world. The provision for this gift of grace is found in the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and its dynamic is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The purpose of this little volume is to interpret the theory and practice of holiness in some of its biblical, historical, theological, psychological, and sociological facets. It is an attempt to do what we are charged to do in I Pet. 3:15-16, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ."

Christians have a twofold task in relation to their faith. The task is, first, proclamation. It is, second, interpretation. We must proclaim the truth to those who have never heard. But we must also explain the truth to those who have heard but need to understand it more adequately.

Candor compels us to confess that we have generally been stronger on proclamation than we have on explanation. We have insisted to all who would hear that the will of God is their sanctification. We have not always been as clear as we might in telling them what it means to be sanctified.

There is a vast difference between explaining a truth and explaining it away. Some calls for "reinterpretation" seem not so much the desire for better understanding as the wish to get rid of the truth entirely. But we must be interpreters, not corrupters. We are to be translators, not transformers, of the truth. We are to explain and apply the doctrine, not change its content.

Like a city set on a hill that may be approached from different directions and by different paths, the full truth of Christian holiness must be sought in a variety of contexts.

The approaches considered here are not the only interpretations that might be given. But they represent areas in which most of the major questions arise for which we are commanded to give an answer to those who ask.

W. T. Purkiser

CONTENTS

01 -- The Biblical Interpretation of Holiness

02 -- The Historical Interpretation of Holiness

03 -- The Theological Interpretation of Holiness

04 -- The Psychological Interpretation of Holiness

05 -- The Sociological Interpretation of Holiness

Reference Notes

01 -- THE BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION OF HOLINESS

All Christian truth must be based on the teaching of the Bible. God has spoken in the Scriptures and has made known to us both His will for our lives and His provision for our needs.

No important Bible truth depends on scattered and isolated proof texts. One man is said to have claimed that he could prove atheism from the Bible. He offered the text, "There is no God."

What he did not say was that the context read, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Ps. 14:1).

The doctrine of Christian holiness is based upon the total thrust of the Scriptures. It is not merely a thread or line of truth running through the Word of God. It is rather a network of teaching which is an essential part of the fabric of the whole.

Holiness has its roof texts -- although it would be more correct to call them data --

evidences which support the conviction that sanctifying grace is real in human life. They should not be ignored. But even more important, is the message of the whole. Behind clichés and stereotypes based on a few isolated passages is the rich and varied teaching of the Bible itself.

Before turning to the biblical presentation of holiness, it should be noted that there are two sets of English terms in the King James Version used to translate a single Hebrew word in the Old Testament and a single Greek word in the New Testament.

One of these sets of English terms comes from the Germanic roots of our language. It includes the verb "to hallow, make holy," the noun "holiness," and the adjective 'holy."

The other set of English terms is derived from the Latin roots of English. It includes the verb "to sanctify," the noun "sanctification," and the adjective "sanctified."

Theologians sometimes make distinctions between these two sets of English words. For example, sanctification is sometimes defined as the act or process whereby a person or thing is made holy; and holiness is defined as the state or condition resulting from the act or process of sanctification. But since the two sets of words from which sanctification and holiness come are alternative translations of single terms in the original biblical languages, it is better to regard as equivalent expressions the verbs "to sanctify" and "to make holy," the nouns sanctification" and "holiness," and the adjectives "sanctified" and "holy."

I

The Bible is an amazingly realistic Book. It describes with great faithfulness the sorrows and sins, the struggles and hopes, the weakness and pain of the men and women who walk its pages. Yet through it all there shines a light of redemption and victory, the light of that "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).

In swift strokes, the early chapters of Genesis paint the picture of creation and catastrophe, holiness given and holiness lost.

Genesis 3 tells us of the source of that corruption of our moral natures for which

sanctification is the divine cure. Created in the image of God, but using the freedom which was part of that image to seek to "be as gods" (Gen. 3:5) themselves, Adam and Eve brought upon their descendants the corruption that comes to a branch cut off from the source of spiritual life in the Vine (cf. John 15:1-6).

The man created in the image of God "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image" (Gen. 5:3) whose "every imagination [yetzer, tendency, propensity, direction] of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5; 8:21). The sinful condition of the race is due to the depravity that comes from "depravity," that is, human nature apart from the life of the Spirit.

Yet such is the marvel of God's love and patience that the very scene of human rebellion was the occasion for the first promise of divine redemption, of One who at the cost of His own suffering would crush the serpent's head (Gen. 3:15; Rom. 16:20).

Through long centuries of preparation, the fact God's holiness was revealed in a dozen different ways -- by His wonderful works, by the awe men felt in is presence, by the ritual and sacrifices of Tabernacle and Temple, as well as by the prayers, aspirations, and proclamations of those men to whom God made himself known. God was seen to be, in Isaiah', favorite phrase, "the Holy One of Israel" (1:4; 5:19; 10:20; etc.). Holiness was seen to be the very inwardness of God's being. It is His nature, His "Godness."

Equally strong was the call for men who walked with God to be like Him in moral

character. In the Old Testament, the familiar biblical term "sanctify" (102 Times in various forms) often has the meaning we have come to attach to "consecrate." This is clearly true when men are told, as they frequently are, to sanctify themselves; to sanctify places, garments, altars, vessels, days, priests, and people to the Lord. The meaning is to separate or set apart as dedicated to God.

This is not the whole story, however. Present from the beginning, and growing stronger through the centuries, was the recognition that people who belong to God are not only consecrated but are to be different in a real and personal way. Ritual purity is symbolic of moral purity. The repeated command, "Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:26), makes no distinction between the holiness of God and the holiness of His people, and is set in the context of moral conduct in I Pet. 1:15-16.

It is clear, certainly, that the holiness possible to man is not a property of his own nature. It is God's gift. But even before the finished work of Christ on the cross it was possible for inspired writers to describe Noah as one who "found grace in the eyes of the Lord . . . a just man and perfect in his generations" (Gen. 6:8-9); to record God's command to Abraham, "Walk before me, and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17:1); and to speak of Job as "perfect and upright" (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3).

II

The sacrifices and ceremonies that make up so much of Exodus, Leviticus, and

Deuteronomy had a dual purpose. They were object lessons in the need for a blood-sprinkled way into the "holiest of all," the redemptive presence of the Lord God. And they pointed ahead to the Cross -- the coming of the Lamb of God, who was to bear away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

The Psalms give us one of the best measures of the piety of the Old Testament, the type of character possible to men who walk with God. There are many insights into the nature of God's holiness and its demands upon those who worship Him (15:1-2; 24:3-4). The Psalmist distinguishes between his sins and transgressions -- the iniquities he has done (51:1, 3-4, 9) – and the disposition behind the deeds, the inward "sin" for which the only remedy is the purging blood and the washing that brings a clean heart (51:2, 5-6, 10).

Old Testament teaching about the godly life came to full flower in the prophets. There was Isaiah, already a prophet (1:1 in comparison with 6:1), who experienced the taking away and purging of his iniquity or "sin" (note the singular), and who pointed the way to the age of the Spirit which was to come (6:1-8; 32:15, 17; 35:8-10; 44:3; 59:19, 21; 62:12 -- with the solemn warning of 63:7-10).

There was Jeremiah, who wrote of the "new covenant" (31:31-33; cf. Heb. 10:14-22); Ezekiel's promise of the cleansing to come from the "new spirit" within (36:25-26, 29); Joel's famous prediction of Pentecost (2:28-29); Zechariah's vision of the "fountain . . . opened for sin and for uncleanness" (12:10; 13:1, 9); and Malachi's prophecy of the Messiah's refining fire to purify and purge and make possible "an offering in righteousness" (3:1-3).

While holiness in the Old Testament did not come up to the full-orbed truth of the New Testament, the ideal is clear and the promise is sure. Its fulfillment in Christ and the age of the Spirit is the apex of the new covenant.

III

The Gospels present God's purpose for His people in two ways: in their record of the Life that must forever be the ideal for Christian aspiration, and in the teachings of Jesus and the inspired men who recorded His words.

Jesus spoke of the blessedness of the pure in heart (Matt. 5:8). He called the children of God to perfection of love (Matt. 5:43-48; 22:35-40; Mark 12:29-31; Luke 6:40). He taught that the source of evil is the depravity of a carnal heart (Mark 7:21-23) in contrast with the emphasis on the outward or cultic holiness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Christ promised the Holy Spirit as rivers of living water to those who believed (John 7:38-39), the Father's Gift to those of His children who ask (Luke 11:13). He spoke of "another Comforter" to be given to those who love Him and keep His commandments, a Bestowment whom "the world cannot receive" (John 14:15-17)

Jesus prayed for His own (John 17:9) and for those who would believe on Him through their word (17:20) that God would "sanctify them" (17:17) -- so that His joy might be fulfilled in them (17:13); that they might be kept from the evil (17:15); that they might be made perfect in one (17:21, 23); that the world might believe (17:21, 23); and that they might be with Him at last and behold His glory (17:24).

Our Lord's parting command was to tarry in the city of Jerusalem (Luke 24:49) until baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) -- a baptism which follows the water baptism that seals repentance (Matt. 3:11-12; Luke 3:16-17; John 1:33; Acts 11:15-16) and which empowers a consistent life and witness (Acts 1:8).

The Book of Acts records the fulfillment of the promise and prayer of Jesus concerning the Holy Spirit. While the Jerusalem Pentecost of Acts 2 had an unrepeatable historical side to it as the beginning of the long-awaited "age of the Spirit," its deeper personal meaning is attested by the Samaritan Pentecost of Acts 8, the Caesarean or Gentile Pentecost of Acts 10, and the Ephesian Pentecost of Acts 19.

Few are disposed to dispute the spiritual power that comes with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Its cleansing aspect has not seemed as apparent, despite the fact that one of the meanings of the Greek term for baptism is itself "cleansing."

The matter is settled beyond reasonable doubt, however, in Acts 15:8-9. This is Peter's testimony as to what happened to Cornelius and the people of his household: "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."

Although there had been speaking in other languages in Caesarea as in Jerusalem (10:46),

Peter did not mention this at all. When he was concerned to show the identity of the Gentile Pentecost with what happened in Jerusalem, the only "sign" he appealed to was the fact that God purified by faith the hearts of those upon whom the Holy Spirit came.

IV

The Epistles of the New Testament, Pauline and General, give full expression to the truth of Christian holiness. It must be remembered that the letters of the New Testament are all addressed to Christians. They were written from within the context of faith, and directed to those who had been converted.

For this reason, there is no effort on the part of the writers to identify sanctification as a work of grace following conversion or the new birth. The readers are assumed already to have passed from death to life Whatever is urged upon them must, therefore, be understood as part of what follows the initial experience of salvation. God's redemptive work in its totality is the theme of the New Testament letters. It is expressed in many ways:

a. Christians must experience in reality what is implied in baptism and provided by the Cross (Rom. 6:1-7:6).

b. Both the law and human willpower are futile in dealing with inner sin (Rom. 7:7-25).

c. Only the Spirit of life can make the believer free from the fleshly or carnal mind (Rom. 8:1-13).

d. The very mercies of God call for His people to make of themselves living sacrifices

(Rom. 12:1-2).

e. Spiritual infancy and carnal living rend the body of Christ (I Cor. 3:1-4).

f.. More excellent than spiritual gifts is the way of divine love (I Cor. 12:31-13:13).

g. The promises of God call us to cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (II Cor. 7:1).

h. The struggle between "flesh" and "Spirit" goes on until the "flesh" is crucified with its affections and lusts (Gal. 5:17-24).

i. Those chosen to be holy and without blame before God in love must put off "the old man. . . corrupt according to the deceitful lusts," and put on" the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 1:4; 4:22-24).

j. Christ loved the Church and gave himself to "sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," that it "should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:25-27).

k. There is no "perfection of glory" in this life (Phil. 3:12-14), but there is a "perfection of grace" (3:15).

l. Putting off the old man and putting on the new man must lead to life on a new and higher ethical plane (Col. 3:1-13). m. God's will and call are to holiness, entire sanctification (I Thess. 4:3, 7-8; 5:23-24).

n. Grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live holy lives in this present world, looking for the coming of the God-man, who gave himself both to "redeem us from all iniquity," and to purify unto himself a people peculiarly His own, "zealous of good works' " (Titus 2:11-14).

o. The strong, practical emphasis of the letter to the Hebrews is the need for converts to "go on":

-- to a sanctifying union with the Captain of their salvation (2:10-11)

-- into the "rest of faith" (3:12-4:11)

-- to become teachers of others (5:11-14)

-- unto "perfection" (6:1-3)

-- to the reality of Christ's sprinkled blood (9:13-14)

-- into the holiest of all (10:19-22)

-- following "holiness, without, which no man shall see the Lord" (12:14-17)

-- with Christ, without, the camp where He suffered to sanctify the people of God with His own blood (13:12-14). The alternative to going on is the chilling possibility of going "back unto perdition" (10:39).

p. The double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, is directed to purify his heart (Jas. 1:8; 4:8).

q. God's obedient children are to be "holy, as he . . . is holy" in every area of their lives (I Pet. 1:14-16).

r. By the promises of God, we become partakers of His nature, and thus escape the corruption in the world through lust (II Pet. 1:4).

s. If we walk in the light of God instead of the darkness of sin, we have fellowship with Him, and the blood of Jesus Christ, cleanses from all sin. To deny the need for such cleansing is to deceive ourselves (I John 1:7-8).

t. In the perfection of love, there is boldness in the day of judgment (I John 4:17-18). Putting all this together, one can hardly escape the almost boundless optimism of the New Testament writers as they reflect the possibilities of grace. They are fully aware of the tensions involved in living godly lives in this present world in bodies that still await the full redemption of the sons of God. They know that it is tribulation we enter the kingdom. Yet they thrill to the reality of the resurrection life even in the stresses, partialities, and incompleteness of the present age.

One of the crucial issues in discussions of the "higher life" portrayed in the New Testament is always the nature and extent of deliverance from inner sin, the old nature. "Eradication" is a term sure to be questioned. We are told that it is not a biblical term -- and indeed it is not, exactly in that form -- although the idea comes through rather clearly in Heb. 12:14-15.

But is it necessary to contend for a term? If anyone objects to "eradication" -- and there are some overtones to the word that say more than we mean -- then why not just settle for biblical language and talk about crucifixion, destruction, mortification, putting to death, putting off, purging, cleansing, purifying, or making clean? Really, it all comes out at the same place.

If we interpret Christian holiness biblically, we shall not concern ourselves with a single group of words -- "holy," "holiness," "sanctify," "sanctification." We shall also stress the baptism with or fullness of the Holy Spirit; the risen or resurrected life with Christ; the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us; circumcision of the heart; salvation to the uttermost -- or in Luther's sparkling phrase, "through and through"; the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ; purity of heart and power for witnessing; and so on and on.

We shall turn to other interpretations of Christian holiness. But all of them must finally rest back upon the teachings of the Holy Bible with its clarion call "not unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (I Thess. 4:7).

[Coming next: The Historical Interpretation of Holiness]

Sanctification, What It Will Not Do

by Dr. Quinton J. Everest

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17.

Dr. Quinton J. Everest, was the speaker for Your Worship Hour which was heard around the world for over fifty years. He and Seth Rohrer were two of the founders of Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana and the Everest-Rohrer Chapel pictured above is named in their honor.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." II Corinthians 4:7.

For the past few Sundays we have spoken to you on the subject of sanctification -- what it is, whom it is for, when obtained, and why necessary. I fear there is considerable confusion as to what God accomplishes for us when we are sanctified and filled with His Spirit; therefore, I have felt directed to speak to you on what sanctification does not do, or what God does not perform for us when we are sanctified. There are two dangers; one is to place the standard too low, and the other is to place the standard too high. Placing the standard too high will cause confusion; placing it too low will rob us of God's promised blessing. What we are interested in is knowing exactly what God has to say about this all-important subject of sanctification.

Free Moral Agency

Fundamentally man always has been, and always will be, a free moral agent. God never takes away from man this original quality; in fact, He removes nothing from man by grace that He gave him in creation. We have sometimes heard it said as an objection to sanctification and the Spirit-filled life, that it is an experience which makes it impossible to sin. God has not provided any degree of grace that takes away our possibility to sin; we shall always be free moral agents, which in itself shows that any man may sin, and that any man can sin, but proves also conclusively that no man must sin. I have never heard a reputable minister teach that God has provided an experience of grace that makes it impossible for man to commit sin. Free moral agency has been the inherent right of man since the creation of Adam. God does not destroy this in sanctification. Man still has the power to choose his conduct as he wills to do. The power to choose and the right to obey or disobey are the moral privileges of the sanctified man, as well as the justified man, or even the sinner. To be born of the Spirit, or to be filled with the Spirit, does not mean that I have come into possession of something that it is forever impossible to forfeit under any condition, for it is clearly stated that Jesus Christ became the author of eternal life to them that obey Him, and I am sure that latter part needs to be emphasized -- TO THEM THAT OBEY HIM. (Hebrews 5:9).

The term "eternal life" does not mean that it is an eternal, unconditional possession, but rather expresses the kind of life imparted to us as the gift of God. Eternal life is God's life, spiritual life, divine life. Just as Adam and Eve, who were holy and in the image of God could sin; and just as angels, who were holy and in the very presence of God in a holy Heaven, could sin; just so, they who have been sanctified and filled with the Spirit may again yield to temptation and fall into sin.

Sanctification does not exempt men from temptation, and neither does sanctification destroy the free agency of man and so change him into a machine, making him do the things which he does not desire to do. While God has not provided a state of grace whereby we do not have power to sin, or could not sin if we wanted to, I am glad to say that God has provided something for us that will take the desire to sin out of our hearts and lives and also give us power to overcome in this world.

Neither one who professes to be born again, nor one who professes to be born again and filled with the Spirit, has license or liberty to sin. "He that committeth sin is of the devil." I John 3:8. Men are not primarily admonished to seek sanctification, or seek to be filled with the Spirit, in order to quit sinning. This was taken care of in the new birth-when one was regenerated and justified in God's sight. A man goes out of the sinning business when God regenerates him. Genuine conviction and repentance many times will result in the forsaking and abhorrence of all sin. Someone may be asking, "What then is the advantage of being sanctified?" I would answer, "Much every way." While there is yet the possibility of a man losing this grace out of his heart and committing sin, the inward responses to the temptation of Satan without have ceased in the sanctified soul. Hence the probabilities and liabilities to commit sin are not nearly so great as where there is evil within and a foe without.

When our hearts are cleansed and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the inward conflict has ended, thus giving us a free hand to cope with the enemy without. If, after God saves us, there is no possibility of falling, why has God given us the admonitions and warnings all through the New Testament, implying this possibility? Peter said, "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." II Peter 1:10.

Paul says, "Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." I Corinthians 10:12. Again, "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil." I Corinthians 3:6. Here is a warning given as to what bishops should and should not do, and the warning climaxes with, "lest they fall into the condemnation of the devil." Surely a man cannot fall into the condemnation of the devil and remain a child of God. The Apostle plainly declares, "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1 If there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, and this man has fallen into condemnation, surely it is made as plain as the English language can make it, that he is no longer in Christ.

Temptation

In the second place, I want to call your attention to the fact that sanctification does not place the soul beyond temptation. Even though God has filled us with His Spirit, we are human and fallible, thus being susceptible to temptation. Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and therefore susceptible to temptation. God cannot be tempted, neither tempteth He any man; yet we are told that Jesus was tempted in all points, like as we, yet without sin. Why was He tempted like as we? Because, like as we, He was human, having taken upon Himself the human nature which was susceptible to temptation. It was for this reason that the Apostle declared, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when 1 have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." I Corinthians 9:27. We must remember that the sanctified man has all the human elements with which to reckon. He has appetite, passion, human propensities, and human desires. All of these must be kept in their proper and lawful relation. In other words, the body with all its natural desires must be kept in subjection. Though we may be tempted and tried, we can be overcomers in the warfare of grace, because as John says, "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." I John 4:4

We must remember that even though God has saved and sanctified the soul, yet sin continues to exist in the world and will be temptation to the child of God. Also, to the saints, Satan comes as an angel of light. The beast is transformed into the likeness of a lamb. The very elect are deceived if they cease to live in the Spirit, through Whom comes discernment as well as power. God is able to keep us from stumbling and to bring us in the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy, but we need to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation.

It is by trial and temptation that God proves us and discovers the spirit of our purpose and the fidelity and loyalty of our hearts. As He said to the children of Israel, "The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no." Deuteronomy 8:2

Not only does He thus prove us, but it is in the hour of temptation that we prove God and demonstrate to others His faithfulness and the reality and power of His saving grace. It is thus as Peter says, "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." I Peter 1:7.

As long as there is a devil, we will have temptation. Temptation is that which proceeds from the enemy, but sin is that which proceeds from the individual. The devil works through the intellect, sensibilities, and the will; and so long as you have not willed to sin, you have not transgressed God's law, and can be assured of the fact that you are still God's child; your heart is cleansed, and you are filled with His Spirit.

Let us not be surprised when the devil tempts us. He will do all in his power to drag us down, because the victorious life is the only one that really counts. Every child of God will be tempted, but we can count it all joy, for we are told that the shield of faith is able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. (Ephesians 6:16)

Mistakes

In the third place sanctification does not guarantee against mistakes. Some have said that those who teach this truth not only claim deliverance from sin, but from all error, limitation, and defect. Such have not understood, or have perverted, the teaching of God's Word on this subject of the Spirit-filled life. Christian perfection or sanctification is not infallibility. It does not deify men; it does not rob us of humanity, but sanctifies us. A clean heart does not imply a perfect head. So long as we are in this world, there will be unavoidable errors and imperfections of judgment. A mistake is that which you do because you do not know better. Sin is that which you do when you do know better. Many have confused mistakes and sins, and cast away their confidence. We may be perfectly honest and sincere, and yet err in judgment. Having wrong premises, we may arrive at wrong conclusions, even though the heart is pure and the motive right.

In Matthew 5:48, we read that Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." It must be remembered that here He speaks of the perfection of love. Our hearts may be perfect in love, and yet our powers of discrimination may be at fault. Thus, it is evident that though the heart is perfect toward God, the work of God in the soul is perfect, and the experience of heart cleansing is without fault -- our ethics may not be perfect because of limited light and lack of keen discrimination.

As I have said, the Bible demands perfection, but we must remember that there are different standards of perfection. The highest state that we know anything about is absolute perfection. None but God lives in this realm. Then there is another standard of perfection that is called angelic perfection. There is still another, which is much lower, called Adamic perfection. Finally, there is what we call Christian perfection. This is the only kind which we are commanded to attain, but Christian perfection is not expected to exempt us from mistakes. Sanctification is only love made perfect and not judgment made infallible. If a man is faulty in his judgment, he will likely go astray in his conduct, for one cannot do better than he knows.

To be filled with the Spirit does not carry with it the gift of omniscience, thus making infallibility an impossible fruit of the sanctified life. Someone has said that there are only three classes that never make any mistakes; those who are dead, those yet unborn, and those who have never done anything. I am sure, of course, that you are not among the first two classifications, and I trust that you are not one of those who have never done anything. Therefore, if you are saved and filled with God's Spirit, there is certainly a possibility of making a mistake, but we can be assured that God will not hold this against us, and we can go on serving Him faithfully, having His smile of approval upon our lives.

Maturity

The fourth thought is that of maturity. Here we must remember that there is a difference between purity and maturity. Our hearts may be pure, and yet we are not mature Christians. The new birth brings us into the family of God, making us sons and daughters of the Most High. Sanctification cleanses our hearts and fills us with the Holy Spirit; then we are in a position to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christian maturity comes as a result of growth and development. Purity is an obtainment; maturity is an attainment. Purity is moral cleanness; maturity is moral stature. Purity is the work of destruction; maturity is the work of construction. Purity is a crisis; maturity is a process. To have the heart cleansed and to be filled with the Spirit is not the final goal of the Christian, but is only the gateway into the blessings of the Christian life.

There is always more beyond. God said to Joshua after he had been in the land a long time, "There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." Joshua 13:1 What He said to Joshua, I am sure could be said to each one of us in our Christian life and experience. There remains much land ahead of us in various realms. Much land ahead to be possessed in Christian living; in the Word of God; in Christian work -- especially in the effectiveness of that work; and also in the realm of Christian experience. While sanctified people are likely to make mistakes because of mental infirmities and physical limitations, it is nevertheless true that the liabilities are not so great and the mistakes perhaps not so numerous, owing to the fact that they are walking in the clear light of God, and hence have keener discernment, a clearer vision, and quicker moral perception.

A man working in the clear light of the noon-day sun is certainly not as likely to stumble as he who walks in the shadows. Doubtless because some have failed to distinguish between mistakes and sins, they have concluded they could not live the Spirit-filled life and consequently concluded also that no one else could live this life. We conclude this thought, then, by saying that sanctification does not produce infallibility but a holy heart. We should be thankful to God that we can have a holy heart, and in the sight of God, can live a holy life.

Uniformity

Finally, let me say that sanctification does not produce uniformity; in fact, this would not be, or is not desirable. In John 17 Jesus prayed that His disciples might be sanctified, that they might be one, that the world might believe. This is sanctification, in order to unification, in order to evanglization. When we speak of unity, there are some who seem to think that we mean uniformity, and because they do not find uniformity, they seem to have the idea that we do not have unity, and therefore there is no such thing as sanctification or the Spirit-filled life. This certainly would be a monotonous world in which to live if we would all think alike, act alike, dress alike, and so on. Someone has said that there are Irish "taters," sweet "taters," commentators, but the worst kind of a "tater" is an imitator, and I am sure God does not desire imitators in His kingdom. He does not change our personality; He does not make us like someone else, but He gives us an experience that exactly suits our own personality and our own make-up. To be sure, many times the personality of the individual is beautified and becomes more attractive after an individual is saved and filled with the Spirit, but we should not seek something that will cause us to appear or act like another individual.

Many churches and preachers have seriously impaired their ministry because they insisted on uniformity. Some seem to feel that we must act and talk just as they did on the day of Pentecost, or we have not been filled with the Holy Ghost. The important thing is not to seek something that will make us all speak with other tongues, but to seek that which will enable us to use the tongue we have to the glory of God. We may be well saved and sanctified and yet differ in our abilities. Jesus recognized this in the parable of the talents. The question is not whether we have as many talents as our fellow church member, or a fellow minister, but are the talents which God has given us sanctified and being used for His glory?

I am also sure that those who are filled with the Spirit will not always think alike. Their minds will differ. We will never be able to think alike on the practical things of life. Some will see things in one light, and some in another. We do not think alike doctrinally. We cannot all think alike regarding the doctrine of water baptism, the doctrine of divine healing, the doctrine of the second coming of Christ and so on. I fear that many people have given way to unkind criticism because the opinions of others did not always coincide with theirs. May God help us to have the Christ-like spirit of tolerance that seems to be lacking in many circles.

I am not asking for the broad shallowness that is leading us into compromise, but that we have a Christlike consideration for our fellowmen who are serving the Lord to the best of their ability and who may not always see as we do. I am sure we do well to study carefully the admonition of the Apostle Paul when he says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1-3.

These are a few of the things that sanctification will not do for us. I am sure if we ask God to help us to be sane and sound in our study and interpretation of the scriptures, it will save us much confusion. Paul has said in our text, "Let us remember that we have this treasure in earthen vessels."

We are still human, and the failure to realize this will cause considerable difficulty. Carnality is wilful rebellion. Thank God, provision has been made for that, but humanity is weakness, rather than willfulness. If you are a believer, if you have been born into the family of God, your sin.s are forgiven; but if you are conscious of the fact that there is something in your heart that should not be there, I am glad to tell you that right now God can cleanse you and fill you with His Holy Spirit. If you will right now consecrate your all to God, ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart, you will be the possessor of a new joy, love, power, and a new effectiveness in your Christian life. May God bless you and help you to follow the leadings of the Spirit is my prayer.

Note: This is the last of a five series radio broadcast originally aired from June 15 - August 3, 1947. Let God Lead Us will be posting all the sermons in the series as follows: 1) Sanctification, what is it? 2) Sanctification, whom is it for? 3) Sanctification, when obtained? 4) Sanctification, why necessary. 5) Sanctification, what it will not do.