by William Gadsby- November,
1835
"For by One offering he bath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified" Heb. 10:14
The doctrine of Sanctification is clearly revealed in the Word of God;
and when the mind of the saint is led into it by the blessed Spirit, the
doctrine of a Triune Jehovah shines forth; for we are sanctified by the Three
that bear record in heaven,the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; as will
evidently appear if we take into consideration the different acceptations the
term bears in the Bible.
1. By the term Sanctification, or sanctify, we are sometimes to
understand the setting apart of a thing or person to a certain use or office.
As for instance; God sanctified, or set apart, the seventh day as a Sabbath of
rest. Before the Lord formed Jeremiah in the womb of his mother, he sanctified,
or ordained, him, a prophet unto the nations. (Jer. i. 5.) In this sense,
Christ, the Father's first Elect, was sanctified, or set apart (John x. 36), as
the Mediator of the better covenant, before all worlds. In like manner, the
election of grace were sanctified, or set apart, by God the Father, as his
chosen people, in Christ, from everlasting. Hence Jude, the servant of Christ,
dedicates his epistle to them that are "sanctified by God the Father, and
preserved in Christ Jesus, and called" by God's grace. And Paul, writing
to the church at Corinth, uses a similar mode of expression: "Unto the
church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints;" and in his solemn address to the elders of the
church at Ephesus, we have the same principle maintained: "And now,
brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to
build you up, and give you an inheritance among all them which are
sanctified."' Also in Heb. x.,where he says, that Christ "hath, by
one offering, for ever perfected them that are sanctified."
From the above passages, how evident it is that God's predestinated
people were eternally sanctified by God the Father, in Christ Jesus, and that
election and sanctification are of the same eternal date; and, as it is said in
the Articles of the Church of England:
"The godly consideration
of it is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and
such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the
works of the flesh and their earthly members, and training up their mind to
high and heavenly things; as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm
their faith of eternal salvation to he enjoyed through Christ, as because it
doth fervently kindle their love towards God.''
2. By Sanctification we are sometimes to understand a cleansing from that
which in itself is unclean or impure, as we all are, both by nature and
practice. This sanctification, or cleansing, is by the precious blood of
Christ, which cleanseth from all sin. Of this, Paul speaks: "Wherefore,
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate" (Heb. xiii. 18); "Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any
such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Again, in Heb
.ix. 13, 14, Paul, contrasting the blood of the Levitical priesthood with the
blood of Christ, says," If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes
of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifyeth to the purifying of the
flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal
Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?" And, in 1 Cor. vi. 11, having reckoned up
the black catalogue of crimes to which the unrighteous are given up, adds:
"And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, [by
Christ,] who of God is made unto us sanctification and redemption; for (Heb.
ii. 11), he that sanctifieth, and they who arc sanctified, are all of
one." "This sanctification we greatly need, for we were born in sin
and conceived in iniquity; we are men of unclean lips and dwell amongst a
people of unclean lips; and if we know the plague of our own hearts, we feel,
at times, such swarms of vain and sinful thoughts working within, even when on
our knees in our closets, that we have to cry out from our very souls, "O
Lord, I am vile!" "Unclean, unclean!" "Wretched man that I
am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" And were it not
for the fountain of Jesus's sanctifying blood, which is open for sin and
uncleanness, such black, polluted, guilty sinners as we are must sink in
despair. But we rejoice to hear our gracious Lord say unto us, "Come now,
and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow, and though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." Such is the power and efficacy of the blood of atonement, that when
it is applied to the conscience, by the power of the Spirit, it removes the
burden of guilt, softens the hard heart, and brings that joy, peace, and rest
that the world can neither give nor take away; for it speaks better things than
the blood of Abel.
Abel's blood called for vengeance to burst on Cain's guilty head; but the
blood of Christ is crying for peace and pardon to rest on all the ransomed of
the Lord. The church triumphant in glory, having proved the power and efficacy
of the sanctifying, cleansing, purifying blood of the Lamb, make it the glory
of their song: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
" Happy songsters,
When shall I your chorus
join?"
3. The work of Sanctification is also ascribed to the Holy Ghost:
"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation,
through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth "(2 Thess.
ii. 18); "Elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through
sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ."
In treating upon the sanctification of the Spirit, as it is laid down in
the Word of God, it must be observed, FIRST, As God the Father hath eternally
sanctified his people in Christ, so for them Christ hath obtained eternal
redemption; yet who these people are is only made known by the sanctification
of the Spirit; for before the Holy Ghost takes possession of their hearts in
regeneration, they are dead in trespasses and sins and enemies to God by wicked
works, both body and soul being given up to work wickedness with greediness.
But when he takes them in hand, he sanctifies them, or sets them apart, for the
service of God; according to that exhortation: "As ye have yielded your
members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now
yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness." (Rom. vi.
19.) They are a people the Lord hath formed for himself, and, under the
sanctifying influence of his Spirit, they shall show forth his praise, making
it manifest that they are a peculiar people, zealous of good works, which God
hath before ordained that they shall walk in them. Lighted up by the Holy
Ghost, they are as a candle put in a proper place to give light to all around ;
or as a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid. By their fruits, they are
known to be the Lord's sanctified ones: "For this is the will of God, even
our sanctification, that we should abstain from fornication, &c.; for God
hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness." "If a man
(by the Spirit's influence) purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good
work." (2 Tim. ii. 21.) This can only be the case with us as the Lord
works in us to will and do of his own good pleasure; for from him is our fruit
found. In 1 Thess. v. 23, Paul says, "And the very God of peace sanctity
you wholly ; and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be
preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it." Thus the Lord makes it manifest
that his people are not of the world, but that he hath chosen them out of the
world, as a seed to serve him, and a generation to call him blessed.
SECONDLY, In considering the sanctification of the Spirit, as an internal
work of grace in the heart of the believer, we shall find that it is a growing
work: " Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ." (2 Pet. iii. 18.)
A) Here a question arises, Does the old
man of sin, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, grow
better and better? The answer to this question is No: for the old man, which is
the flesh, is always the same, lusting against the Spirit, which causes the
spiritual warfare in the Christian's breast; for ''what shall we see in the
Shulamite? As it were, the company of two armies." This contest between
the old man of sin and the new man of grace will never cease while we are in
the body. The doctrine of the old man of sin growing better and better, the
Christian, by daily experience, proves to be the doctrine of fools, and he will
have to say with Paul, even down to the Jordan of death, "I know that in
me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not."
B) "If any man he in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new." This new creature, or
new man, which, after God, is
created in righteousness and true holiness, grows, or is renewed, in knowledge
after him that created it. The outward man, the body, perishes; but the inward
man is renewed day by day. Hence we are said to be strengthened with might by
the Spirit, in the inner man.
It is light that discovers darkness; so, as we are sanctified by the Holy
Ghost, we have a growing knowledge and feeling sense of the depravity of our
nature, and of our lost, helpless state and condition as guilty sinners. This
has a tendency to humble us before God, and to make us say with Job "I
abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Thus we grow out of love with
ourselves and our own worth and worthiness placing no confidence in the flesh,
and renouncing every thing but Christ and him crucified. Proud flesh must fall,
that Christ may rise. The blessed Spirit, in his work, has two things in view,
namely, the laying low of the sinner, and the setting up of Jesus on high; and
to this end he leads us out of ourselves into Christ, daily to feel that we are
lost in ourselves, to look to Christ, by faith, for complete salvation. By
nature we are black and polluted with sin, and the Spirit leads us to the
fountain of Christ to be cleansed; naked, and he enables us, by faith, to put
on the garment of salvation; guilty and condemned, he makes us sue for pardon
at Jesus's feet, like the poor publican, and seals pardon and peace in the
conscience; weak and helpless, he leads us to trust in the Lord Jehovah, in
whom there is everlasting strength; foolish, he leads us to Christ, the wonderful
Counsellor, for wisdom. He creates within us a hungering and thirsting for the
bread of heaven and the wine of the kingdom and enables us to feed, by faith,
upon Christ, the feast of fat things.
IN A WORD. To be sanctified by the Holy Spirit is to be made to feel that
we are nothing in ourselves, and less than nothing, and vanity, that Christ may
be our all and in all. The highest height of sanctification that we can attain
unto in this life is to have our mind and will resigned unto the mind and will of
God,-to say from our very hearts, "Thy will be done." As we are thus
led by the Spirit out of ourselves into Christ, we love him for the great
things he has done for us, whereof we are glad. The Holy Ghost sheds abroad a
Saviour's love in our hearts, and it constrains us to love Christ, who first
loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a sweet smelling savour. The
love of Christ inclines our hearts after him, and our feet run in the way of
his commandments. The precepts and exhortations of the gospel are our delight,
and it is as our meat and drink to do the will of God. It is our desire that
the mind that was in Christ Jesus may be in us, and that we may live under the
influence of the Spirit, making it manifest that we are predestinated to be
conformed to the image of Christ, taking his yoke upon us, that we may learn of
him who is meek and lowly in heart, and find rest unto our souls. Our happiest
moments are when we can sit at the feet of Jesus, and hear his precious words,
which are sweeter than honey to our taste;
How different this view of the doctrine of sanctification to that of the
old man of sin, or the flesh, growing better and better every day of our lives,
until sin is completely eradicated out of our nature. If the man gets better and
better in himself, he must become more and more independent of Christ, the
great Physician; for as a diseased person applies to a doctor, and receives
from him medicines, which prove effectual in removing the disease, and then
tells him he can do without him, being cured; so in the case before us. If the
sinner gets better and better, till the plague of sin is gone, he has no more
need of the balm of Gilead, nor of the great Physician. Thus it makes the
sinner independent of Christ and his efficacious blood; and, therefore, cannot
be of God.
There is one thing connected with this subject, at which I have often
wondered. Some of the ministers who vindicate the above doctrine, when asked
how much better they are in themselves than at the first, cannot tell us
anything about it. But ask others, who are made alive to God and who daily feel
the plague of their own hearts, and they speak out freely, and say, that the
longer they live, the greater sinners they feel themselves to be; and they
experience a growing need of the finished salvation of Christ, his efficacious
blood and justifying righteousness, and of the influences of his Holy Spirit
upon their hearts, to enable them to use the weapons of warfare, which are not
carnal but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, casting
down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ. (2 Cor. x. 4, 5.) It is only as the grace of God reigns in our hearts,
through righteousness, that we are enabled to tread upon the necks of our
internal enemies, and to rejoice in Christ Jesus; for when the Lord leaves off
communing with us by his Spirit and grace, we, like Abraham, return to our own
place-hardness of heart, coldness, deadness, barrenness of mind, vain, worldly
thoughts, evil murmurings against the Lord and against one another, and, like
Paul, we cannot forbear crying out, "0 wretched man that I am ! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?"
Some time since I went to see an old Christian woman who was one of the
unmarried women that Paul speaks of, who "care for the things of the
Lord." She had been bending her steps Zionward for more than half a
century. I found her in great distress of mind. She said she felt she was on
the very brink of death and eternity, and that she had sat under a Baptist
minister more than thirty years, who had taught her to believe that before she
was ready to die she must be fully sanctified; by which she understood she was
to be holy in herself, and without sin. She had been expecting to attain to
this all the way she had travelled, and especially when she came to be on a
deathbed. But instead of this, she said she saw herself to he a greater sinner
than ever she was, and that she began with the prayer of the publican,
"God be merciful to me, a sinner!" And it had been her prayer all the
way through; and she never could get above it, for it was her prayer then, on a
dying bed. If she looked at her past life, she had to say with Jacob, "
Few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage;" and if she looked into
her heart, it was a cage of unclean birds, in which were swarms of evil
thoughts; so that there was nothing in her, or done by her, that she could look
to, or trust in, for eternity. She was much distressed that she had not
experienced progressive sanctification, and that she was not now "fully
sanctified;" inasmuch as that she had not attained to it, she feared that,
after all her profession, she should be a castaway. After I bad heard all her
tale of woe, I laboured to direct her attention to the glorious Person of
Immanuel, his ability to save the very chief of sinners, and to the sanctifying
blood of the Lamb, that taketh away all iniquity, and to the robe of righteousness,
wrought out by Christ, which is the wedding garment, in which we must appear
with acceptance at the marriage supper of the Lamb; and I endeavoured to
encourage her, by saying, if she were enabled to put all her trust in the
Person, blood, and righteousness of Christ, she would never be lost. As I was
speaking of the safety of those who shelter by faith in the wounded side of
Christ, she rose up in bed, and said, "O, my dear friend! I like him; he
is precious to my soul! I feel a view of him by faith does my soul good. He
will never suffer my soul to be lost or put to shame." In this happy
strain she continued speaking for some time; and, after reading to her a
portion of God's Word, and going to prayer with her, I left her; and the next
day I heard she was dead.
Paul tells us the just shall live by faith. While this old pilgrim was
looking to herself, it brought darkness and death into her soul; but when she
was enabled to look by faith to Christ, she experienced life, light, joy, and
peace; and I doubt not there are many of the Lord's people in a state of
bondage, who sit under a ministry in which they are directed to look for
perfection in themselves, instead of having set before them the glorious
finished work of Immanuel.
But I fear I am swelling these remarks to too great a length; and,
therefore, must conclude.
The Lord sanctify us to his service, that we may live to the honour and
glory of his great name; that if we be buffeted, it may be for the truth's sake
and not for any untoward step ; for "Blessed are ye when men shall revile
you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
.
Please direct your comments to Mike
Krall.