XXXVII.     CONDITIONS OF SANCTIFICATION   

A       The conditions of being sanctified.  

1   We can never reach a state of entire sanctification passively waiting for God’s time.

2   Works of law, or any kind of works performed in our own strength without the grace of God, cannot sanctify us.  By this I don’t mean, that, if you were to exert your natural powers properly, you could not obey the law through your natural strength, and continue to do so.  But I do mean, that because you are not fit to use your natural powers properly without the grace of God, nothing that you do that is independent of His grace will ever result in your entire sanctification. 

3   Any direct efforts to feel right cannot sanctify us.  Many spend their time in worthless efforts to force themselves into a right state of feeling.  True religion does not consist in feelings, emotions, or involuntary affections of any kind.  An emotion does not result from a direct effort to feel.  When we directly and deeply consider certain objects, truths, facts, or realities, certain emotions will naturally develop.  Under these circumstances, we can easily produce emotions.  Once we seriously consider things that have a natural tendency to produce certain emotions, it becomes harder to prevent those emotions than it is to simply allow them to continue.  This is so true, that when we are in a particular emotional state, we have no problem being emotional, and we wonder why others don’t feel just like we do.  It seems so natural and so easy for us, and, I may add, so unavoidable that we are often surprised that someone finds it difficult to exercise the same feelings that we experience.  The way that many people treat religion often amazes me.  They make their selves, their own state, and their interests the central point around which their whole lives continually revolve.  Their selfishness is so strong, that their own interests, happiness, and salvation occupies their entire life.  And while their thoughts and anxi­eties, and their souls, gather around their own selfishness, they complain that their heart is hard, that they cannot love God, that they do not repent, and cannot believe. 
     Many think that things like love of God, repentance, faith, and all religion, consist in mere feelings.  Because they realize that they do not feel as they should feel, they become more concerned about themselves, which only increases their embarrassment and makes it more difficult for them to exercise what they feel are the right affections.  The less they feel, the more they try to feel; the more they try to make themselves feel right without success, the more selfish they become, the more their thoughts are glued to their own interests; and the more they find them­selves at a greater and greater distance from any right state of mind.  Thus, their selfish anxieties produce unprofitable works, and these efforts only deepen their anxieties.  And if, in this state, death should appear in a visible form before them, or the last trumpet sound, and they should be summoned to the solemn judgment, it would only increase their emotional obsession, confirm, and give almost unlimited authority to their selfishness, and make their sanctification morally impossible.  Never forge, that all true religion consists in willful states of mind, and that the true and only way to attain true religion is to look at and understand exactly what you must do, and then willfully and immediately do it. 

4   Any efforts to obtain grace by works of law cannot sanctify us. 
     Should the question be proposed to a Jew, “What shall I do that I may work the works of God?” he might answer, “Keep the law, both moral and ceremonial; that is, keep the com­mandments”.
  To the same question an Armenian might answer, “Improve common grace, and you will obtain converting grace; that is, use the means of grace according to the best light you have, and you will obtain the grace of salvation.”  In this answer, don’t assume that person who asks this question already has faith.  Instead, assume that he is in a state of unbelief and he is asking about converting grace.  Therefore, the answer amounts to this; “you must get converting grace by your unrepentant works; you must become holy by your hypocrisy; you must work out your sanctification by sin”.  To this question, most professing Calvinists would make a similar reply.  They would reject the wording, but keep the idea.  Their directions would imply, either that the inquirer already has faith, or that he must perform some works to obtain faith, that is, that he must obtain grace by works of law. 
     A late Calvinistic writer admitted that we can attain entire and permanent sanctification, although he rejected the idea that we can attain sanctification in our lifetime.  He believed the way to achieve this state is by diligently using of the means of grace, and that the saints are sanctified only as far as they make diligent use of the means of sanctification.  But, since he believed that saints never use all the means with suitable diligence, he concludes that entire sanctification cannot be reached in our lifetime.  The way of reaching it, according to his teaching, is by the diligent use of means.  So, if you asked this writer, “what shall I do that I may work the works of God?” or in other words “what shall I do to obtain entire and permanent sanctifica­tion?”  His answer would be: “Use diligently all the means of grace”; that is, you must get grace by works”, or, like the Armenian response, “improve common grace, and you will secure sanctifying grace”. 
     Neither an Armenian, nor a Calvinist, would formally direct the inquirer to the law as the ground of their justification.  But, nearly every church today gives directions that amount to the same thing.  Their answer is a legal and not a gospel answer.  A legal answer is any answer that they give that does not distinctly recognize faith as the condition of abiding holiness in Christians.  We must clearly tall the inquirer that faith is his first, grand, fundamental duty.  Without faith, all virtue, all giving up of sin, all acceptable obedience, is impossible.  Without faith, he is misdirected.  Without faith, it is impossible to please God.  Instead, ministers lead the inquiring sinner to believe that it is possible to please God without faith, and to obtain grace by works of the law.  There are only two kinds of works: works of law, and works of faith.  Now, if the inquirer does not have the “faith that works by love” (Gal. 2:16), to tell him to perform works to get faith, is to direct him to obtain faith by works of law.  Anything that you say to him that does not clearly convey the truth that both justification and sanctification are by faith without works of law is law, and not gospel.  Anything you do before or without faith is a work of law.  Your first duty, therefore, is faith; and every attempt to obtain faith by unbelieving works, is to make works your foundation, and make grace a result of those works.  This is the direct opposite of gospel truth. 
     Let us look at some facts that appear in our everyday experience to show that what I have said is true of almost all Christians and non-Christians.  Whenever a sinner sincerely asks the question, “what shall I do to be saved”  (Acts 16:30), he, in his state of unbelief, wants to break free from his sins.  At this point in time, his reformation is only outward.  He determines to do better, he wants to reform in this, that, and some other thing to prepare himself for conversion.  He does not expect God to save him without grace and faith, but he attempts to earn that grace by works of law. 
     The same is true of many anxious Christians, who are asking what they must do to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.  They overlook the fact, that “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4), that it is with “the shield of faith” that they are “to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one” (Eph. 6:16)  They ask, “Why am I overcome by sin?  Why can’t I rise above its power?  Why am I the slave of my appetites and passions, and the sport of the devil?”
  They look around for the cause of all this spiritual wretchedness and death.  At one time, they think they have discovered the answer because they neglected to do something, and at another time is it because they neglected to do something else.  Sometimes they imagine they have found that the cause of their problem was because they yielded to one temptation, and later on, their problem is because they yielded to another temptation.  They make efforts in one direction, then in another direction, and patch up their righteousness on one side, while they make a rent in their garment on the other side.  Thus, they spend years running round in circles, and making dams of sand across the current of their own habits and tendencies.  Instead of immediately purifying their hearts by faith, they are engaged in trying to stop the bitter waters of their own desires from flooding their lives.  “Why do I sin?” they ask; and searching for the cause of their sin, they come to this brilliant conclusion that it is because they have neglected to do their duty, and they see that their duty is to stop sinning.  Then they ask, “But how shall I get rid of sin?”  Their answer is: “You’ve got to do your duty, that is, you’ve got to stop sinning”.  However, the real question should be, “why do they neglect their duty?”  Why do they commit sin at all?  What is the foundation of all this sinning?  Will their reply be that the foundation of all this wickedness is the force of temptation and the strength of their evil tendencies and habits overcoming their weak hearts?  But all this only brings us back to our first question, which is “how can we overcome these things?”  My answer is, by faith alone!  No works of law has any tendency to overcome our sins.  Works of law only confirms the soul in self‑righteousness and unbelief.
  The great and fundamental sin, which lies at the foundation of all other sin, is unbelief.  The first thing we must do is to believe the word of God.  There is no breaking off from one sin without this.  “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23)  “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6)  Thus, we see that the backslider and the convicted sinner, when agonizing over their sin, will almost always commit themselves to works of law to obtain faith.  They will fast, and pray, and read, and struggle, and outwardly reform, and thus try everything possible to obtain grace.  Now all this is worthless and wrong.  Do you ask, “shall we not fast, and pray, read, and struggle Shall we think that we are no longer under law and simply sit down and do nothing?”  I answer, you must do all that God commands you to do; but you must also begin where He tells you to begin, and do it in the way that He commands you to do it; that is, by exercising that faith that works by love.  Purify your hearts by faith.  Believe in the Son of God.  “And do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’  (That is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’  (That is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  But what does it say?  ‘The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach).”  (Romans 10:7‑8)  Now these facts show, that even under the gospel, most professing Christians, even though they reject the Jewish notion of justification by works of law, adopt a disastrous substitute for it, and they believe that, in some way, they must obtain grace by their works.  

5   We cannot reach a state of entire sanctification by attempting to copy the experience of others.  It is very common for convicted sinners, or for Christians seeking after entire sanctification, in their blindness, to ask others to share their experiences.  Then, they carefully remem­ber all the details of everything those people have done, and then they pray for, and do everything they can to do those very same things.  But they don’t understand that they can’t manufac­ture the feelings of someone else any more than they can look like someone else.  Human experiences differ just as much as human appearances differ.  The whole history of a man’s past experience modifies his present and future experiences; so that the precise train of feelings which may be required in your situation, and which will actually occur if you are ever sanctified, will not be the same as that of any other human being.  It is very important for you to understand that you cannot copy anybody’s true religious experience; and that you are in great danger of being deceived by Satan whenever you attempt to copy the experience of others.  Therefore, I beg you to stop praying for, or trying to obtain, the same experience of anyone else.  All truly Christian experiences are, like human appearances, different, yet their nature is so much alike that all these experiences reveal the character of the religion of Jesus Christ.  But, they are no more alike than human appearances are alike. 
     Remember, sanctification does not consist in the various affections or emotions that Christians speak about, and which are often mistaken for true religion.  But sanctification consists in complete consecration, and as a result, it is out of place for any one to attempt to copy the feelings of another because feelings do not constitute religion.  The feelings that Christians talk about don’t constitute true religion, but those feelings do result from a proper state of heart.  People may properly speak of these feelings as Christian experience, for although these feelings are involun­tary, true Christians experience them.  The only way to experience them is to set your will right, and your emotions will naturally follow. 

6   You cannot reach a state of sanctification making preparations before you come into this state.  Notice, that what you are seeking, is a state of complete consecration to God.  Now don’t think that you have to preface this state of mind with a long series of preparatory exercises.  It is common for people, when seriously seeking complete consecration to God, to think that a lack of one exercise, or another exercise, or a certain state of mind hinders their progress.  They look every­where else but at the real problem.  They assign any other, and every other but the true reason for the fact that they are not already in a state of sanctification.  The true problem is voluntary selfishness, or willful consecration to self‑interest and self‑gratification.  This is the problem, and the only problem, that we must overcome.  

7   You cannot reach a state of sanctification by attending meetings, asking for the prayers of other Christians, or depending, in any way, on some means to get into this state.  I am not saying that means are unneces­sary, or that it is not through the instrumentality of truth that this state of mind is influenced.  But I do mean, that while you are trusting in some method, your mind is diverted from the real point before you, and you are never likely to attain sanctification.  

8   You cannot reach a state of sanctification by waiting for any particular revelation of Christ.  Many people, who listen to those who live in faith describe their revelation of Christ, they say, “Oh, if I could see Christ this same say, I would believe.  I must have this revelation before I can believe.”  Please understand that revelations of Christ are the result of faith in the promise that the Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and show them to you.  Hang onto these promises, and the Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to you in the relationships that you need Him the most.  Take hold, then, of the simple promise of God.  Take God at His word.  Believe that He means exactly what He says; and this will immediately bring you into the state of mind that you are seeking. 

9   You cannot reach a state of sanctification in any way that you lay out for yourself.  People, who are seeking sanctification, without being aware of it, tend to send their imaginations on ahead of them, to stake out the way, and set up a flag where they intend complete their quest.  They expect to become what they imagine and to end up with certain particular views and feelings when they have reached their goal.  Now, there probably was never one person who did not find himself disappointed doing this.  God says, “I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known.  I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight.  These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.”  (Isaiah 42:16)  Allowing your imagination to mark out your path will tremendously hinder you, because it leads you into making many fruitless and worthless attempts to achieve this imaginary goal of yours.  It wastes your time, greatly wearies the patience of God, and grieves the Spirit of God.  While God is trying to lead you right to the point, you are straying far from God’s path, while you insist that your path, which your imagination has marked out for you, is the way, instead of the way in which God is trying to lead you.  Thus, in your pride and your ignorance, you are causing a lot of delay, and abusing God’s long‑suffering.  God says, “This is the way, walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21)  But you say, no this is the way.  Thus, you stand, argue, and complain, while you stand in danger of grieving the Spirit of God away from you, and losing your soul.
  If there is anything in your imagination that has attached itself to any particular manner, method, time, place, or circumstance, you will, in all probability either be deceived by the devil or be completely disappointed in the result.  You will find, in everything that you focused your imagination on, that the wisdom of man is foolishness with God that your ways are neither His ways, nor your thoughts His thoughts.  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than your ways and His thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9)  But: 

10        You must achieve this state of entire sanctification by faith alone.  Never forget that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6), and “whatsoever is not of faith, is sin” (Romans 14:23)  Both justification and sanctification are by faith alone.  “Since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Romans 3:30) and, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1)  Also, “What shall we say then?  Those Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith.  But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.  Why?  Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.  For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.”  (Romans 9:30‑32)
  Don’t misunderstand me.  I am not teaching that sanctification by faith is different from or opposed to sanctification by the Holy Spirit or by the Spirit of Christ, or, which is the same thing, by Christ our sanctification living and reigning in our heart.  Faith is the instrument or condition.  Faith is not the efficient agent that influences a state of present and permanent sanctification.  Faith simply receives Christ as king, to live and reign in our hearts and souls.  By faith, Christ secures our sanctification by exercising His different duties and functions, and appropriat­ing His different relationships to the needs of our soul.  Thus, Christ secures our sanctification by revealing his Divine perfections and fullness to our soul.  The aim of these discoveries is faith and obedience.  Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”  Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”  (John 14:21‑23) 
     To determine the conditions of complete sanctification in this life, we must consider what those temptations are that overcome us.  When we are first converted, our heart consecrates itself and our whole being to God.  This is a state of unselfish love.  We commit our whole being to promote the highest good of God and the universe.  Remember, all sin is selfishness.  All sin consists in our will seeking to indulge or gratify self.  All sin consists in our will obeying our selfish desires, instead of obeying God as He reveals His law in our reason.  Now, who cannot see what we need to do is to break the power of temptation, and set our soul free?  The fact is, our soul has developed so enormously that it is very aware of those objects that are around us but it is practically blind to spiritual objects.  When it comes to spiritual objects, our soul is practically in the dark.  Our carnal mind rarely thinks about spiritual things.  We can’t see them clearly, and we certainly can’t feel them.  Thoughts of God, of Christ, of sin, of holiness, of heaven, and hell, excite little or no emotion in the carnal mind.  The carnal mind is alive and awake to earthly objects, to objects it can sense and touch, but it is dead to spiritual realities.  Our soul needs a revelation of the spiritual world.  Our soul needs to see and clearly understand its own spiritual condition, relationships, and needs.  It needs to become familiar with God and Christ, to have spiritual and eternal realities clearly revealed to it.  It needs to discover the eternal world.  It needs to see the nature and guilt of sin, and of Christ, the remedy of our soul.  Our soul needs revelations so powerful that will kill or greatly mortify lust, and destroy those appetites and passions that the physical world around us arouses and excites.  Our soul needs revelations so powerful that it thoroughly develops our senses in their relationship to sin and to God, and to the whole circle of spiritual realities.  This will greatly reduce the frequency and power of temptation to gratify our selves, and break up the voluntary slavery of our will.  The development of our soul needs to be thoroughly corrected.  This can only be done by a revelation to the inward man by the Holy Spirit, of those great, and solemn, and overpowering realities of the “spirit world”, that lie completely hidden from the eyes of flesh.
  We often see those around us whose senses develop so strongly in a certain area, that they become slaves to their appetites and passions in that area in spite of reason and of God.  An alcoholic is an example of this.  The glutton, the pervert, and the greedy man are also examples of this.  On the other hand, we sometimes see, by some remarkable providence of God that produces such a strong a counter development of the senses that it appears to slay and practically eliminate those particular tendencies.  The whole direction of the person’s life seems to change; and, at least, this is true outwardly.  From being a perfect slave to his appetite for strong drink, he now cannot so much as hear the name of his once loved beverage mentioned without extreme loathing and disgust.  From being the greediest man around, he becomes so disgusted with wealth, and hates it and despises it.  Now, a very strong counter development in his soul brought about this remarkable change.  In this situation, religion had nothing to do with it. 
     Religion does not consist in the state of our feelings or observations, or in our senses influencing our will; but sin consists in our feelings and our observations influencing our will.  One great thing that we need to do to confirm and settle our will in an attitude of entire consecration to God, is to bring about a counter development in our ability to feel or perceive so that our feelings will not draw our will away from God.  Our will needs to be mortified or crucified to the world.  Our will needs to be crucified to objects of time and sense, by such a deep, clear, and powerful revelation of self to us, and of Christ to our soul, that our soul will awaken and develop all its feelings in our relationship to Him, and to spiritual and Divine realities.  We can easily accomplish this through the Holy Spirit, who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.  The Holy Spirit so reveals Christ to us, that our soul receives Him into the throne of our heart, to reign throughout our whole being.  When our will, our mind, and our emotions yield to Him, He develops our mind and our emotions by clear revelations of Himself in all His duties, functions, and relationships.  He also gains the allegiance of our free will, and mellows and chastens our senses by Divine revelations to us.                                

B        We need the light of the Holy Spirit to teach us the character of God, the nature of His govern­ment, the purity of His law, the need and the fact of atonement, and our need for Christ in all His duties, functions, and relationships - governmental, spiritual, and mixed.  We need the revelation of Christ to our souls that is so powerful that we realize that appropriating faith without Christ is not, and cannot be, our salvation.  For example, we need to know Christ in relationships just like the following:  

1   As King, we need Christ to set up His government and write His laws in our heart; to establish His kingdom in our heart and soul; to sway His scepter over our whole being.  We must spiritually know and receive Christ as our King.  

2   As our Mediator, we need Christ to stand between the offended justice of God and our guilty souls, to bring about a reconciliation between our souls and God.  We must know and receive Christ as our mediator.  

3   As our Advocate, we need Christ to be our next or our best friend.  We need Christ to plead our cause with the Father.  We need Christ, as our righteous and all prevailing advocate, to secure the triumph of our cause at the judgment seat of God.  We must apprehend and embrace Christ as our Advocate.

4   As our Redeemer, we need Christ to redeem us from the curse of the law and from the power and dominion of sin.  We need Christ to pay the price demanded by public justice for our release, and to overcome and break up our spiritual bondage forever.  We must know and appropriate Christ by faith, as our Redeemer.  

5   As the propitiation for our sins, we need Christ to offer Himself as an offering for our sins.  Seeing that Christ has made atonement for our sins seems to be necessary for us to have before we can entertain a healthy hope of eternal life.  It certainly is not healthy for our soul to understand the mercy of God without seeing the conditions of His mercy.  This does not sufficiently impress our soul with a sense of God’s justice and holiness, or with the guilt and desert of sin.  It will not sufficiently awe our soul and humble it in the deepest dust to simply see God as extending pardon while we ignore the sternness of His justice.  That is why recognizing that sin is worthy of the wrath and curse of God must be a condition of our forgiveness.  Isn’t it interesting that those who deny the atonement make sin out to be silly little offenses?  They seem to regard God’s unselfish love as good nature, rather than, as it really is, “a consuming fire” (Deut. 4:24) to all the workers of iniquity. 
     Nothing does or can produce an awe of God, a fear and holy dread of sin, and a self‑abasing, God‑justifying spirit, than a thorough understanding of the atonement of Christ.  Nothing like this can produces that spirit that renounces self, clings to Christ, and takes refuge in His blood.  Christ must reveal Himself to us in these relationships, and we must apprehended and embrace these revelations conditions of our entire sanctification.  Thus, the work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the relationship His death has to our individual sins, and the relationship that His death has to our sins as individuals.  We need to apprehend Christ as crucified for us.  It is one thing for us to regard the death of Christ simply as the death of a martyr, and an entirely different thing to apprehend his death as a real and veritable sacrifice for our sins, as being truly a substitute for our death.  We need to apprehend Christ as suffering on the cross for us, or as our substitute; so that we can say, “His sacrifice is for me, His suffering and His death are for my sins; that blessed Lamb is slain for my sins”.  If this full revelation and appropriation of Christ cannot kill sin in us, what can?

6   We also need to know that Christ rose for our justification.  He rose from the dead and he lives to obtain our certain acquittal, or our complete pardon and acceptance with God.  That He lives and is our justification, we need to know in order to break the bondage of legal motives, and to slay all selfish fear; to break and destroy the power of temptation from its source.  The clearly convicted person is often tempted to become depressed and loose faith.  He is tempted to despair because he feels as if God doesn’t accept him.  This person would surely fall into the bondage of fear if it weren’t for the faith of Christ as a risen, living, justifying Savior.  In this relationship, we need to clearly see and to fully appropriate Christ in His completeness, as a condition of abiding in a state of unselfish consecration to God.

7   We also need to have Christ revealed to us as bearing our grief and as carrying our sorrows.  When we see that Christ suffered for us, and he bent under sorrows and grief, sorrows which really and justly belonged to us, this tends to make sin unspeakably horrible and Christ infinitely precious to our souls.  We need to thoroughly develop the idea that Christ is our substitute.  This relationship of Christ needs to be so clearly revealed to us that it becomes present reality to us everywhere we go.  We need to have such a revelation of Christ that it grabs our heart and our affections so strongly that we would rather die immediately than sin against Him.  Is such a thing impossible?  No, it is not!  Isn’t the Holy Spirit able, willing, and ready to reveal Himself, on condition that we ask for Him in faith?  Yes He is!  We need to see Christ as the one by whose stripes we are healed.  We need to know Him as relieving our pains and sufferings by His own pain and suffering.  We need to know him as preventing our death by His own death on an old rugged cross.  We need to know him as sorrowing that we might eternally rejoice.  We need to know Him as grieving that we might be unspeakably and eternally glad; and we need to know Him as dying in unspeakable agony that we might die in deep peace and in unspeakable triumph. 

8   “As being made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21)  We need to see Christ as being treated as a sinner, and even as the chief of sinners for us.  This scripture reveals that, because of us, Christ was treated as if He was a sinner.  Christ was made sin for us, that is, He was treated as the embodi­ment of sin for us.  Oh!  How we need this revelation to sink deep into our souls!  To see the holy Jesus treated as a sinner, and as if all sin was concentrated in Him because of us!  We are responsible for this treatment of Him.  He consented to take our place in such a sense that he endured the cross and the curse of the law for us.  When we truly see this, we will be ready to die with grief and love.  O, how infinitely we loathe our self under such a revelation as this!  We must not only see that Christ was treated as a sinner because of us and for us, but we must also appropriate this revelation by faith. 
     We also need to see that “He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteous­ness of God in Him”.  (2 Cor. 5:21)  God treated Christ as a sinner so that He could treat us as righteous.  God treated Christ as a sinner so that He could make us personally righteous by faith in Him.  God treated Christ as a sinner so that God could make us partakers of His righteousness as that righteousness exists and is revealed in Christ.  God treated Christ as a sinner so that God could make us righteous, in and by Christ, just as He is righteous.  We need to embrace by faith God’s righteousness, which, through the atonement and the indwelling Spirit, is brought home to the saints in Christ.  

9   We also need Christ revealed to us as the “head over all things to the church” (Eph. 1:22)

C       All these relationships contribute to our sanctification only as far as they are directly, inwardly, and personally revealed to our soul by the Holy Spirit.  It is one thing to have thoughts, ideas, and opinions concerning Christ, and an entirely different thing to know Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals Him to us.  All the relationships of Christ imply that there are corresponding needs within us.  When the Holy Spirit has revealed to us our needs, Christ is perfectly suited to fully meet those needs.  The Holy Spirit urges us to accept Christ.  And when we appropriate Christ by faith a tremendous work is accomplished.  But until the Holy Spirit reveals us to ourselves and reveals Christ to us and we accept Him, the only thing that happens is that our heads become filled with notions, opinions, and theories, while our hearts become more and more like stone. 
     I am afraid, that many professing Christians know Christ only after the flesh; that is, they have no other knowledge of Christ than what they obtain by reading and hearing about Him, without any special revelation of Him to their hearts by the Holy Spirit.  I do not wonder why so many professing Christians and ministers are totally in the dark on the subject of entire sanctification in this life.  They see sanctification as brought about by the formation of holy habits instead of resulting from the revelation of Christ to the soul in all His fullness and in all His relationships, and our renunciation of self and appropriating Christ in these relationships.  The Bible represents Christ as the head of the church.  The Bible represents the church as His body.  He is to the church what the head is to the body.  The head is where our mind is located, as well as our will.  All our thoughts, our reasons, in fact everything we intelligently do comes from our mind.  Consider what would happen to our body without the head, and you can understand what the church would be like without Christ.  But if the church would be without Christ, so each believer would be without Christ.  But we need to have our needs concerning our relationship to the body of Christ clearly revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, and this relationship of Christ revealed to our understanding.  The utter darkness of the human mind, concerning its own spiritual state and needs, and concerning the relationships and fullness of Christ, is truly amazing.  His relationships, as mentioned in the Bible, are overlooked almost completely until our needs are discovered.  Once we realize our needs, and we seriously begin to look for a remedy, we don’t have to look in vain.  “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’  (That is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’  (That is, to bring Christ up from the dead).  But what does it say?  ‘The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart’ that is, the word of faith which we preach” (Romans 10:8) 
     O, how infinitely blind one is to the fullness and glory of Christ, who does not know himself and Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals both.  When the Holy Spirit leads us to look down into the abyss of our own emptiness; when we behold the horrible pit and the miry clay of our own habits and our fleshly, worldly, and infernal entanglements; when we see in the light of God that our emptiness and needs are infinite; then, and not until then, are we prepared to totally throw away self and to put on Christ.  The Holy Spirit does not reveal the glory and fullness of Christ to us until we discover our need for Him.  But, until the Holy Spirit reveals our self, in all its loathsomeness and helplessness, to us; until hope in ourselves is totally lost; and until Christ, our all and in all, is revealed to our soul as its all‑sufficient portion and salvation; then, and not until then, does our soul know its salvation.  This knowledge is the indispensable condition of appropriating faith.  This knowledge is the indispensable condition of that act of receiving Christ, or committing everything to Him, that takes Christ home to live and dwell in our hearts.  Oh, such a knowledge and such a receiving and putting on of Christ is blessed.  Happy is he who knows it by his own experience. 
     It is indispensable to a steady and implicit faith, that our soul should have a spiritual revelation of what that passage means where Christ said that all power was delivered unto Him.  The ability of Christ to do everything, even exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, is what our soul needs to clearly see in a spiritual sense, that is, to see it not merely as a theory or as a proposition, but to see the true spiritual importance of this saying.  This is also equally true of everything that the Bible says about Christ, and about all His duties, functions, and relationships.  It is one thing to theorize, and speculate, and have opinions about Christ, and an entirely different thing to know Him as the Holy Spirit reveals Him.  When the Comforter fully reveals Christ to us, we will never again doubt the attainability and the reality of entire sanctification in this life. 
     When we sin, it is because of our ignorance of Christ.  That is, whenever temptation over­comes us, it is because we do not know and make ourselves available to the Christ who will supply all our needs.  One important thing that we need to do is to correct the development of our soul.  Because of a lifetime of contact with earthly objects, our appetites and passions have become enormously developed.  In relation to things of time and sense, our tendencies are greatly developed and are alive; but in relation to spiritual truths and objects, and eternal realities, we are naturally as dead as stones.  When we are first converted, if we know enough about ourselves and about Christ to thoroughly develop and correct the action of our feelings and perceptions, and confirm our wills in a state of entire consecration, we will not fall.  The more thorough the work that precedes conversion, and the stronger the revelation of Christ at or immediately after conversion, the more stable that convert will be.  In most, if not in every situation, however, the convert is too ignorant of himself, and of course, he knows too little about Christ, to be established in permanent obedience. 

D       He needs a renewed conviction of sin.  Then he needs to have Christ revealed to him, and the hope of glory formed in him, before he will be steadfast, before he will always abound in the work of the Lord.  Don’t think that knowing Christ in all these relationships is a condition of our coming into a state of entire consecration to God, or of present sanctification.  Our soul will abide in this state in the hour of temptation only as far as it turns to Christ during that time of trial, and appropriates Him by faith in those relationships that meet the current and pressing needs of our soul.  The temptation is the occasion that reveals the need, and the Holy Spirit is always ready to reveal Christ in the particular relationship that is suited to that newly developed need.  The perception and appropriation of Him in this relationship, under these circumstances of trial, is the essential element of our remaining in the state of complete consecration. 
     I have just finished discussing some of the relationships that Christ has with us concerning our salvation.  These relationships are examples of the way that the Bible and the Holy Spirit presents Christ for us to accept.  I am not saying that we must first know Christ in all these relationships before we can be sanctified.  Rather, coming to know Christ in these relationships is a condition of our perseverance in holiness under temptation.  When we are tempted from time to time, the only thing that can secure us against a fall is the revelation of Christ to our soul in these relationships one after another, and our appropriating Him to ourselves by faith.  The gospel has directly promised to provide a way of escape from every temptation, so that we will be able to bear that temptation.  The spirit of this promise pledges to us a revelation of Christ that will secure our standing if we will receive that promise by faith.  Our circumstances of temptation make it necessary, that at one time, we should apprehend Christ in one relationship, and at another time, we should apprehend Christ in another relationship.  For example, at one time we may be tempted to despair when Satan accuses us of sin, and suggests that our sins are too great for God to forgive us.  In this situation, we need to see that Christ was made sin for us.  We need to see that Christ atoned for our sins and is our justification or righteousness.  This will nurture our confidence and preserve our peace. 
     At another time, we may be tempted to despair of ever overcoming our tendencies to sin, and to give up our sanctification as being hopeless.  Now we need a revelation of Christ as our sanctification.
  At another time, we may despair because we see the great cunning and intelligence of our spiritual enemies.  Now, we need to know Christ as our wisdom. 
     Then, we may be tempted to become discouraged because of the great number and strength of our adversaries.  On these occasions we need Christ revealed to us as our Mighty God, as our strong tower, our hiding place, our fortification of rocks. 
     We may become depressed with a sense of the infinite holiness of God, and the infinite distance there is between God and us because of our sinfulness and His infinite holiness, and because of His infinite abhorrence of sin and sinners.  Now we need to know Christ as our righteousness, and as our mediator between God and man. 
     Our mouth may close with a sense of guilt, and we cannot even look up, or speak to God about pardon and acceptance.  We tremble and are confused before God.  We lie on our face, and a tide of despairing thoughts roll through our mind.  We are speechless, and we can only groan out our self‑accusations before the Lord.  Now as a condition of rising above this temptation to despair, we need a revelation of Christ as our advocate, as our high priest, as ever living to make intercession for us.  This view of Christ will enable our soul to commit everything to Him in this relationship, and maintain our peace and hold on to our steadfastness. 
     There are times when we tremble because of our constant exposure to oppression.  We have such a sense of our own total helplessness in the presence of our enemies, that we reach the point of despair.  Now we need to know Christ as our good shepherd, who keeps a constant watch over His sheep, and carries His lambs in His bosom.  We need to know Christ as a watchman and a keeper. 
     Perhaps we become oppressed with the sense of our own total emptiness, and we are forced to exclaim, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells nothing good.”  We see that our soul has no life, or unction, or power, or spirituality all by itself.  Now we need to know Christ as our true vine, from which our soul may receive constant and abundant spiritual nourishment.  We need to know Him as the fountain of the water of life, and in those relationships that will meet the appropriate needs. 
     These are just a few examples that illustrate what I mean by entire or permanent sanctification being conditioned by the revelation and appropriation of Christ to meet each and every need.