XL.    SANCTIFICATION

     Remarks

A       We must attach an importance to the sanctification of our body that very few people know about.  Indeed, unless we consecrate our bodily appetites and powers to the service of God, unless we learn to eat, drink, sleep, wake, labor, and rest, for the glory of God, permanent sanctification, as a practical thing, is out of the question.  It is clear, that very few of us are aware of the tremendous influence that our bodies have over our minds, and of the indispensable need to bring our bodies under, and keep them in subjection. 
     Few people seem to keep this fact steadily in view, that unless we properly manage our bodies, they will become a fierce and overpowering source for temptation, which will inevitably lead to sin.  If we indulge in stimulating diets, and consume foods that irritate and agitate our nervous system, our bodies will naturally become a source of powerful and constant temptations towards evil tempers and vile affections.  If we see the tremendous influence our bodies have over our minds, we would realize that we can’t be too careful to preserve our nervous system from the influence of every improper article of food or drink.  We would see how important it is to preserve our system from every influence that could impair its function, as if our system was the apple of our eye.  No one, who has the opportunity to acquire information concerning the laws of life and health, and who is offered the best means to sanctify the whole spirit, soul, and body, can be guiltless if he neglects these means of knowledge.

B        Every one must make the structure and laws of both his body and mind the subject of as thorough an investigation as his circumstances will allow, to inform himself of the true principles of temperance, and how he can make the most of all his mental and physical powers for the glory of God.  

C       It is obvious why the church today is not sanctified.  As a body, the church does not believe that we can achieve completely sanctified state until near the end of one’s life, if at all.  This is the most important reason why she has not achieved it.  

D       From what I have said, it is easy to see that the true question concerning entire sanctification in this life is: “Is sanctification attainable as a matter of fact?”  Some think the question should be: “Are Christians entirely sanctified in this life?”  We don’t need to discuss this question.  Suppose Christians are not sanctified because they don’t know or believe they can achieve sanctification before they die.  If they believe they can achieve it, perhaps they may achieve it.  But, even if God has made provision for us to attain sanctification, God’s provision is worthless unless we recognize and believe it.  The church needs to see and believe that this is her high privilege and her duty.  It is not enough to say that you can naturally attain it.  This is just as true of the devil and the lost in hell as it is of people in this world.  But unless grace puts this attainment so within our reach that we can aim at it with a reasonable chance of success, there is no more provision for our entire sanctification in this life than there is for the devil's sanctification.  We are confused because ministers tell us that this state can be reached naturally, and at the same time, they tell us that we will never exercise this ability unless we are disposed to do so by the grace of God.  Furthermore, they say that it is a dangerous error for us to expect to receive grace from God to secure this result.  They admit that we might naturally reach this state, but it is an irrational and dangerous error to expect or hope to receive sufficient grace to secure it.
  The real question is, has grace brought sanctification so within our reach that we may reasonably expect, by aiming at it, to experience it in our lifetime?  People commonly believe today that, on the ground of natural ability, both wicked men and devils have the power to be entirely holy.  However, their refusal to use this power is so strong, that they never will this power unless the grace of God influences them to do so.  Therefore, I insist that the real question that we need to ask today is, “are the provisions of the gospel such that if the church fully understands and receives the grace offered to her, will she reach this state?  Are we as fully equipped to offer this grace to Christians, as we are to offer the grace of repentance and pardon to sinners?  May we just as consistently urge Christians to grab a hold of that sanctifying grace that is sufficient to keep them from all sin, as we urge sinners to grab a hold of Christ for justification.  May we insist on one just as much as the other!

E       Do we see how irrelevant and absurd the objection is, that the church is not sanctified and therefore it can’t attain sanctification?  If the church does not think that they can achieve sanctification, it no more proves that they can’t attain it, than the fact that the heathen have not embraced the gospel, proves that they will not embrace the gospel when they hear it.  Remember when the church thought that it was dangerous to call sinners to repent and believe the gospel; in fact, they were told by Calvinists that they could not repent, that they must wait for God’s time.  Remember when the church considered it a dangerous error for a sinner to think that he could repent.  But who does not know that the thorough introduction of an opposite doctrine has brought countless thousands to repentance?  Now, we need to pursue the same course with all Christians.  Instead of telling them that it is dangerous to expect to be completely sanctified in this life, we must tell them to immediately believe, and grab a hold of all the promises of perfect love and faith.  

F       Do you see the need to preach and insist on sanctification, and to call sanctification by its true scriptural name?  It is astonishing to see the extent of the tendency among men to avoid using scriptural language, and to cling to the intellectual babble of many popular theologians.  They object to the terms perfection and entire sanctification, and prefer to use terms like consecration, and other terms that the church commonly uses today.  Now, I don’t like arguing over the use of words; but it appears to me to be very important that we use scriptural language, and insist that we be “perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48), and be “sanctified wholly, body, soul and spirit.”  (1 Thess. 5:23) 
     This appears to me to be more important because if we use the same language that the church is accustomed to using on this subject, the Church will misunderstand us, and will not get the proper idea of what we really mean.  She has already done this.  That this is true is clear from the fact that most of the church is alarmed when you use the words perfection and entire sanctification, but they will not be alarmed if you speak of entire consecration.  This demonstrates that they do not understand that these terms mean the same thing.  And although I understand that these terms mean exactly the same thing, yet I find that I must use the words perfection and entire sanctification to get their attention on the real meaning of these words.  This is Bible language.  This is unobjectionable language.  And since the church thinks that entire consecration means something less than entire sanctification or Christian perfection, it seems to me very important that ministers should use words which will call the attention of the church to the real doctrine of the Bible on this subject.  With great humility, I would like to submit this question to my beloved brethren in the ministry.  Fellow ministers, are you aware that Christians have entirely too low an idea of what is implied in entire consecration.  Wouldn’t it be useful and best to adopt the proper wording when you talk to them, which will call their attention to the real meaning of the words they use? 

G      Many ministers won’t even allow young converts to even entertain the thought that they could live, even for one whole day, without sin.  Generally, many young converts have no more been taught to expect to live even for one day without sin, than they have been taught to expect immediate translation, body, soul, and spirit to heaven.  They have not known any other way to walk than to go on in sin.  And, no matter how shocking and distressing the need to be set free from their bondage appears to them, they still look upon it as an unalterable fact, that to be in bondage to sin is something that they will have to live with until they take their last breath.  Now, with this kind of theology, with the conviction in the church and ministry so ripe, so settled and universal, the most the grace of God can do for people in this world today, is to bring them to repentance, and then leave them to live and die in a state of sinning and repenting.  How can you be surprised that religion today is in such a deplorable state? 
     In looking over the results of preaching the doctrine of sanctification to Christians, I feel compelled to say, that I have witnessed enough evidence that it is the truth and that it is owned and blessed by God, just like those truths that I have so often preached to sinners, and which have been blessed by God for their conversion.  This doctrine actually results in raising the piety of Christians under the blessing of God, just as the truths that I preached to sinners contributed to their conversion.

H       Much of orthodox Christianity has lost sight of Christ in some of His most important relationships with the human race.  The church generally knows Christ as a pardoning and justifying Savior; but few know him as a Savior who lives and reigns in our heart.  A remark from a well-loved brother, who had been depressed for a long time, really touched my heart.  A great sense of his own vileness weighed him down, and he saw no way of escape.  One evening, during a meeting the Lord so revealed Himself to him that it overwhelmed his body and his fellow Christians had to carry him home.  The next time I saw him, he cried out to me with a sorrow I will never forget, “Brother Finney, the church has buried our Savior”.  The church has become alienated from Christ, and has largely lost knowledge of who He is and what He should be to the Church.  I have good reason to know, that many of her members in different parts of the country are saying with deep and overpowering emotion, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him” (John 20:13)

I           With all her orthodoxy, the church has been for a long time much nearer to Unitarianism than she has imagined.  This remark may shock some of my readers, and you may think it smells of being overcritical.  But, beloved, I am sure I say it in no such spirit.  These are sober words of truth.  The church knows so about Christ, that, if I am not entirely mistaken, there are multitudes in the orthodox churches today who do not know Christ, and who, in heart, are Unitarians, while in theory they are orthodox.  They have never known Christ, the way I have presented Christ to you in these studies. 
     For many years, I have been deeply impressed with the fact that so many professing Chris­tians are coming to the ripe conviction that they never knew Christ.  This is constantly happing in this nation today.  I doubt whether there are any ministers in this nation who will present Christ as the gospel presents Him, in all the fullness of His official relationships to mankind, who will not be shocked and amazed with events and testimonies before their very eyes, that will assure them, that most of those who claim to be Christians today, do not even know the Savior.  It has been to me, a painfully serious question, when I think of the spiritual state of those who know so little of our Blessed Jesus.  That none of them are converted, I dare not say.  Yet, that they are converted, I am afraid to say.  I would not for the world “quench the smoking flax, or break the bruised reed” (Isaiah 42:3), or say anything to stumble, or weaken the feeblest lamb of Christ; and yet my heart grieves, my soul is sick; my bowels of compassion yearn over the church of the blessed God.  Oh, the dear church of Christ!  What does she in her present state know of the gospel‑rest, of that “great and perfect peace” (Isaiah 26:3), which those people have whose minds are stayed on God?  The church in this nation is largely composed of profess­ing Christians from all over the world, who have come here for educational purposes, and for religious considerations.  And as I said, I have sometimes been appalled at the disclosures which the Spirit of God has made of the real spiritual state of many who have come here, and were considered by others before they came, and by themselves, as truly converted to God.  

J        If I am not mistaken, there is a general feeling among Christians and ministers, that much that they should and can know about the Savior is not known.  Many are beginning to find that the Savior is to them “as a root out of a dry ground, having neither form nor comeliness” (Isaiah 53:2)  Many are discovering that the gospel that they preach or hear is not to them “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16) from sin; that it is not to them “glad tidings of great joy” (Luke 1:19); that it is not to them a peace‑giving gospel.  And many are feeling that if Christ has done for them all that His grace is able to do in this life, the plan of salvation is sadly defective.  They are beginning to feel that Christ is not, after all if thus, a Savior suited to their needs.  They feel that the religion they have is not suited to the world they live in; that it does not and cannot make them free.  Instead, their religion leaves them in a state of perpetual bondage.  Their souls are in agony, and they are tossing back and forth without a resting‑place.  Many are beginning to see that there are many passages, in both the Old and the New Testaments, that they do not understand.  They are beginning to see that the promises seem to mean much more than they have ever realized; and that the gospel and the plan of salvation as a whole, must be something very different from what they have been taught.  There are, if I am not mistaken, many, all over this country, who are hungering, more earnestly than ever before, after a knowledge of that Jesus who is to save His people from their sins.

K       If the doctrine of these studies is true, you can see the immense importance of preaching sanctifica­tion in religious revivals as clearly and as fully as you possibly can.  When the hearts of converts are warm with their first love it is time to fully acquaint them with their Savior.  It is time to hold Christ up in all His duties, functions, and relationships, so Christ can break the power of every sin and lead them to break away forever from all self‑dependence, and to receive Christ as a present, perfect, everlasting Savior, as far as they are able to do this with their limited experience.

L        Unless we take this course with them, their backsliding is inevitable.  You might as well expect to roll back the waters of Niagara Falls with your hand, as to stay the tide of their former habits, surrounded as they are with temptation, without a deep, and thorough experiential acquaintance with the Savior.  And if they are thrust on their own watchfulness and resources for strength against temptation, instead of being directed to the Savior, they will certainly become discouraged and fall into dismal bondage.

M      Never forget the need to be willing to do the will of God in order to properly understand sanctification.  If a man is not willing to give up his sins.  If he is not willing to deny himself all ungodliness and every worldly lust.  If he is unwilling to set himself apart totally and forever to the service of the Lord, he will either reject the doctrine of sanctification altogether, or only intellectually admit it, without receiving it into his heart.  It is very dangerous to accept to this doctrine, or any other doctrine of the gospel, and not practice it.

N       Those who embrace this doctrine in theory but reject it in practice have done a lot of evil.  Their spirit and temper have been such that they have lead those who have listened to them to believe that the tendency of the doctrine itself is bad.  And some who have professed to experience the power of this doctrine of sanctification in their hearts have greatly dis­graced Christianity by exhibiting a very different spirit from that of an entirely sanctified one.  But why, in a Christian land should this be a stumbling block?  When the heathen see people from Christian nations who claim to be Christians exhibit on their shores and in their countries the spirit that many of them do, they conclude that this is what the Christian religion produces.  To this our missionaries reply that those people are only Christians in name.  They say that those people think that they are Christians but they are not true believers.  Now, should some of our mainline denominational church members go overseas and observe these so called Christians, they might tell those missionaries that they are too harsh and critical.  These people aren’t just believers in name only, because they claim to have experienced the Christian religion in their own hearts.  Now how would the missionaries reply?  Why, they would respond by saying that although those people were claiming that they were Chris­tians, they really did not know Christ.  They were deceiving themselves with a name to live by, while in fact they were dead in trespasses and sins.      

O      It is astonishing that, in a Christian land, it should be a stumbling‑block to anyone that so many, who claim to have received and experienced the truth of the doctrine of sanctification, exhibit an unchristian spirit.  What would happen if you raised this same objection against any and every Christian doctrine?  What if you said that the great majority of all those who claim to believe and receive those doctrines, were proud, worldly, selfish, and exhibited anything but a right spirit.  We could truthfully make this objection about the professed Christian church.  But, should the conclusion of such an objection be allowed in the Church?  Who does not know that the doctrines of Christianity do not sanction such conduct, and that anyone who produces a spirit or conduct that the Christian religion objects to, does not truly believe in those doctrines. 
  Now, suppose they reply by saying that “a tree is known by its fruits,” and that so many professing Christians could not exhibit such a spirit unless it was the tendency of Christianity itself to produces it.  Wouldn’t you see that this state of mind and course of conduct that they complain about is the natural state of man uninfluenced by the gospel of Christ?  Wouldn’t you see, that in these situations, because of unbelief, the gospel has failed to correct what was already wrong, and that it did not need the influence of any corrupt doctrine to produce that state of mind?  It appears to me, that those who object to the doctrine of sanctification simply because many who claim to have received it have exhibited a wrong spirit, take it for granted that the doctrine produced this wrong spirit.  Why don’t they see that a wrong spirit is natural to men, and that the difficulty is that through unbelief the gospel has failed to correct what was already wrong?  They reason as if they believe the human heart needs something to produce that bad spirit within it.  They reason as if they think that believing in the doctrine of sanctification has made men wicked; instead of recognizing the fact that they were already wicked, and that, because of their unbelief, the gospel could not make them holy.  

P       Very few Christians who profess to receive this doctrine of sanctification into their hearts have exhibited a bad spirit.  And, I am fully convinced that if I have ever seen Christianity and the spirit of Christ in the world, those who profess to have received this doctrine into their heart have exhibited it.

Q      It is unbelievably important that the ministry and the church today should come to a full and right under­standing of this doctrine and embrace it.  Oh, it would be like life from the dead!  Many today regard the proclamation of this doctrine as “good tidings of great joy”.  From every corner, we receive the good news that souls are entering into the deep rest and peace of the gospel.  We hear that they are waking to a life of faith and love and that, instead of sinking down into fruitlessness, many are more loving, active, holy, and useful than ever before.  They are more prayerful, watchful, diligent, meek, sober‑minded, and heavenly in their lives.  This is basically the character of those people I know, who have embraced this doctrine, and professed to have experienced its power.  I say this for no other reason, than to relieve the anxieties of those who have heard very strange reports, and whose honest fears are aroused concerning the tendency of this doctrine.

R       Many have made a lot of effort to demonstrate that our views of this subject are wrong.  But in all our arguing up until now, there has been one major defect.  None of the opponents of this doctrine have yet showed us “a more excellent way, and told us what is right” (1 Cor. 12:31)  It is impossible to determine what is wrong unless we have the standard of right before us.  We must certainly be acquainted with what is right before it can reasonably pronounce anything wrong: “for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20)  It is therefore certainly absurd, for the opponents of the doctrine of entire sanctification in this life to pronounce this doctrine wrong without being able to show us what is right.  Then, I ask you, to what purpose do these people argue, who insist that our view on this subject is wrong, while they don’t even attempt to tell us what is right?  No one can pretend that the scriptures teach nothing on this subject.  And the question is; what do the scriptures teach?  We therefore call on those who denounce this doctrine to definitely tell us how holy Christians should live, and how should we expect them to live in this life.  Until they come forward and show us what the scripture really says on this subject, it is arrogant to say that what we believe is wrong.  It is just as if they said that something is sin without comparing it with the standard of right.  Until they show us what the scriptures teach, we must ask to be excused from thinking that what we teach in these studies is wrong, or contrary to the language and spirit of inspiration.  This question is certainly one that we should not toss aside without settling it.  We want them to establish a definite rule to explain what they believe to be the real and explicit teachings of the Bible on this subject.  And we think it is absurd, that the opponents of this view should try to convince us of our error without so much as attempting to show us what the truth on this subject is, as if we could easily decide what is contrary to right, without possessing any knowledge of what is right.  We therefore ask our brethren, in discussing this subject, to show us what is right.  And if what we believe is not the truth, please show us a more excellent way, and convince us that we are wrong by showing us what is right.  For we have no hope that we will ever see that we are wrong until you can present to us something else that we can see is right.  

But, before I close, I must share what I believe is the duty of Christians today.  Our duty, as Christians, is to hold our will in a state of consecration to God, and to receive the promises for the blessing promised in such passages as: “And the very God of peace sanctify 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 calls you, who also will do it” (1 Thess. 5:23, 24)  This is our duty.  Let us wait on the Lord in faith, for that cleansing of our whole lives that we need to confirm, strengthen, and settle us.  All we can do, and all that God requires us to do, is to obey Him from moment to moment, and to get a hold of Him for the blessing that we have been talking about; and to be assured, that God will bring forth the answer in the best time and in the best manner.  If you believe, the anointing that abides will surely be secured in due time.