34. Sanctification Or Holiness
SANCTIFICATION OR HOLINESS Is sanctification instantaneous or progressive?
It is both. In its positional sense it is instantaneous (Hebrews 10:10; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Corinthians 6:11). In its experiential sense it is progressive (John 17:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:23). The end of the process is indicated in 1 John 3 : “We shall be like him.”
I wish that you would please write and tell me what difference you see in the phrases “sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:2) and “sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Peter 1:2).
All sanctification is through the Holy Spirit, even the sanctification “by God the Father” (Judges 1), and the sanctification which has to do with our position in Christ Jesus. The word “sanctification” means separation or holiness, and the doctrinal meaning of the word is to be set apart for God. According to the teaching of Scripture the Christian is sanctified positionally, “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:9-10). And he is sanctified experientially as he goes on in the Christian life apprehending the truth (John 17:17). Positional sanctification is instantaneous and applies to all believers alike. Experiential sanctification is progressive, varying according to the yieldedness of the believer. The end of this process will come when we are presented without fault in His own image and before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (1 John 3:2; Jude 24,25). Will you kindly give me a little light onHebrews 10:10? If I understand it correctly, we are sanctified (or set apart) through the offering of His body once. Does this mean that Christ was offered once for all, or are we sanctified or set apart once for all? Can we be set apart more than once? The word “once” in the text referred to has to do with the one offering on Calvary as contrasted with the many offerings under the Levitical covenant.
There is a sanctification which is instantaneous and complete for every believer from the moment he believes. He is instantly set apart by the reckoning of God and given the place of sonship in the Father’s house, but in sonship he occupies a position in the family as being “in Christ.”
Then there is a sanctification which is progressive. By this instantaneous sanctification the believer is made a saint (that is, a sanctified person, a holy person, a set apart person); and by progressive sanctification the saint becomes more and more saintly, his condition being brought nearer to his position, his state approaching more and more nearly his standing.
Then there is an ultimate sanctification which will be accomplished when the saint is separated from all sin and presented faultless before God’s presence with exceeding joy, shining in the kingdom of his Father and in the perfect image of the Son.
Please explain the meaning of1 Corinthians 7:14-15.
These verses read as follows: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.” The teaching here is sanctification by contact The unbelieving husband of a Christian wife or the unbelieving wife of a Christian husband is sanctified by contact with the believing partner, and this sanctification extends to their children. (The word for “holy” is identical with that for “sanctified.”) That this sanctification is not salvation is shown by the sixteenth verse: “For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?”
Sanctification is separation or being set apart. It never means sinlessness, and sometimes, as in this case, it does not even include salvation. Israel as a nation is sanctified, but it is not saved. Jerusalem as a city is sanctified—often called “the holy city”—but it is not saved. It is set apart by God for special purposes and put in a peculiar relation to Himself. The unbelieving husband of a Christian woman, or the unbelieving wife of a Christian man, is set apart in a peculiar class in the reckoning of God, as are also the children of these mixed marriages. God is particularly interested in them; and what father would not be interested in his own sons’ wives, and daughters’ husbands, and grandchildren?
Under the old covenant, whatsoever should touch a sanctified altar was itself sanctified by this contact, and whatsoever should touch a sanctified person was sanctified itself by this contact (Exodus 29:37; Exodus 30:29). Our Lord made reference to this sanctification by contact in His teaching in Matthew 23:17-19.
It ought to be added that Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7:14-15 does not give warrant for the putting on of the unequal yoke in marriage; it only deals with those who, having been married before conversion, find themselves bearing the unequal yoke. The apostle teaches that in such a case if the unbelieving partner is willing to go on in the marriage relationship then the believer should also go on, and in such a case the believer is assured of God’s solicitous interest in them and their children. It is a delightful illustration of our God’s gracious interest in our welfare and that of those related to us. Will you tell me what the Scripture teaches about the second blessing? Our pastor thinks that we receive the Holy Spirit after we have been saved, that it is separate from our salvation. If he is right, we are wrong, as we believe that when we were born again we received the Spirit, and that He will never leave us. Please tell us what you think about it. The “second blessing” doctrine, so called, is contrary to Scripture. The teaching of the New Testament is that all believers have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them (1 Corinthians 3:16; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13); but it also exhorts all believers to “be rilled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). It may be that your pastor refers to this filling as a second blessing.
How can Christians have victory over sin? The Bible says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” and it seems impossible to be perfect and sinless in this world.
Victory over sin is one thing and sinless perfection is another. The latter is not attainable so long as we are in the body, but the former is the Christian’s privilege, and should always be his aim. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
Please explainHebrews 12:14, and give the best text to offset the “perfection” theory.
Hebrews 12:14 is an exhortation to “follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Holiness is not the same thing as perfection. Holiness is separation, and so also is sanctification, which is an exactly synonymous word with holiness, both coming from the same Greek word. The Epistle to the Hebrews consists in general of an appeal to Hebrews who were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, but who hesitated to confess Him as such. The verse you cite is in line with this appeal, and the writer is calling upon his Hebrew brethren to separate themselves and walk in the padi set before them, confessing Jesus as Lord (compare Romans 10:9-10). Our holiness or sanctification is Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 1:30) and therefore we are called saints, which means sanctified or holy persons, set apart unto God—”sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). As for perfection, we are on our way to that, and meanwhile, in our standing before God, our Lord has by His one great offering “perfected forever them that are sanctified,” including, of course, every believer (Hebrews 10:14). As to our walk, we should seek to have it conform to our position so far as that may be possible in the energy of the Holy Spirit. Do the Scriptures teach holiness in the flesh?
“The flesh” can never be holy, and “they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (see Romans 8:8-9). If you mean to ask whether a state of sinlessness can be attained while we are yet in the natural body, the answer is, No. And yet that fact must not be used as an excuse for sin. As a speaker once put it, “You need not be so afraid of perfection; for none of us ever got near enough to perfection to catch the infection.” While we are always prone to sinning, let us not forget that we are called, not to uncleanness, but to holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7).
1. Is it possible to be perfect in experience as we are perfect in position? If not, what should we do with that command inLeviticus 19:2: “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy?”
2. Is there a stage in holiness reached where a man will not wilfully sin (1 John 3:9;Matthew 5:48;1 John 3:6;1 John 5:18;Deuteronomy 18:13;1 Kings 8:61)?
3. When God asks us to be “perfect,” what does He really mean by that word “perfect”?
4. Can we come into the same state of holiness possessed by Adam and Eve before they fell?
5. Does the Christian in this life ever experience that degree of holiness whereby the carnal nature is eradicated and temptation to him is no more from within, but only from without?
6. Is it possible to live without known sin; and is it probable that such a person lives; and has there ever been a living example excepting Christ?
7. In the different planes of “progressive sanctification” is there ever a highest plane reached by man, where he is more delivered from the attacks of Satan and thus less liable to commit sin? Or as man progresses in sanctification does the attack of Satan become more subtle and does he keep presenting new temptations whereby the Christian is more liable to fall? Your questions remind me of an instance in my own experience a few years ago. A young woman friend of mine about to be graduated from college sent me a long list of questions. They were supposed to be hard questions, but they were all “old stuff,” and I had answered them over and over again at various times, but here they were again. My answer to her was that her trouble was “an attitude of mind,” and that even if I should answer all her questions she would still have as many left when I got through as when I began.
One of the best books I know on the subject of Holiness is Harry Ironside’s Holiness: The False and the True. Mr. Ironside used to be a Salvation Army officer, and it was during that time that he went through the so-called experience of “sanctification,” when he believed that the old nature had been eradicated and that he was no longer subject to temptation. To answer your seven questions:
1. Perfection is not quite the same thing as holiness, although they are sometimes used synonymously. I should say that sinless perfection is not possible in this life. Nevertheless we must continually aspire unto it, and so far as it is possible we must be holy as Jehovah our God is holy.
2. This question is difficult to answer by a Yes or No. Sin is coming short of the glory of God. I suppose no real Christian “wilfully” desires to do that. But whether the goal is ever attained amongst us, I cannot tell.
3. The word “perfect” means exactly what it seems to mean to the average reader. It is really sinlessness, but I have already answered this question in answer No. 1.
4. Holiness is not the correct way to describe the state of Adam and Eve before the fall. They were innocent, but they had not yet been tested. It is quite impossible for any one who has known what sin is to come into the same state possessed by Adam and Eve before they fell.
5. The Scriptures certainly do not teach that the carnal nature is ever eradicated, or that the believer can ever get to the place where his temptation is wholly from without and not from within. Romans 7:18 is always true so long as we are here in the flesh at all. Of course, in the technical sense, no Christian is in the flesh (Romans 8:9), but that is not the meaning of the expression in Romans 7:18.
6. I have known many persons who claim to be living without known sin; but I have never yet seen a satisfactory definition of “known sin.” When you remember that any coming short of the glory of God is sin it is hard to think of our living for a moment in the absence of sin, or even known sin.
7. Sin is not always the result of Satan’s attacks. Even during the Millennium, when Christ will be here on the throne, and when Satan is restrained for a thousand years, there will yet be sin—so much so that at the end of the thousand years when Satan is released he will find it possible to muster a tremendous army of rebels against the Lord. Sin is a part of man’s make-up, and it is inseparable from him in this life. It is no doubt true that as he becomes more intimate with God he will become more sensitive to sin, and will therefore find in himself far more sin than he ever before dreamed was there; but it is also true that in such a case there will be ever-increasing victory over sin. Is eradication taught in the Bible?
No. Not until we are changed into the image of Christ will sin be eradicated. The Scriptures do not teach that the believer can ever, in this life, get to the place where his temptation is wholly from without and not from within. The language of Romans 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing,” is always true so long as we are here in the flesh at all. Of course, in the technical sense no Christian is in the flesh (Romans 8:9), but that is not the meaning of the expression in Romans 7:18.