1.09. Sanctification in Christ

CHAPTER IX SANCTIFICATION IN CHRIST THE realisation in themselves of the above ideal is the task set before the servants of Christ. We ask how it may be achieved.

Evidently the first step towards, and an abiding condition of, this life of loyalty to Christ is a deliberate and resolute purpose to devote ourselves without reserve to His service. This involves a surrender of all other purposes except so far as they can be and are subordinated to this one great purpose ; and an acceptance of a path in life marked out not by our own choice but by the will of Another. This initial and continued self-surrender is the costly sacrifice which God claims : it is the costliest sacrifice which man can lay upon the altar of God. It is our self-consecration to the great work of Him who said, "On their behalf I sanctify Myself, in order that also they may be sanctified in the Truth."

Strange to say, an immediate result of this resolve is a painful discovery of our inability to accomplish, or even to maintain, it. In proportion to our earnest ness, we become conscious of a hostile force within us hindering the accomplishment of our purpose and even more or less dethroning the purpose itself. This felt inability becomes to us an intolerable bondage and condemnation. Henceforth for us there can be no real peace until we yield to Christ the devotion He claims. For deliverance from this bondage, and for a realisation in ourselves of this new life of loyalty to Christ, we turn again, as when seeking pardon for past sins, to the Gospel of Christ. Our inability to live for Christ by any moral strength of our own proves at once that devotion to Him is possible to us only as a gift and work of Him who gave His Son to rescue man from sin. This is implied in the prayer of Christ in John 17:17, "sanctify them in the Truth;" and in that of Paul in TActs 5:23, " may the God of peace Himself sanctify you : " for, as we saw on pp. 66-68, these prayers ask for no less than the actual realisation in men of their purpose to live for God. It is also implied in Philemon 1:6, " He who has begun in you a good work will complete it till the day of Jesus Christ ; " and i2 Chronicles 2:12-13, "work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you both to will and to work, on behalf of His good pleasure," i.e. in order to accomplish what seems good to Him. So also 2 Corinthians 5:17, " if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature;" Galatians 6:15, "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature," or " creation." For a new creature involves a fresh putting forth of the creative power of God. In Ephesians 1:19-20, the surpassing power of God put forth in those who believe is compared to the power which raised Christ from the dead and to heaven. Consequently, as we read i2 Chronicles 2:10, "we are His work, created in Christ Jesus for good works ; " and i2 Chronicles 4:24 we read of " the new man which, in harmony with God, has been created in righteousness and purity of truth."

Now whatever God does, especially in the work of salvation, must have been a definite thought and purpose in His mind from eternity. This eternal purpose must have included a selection of the objects of salvation and of the path along which God was minded to lead them to the goal He had selected. In this sense, God " chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy . . . having, in love, predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ:" Ephesians 1:4-5. Since this adoption and sanctification are a reproduction in us of Christ s human devotion to God, and of the eternal devotion of the Son to the Father, Paul could write, in Romans 8:28-29, " called according to purpose : because whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." For, of this image, as reflected in the pages of the New Testament, unreserved devotion to the Father is an essential and conspicuous element. This realisation of an eternal purpose, no external force can hinder : for " neither death nor life . . . can separate us from the love of God." We are therefore " more than conquerors : " verses 37-39. But the realisation is none the less altogether contingent on man s self-surrender to the divine purpose. For Christ said, " I would . . . and ye would not :" Matthew 23:37. This purpose to save and sanctify sinful man must have been an essential part of God s original purpose to create the universe and man. For the human race is infinitely the most important part of the material universe as known to us. And when God made man free, and therefore liable to fall, He must have foreseen man s misuse of his freedom and the whole course of history. Consequently creation and redemption, including the death of Christ, must have been parts of one great purpose. In view of all this, we expect to find that the devotion to God of ourselves, our powers, and our possessions, is a result, not only of God s claims, but of His power working in us the devotion He claims. So Colossians 1:29, "for which end I also toil, agonizing according to His inworking, inwrought in me in power." This implies that Paul s intense efforts for the full development of his readers were wrought in him by the power of God. Our sanctification stands also in definite relation to Christ, So 1 Corinthians 1:2, "sanctified in Christ." In Rom. vi. u, the ideal life which Paul bids his readers claim, viz. "dead to sin but living for God," is said to be "like" Christ and "in Christ," who Himself (v. 10) "died to sin ... and lives for God." 2 Chronicles 14:9, we read that "for this end Christ died and lived, in order that both of dead and living He might be Lord." Still more definitely in 2 Corinthians 5:15: "on behalf of all He died, in order that they who live may live, no longer for themselves, but for Him who on their behalf died and rose." This implies that the new life of devotion to God and to Christ was a definite purpose for which He laid down His life. So Galatians 2:19-20: "I died to law, in order that I may live for God. With Christ I am crucified. And there lives no longer I, but in me Christ lives." This implies that, just as our spirit gives to our body life and activity, so the living inward presence of the Crucified was the source in Paul of a higher life and activity.

Similarly Hebrews 13:12 :" Jesus, in order that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate." So Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:14, Hebrews 10:29 : "we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus . . . by one offering He has perfected for ever those who are being sanctified . . . the blood of the Covenant in which he was sanctified. " In this sense, in ch. ii. ii we read of "Him who sanctifies and them who are being sanctified"

All this places, as we shall see further in ch. xi., the sanctification of believers in close relation to the death of Christ. And this sacrificial teaching suggests irresistibly that when, as recorded in John 17:19, Christ said "on their behalf I sanctify Myself," He had special reference to His own approaching death.

If then to-day, in response to God’s claim, we are in any measure living for God, it is because centuries ago, n fulfilment of an eternal purpose of God, the Holy One of God consecrated with His Own Blood the altar on which are laid today in willing sacrifice whatever we have and are ; and because He who once lived a human life on earth and now lives a glorified human life upon the throne of God, simply and only to work out the Father s purposes, now lives in us as the mysterious inward Source of a life like His own life of unreserved devotion to God. Thus has Christ " become to us sanctification : " 1 Corinthians 1:30. This sanctification in Christ involves 11 fellowship," i.e. partnership (same word in Luke 5:10), with Christ in all that He has and is, in His Sonship and service, in His sufferings, in His inheritance as Son of God, and in His glory: Romans 8:17, Ephesians 2:5-6; Ephesians 2:1-22:1 Timothy 2:11-12. It involves also a felt inward presence of Christ dwelling in our hearts, living in our lives, guiding and guarding and helping us in all we do, and enabling us to live a life of devotion to God like that of the incarnate Son. And this inward presence of Christ evokes in us a sense of companionship with One infinitely strong and wise and loving, a Person distinct both from ourselves and from the Father to whom He bows. To unnumbered thousands, this unseen companionship has supplied abundantly the lack of all other fellowship, even in the loneliest and darkest paths in life. In this mysterious and glorious fellowship, which words fail utterly to describe, has been fulfilled the Master s parting promise, " I am with you always : " Matthew 28:20. Of this inward presence of Christ, as of all else which God does in man, the Holy Spirit is the Agent. Where He is, there is Christ, and not elsewhere. So 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17:1 Peter 1:2, " sanctification of the Spirit : " and Romans 15:16, where Paul desires that the Gentiles, offered in sacrifice to God, may be "sanctified in the Holy Spirit." Indeed the new term, " the Holy Spirit," conspicuous throughout the New Testament, suggests at once that the Spirit of God stands in special relation to God as an inward influence ever leading us to devote ourselves to the service of God. Just as (Genesis 2:7) God breathed into a human form the "breath of life, and man became a living soul," so to all who believe the Gospel God gives His Spirit, who is also (Romans 8:9, 1 Peter 1:1-25. n) the " Spirit of Christ," to be in them the animating principle of a new life of devotion to God, like the life of Christ. That Christ will baptize with the Spirit is, in all four Gospels, a conspicuous element in the teaching of the Baptist : Mt. iii. ii, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33. In Luke 11:13 Christ promises that " the Father from heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." In John 7:39, a wonderful promise that from those who believe in Christ " shall flow rivers of living water" is thus explained : " this He spoke about the Spirit which they who believed in Him were about to receive." The promise that Christ will baptize with the Spirit is repeated in Acts 1:5, by the risen, but not yet ascended, Lord. And from Pentecost onwards the gift of the Spirit is conspicuous : Acts 2:4; Acts 2:38; Acts 2:4-8; Acts 6:3, Acts 6:5, Acts 10:44-45, etc. In Galatians 3:2-3 Paul assumes that his readers have received the Spirit, and says in verses Galatians 3:13-14 that "Christ bought us off from the curse of the Law ... in order that we may receive the promise of the Spirit." 2 Chronicles 5:16 (cp. 5:25) he urges his readers to " walk by the Spirit ; " he speaks in 5:18 of those who are " led by the Spirit;" and in 5:22 describes all moral excellence as a " fruit of the Spirit." Similar teaching meets us in Romans 8:2-16; Romans 8:26; Romans 8:27, and throughout his epistles. This gift of the Spirit is sufficient for all our needs. They who are filled with the Spirit of Christ are filled with the mind and power and holiness of Christ. Their life is thus in some sense a continuation of His Incarnation. He who of old manifested Himself to men in the flesh and blood born of Mary now manifests Himself in His servants living on earth, by His Spirit dwelling in them. They are conscious that their life and purposes and actions have their source not in themselves but in God ; and are led onwards and upwards by a wisdom and power not human but divine. Other teachers can impart knowledge, and set before their pupils a worthy example. But Christ breathes into His servants His own life, His own intelligence to enlighten them, His own moral strength to make them strong, and His own love to be the mainspring of their life.

Thus in the sanctification of men each divine Person takes His characteristic part. Of all holiness, the Father is the ultimate Source and Aim. In virtue of His own essential nature of Love, He can do no other than claim the unreserved devotion of all His rational creatures; and what He claims He is ready to work in them. Thus we " partake His holiness : " Hebrews 12:10. For our devotion to Him is the due complement of His claim. In the eternal devotion of the Son to the Father, of one divine Person to another; we have the eternal archetype of man’s devotion ; and a personal influence com municating by personal contact with another person the mind of Christ. And of this influence the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, is the divine and inward personal Agent. For the one is the Holy One of God, and the other is the Holy Spirit.