E. H.
Tunbridge Wells.
CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
SEPARATION UNTO GOD | ||
LEGAL CLEANSING: | ||
| SANCTIFICATION THROUGHBLOOD | |
| THE CLEANSING BLOOD | |
PERSONAL HOLINESS: | ||
| THE SANCTIFIED | |
| PROGRESS | |
| INFECTION OF NATURE | |
| GRACE | |
| HOLINESS THROUGH FAITH | |
| CONSECRATION | |
| PRAYER | |
GOD’S NAME SANCTIFIED | ||
| ROMANS, VII. | |
| 1 JOHN, III. 6 | |
| THE WORD‘PERFECT’ | |
| TEMPTATION, HEB. IV. 15 | |
DOCTRINAL NOTES | ||
SEPARATION UNTO GOD.
‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’—1 Pet. i. 2.
It is one of the encouraging features of the present day that many of the Lord’s people are aiming at a higher standard of Christian holiness than they have ever yet known, and are looking to the great grace of their most blessed Saviour to raise them by His Spirit above the various hindrances which have hitherto impeded their progress. They desire that there should be no impediment in the service of their blessed Saviour. In their worship they would draw very near to Him, and in their life they would glorify His name. But yet, when they seek to do so, and when they fairly look at God’s character, God’s claims, God’s will, and God’s glory, they find reason to be humbled to the dust; and the more they realize His infinite mercy in Christ Jesus, the more they learn of the magnitude and multitude of their own shortcomings. Thus it sometimes comes to pass that in many true believers their greatest discouragements are intimately connected with their efforts after holiness, and many of their doubts and difficulties arise from their real desire for true sanctification. The more that they aim at the holiness of God, the more they feel their sin, and the more earnestly that they strive to rise, the more keenly do they feel the pain and humiliation of the ruin of their fallen nature. It is important therefore for those who desire holiness to look carefully into the teaching of Scripture on the great subject of Sanctification; to examine what is really promised, and to learn what the Word of God teaches us to expect. Does it, or does it not, make provision for such difficulties? And if it does, what is the provision? These are some of the questions which I desire now to consider, and I hope it may please God to fulfil to both writer and reader the prayer of the Apostle: ‘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.’
Now one of the great difficulties of the subject is, that in all languages certain words are employed to express more than one idea, and that the idea connected with the word often changes as time advances. To a certain extent this applies to the word ‘sanctification’ in sacred Scripture. It has no less than four distinct meanings in the Word of God; and, if we treat them all as if they were the same, we are sure to be confused. It has its original sense, and three others that have grown out of it. The original sense is separation unto God, or dedication; and the three that have grown out of it are legal cleansing, personal holiness, and the exaltation of the holiness of God. If therefore we wish to understand the teaching of Scripture, we must clearly examine the use of the word in these four senses. May the Lord Himself help us to do so!
If we turn then to the beginning, we shall find that the original sense of the word ‘to sanctify’ is to set apart unto God.
So in the Old Testament the Hebrew is frequently rendered ‘to hallow,’ or to set apart as a holy thing.