Ver. 13. The Holy Ghost the Sanctifier.
I. Connect the Divine purpose and agency that the nature and effect of the latter may be more apparent.—To collect a people out of the wreck of human life has been God’s purpose from the first. To sanctify them is to separate them to God in fact and in effect. The Holy Ghost is given by Christ to sever the once dead in sins from the dead around them.
II. The scope of this agency.—God’s work is perfect. It has its stages; but the Holy Ghost conducts it from first to last. Sanctification is progressive. The end of sanctification is salvation.
III. The ordinary means through which the Holy Ghost operates.—Through belief of the truth, the Gospel. The Spirit sanctifies through the truth.—H. T. Lumsden.
Ver. 14. The Glory of Sainthood—
- Is the object of the Gospel to promote.—“Whereunto He hath called you by our gospel.”
- Is a conscious personal possession.—“To the obtaining of the glory.”
- Is a sharing of the glory of Christ.—“Of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What Saints should be.—In the cathedral of St. Mark, Venice, a marvellous building lustrous with an Oriental splendour beyond description, there are pillars said to have been brought from Solomon’s temple; these are of alabaster, a substance firm and endurable as granite, and yet transparent, so that the light glows through them. Behold an emblem of what all true pillars of the Church should be—firm in their faith and transparent in their character; men of simple mould, ignorant of tortuous and deceptive ways, and yet men of strong will, not readily to be led aside or bent from their uprightness.—Spurgeon.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
Christian Steadfastness.
In all ages the people of God have been assailed with the weapons of a subtle and plausible philosophy which has sought to supplant the simple truth of the Gospel with human opinions. The evil heart of man chafes under the righteous restrictions of the truth, and in its angry and delirious opposition has sought to rid itself of God and of all the laws that bind it to a life of obedience and holiness. And when it fancies it has succeeded in demolishing the truths it hated and against which it rebelled, it is aghast at the desolation it has wrought and recoils in alarm from the dark, horrible gulf to the brink of which it has forced itself. Stricken with bewilderment and despair, man strives to construct a religion for himself, and he seeks to substitute his own wild ravings for the truths of Divine revelation. It is the attempt of a bold, impious infidelity to put error in the place of truth, philosophy in the place of religion, human opinion in the place of God. The exhortation of this verse is always timely.