"So my thoughts are never more gloomy,
My faith is no longer dim,
But my heart is strong and restful,
And mine eyes are unto Him."
A clean heart then does not mean sinlessness, the eradication of sin, that sin is taken out of us; for though sin is taken out of the heart that is cleansed—for a clean heart must be clean!—yet "the flesh," the self-life, remains in the man, "latent if not patent," ready to manifest itself should the counteracting power of the indwelling Christ the Saviour even for a moment be withdrawn. This "flesh" is evil (Rom. vii. 18) and, therefore, while "the flesh" is in us "sin" is in us, and hence our constant need of the cleansing Blood. As we trust for continuous cleansing we get it. "The Blood … cleanseth"—resent progressive tense—goes on cleansing, therefore guilt is never allowed to gather, for as sin appears the Blood cleanses it away and so keeps us clean. Blessed present tense! Thus it is possible for us always to walk in the Light.
Then as Christ exercises His counteracting power over "the flesh" we are being "cleansed from all unrighteousness," delivered from doing the "not right," and, by continuous trust in our omnipotent Saviour, we may know continuous deliverance, continuous victory over sin; we need never know defeat. A Christian mother had just kissed good-night to her little daughter, and was busy in the dining-room arranging the table for dinner, when she heard little feet on the stair. Wondering what was the matter, she slipped into the window recess and hid herself behind the curtains, and waited. Presently the little one came into the room, and going straight up to some peaches that were on the table, she took one of them away with her! Oh, the agony in that mother heart! She did not speak to her child, but standing where she was, she spoke to God her Father, and asked Him so fervently to speak to her child. God heard that cry, and in a little while the sound of the pattering feet was heard on the stair again. The child came into the room, not knowing her mother was there, and going on tip-toe over to the table she put the peach in the place from which she had taken it. As she turned away with a radiant face, rubbing her hands with delight, her mother heard her say, "Sold again, Satan! Sold again, Satan!" That's victory! Yes, the cleansing means that and more than that. "We are more than conquerors," for when Jesus cleanses the heart, He cleanses the springs of action and being, so that our very desires are purified; the desire to sin, the "want to," is taken clean away. This is coming off "more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (Rom. viii. 37). Glory to His name! The man now "wants to" do the will of God. He "likes" what God likes. "I thought you could do what you liked," was the taunt hurled by a young man at a friend of his who enjoyed full salvation on his refusing to go to the theater. "I thought you told me you could do what you liked?" "So I can." "Why, then, won't you come with me as I asked you?" "Because I don't like," was the rejoinder. The only men on earth who enjoy perfect freedom are the men who have clean hearts, for they not only know that they ought to do the will of God, but they want to do it and they like to do it and moreover they have a power that enables them to do it. On the other hand, in our jails and hospitals you will find people who thought that they could do as they liked, but they have discovered that they were mistaken.
Cleansing: a Crisis
But how am I to get this clean heart? Peter answers, "Cleansing their hearts by faith" (Acts xv. 9). Cleansing is God's work, and the condition on which God will do His work is "faith" on our part. There is only one way of getting anything from God, and that is by faith. One obtained forgiveness and the new birth by faith, and one obtains cleansing of the heart by faith too. You may, you will, get "cleansing" the moment you definitely trust Christ for it. "We aye get what we gang in for" was one of Duncan Mathieson's favorite expressions; and along the line of God's revealed will how true it is! If you will only venture now on Christ for "cleansing from all unrighteousness," He will do it for you now. "Wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?" (Jer. xiii. 27.) Why not now? for "cleansing" is a crisis and not a process; but, as Principal Moule, of Cambridge, has very tersely put it, "Cleansing is a crisis with a view to a process." It is just here that multitudes of God's people miss the track. "Sanctification is the work of God's free grace."[1] Of course it is; it is a "growth," a gradual process; but "cleansing" is not "sanctification." The latter, in the sense in which it is being used here, is a theological term embracing all the Spirit's work in the believer between the cross and the crown; but "cleansing" is an act. While sanctification is a "growth," "cleansing" is one of the conditions of growth, and the very reason why some who hold most tenaciously by the gradual theory of sanctification are "growing in grace" so very slowly, is that they have not attended to one of the most essential conditions of growth, viz., this "cleansing." "But," some one objects, "this is not in the Standards of our Church?" That may be; but it is in the Bible. To quote the words of the saintly Dr. Andrew Bonar in another connection, "I believe all that is in our Standards, for I find all that is in our Standards in the Bible; but I believe more than is in our Standards, for I find some things in my Bible that are not in the Standards;" for the simple and very obvious reason that you cannot get a quart into a pint measure. While every honest Churchman believes that all that is in the Standards of the Church to which he belongs is in the Bible, no one in his sane senses believes that everything in the Bible is to be found in the Standards. The doctrine of a "clean heart" is one of these things.
[1: Shorter Catechism, No. 35.]
In support of the statement that "cleansing" is a crisis, an act, something done in a moment, just as conversion is, and not a "process" drawn out indefinitely before one can reach a state of "cleansing," let us ponder well David's prayer, in Psalm li. 10, "Create in (margin, for) me a clean heart." Is creation an "act" or a "work"? Is it a "crisis" or a "process"? All the Creator had to do was to speak the word and David's prayer was granted; he then could turn his prayer into thanksgiving; "I thank Thee for having created in me a clean heart;" but he could not thank God for what he had not received. Giving thanks for the clean heart would prove that it was in his possession. Note also that heart "cleansing" is God's work alone. We are exhorted to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" (2 Cor. vii. 1), which simply means "separation" from all the palpable, manifest evils Paul had just been enumerating, such as "yoking with unbelievers," "unrighteousness," "darkness," "Belial," "infidel," "idols," "unclean things" (vide 2 Cor. vi. 14-17). In reference to all such things God says "cleanse yourselves." The aorist tense is used in the original, denoting a definite, decisive act; "separate from these things at once and be done with them." And where are we to get the enabling power? In effect, God says, "Draw a check on ME; draw on My resources for all you need," for all God's commandings are God's enablings. But when it comes to be a question of cleansing the "heart," the inner being, the springs of action, that part of the man where the affections and the will are seated, God undertakes that Himself; He says, "Bring that to Me." If this work were left to us it would indeed be a "process" slow and tedious, and progress might be made, as it so often is, alas! backward. But now the question is,—not what can the believer do by his efforts to overcome indwelling sin, but what can the Almighty God do? It is not a question of our power, but of His.
"'Twas most impossible of all,
That here sin's reign in me should cease;
Yet shall it be! I know it shall:
Jesus, look to Thy faithfulness:
If nothing is too hard for Thee,
All things are possible to me."
He is able and willing to "cleanse." Are we willing to be cleansed?
Another mistake to be carefully guarded against is this, making "cleansing" to be an end instead of a means to an end. "Cleansing" is not the blessing that we are seeking; it is only a means. The end is the "Filling of the Holy Ghost." "Cleansing" is a negative blessing, the separating from sin; but we can only be satisfied with a positive blessing. When the housewife cleans the house, does she then go out and live in the yard? Not so. She cleans the house that it may be the more fit for her to inhabit. God cleanses, "empties, sweeps, and garnishes" (Matt. xii. 44), that He may come in to dwell; and if He, the Holy One, does come in and take up His abode, He will keep His dwelling place "clean." This "cleansing" of which we have been speaking is one of the steps into the Blessed Life; but there is not much likelihood of any one living the Life unless they first take the necessary steps into the Life. It is a Life of Purity, and it is lived, as it is entered upon, by faith in the Son of God; hence the name by which the Spirit-filled Life is sometimes called—the Life of Faith.