There are two works and two workers: God and man. Just as my right arm and my left arm work when my two hands come together, but the union of the two hands constitute one experience.
If my left arm acts quickly, my right arm will surely respond. And so, if the soul, renouncing self and sin and the world, with ardour of faith in the precious blood for cleansing, and in the promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, draws nigh to God, God will draw nigh to that soul, and the blessed union will be effected suddenly: and in that instant, what faith has reckoned done will be done, the death-stroke will be given to “the old man,” sin will die, and the heart will be clean indeed, and wholly alive toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It will not be a mere “make-believe” experience, but a gloriously real one.
It is possible that some have been led into confusion of thought on this subject by not considering all the Scriptures bearing on it. What is it that cleanses or sanctifies, and how? Jesus prays: “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.” Here it is the word, or truth, that sanctifies.
John says: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Here it is the blood.
Peter says: “God...put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” And Paul says: “That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith.” Here it is by faith.
Again, Paul writes: “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit” (2 Thess. ii. 13). And again, “That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Romans xv. 16). And Peter writes: “To the strangers... elect... through sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Peter i. I, 2). Here it is the Spirit that sanctifies or makes clean and holy.
Is there, then, confusion here? Jesus says, “the truth”; John says, “the blood”; Paul and Peter say, “faith,” and “the Holy Ghost.” Can these be reconciled? Let us see.
Here is a child in a burning house. A man at the peril of his life rushes to the spot above which the child stands in awful danger, and cries out, “Jump, and I will catch you!”
The child hears, believes, leaps, and the man receives him; but just as he turns and places the boy in safety, a falling timber smites him to the ground wounded to death, and his flowing blood sprinkles the boy whom he has saved.
A breathless spectator says: “The child’s faith saved him.” Another says: “How quick the lad was! His courageous leap saved him.” Another says: “Bless the child! He was in awful danger, and he just barely saved himself.” Another says: “That man’s word just reached the boy’s ear in the nick of time, and saved him.” Another says: “God bless that man! He saved that child.” And yet another says: “That boy was saved by blood; by the sacrifice of that heroic man!”