I have received your esteemed letter, and see what you say about your state.
In reply, I would say that it is very certain that you will never see exactly as I see on this subject; for each one who is called of the Lord into the path of moral separation to Himself, is led into it by light which comes so distinctly and individually to the man himself that there are no duplicates; the work in each case is an original work of God, as distinct as that which converted him and led him into living contact with the Lord Himself as the head of the new creation.
It is not a communication that one can make to another that will effect this mighty moral revolution in a man’s soul that separates him in the living grace of the Holy Ghost from all the most cherished things in which he has lived, both mental, circumstantial, and ecclesiastical, in conscience, mind, heart, and ways, to the person of “Him who is holy, Him who is true,” and gives him absolute moral and spiritual command over his whole being; it is entirely of God. It is an entire break with the world in its most cherished social and religious aspects that He demands; that is the preliminary to soul-commanding moral attachment to the Christ of God, where He is, and as He is.
But when there is such a divine and all-pervading sanctification achieved as leaves the soul alone with Him, in such entrancing enjoyment of Him and sense of His worthiness, as made Saul of Tarsus give up all, his position, influence, and prospects, and count all that was gain to him but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, and not only so, but occupied him with knowing Him as the one object of knowledge, and induced him to press on to have Him as his prize in the glory of God, though it were through sufferings like His own, and even death itself; then nothing will keep a believer from forsaking all, taking up our cross and following Him.
As long as the Lord Jesus is only looked upon as shedding His blood and being our substitute, saving us from our sin and hell, and simply saving us, it is possible for man to be of some importance; but when we are justified from all things, and are assured of our interest in Him, not to settle down as better citizens of the world; but, finding Him an object for our hearts, and sharing in God’s delight in His risen and glorified Son, whom man cast out and crucified in the day of His tender love and goodness, then we are sanctified or separated to Him—for sanctification is not the removal of the evil from us, but separation from every evil thing to the self-sanctified Son of God, at the Father’s right hand. (John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19).) “For their sakes sanctify I myself.” He was raised by the glory of the Father, and “in that He liveth, He liveth unto God.” He is set apart, or sanctified, as He calls it, in the heavenly glory, that He might have us sanctified by the truth that He is there in the perfect delight of God, and we in the same position and place by faith and the Holy Ghost, as said the holy Apostle, who knew the fellowship of the Father and of the Son in ineffable love – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” &c.
When the person of the Lord Jesus is before the soul, and the Spirit reveals God’s Son in us in all His moral glory, and gives us to contemplate Him as the all commanding object for our hearts, then there is a holy spiritual power in the soul, that must burst every barrier and break through every obstacle to get at Him. “For me to live is Christ.” The soul now finds a new center: Christ in all. God has thus a two-fold way of sanctifying, by the Son’s person in the Father’s presence; and by the Father’s truth. “Sanctify them through Thy truth”—Father-truth. I have now a father, and know Him to be the Father of Christ; and the Lord also says, “for their sakes sanctify I myself;” and henceforth the person of the Son is the divine object that draws my heart heavenward as to my home.