SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit is spoken of before the “blood of sprinkling.” Israel in Egypt were taken and set apart (which is the same as sanctification) for God while they were in Egypt. This sanctification is spoken of in Jude's Epistle as the Father's work” sanctified by God the Father.” In Hebrews Jesus is spoken of as sanctifying— “That he might sanctify the people with his own blood.” Here, in Peter, it is spoken of as the Spirit's work. The setting apart to God is a different thing from having forgiveness, and it is the accomplishing of God's purposes, though not the purposes themselves. The prodigal (Luke 15.) turned back in the far country, and then he was set apart for God. There was a total and utter change, but not all the effect yet. When he began to return, his face was turned towards his father; while, when he went away, his back was towards him. So the soul set apart by God is livingly turned to God in power; it may be as the prodigal, in rags and want; but there is the turning of heart, and, like Paul who was converted on his way to Damascus, he is a new creature. The will is broken. There will be conflict afterward as the result, but the whole man is changed. It is not that there are not difficulties to be overcome, but the object before the mind is different. The soul is thus said to be “sanctified unto obedience.” It is not a question of being better or worse, but it is turning to God; and if it is sanctification to obedience, it is also to the “blood of sprinkling.” Now I have to learn the value of that blood. He has brought me under the sprinkling of blood, as Israel was by coming out of Egypt; and what was the sprinkling of blood then? It was the seal, while liable to the sentence of death, of the covenant which they were to obey. (Ezek. 24:6-86Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. 7For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust; 8That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance; I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered. (Ezekiel 24:6‑8).) if they obeyed, they stood, but if not, the penalty of death was their portion. Is it so with us? No. We have disobeyed, but He (Jesus) has suffered for us, and we are sealed under the covenant brought in by Him for the disobedient. We are brought under the blood of sprinkling, whatever its efficacy is. Nothing has power against this title. Does my guilt rise up? or Satan come against me? All is gone, because of the value of His blood. I have, as the first thing, redemption through his God, perfect deliverance from all that was for my condemnation. I am, in my whole condition as a sinner, redeemed out of it forever. The covenants, we know, were sealed with blood. Abraham and Jeremiah killed a calf, and the blood was a witness to the covenant. This covenant differs from former ones, inasmuch as it is not binding as to guilt if we fail; on the contrary, it discharges us from guilt by the blood that was shed for it.
Another kind of purging is that of cleansing from defilement, so that by the blood we are not only acquitted of guilt, but made absolutely clean. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” Another effect is, that it brings us into wonderful nearness of thought with God. The blood has been already spilled. Christ has done it and I see in it that He has taken the deepest interest in my soul, and given Himself, that I might be delivered. Was he all alone in it? As regards man, He was; but God the Father had to do with it. He spared not His own Son, and I our reconciled to God by His death. That is more than being merely turned, in will, to God. Where is my assurance of its efficacy? God himself having done it, who “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead?” We have, then a dying Savior, but a living hope. We have life in Him, power in Him, through the Holy Ghost. The Second Adam, the Quickener, is He who went into death for our sins, but who came out of death, and is risen in the power of an endless life. This life then makes us pilgrims and strangers down here, and there is not a single object here for the Christian but to please God. With Jesus it was ever His delight to do His Father's will. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me,” &c. This puts the heart to the test. Do you say what harm is there in this or that? Your flesh is after it, and that is the harm! Are you to live after the flesh? If the old man is working in you, that is the harm. We are “begotten unto a living hope,” &c., “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away” —just the contrast of everything here. If the divine nature is in us, it has divine tastes suited to that to which it belongs. My heart's affections have found a home, where God has found His rest, in Christ.
Besides, it is “reserved in heaven.” No moth or rust can corrupt there, neither thief break through to steal. It is preserved by God, and “I know in whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that which I have,” &c. It is safe. Another thing is, we must wait for it; but we know it is well kept, if God keeps it. “Reserved....for you who are kept.” The inheritance is kept for you in heaven, and you are kept on earth waiting for it. He will keep you for the inheritance and the inheritance for you. It is then not a question of my perseverance but of God's faithfulness. Do any say, Oh! I shall never hold on to the end? But God has said, “Thou shall never perish.” Ah! but it may be said, there is all the power of Satan! Again, “None shall pluck them out of my Father's hand.” “I and my Father are one.” There is one common counsel between them. “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed.” There is not something to be done, something not yet accomplished. No! it is done, and that is what could not be said when Christ was upon earth. But now He has passed through death, risen out of it, ascended to the right hand of God, where He is waiting until “his enemies be made his footstool.” It is ready to be revealed, and is only delayed while souls are being brought in for the completion of His body. That is matter of joy to wait for; though, in one sense, we should desire it were already completed, that His glory may be revealed. But there is rest to the heart in the consciousness that the salvation is ready, and that we are kept through faith. There is blessing in that, through exercise, because the flesh never has faith; and if a single worldly or careless thought comes in, faith is not in exercise, and the image of Jesus is dimmed in us. We do not live, except when and so far as faith is in exercise; for all that is of the flesh perishes. “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” Another blessed thing for us, is, that everything becomes matter of exercise. We must never do a thing we have not faith for. This makes us feel the need of having the affections “set on heavenly things.” “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” “Therein ye greatly rejoice,” &c. Are you greatly rejoicing in this salvation? “It shall be in you a well of living water” was the word. There are none so subject to inertia as the Christian who is halting between two opinions. If worldliness, love of ease, self in this or that form come in, who are so weak and wretched? We cannot find happiness in the world and be rejoicing in heavenly things. If the soul is occupied with this great salvation, it will rejoice in it. There will be heaviness through manifold temptations, but the valley of Baca will become a well, the rain filling the pools.
We now have the “earnest of the inheritance;” not the earnest of God's love, for that is fully our portion now, and not merely the earnest of it. The “trial of faith will be found unto praise,” &c., at the appearing of Jesus Christ. He has entered within and has His crown; and now at the thought of that, we can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” It is “unspeakable” because it is himself, and “full of glory” because He is in the glory: and lest the fire which tries should cast the least cloud over the hope and the joy, it is said, “receiving the end of your faith.” I have received the salvation of my soul, and that is really the end of my faith, though I may have to go through trial to purge away the dross.
Is your face turned upward to God, and not as the beast's which goeth downward? or is your back towards God, as Adam turned when he had sinned and was ashamed?