THAT of which I desire to speak to you is the distinctive place into which God has called His people in the present day, whether in relation to Himself, in relation to Satan, or in relation to the world in either or both of its aspects, whether worldly or religious; and also the cost at which this place has been acquired for the believer; and, in doing so, I would speak on some truths that connect themselves with this.
There are two things that God has done with equal distinctness: He has defined the relationship in which each believer stands towards Himself, God, namely, that of a child to a father; and He has marked out the path in which He would have His children walk. As to the relationship, God Himself it is who has word, " children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." This the Spirit of God proclaims without a question.
In fact, there is now no such thing as an open question in the matter of either condemnation or salvation; God has made an end of all such. If the side of condemnation be taken up, God proclaims man to be a guilty, ruined, lost sinner; no man could deliver his fellow, for all were alike, not only ungodly, but without strength. On the side of condemnation, therefore, there is no open question: the unbeliever is condemned-condemned already.
But we find that, when. such was the 'state of things -such the case of man-the Son of God Himself became, a man-came down into this world, where God had been dishonored by sin; came with the purpose in His heart of glorifying God with regard to this very question of sin and saving poor sinners, and that by offering an atonement to God. In His life here below, He perfectly glorified God, but in and by death alone- could atonement be accomplished, could God be fully glorified as to sin. To death, the death of- the cross, the Lord Jesus went' in His grace. There He offered Himself as an atoning sacrifice to God, shedding His blood.' There He bore the sins of every soul, that, through grace, believes on Him. But in so doing He died.
Then, during the time that the Lord Jesus was in the tomb, there might have appeared to be an open question, namely, will God accept or will He not accept that which has been presented to Him by Christ? He cannot accept the work and still retain that on account of which the work has been presented to Him. But God on the third day raised from the dead the Lord Jesus, the One who had presented atonement to Him, the One " who was delivered for our offenses," thereby signifying His perfect acceptance, and satisfaction, and glory in the work which Christ had accomplished in death. Thus God has closed every question; for faith and for God not one remains open. The unbeliever is condemned already, but God has been glorified by His Son, and the believer is saved. God be praised, the question is closed forever; and the believer has everlasting life, shall -not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life, and is set in the relationship of child to God, revealed as Father-a definite relationship which God Himself has established. There is no such thing as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ out of relationship; He may be out of communion; but " ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
As regards the second thing, namely, the path in which God would have His children walk, God has marked it out with a distinctness and clearness quite equal to that with which He has defined their relationship: He would have them sanctified. The question then arises, what is sanctification?-We will first see what it is not. Sanctification is sometimes thought to mean an improving or making holy of the old nature, but it is clear from Scripture that such is not a correct thought, that it cannot mean the amelioration or making holy of an old nature. One word in John 12 will settle this question: " Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world," etc. Here the term is applied to the Lord Jesus, and such application entirely precludes the thought of amelioration or making holy. Again, what we have read in chap. xvii.: " For their sakes I sanctify myself." Impossible that the thought of mending a fallen nature could be introduced there. Therefore, sanctification is not a reforming, an amelioration, or a making holy of a fallen nature. God never reforms that: He has got another way of dealing with it, and that is condemning it.
What then is sanctification?-It is the setting apart of the soul to God. It is thus Scripture presents it to us. There are two aspects of sanctification: one is, that it is a complete thing, done once and forever; in this aspect it is absolute. The other is, that it is a continuous, a practical thing, which goes on from day to day. In this aspect it is progressive, or practical. Let us look at each for a moment.
Sanctification in its absolute character is the setting apart for God of a soul from the very first motion of life' therein. It is the hewing of the stone out of the quarry of nature and the world for God. Man is by nature dead in trespasses and sin, following his own lusts, but no life Godward. The Holy Ghost comes and breaks out from that quarry a stone-a soul-about which God has purposes of grace; He communicates to that soul a life which has its own tastes, desires, and objects, and by this communication of a divine life He sets it apart for God. This is' absolute sanctification. It can be done once only, and that forever; once the stone is hewn out of the quarry, it is hewn out of it forever. Neither Satan's malice nor man's badness can thwart God in the purposes of His love. He deals with that dead mass, and, by the action of His Spirit, separates souls there from, and sets them apart to Himself. This being done once, is done forever; and the recognition of this by the soul acts as a great lever power with it; for you may notice that, all through Scripture, the Spirit does not present to souls the practical in order that they may attain to the absolute, but He does present the absolute in order to produce the practical: that is, He does not say to a believer, you ought to do so and so, in order to be so and so, but He presents to the believer what he is (the absolute) in order to produce a practice consistent therewith (the practical). If I am conscious that God has come in by His mighty power and set me apart from all here to Himself, the effect on me will surely be that I shall walk, apart; my walk will be according to that which God has revealed as His will, and will be consistent with the life that He has given me, and the separation to Himself in which He has set me.
The stone, then, has been hewn out of the quarry by the Spirit of God, and that is absolute sanctification. But' there are a great many angles and. corners about it; and so the Spirit begins to dress it, and He works on till it is like the polished stones of the temple.. And this goes on continually. Most know how many things there were about them when first brought to God that were not consistent with the character of Him to whom they had been brought, and how little by little God graciously led them on, knocking off an angle here, getting rid of a roughness there. This is practical sanctification. If you mix up these two aspects of sanctification, you never know where you are; you must hold them both fast: the absolute, that is done once forever, and the practical, which is never ended as long as we are here below, but which goes on day by day.
Another thing which does much harm to souls is mixing together sanctification and justification. Sanctification is a work done in the believer, and is connected with the condition of his soul and the Spirit's work in it; but justification is a work done for his soul, and is connected with its place or position-its standing before God, and the work of Christ for it. Thus sanctification has to do with moral condition; while justification has to do with judicial standing. The not discerning the difference between these things-the work that goes on in the soul, and the work that has been done for the soul-is often the cause of lack of peace. The work done in the soul is absolutely necessary, but it is the work done for the soul that is the basis of its salvation.
We will now look at two or three passages of Scripture as to sanctification, taking it in its absolute character first.
1 Cor. 6:1111And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11). Here we read: "Ye are washed, ye arc sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." And it is even more forcible than we have it in the text, for literally it is " ye have been washed, ye have been sanctified," etc. Nothing can be more definite.
Heb. 10:1010By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10). In the same absolute way: " By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." This does not mean once for everybody, but that He is never going to suffer again. He has offered Himself once, and has not to do it again.
Then again, in 1 Peter 1:22Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2), the sane truth is set forth." Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Peter was writing to those who as to nationality were Jews, but who had embraced Christianity, and he was leading them into the fuller knowledge of what they had embraced. They had known what it was to be a nation elected by Jehovah, but never what it was to be " elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." They had been set apart to the obedience of the law, but now to the obedience of Christ. They had had to do with the blood of bulls and of goats, which was ineffectual to purge the conscience, but now with the precious blood of the Lamb without blemish -and without spot, by which the conscience is forever purged.
The mode of- address in Paul's epistles demonstrates the 'truth of sanctification in its absolute aspect. He always addresses those to whom he writes as saints-sanctified ones, those, set apart of God. To two assemblies only is this omitted-to the Galatians and to the Thessalonians. The reason for this may be that he stood in doubt of them in Galatia; they were going back to the law for justification. Whilst in the epistle to the Thessalonians those written to are addressed as "in God the Father;" they could not be there without being set apart. But in his other epistles you will find the address is always to sanctified ones. He addresses them as those who were set apart absolutely to God. These passages go to show that sanctification is presented in Scripture as absolute: God has set the believer apart absolutely to Himself.
But there is the other side of this truth, namely, that God would have the believer set apart practically for Himself. This aspect of sanctification we find presented in what we have read in John 17 " Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth; " also, " For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." In both these verses the sanctification is practical, not absolute; it is what goes on day by day.
Also in 1 Thess. 5:2323And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23): " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coining of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here, too, it is the practical side, that which goes on continuously. And once more, for there are but three passages in the New Testament which present sanctification in a progressive or practical aspect, Heb. 12:1414Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Hebrews 12:14): " Follow peace with all men, and holiness (sanctification it ought to be), without which no man shall see the Lord."
Thus Scripture presents the twofold aspect of sanctification-absolute on the one hand, and practical on the other.
Let us now see the persons to whom this work of sanctification is attributed. In Heb. 10:1010By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10) it is ascribed to God the Father: "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God, by the which will we are sanctified." Here we learn that God the Father wills it. In the last clause of the same verse, we learn that it is the work of God the Son-the One who came to do the will- of God the Father-that is the foundation of it. And "lastly, in Rom. 15:1616That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:16); 2 Thess. 2:1313But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (2 Thessalonians 2:13)'; and 1 Peter 1:22Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2), we learn that it is the Holy Ghost whose power effects it.
It is blessed for our souls thus to find God-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-Three in One, working for us, dealing with us that we may answer to His own heart. When we speak of the Person of the Godhead who immediately acts, it is always the Holy. Ghost; the Father w wills; the Son has in His work laid the righteous foundation for the accomplishment of the Father's will; and the Holy Ghost it is who acts and carries out the Father's will on the basis of the work of the Son.
In passing, let us notice how the two things that were and are ever present to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ are brought out in this chapter: first, His care for the glory of His Father; second, His care for the blessing of His people. What brought Him down from the bright scene that was His own? It was caring for the Father's glory; this it was that brought Him down from the place He had had froth all eternity. But there was, besides, His desire to save us.
In the first five verses of this chapter we find Him caring for the Father's glory. He is the blessed Man glorifying God in all His ways, ever well pleasing to the heart of that God and Father. He glorified Him in His walk here on earth. This, I believe, we find expressed in the words, " I have glorified thee on the earth." But He put the top stone to it all, He glorified God about sin, in His death on the cross. This, I believe, we find expressed in the words, " I have finished the work which thou gavest roe to do." This is what the first five verses present, while from the sixth verse onward, right through the chapter, we find His care for His people's blessing. In verses 6-13, He presents His disciples to the Father; He says, I hand them over to thee that thou mayest keep them. And why? For two reasons: because "they are Thine," and because "I am glorified in them." And on this ground He commits them to the care of the "holy Father." The very epithet used by the Lord in connection with the name of the Father to whom He commits us, ought to bring to our minds what the character of our walk should be. If we are kept by a holy Father we ought to be holy (that is, separate from evil) in our walk. Adam was innocent before the fall, but the moment he fell, innocence was gone, and gone forever. Now, in a scene where all is evil, we are kept from the evil by the "holy Father ": and we are to walk as He walked who was holy indeed, not alone in practice (which we ought always to be), but in Himself (which-we can never be so long as we are here below. 1 John 1:88If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)). From the fourteenth verse on he puts them in the place of testimony before the world-in His own place, and in care for them asks the Father to sanctify them through His (the Father's) word; and for their sakes sets Himself apart on high, that, by having Him, their treasure, there, their hearts may be drawn out of this world to Himself on high. Thus far it is care for their present blessing. From verse 22 onward, we find Him caring for their future blessing. He gives them the glory the Father had given Him, that, being displayed with Him in that glory, the world might know that the Father had sent Him, and had loved them as He had loved Him, the Son. And lastly, we find this same care for their future blessing expressed in the desire of His heart uttered to the Father: " I will that they also; whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." What a blessed thing, beloved! Why are we going to be with Him where He is? Why are our eyes going to behold His glory up there? Because of the "I will" of Christ!
But to return. The means of sanctification are, as already stated, the word and the Person. " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." " Thy," mark you, not "the"; it is the Father's word, it is all the Father here: it is the Father to whom he presents them, it is the Father's word He gives them, and it is the Father's word He says is truth.
What then is the Father's word? It is, I believe, that which reveals Himself, the New Testament especially, for it is there that we have the Father revealed. In the Old Testament we find the Almighty God revealed to a patriarch, and the Jehovah God revealed to a nation, but none ever knew God as the Father, till the Son came and revealed Him. " The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." The Son, in speaking to Philip (John 14:99Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? (John 14:9)), says: " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." The Lord Jesus while here below declared what God the Father was as light and love, and in His own pathway through this world presented that which was according to the will of the Father and pleasing to Him " I do always those things that please him." He has thus revealed the Father, and been the exponent to us of the Father's will.
And what is it all for? It is for our practical sanctification: He reveals God the Father's mind, He reveals His will, in order that we may " be imitators of God as dear children." Let us ask ourselves, is it so with us? Do we know anything of this? Are we answering in any measure to it? If our hearts know what it is to be subject to that will, then our walk will be the expression of it.
But there is, beside the Father's word, yet another means of practical sanctification. That word maps out the way through the scene, and dealing with the conscience, sets the believer apart from all in it that is contrary to the Father; but we want something beyond, this scene, something outside it, something to deal with our hearts, and the Lord says, as it were, You shall have it. He goes on: " For their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth." And what is this? It is the blessed Lord setting Himself apart on high, in order that we might have something to deal ' with our hearts. He has gone on high to the Father's throne, that we might have an object there to draw our hearts outside this scene.
But how is " the truth " of this setting apart of Christ in glory to be known? The third Person of the Trinity-God the Holy Ghost-has come down to tell us of it. He has come down purposely to tell us where Christ is now, and of His glory there, and to cultivate the affections of our hearts for, and draw them out after, the One who is there outside the scene altogether, that finding our treasure there our hearts may be there also. So the Lord Himself tells us it would be, " Where your treasure is there will your heart be." He says: " Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, -believe also in me." How were they to believe in Him as they did in God? They could not see God, and now they would not be able to see Him as hitherto they had seen Him, but they were to believe in Him without seeing Him, and there would be a divine Being here below acting in power to engage their hearts fully with Himself whilst He would be away, and by thus carrying their hearts outside the scene, set them apart practically while in it. The Lord give us to know what it is to have our treasure there, and then we shall have our hearts there. You will never get your hearts there by trying to get them out of the world; the only way is by knowing Him there as your treasure. Thus He ministers to the hearts of His people; He would draw out their affections to Himself, and, in order to do it, He has set Himself apart at the right hand of God, and the Holy Ghost has come clown to tell us of His presence and place in glory, that we might be sanctified practically by " the truth " thus made known.
Such, then, is the truth of sanctification in its twofold aspect, absolute and practical. You first get the distinct act of God in setting the soul apart absolutely for Himself; and then there is the dealing with it, the education of it, the pointing out to it that in its ways which is inconsistent with the Father, that it may be separate from such. Where the heart is in communion it bows to this dealing-it wishes it; and so it grows in sanctification day by day, the means being the Father's word and the person of the Lord Jesus setting Himself apart from this scene, in order that our hearts may dwell in that scene where He is.
If we look at what the Father's word, which sanctifies, reveals in connection with the subject of which I hope to speak-the distinctive character of the place into which God has called the believer-we shall find the truth: namely, that the Lord Jesus has come down into this world, and has, by taking in grace His people's place, made their place in righteousness, whether as regards God, as regards Satan, or as regards the world, viewed either in its worldly or in its religious aspect.
It reveals moreover, that this place, and the distinctiveness of this place, in whatever relation it may be, is the fruit to the believer of the travail of the soul of His Lord, of the agony, death, and bloodshedding of the Son of God. It was at the cost. of Himself the Lord made this place of distinctiveness for His people. Ordinarily we hold things dear on account of the one who has given them to us; and if the least of the blessings that we enjoy-if we may speak of the least where all are so great-has been won for us at the cost of the suffering in death of the Son of God, surely this should cause us to hold with tenacity those blessings, and conform our practice to them.
We separate too much the blessing and the blesser, and thus we lose-power. We are blessed assuredly, but how came we to be blessed? Were there no depths to be gone down to, that we might be raised to these heights? There were. The eternal Son of God became a man-Son of God born in time-and went into those depths, to which the heights of glory are but the corresponding answer. We need to be assured of. our blessings, but we need to associate them with Him who, at the cost of Himself, acquired them for us, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
I purpose next to look at the fitness of the Lord, as to His person, to take this place for is people.
Meanwhile, may the Lord lead our souls into the power of. His truth, may we esteem the privilege, and at the same time remember the responsibility of possessing it. If we have been absolutely set apart by God, it is to the end that we may be practically set apart to Him, and what is the place for us to take that it may be worked out in us.? It is that of subjection-the very hardest thing for us naturally, but, blessed be God, what the new nature delights in. God does not look for power in us-that He ministers to us-His Spirit; but He does look for obedience. May He work it in us all for His name's sake. Amen. [J. L.]
" He that hath- my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." Many Christians have not His commandments, Why? Because they have something else. If they were walking like Christ they would have the ear opened, and have the communication of. His mind and wish. But it is attentiveness of heart that gets this; where there is this, Christ is faithful to show what He wishes, and if we are -walking in relationship with Him we shall know it., The spirit that wants His will listens for it; but I must want that first of all, and only that, if I would please Him. [J. N. D.]