SUPERSTITION is not faith. Human sanctity is not holiness before God. It is easy to venerate what may be hateful to God. Nor can feelings be trusted as to these things; for we know nothing of God or of His matters but what He has revealed. God tells out divine truth in His word. His love He has shown in the gift of His Son. Everything of man fades rapidly before our eyes, but the word of God abides. Happy thus to have a divine standard, a just weight and balance. Faith knows no other ground of confidence.
The popular thought of sanctification is, that God by His Spirit so works in the heart as gradually to convert an evil nature into a good one. But this is entirely untrue. As long as this wrong thought possesses the mind, the false expectation is cherished, even by sincere souls, of “getting better,” “experiencing a change of heart,” “improvement of the old nature,” “development of the noble faculties of the mind,” and such like; the consequence is, that if they have God before their souls, they go on thus for many months, or years, and do not find “peace with God.” The fact is that God searches the heart, and He has pronounced it to be not only wicked, but “desperately wicked, and deceitful above all things;” and as to its being capable of being improved, or changed, He assures us that “the carnal mind is enmity against God, that it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can be.” How clear this is! That the natural mind cannot be made subject to God’s law proves its totally unimprovable, unmendable character in God’s sight. No wonder, then, that it is added as a direct and substantial verity, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” How true it is, therefore, that God pronounces the tree of fallen human nature to be so corrupt, that do what you will with it, it cannot be made subject to God’s law, cannot possibly bear other than corrupt fruit—“cannot please God.” Hence it is that God has not even proposed to mend up man as a sinner, but to give him eternal life—a new nature. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:11, 1211And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11‑12).)
And yet some people are spoken of in Scripture as sanctified, even some who were once “thieves,” and “covetous,” and “drunkards,” and “revilers,” and “extortioners;” and it is now said of them, “ye are washed, but ye are sanctified;” but they are sanctified and justified, not by their old nature being improved and made better, but “in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” And this, too, not by the Spirit helping, as people say, their own fleshly endeavors; but, as before alluded to, by giving new life, and that in a risen and ascended Saviour. Hence the Corinthian believers are addressed as those who are “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Sanctification therefore is “in Christ Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 1:22Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: (1 Corinthians 1:2) and 6:9-11.)
By sanctification, we understand separation unto God. The vessels of the tabernacle were separated to God, made holy vessels, by being sprinkled with blood and anointed with oil. (Hebrews 9:2121Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. (Hebrews 9:21); Exodus 40:99And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy. (Exodus 40:9).) Aaron and his sons also were thus consecrated to God, fitted for His service. So now the believer in the Lord Jesus is sanctified, not by priestly rites and ordinances, but by the grace and power of God in and through Christ Jesus. Hence we read of―
1St. Sanctification by God the Father (Jude 11Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (Jude 1)), showing us that the Father, in His own purpose and grace, separated us unto Himself, chose us in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world.
2nd. Of sanctification by the Son— “Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.” (Hebrews 13:1212Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Hebrews 13:12).) Here we find the redemption work of Jesus separating us unto God, according to the will of God. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.” (Hebrews 10:1010By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:10).)
3rd. Of “the sanctification of the Spirit.” (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).) Here we see that the first action of the Spirit on the soul is to separate us unto God, to sanctify, and that too even before justification can be known, by leading “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
Thus we see the Father’s purpose and grace, the Son’s blood, and the work of the Spirit, all sanctifying —separating us unto God.
4th. The measure and character of this sanctification and nearness to God is said to be “in Christ Jesus;” that is, that God has made Him who is at His own right hand unto us sanctification. Thus we are near to Gol, and separated off unto God in all the nearness and acceptability of Christ Himself. Sanctification is then a present blessing. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus.
5th. Sanctification by the truth. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth,” was the prayer of our adorable Lord. (John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17).) This may be called practical sanctification, that which must result from the marvelous realities of the Father’s purpose and grace, the Son’s blood, and the Spirit’s work being known in our souls, in thus separating us off unto God, as “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” But it is by the truth. The word which testifies of Christ, searched into and unfolded to us by the Holy Ghost, God’s revealed mind and will made known and received into our hearts by faith, practically separates us off in affection, obedience, and devotedness to God. Hence we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.