02 - Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
PRELIMINARY FACTS AND PRINCIPLES. In the orderly discussion of this subject it will be needful, first, to lay down certain, I. PRELIMINARY FACTS AND PRINCIPLES.
1. The clearness of any discussion will be dependent in great part upon the use of terms. Our ideas must be represented by words. These are the vehicles by means of which ideas are conveyed from one mind to another. The terms used must hence be understood, must be distinctly defined, so that it may be known what is included in them, and these words must then be uniformly employed as defined. It is the prerogative of a writer to select his own technical terms, and it is his duty to define them, and then to adhere to that definition.
2. In this discussion we shall use the words sanctification, sanctify, sanctified ones (or the sanctified), and such like terms, in all texts of Scripture in which the words in the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible occur which are customarily so translated. This will lead us to discard the words holiness, holy, hallowed, saint, and all kindred words. We do this in the interest of clearness. We have no doubt that in many instances a new light will flash upon the reader’s mind by the substitution of one of the words we have determined to use in place of one now in use. This is our right to do, if not our duty. It is simply doing what the Holy Spirit has done in the Scriptures, and thus enabling our English readers to see the words of inspiration as they have been written, and using the vehicles (the words) of Scripture. In other words, as the Scriptures use only one word, with its different flections, so we propose in this discussion to use only one word in the different forms of noun, verb and adjective.
3. As above indicated, we propose to define this word further on, according to the power which we believe it has in Scripture. It will then be our duty to make good that definition, and to establish the doctrine we base upon it. In our use of the word sanctify we shall adhere closely to our definition.
4. We lay it down as a first principle, that in determining what the Bible doctrine of Sanctification is the Bible must be the source of our knowledge of facts bearing on the subject. This is true as applied to Theology in general. The Bible is to the theologian what the departments of nature are to the geologist, the botanist, etc. It is the treasury of his facts. He dare not go to the opinions of his fellows for facts, nor to his own experience, or sentiments. When he wants facts he must go to the Bible.
5. It is also the duty of the inquirer after truth to collect all the facts which the Bible contains on a given subject. Much of the error taught for Bible truth consists in a partial and limited representation of the facts of the Bible. This is unpardonable in any attempt to set forth the ultimate analysis, the totality, of a doctrine. No material fact dare be overlooked. Hence, our collection of facts must be made with the greatest care, and must be exhaustive. The most thorough honesty must characterize us in making this induction, and in giving every fact without subjective coloring. Otherwise we would fabricate facts; and it is as true in Theology as in Science, that "science cannot make facts."
6. It will also not be questioned, that our principles, doctrines and theories must be deduced from the facts as found in the Bible. This implies three things, namely: (1) We must not first impress the principles or theories on the facts, and pretend that we derive them therefrom. (2) We must not conform the facts to our theories; press them into harmony with the doctrines we seek to establish. (3) But we must draw our theories out of our facts. If we desire to know what the Bible teaches respecting sin, moral agency, or human liberty, it is not proper for us to assume a theory and then go to the Bible and explain the Scriptures by our theory. Our business is to take what God has said. If we are not willing to do that, we should not pretend to seek after Bible teaching. We are not concerned to set forth a system or theory of truth on a given subject; but we are concerned to ascertain and set forth what is God’s system or doctrine. In this spirit we need to approach the doctrine of sanctification.
7. And it is but proper to add, that we must be content with the facts contained in the Bible. All are there that we need; all that we have a right to use. Our own so-called experience must be left behind. It is deceptive, misleading and pervertive of Scripture. Our own sense or sentiment of truth must be set aside. To do otherwise is to make what we are pleased to call the inward teaching of the Spirit, or our personal experience, a substitute for God’s written revelation. There is no end to the heresies which would be the progeny of such a principle. Our reason, our judgment and our experience must be subordinated to the word of God.
8. There are three very simple rules of interpretation which it will be well for us to study and apply with special care in this investigation. These are,
(1) To take the words of Scripture in the sense in which they were used by the writers of Scripture. It is the historical sense, the sense in which the people to whom Scripture was addressed were to understand them. To do otherwise is to recast much of Scripture, and to change it with the changing times.
(2) To explain Scripture by Scripture. There must be a complete harmony throughout the Scriptures. If the Scriptures teach, as they do respecting the Lord Jesus, two apparently conflicting series of facts, there must be some way of harmonizing them other than to deny the plain historical sense of the one series of facts, or to force upon them a meaning which they cannot naturally bear. We shall find this rule of signal importance in this study.
(3) The Scriptures cannot be rightly interpreted without the promised help of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we should seek this help. And we should be on our guard not to mistake our own sentiments, or our sense of truth, for the influence of the Spirit.
9. We place on record at this point our honest and positive conviction that the doctrine of sanctification is taught in the Bible; that it is to be a living, perpetual doctrine of the church, and is to be a fact of experience in the hearts and lives of Christians. We believe it to be true that "without sanctification no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14); that it is our duty "to perfect sanctification in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1); that we should "serve God in sanctification and righteousness all the days of our life" (Luke 1:75), and that the "new man is created in righteousness and true sanctification" (Ephesians 4:24). It were a false accusation should advocates of the "second-work sanctification" charge that by repudiating their theory we prove that we do not believe in sanctification. And to bear false witness is not a fruit of the Spirit, but is an evidence that the theory under which it is done is not realized in practice. No lie is of the truth; but the new man is created in righteousness and sanctification of truth (Ephesians 4:24, Revision). With the warmth which brought blushes to the cheeks of Ulysses in his passionate reply to his king, we say to all those who would make this unfounded charge, "Take back the unjust reproach." For it is a reproach to any Christian man to deny and antagonize the Bible doctrine of sanctification.
10. The Scriptures clearly recognize a peculiar quality in men who are in a justified state. They classify men in general as alive and dead. The former are also called spiritual, the latter carnal, "in the flesh" (Romans 8:9, Romans 8:13). But the peculiarity is, that this twofold division of men is also applied to the believer. In other words, there is a distinction made, as science does now, between the moral and the natural man, between the person and the nature, between spirit and flesh in the believer. To the former belongs the will, to the latter all our involuntary powers. Between them there is antagonism, "for the flesh lusteth against the spirit [the spiritual mind, Romans 8:6], for these are contrary the one to the other" (Galatians 5:17); and "the lusts of the flesh war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). Hence, the flesh mast be crucified; that is, the flesh ethically speaking in the Christian. This quality is strikingly set forth by Paul (Romans 7:1-25), and is recognized elsewhere in God’s word. It furnishes the only adequate explanation of a vast body of facts in God’s word, and will be found of immense importance in the subsequent parts of this discussion.
11. For the present we need only fix the fact of this quality in our minds, and indicate the terms by which each of the divisions is to be known. Sometimes the former is called "the new man," and the latter "the old man" (Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 4:24). We would prefer to distinguish the two by calling the former the person, the latter the nature, and that for the simple reason that the quality exists as to essence in all men, but ethically is only developed into antagonism after conversion. But the chief points are to know that our classification is scriptural; and, then, that we have a clear conception and a mutual understanding of the meaning of our terms. Scriptural it is, for this duality is most clearly taught in the Scriptures above referred to. And we believe that our terms are expressive of the parts of this dual being.
12. By person we mean the man as endowed with powers of intellect and will; that is, in so far as he is an intelligent, voluntary agent. He has the faculty of choice and of intelligent, executive action, and thus is a person. The man "renewed" after the divine image as an intelligent, voluntary agent, justified, born again, is the new man (Colossians 3:10). By nature we mean all that in man which is constitutional and under the dominion of the law of necessity, or of physical as opposed to moral law, or the law of voluntary action. The person may also be called the moral man, not using the word moral to indicate either his character for virtue or vice; and the nature may be called the natural man. But we prefer simply the words person and nature to denote the factors of this dual being. This quality of being double, or two in one, is forcibly set forth by Paul (Romans 7:15, Romans 7:25), but in the use of the terms "mind" and "flesh." No one can understand the Bible doctrine of sanctification who overlooks this distinction in the powers of man, or who does not first come to a clear conception of the facts as indicated by these terms.
Having with adequate fulness discussed the preliminary principles which have a more or less immediate bearing on the subject of Sanctification, we shall now pass on to the second division.