23. Who May Have Sanctification?

CHAPTER XXIII Who May Have Sanctification? For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

- Acts 2:39. The penitent sinner can not, from the very nature of the case, comprehend the need and the nature of sanctification.. He is too much absorbed with the feeling of his own guilt and the need of forgiveness to comprehend his need of cleansing from native depravity. It is after an acquaintance with God and a more intimate acquaintance with his own moral nature and with the plan of redemption that he feels the need of a "more abundant life" (John 10:10), comprehends the nature and the existence of depravity, and longs for the complete infilling of the divine Spirit.

It was after the disciples at Ephesus had believed that they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13).

Again, the Holy Spirit is given to the obedient (Acts 5:32). The disobedient need justification; the obedient may be sanctified. God gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:9-13). It is probable that the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost found the disciples in prayer (Compare Acts 1:14 and Acts 2:1). To sum up, then, it is the justified believer, whose sins have been forgiven, the soul who has become acquainted with divine things, the obedient who ask and believe, that may be sanctified