02.B12. Crucifixion And Sanctification

Chapter 27 CRUCIFIXION AND SANCTIFICATION OF THE PROPENSITIES The forms of expression by which the provisions and promises of the new covenant, of which Christ is our Mediator, are set before us are quite various and peculiar, and require special consideration on the part of all who would understand the secrets of the hidden life. In Jeremiah 31:31-33, the provisions and promises of this covenant are set forth in the following language: -- "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." In Ezekiel 36:25-27, these same provisions and promises are expressed in the following words: -- ’Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shalt be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them."

Under the old dispensation, there was a promise to believers quite analogous to those above presented (Deuteronomy 30:6) -- "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." The conditions on which God will do all these things for us are stated with perfect definiteness in the Scriptures. In Ezekiel 36:37, these conditions are thus expressed: "Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." Again we read, "Then shall ye seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Under the old dispensation, the condition of the promise, as then presented, is thus expressed. The people were to "return unto the Lord, and obey His voice, with all their heart and with all their soul."

Near the close of his life, Moses complains of the people, and charges it upon them as a great crime on their part, that God "had not yet given them an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto that day." In other words, they had not only neglected present obedience, but had not sought of God a "heart to perceive, eyes to see, and ears to hear;" in other words, they had neglected to seek from God circumcised hearts, that they might continuously "love the Lord their God, with all their heart and with all their soul." What does God complain of in respect to His Church to-day, and charge upon her as the sin which is the main cause of all her weaknesses, lapses, and backslidings? Is it not this, that she is living in content outside of the provisions and promises of the new covenant, the covenant which, according to the express teachings of the prophet Joel, and, I may add, of all the prophets, includes "the promise of the Spirit"?

Why is it, reader, if such is your state, that God has not "circumcised your heart to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul"? Why has He not "put His law in your inward parts, and written it in your heart"? Why has He not "sprinkled clean water upon you," and rendered you "clean"? Why has He not "cleansed you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols"? Why has He not "taken the stony heart out of your flesh, and given you a heart of flesh," and "caused you to walk in His statutes," and to "keep His judgments, and do them"? Why has He not "sanctified and cleansed you," so that when your iniquities shall be searched for, there shall be none, and your sins, and they shall not be found"? Why has not God "put His Spirit within you," "endued you with power from on high," and thus "filled you with all the fulness of God"? But one answer can be given to these questions, provided you have not yet thus attained. The Lord your God has not "for this been inquired of by you to do it for you;" you have riot "hearkened unto the voice of the Lord your God," obeyed His will, believed His Word, "laid hold of His covenant," and "searched for Him with all your heart and with all your soul." This is your sin, on account of which you "walk in darkness and have no light," groan in "bondage under the law of sin and death," and are shut out from "fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." If now you will believe God’s word, trust His grace, "lay hold of His covenant," "inquire of Him to do these things for you," and "search for Him with all your heart and with all your soul," "He will be found of you," and you will find all His "exceeding great and precious promises" fulfilled in your experience, and He will do exceeding abundantly for you above all that you ask or think." "But if you will not believe, you will not be established." The Nature of the Blessings Proffered to our Faith in this

New Covenant.

It is perfectly evident that two forms of genuine Christian experience are presented to our consideration in the subject before us; that the element of supreme obedience, hearkening to the voice of God, obeying His will, and seeking Him "with all the heart, and with all the soul," characterise each state alike, and that the one is conditional and preparatory to the other. When we "return unto the Lord, and obey His voice with all our heart and with all our soul," we are in one state. When the Lord our God has circumcised our hearts to love the Lord "with all our heart and with all our soul," we must be in another and different state, or the promise is without meaning. We are surely in one state and relation to God when we are "searching for Him with all our hearts," and in another and different state and relation to Him when we have "found Him," He coming to us, and "dwelling in us, and walking in us," as our God, and we having fellowship with Him as "His sons and daughters." When we are "inquiring of God" to do for us what is promised in the new covenant, we are in one state. We are certainly in quite another and different state when God, in fulfilment of the provisions and promises of that covenant, has "put His law in our inward parts, and has written it in our hearts," has "cleansed us from all our filthiness and all our idols," has "taken away the stony heart out of our flesh and given us an heart of flesh," and has "put His Spirit within us" that is, "baptized us with the Holy Ghost." No candid mind will question the truth of the above statements. But what are the provisions and promises of this new covenant? As far as they include "the promise of the Spirit" the most essential element of the covenant -- on this part of the subject I shall not now speak, having said already all that is needful here. What, then, do the words, "take the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you an heart of flesh," mean? What can they mean but a fundamental change and a renewal of our propensities? We are "by nature children of wrath," "prone to evil as the sparks are to fly upward." When God does for us what is provided for and promised to us in the new covenant, we have "a new heart" and "a new spirit," "a divine nature, which impels us to love and obedience, just as our old nature impelled us to sin. As preparatory to a clear understanding of this subject, let us consider the following statements of the apostle. "Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Behind all these forms of sin, "works of the flesh," lie certain propensities, dispositions, and tempers, which, when touched by corresponding temptations, set on fire burning and "warring lusts" and evil passions, and these induce the sins and crimes above designated. Suppose, now, that these old propensities, dispositions, and tempers are taken away, and, in this state, new ones of an opposite nature are given; in other words, that "the heart of stone is taken out of our flesh," and in its stead there is "given us heart of flesh." Under our renovated propensities, and new dispositions, tendencies, and tempers, or "divine nature," it becomes just as easy and natural for us to bear "the fruits of the Spirit," as it was, under our old ones, to work "the works of the flesh." Here, then, we perceive clearly what is pr~ vided for, and promised to, our faith in the new covenant, what Christ, as the Mediator of that covenant, promises to do for us when He is "inquired of by us to do it for us," and what He will commission the Spirit to work in us when He shall "baptize us with the Holy Ghost" With the above exposition accords all the teachings of the New Testament upon this subject. The "exceeding great and precious promises" are given us for the revealed purpose that "by these" -- that is, by embracing these promises by faith -- we "might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." "By nature" -- that is, under the influence of our old nature, or propensities, dispositions, and tempers,"we are "children of wrath," and "bring forth fruit unto death." Under the dispositions, tempers, and tendencies of our new or "divine nature," we are just as naturally "children of God," and "have our fruit unto holiness," while "the end is everlasting life." Why are we called upon to "reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord"? Because "our old man," our old propensities, dispositions, and tempers, is crucified, "put to death" with Him, that the "body of sin," our old and evil nature, "might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Our old nature, or propensities, dispositions, and tempers, the apostle calls "the body of this death," and thanks God, as we all should, that, "through Jesus Christ our Lord," we are delivered from this "body of sin and death"

One special design of the apostle in the sixth, seventh, and eighth chapters of Romans is to elucidate this great truth. While the old nature remains, fight against its tendencies and promptings as we will, and form what good resolutions we may, "the good which we would we shall not do, but the evil which we would not, that shall we do." The reason, as the apostle affirms, is obvious. "The law in our members will war against the law of our mind, and bring us into captivity to the law of sin which is in our members." From "this law of sin and death" Christ sets us free, putting within us, in place of that law, "the law of the Spirit of life." The same doctrine the apostle obviously teaches in the following passage: -- "So, then, they that are in the flesh (under the dominion of their natural propensities) cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh (under its control), but in the Spirit (under His control), if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But if Christ be in you, the body," that is, the body of sin of which the apostle has been exclusively speaking thus far, "is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit," that is, the new nature or spirit which Christ gives, "is life," lives and reigns within us, "because of righteousness."

Now mark the inference which the apostle draws from his previous reasonings "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh." In other words, because that, through the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, "the body of sin," our old and evil propensities," may he destroyed," and "the old man may be crucified with Him," and we may, "through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," be "made free from the law of sin and death," we should indeed cease to "live after the flesh," should be "not in the flesh, but in the Spirit;" and should "reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Just such teaching runs through all Paul’s epistles, and, I may add, as the reader will perceive in the light of these suggestions, through the whole New Testament. Paul, for example, says of himself, "I am Crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Again he says, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." To Christians he says, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Such language implies more than this, that his old propensities, "the body of sin," "the old man," is yet living and warring in the soul, but, by the grace of Christ, are held in subjection. Mere subjection is not death. What the apostle undeniably intended to teach is this: that his propensities, dispositions, and temper had been so renovated that the world, with its affections and lusts, had no more power over him than they have over the dead. Christ, on the other hand, lived in him, and occupied all his affections, and held undisputed control over all his activities. Some important suggestions and reflections here present themselves.

Forms of Christian Experience before and after we have entered into the Privileges of the New Covenant.

We can now understand clearly the difference in the conditions and relations of the believer before and after the promises of the new covenant have been fulfilled in his experience. An individual, we will suppose, has, through the Spirit, been convicted of sin, and has exercised genuine "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." As far as his voluntary activities are concerned, he is now in a state of supreme obedience to the will of God. His old propensities, dispositions, temper, and tendencies, however, remain as they were, and remain to war against this new-born purpose of obedience. If the convert is left here, just where the mass of them are left under the teachings they commonly receive -- if the convert is left here, what, I ask, will be his future experience? Nothing, I answer, but the loss of his first love, the dying out of his primal joys, and sad falls and lapses, with periods of rejoicing and victories few and far between. It is infinite presumption to expect better results under such circumstances. And this is just what we do witness in the general experience of the Church. Open and gross immoralities excepted, the convert carries with him into the Christian life the same propensities, dispositions, and temper that he had before his conversion, and these, when strongly excited, overcome him as they did before. How absurd for a believer, in such circumstances, to "reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Suppose, on the other hand, that the convert, instead of being left in this perilous position, is fully taught the provisions and promises of the new covenant, and is led to apprehend Christ as the Mediator of that covenant. The convert now, in the exercise of a strong faith, "inquires of Christ to do this for him." What does Christ do? First of all, "He baptizes the convert with the Holy Ghost," and "endues him with power from on high" for the exigencies of his new life. The Spirit, in the fulfilment of His mission, enters upon the work of universal renovation. He accordingly "takes the heart of stone out of the convert’s flesh, and gives him an heart of flesh," -- "gives him a new heart and a new spirit," "writes the law upon his inward parts, and puts it in his heart," "circumcises his heart to love the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul," renders him a "partaker of the divine nature," "takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto him," "reveals Christ in him," so that "he beholds with open face the glory of the Lord, and is changed into the same image from glory to glory," and is "filled with all the fulness of God," consummates a vital union between him and Christ, so that Christ is in him, as the Father is in the Son, and thus "blesses him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and "abundantly furnishes him for every good work." This all-cleansing, all-renovating, and all-vitalising process the apostle calls "the renewing of the Holy Ghost." Our salvation is commenced with "the washing of regeneration," and is consummated by "the renewing of the Holy Ghost." Into what new relations does the convert enter when he has passed through the first state, and entered into all the light, and privileges, and enduements of power of the second? He is now "delivered from his enemies," and may "serve God without fear, in righteousness and holiness before Him, all the days of his life." With "the old man crucified," imbued with a new and "divine nature," "filled with the Holy Ghost," and with "the power of Christ resting upon him," he may, with all assurance, "reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ His Lord." When Christ, as "’the Mediator of the new covenant," comes to believers, He says to the old propensities, dispositions, tempers, and lusts, the old man which once held them in bondage, "Let my people go, that they may serve me." When that "old man," with his hosts of affections and lusts, pursues after God’s people to bring them back into their former bondage, that old tyrant, with all his armed host, is overwhelmed and lost in the Red Sea of Christ’s blood. "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." What a melancholy reflection it is that most believers advance no further in the Christian life than "the washing of regeneration," are ignorant of Christ as the Mediator of the new covenant, and, consequently, have no experience of "the renewing of the Holy Ghost"!

Fundamental Misapprehension of the Christian Warfare. The common idea of the Christian warfare seems to be this -- In regeneration, the Christian is brought into a state of voluntary obedience to the will of God, and his sincere purpose is to obey the divine will in all things. His old propensities, dispositions, and tendencies remain, and rise in rebellion against this new law of the mind -- this purpose of obedience. The Christian warfare consists in fighting these rebel forces, and holding them in subjection. We shall search in vain for any such idea of this warfare in the New Testament or the Old either. "We wrestle," says the apostle, "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Every believer is "called to be a soldier in the army of the Lord." As the great Captain of our salvation, Christ has organised and disciplined His army to accomplish the purposes for which He. was sent into the world, namely, to "make an end of sin, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." Believers are in the world as Christ was in the world. "As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them into the world." "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."

Christ was not sent into the world to fight rebel propensities, dispositions, and tendencies in Himself, but to make war upon the sin and evil that is in the world, and thus to bring the world back to God. The proper warfare of every believer is identical with that of Christ. Hence, "the weapons of our warfare," the apostle tells us, "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Again, the apostle says, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier." That we may, as soldiers of the cross, be perfectly free to serve Christ, and fight His battles against sin and the evils that are in the world, He Himself takes charge of our inward foes, putting them to death, and not suffering them to weaken our energies in His service. In warring upon the powers of sin, we, of course, meet with resistance, and are subject to assaults from our great adversary. Hence our furnishment with divine weapons and armour for defensive as well as offensive purposes. All this furnishment, as presented in the New Testament, has reference to enemies without, and not within the soul. In "fighting against sin," ancient saints "resisted unto blood." Though we may not be, as they were, called upon thus to resist, our warfare is identical with theirs; and in this warfare we, as well as they, are called upon to "endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ." The dogma that the Christian warfare is with foes within, and not with the enemies of God and man without the soul, utterly misleads the mind in respect to the fundamental end and aim of our sacred calling. Christ does not intend that those who serve Him and fight His battles against the kingdom of darkness shall have two enemies to fight at the same time, and the strongest in the citadel of their own souls. In His people, He designs that His reign shall be absolute. Then, indeed, will the sacramental host be "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." With the views now under consideration accord the experience of believers in all generations -- believers who know Christ and trust in Him as the Mediator of the new covenant. As a witness for Christ, I would say that, were there a perfect oblivion of the facts of my life prior to the time when I thus knew my Saviour, I should not, from present experiences, ever suspect that these old dispositions, which once tyrannised over me, had ever existed. Those who have known me most intimately for the last twenty or thirty years, and had not known my former life, often, as stated before, say to me, "We could be as quiet under injuries and provocations, and as peaceful and contented under afflictive providences as your are, if we only had your temperament." My reply to all such is: I once had a more fiery temper, and a more easily disquieted and restless spirit than you now have; and you can be as I am if you will inquire of Christ as I did. Of all that I have written about the new covenant, I can truly say, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full,"

Entire Sanctification.

We may now attain to a somewhat distinct understanding of the following words of the apostle: -- "And 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." The original word rendered wholly, I would observe, is one of the strongest words known in the Greek or any other language. It is made up of two words, olos, or all, and telos, everywhere in the New Testament translated perfect. The word made up of pantos, all, and telos, and rendered uttermost in the passage "He is able to save unto the uttermost," is a word of the same strength of meaning. In the passage above cited, the words "sanctify you wholly," from their original meaning, namely, sanctify you entirely in all respects, and in the connection in which they here stand, can mean nothing less than this -- a total renovation and purification of all our propensities, dispositions, temperaments, and activities, mental, moral, spiritual, and physical. The words, "I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless," also impart to the phrase "sanctify you wholly" this full breadth of meaning. When we are in this state, we then become partakers of just what is provided for and promised to us in the new covenant. Sanctification, in this form, is also absolutely promised to our faith in connection with the prayer of the apostle under consideration. "Faithful (worthy to be trusted) is He that calleth you, who also will do it." When thus Sanctified, we are not Free from Temptation.

How often do we hear it said, that if we were once thus sanctified we should never more be tempted! Christ, during His whole life, was thus sanctified; "yet He was tempted in all points like as we are." Our first parents, prior to the fall, were totally free from all evil propensities, dispositions, and temperaments, yet they were tempted and fell. Angels, from their creation, had a divine nature; yet, through temptation, they failed to "keep their first estate." Temptation is incidental to finite natures, it may be, in all conditions of existence. Suppose all our propensities, dispositions, and temperaments are, as they may be, restored to a perfectly normal state. We shall still be subject to tribulation from hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness, disease, the sundering of domestic ties, and from man’s inhumanity to man. In "fighting against sin," we shall meet with resistance, and shall need "the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." Christ was tempted, and so shall we be tempted. With our old nature crucified, and a divine nature given in the stead of the former, with "Christ formed within us the hope of glory," and the power of His Spirit resting upon us, we shall be in very different relations to temptations and "trials of faith" from what we once were. Here we were taken captive when assaulted with temptation; now, in the same circumstances, we are "more than conquerors through Him that loved us." In what Sense may all Believers accept Christ as their Present Sanctification.

I hear much said, and much is written, about receiving Christ as our present sanctification -- much which, as it appears to me, should be received with great caution and self-reflection. When we look to Christ to save us from actual sin, of course we should expect Him to do it now. But when we inquire of Him, as the Mediator of the new covenant, to do for us all that is promised in that covenant, the case is different. Heart-searching may precede the final cleansing, searching for God with all the heart must precede the finding of Him, and waiting and praying may precede, we cannot tell how long, the baptism of power. Here "the vision may tarry;" and if it tarries, we must "wait for it," and watch and pray for its coming with "full assurance of faith," "full assurance of hope," and "full assurance of understanding." The disciples had to tarry for "the promise of the Spirit," and so may we.

Christ, I frequently hear it said, is in us. When we admit the fact that He is thus present in our hearts, then "we enter, at once, into the rest of faith," and become possessed with fulness of joy. I never make such statements myself, and I always listen with regret and apprehension when I hear them made by others. For me to admit that Christ is thus present, and that I am "complete in Him," and to trust Him accordingly, is one thing, and is an essential condition of my entering into rest. For Christ to "manifest Himself to me," and, with the Father, to "come to me, and make His abode with me," is quite another. Faith on our part does not of itself give us rest. The rest of faith is what Christ gives "after we have believed." "Come unto me, and I will give you rest." I believe, for example, that Christ is present "in my mouth and in my heart," and I trust Him to "supply all my needs." If, now, the Spirit should not "take of the things of Christ, and show them unto me," if He should not "enlighten the eyes of my understanding, that I might know the things which are freely given us of the Lord," I should not "enter into rest," nor would "my joy be full." We believe Christ’s word, trust His grace, dedicate our whole selves to Him, and yield our wills to His. This is our part of the covenant. Christ now "prays the Father for us," and He gives us "the Comforter," the Holy Ghost "to abide with us for ever." The Spirt "reveals Christ in us," enables us to "behold with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," and brings us into "fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." We thus "enter into rest," "the rest of faith," and become possessed with "fulness of joy," while, with ineffable sweetness, our hearts sing -- "Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on His gentle breast"

"He that believeth in me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." "The Holy Ghost is now given," and you can have this blessed experience, because that when you shall "inquire of Christ to do it for you," He will "baptize you with the Holy Ghost," and do for you all that is promised in the new covenant.