Concluding Remarks on "The Higher Christian Life"

 Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

HAVING now reviewed the various expressions largely misused by second-blessing advocates, I desire, in concluding this series of papers, to add a few practical reflections on what has been called "the higher Christian life." It is greatly to be regretted that so many children of God, whose conversion one cannot question, seem to have settled down in apparent contentment with so low a standard of Christian living.

Undoubtedly there is a life of power and spiritual refreshment to which these are almost total strangers. But how are they to enter into it?

Certainly not by the unscriptural and empty system we have been discussing. All efforts to attain sinless perfection in this world can only end in failure and leave the seeker disappointed and heart-sick.

Is there not then a "higher life" than that which many believers enjoy?

The true answer is that there is but one life for all God's children.

Christ Himself is our life. The only difference is that in some that blessed life is more fully manifested than in others, because all do not give Him the same place in their heart's affections. It is a sad and unsatisfactory thing when He has only the first place in our hearts. He asks for the whole heart, not a part—though it be the most important part. If He be thus enthroned, and reign alone in the seat of our affections, we shall surely manifest that divine life much more fully than if the world and self are allowed to intrude in what should be His sole abode.

The apostle John is the New Testament writer whose special province it was to unfold for our learning the truth about divine life. In his Gospel he portrays the life as told out in the only begotten Son of God, who became flesh and tabernacled for a time among men; showing forth in all His ways "that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." In his epistles John sets forth that life as exhibited in the children of God, who by faith have received Him who is the life, and in whom eternal life now dwells. As these precious portions of the divinely-inspired Word are meditated upon, they must produce in the soul of every devout reader a longing desire to walk more fully in the power of that life.

No human theories or earth-born principles can help us here.

"This does not come with houses or with gold, With place, with honor, and a flattering crew; 'Tis not in the world's market bought and sold."

Only as one learns to refuse everything that is of the flesh, and finds everything in Christ the Second Man, will this priceless boon be enjoyed of a life lived in fellowship with God.

He, the eternal Son, was ever the fountain of life—the source whence divine life was communicated all down through the ages to all who received the word of God in faith. But that life was manifested on earth during His sojourn here, "and the life was the light of men." It cast light on every man, bringing out in vivid contrast what was in them.

But it is not in incarnation He communicates His own life to us. He said expressly, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Accordingly He, the Prince of life, "tasted death for every man," and in resurrection showed that He was indeed "that eternal life which was with the Father" from all past ages, and had for a time been displayed on earth.

Having burst the bands of death, He appeared to His disciples as the ever-living One, forever beyond death, judgment, and condemnation of any kind. It was as such He breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye [the] Holy Spirit." He was speaking as the last Adam, a quickening Spirit. Henceforth they are to understand that, while they have not received a different kind of a life from what was theirs from the moment they received Him and were born of God, they now have that life, with all that is connected with it, on the resurrection side of the cross. It is life with which judgment can never be connected. They are linked up with Christ risen, and they are called to manifest this on earth, in the scene where He has been rejected.

So true Christian life is nothing more nor less than the manifestation of Christ. "For me to live is Christ" is the statement of the apostle Paul, "and to die is gain;" for death would mean to "depart and be with Christ, which is far better."

The only secret of living Christ is occupation with Christ. And it is for this God has given us such abundant fulness in His Word. Another has well said that if the Bible were merely a guidebook to show the way to heaven, a very much smaller volume would have sufficed. Often the gospel has been clearly told out in a few-paged tract or booklet. But here is a book of over one thousand ordinary pages, and all of it "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works;" and the one great subject of all its sixty-six parts is Christ.

He who feeds upon its sacred pages is feeding on Christ, for the Word written but declares the Word eternal. To "read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" this divinely-inspired unfolding of the person and work of Christ is the paramount requisite for the believer, if he would glorify God in his practical ways.

It is related that John Bunyan had written on the fly-leaf of his Bible, "This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book." It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. Not for power, nor for the gift of the Spirit, nor for some special blessing, do we need to pray; but we may well join with the Psalmist in the earnest petitions, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. ...Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. ...Order my steps in Thy Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me" (Ps. 119:18,34,133). By "Thy `law" is meant not merely what men commonly call the moral law of God, but His entire word, so blessedly celebrated in "the psalm of the laver" (119).

To read the Word in a mere intellectual manner will not minister Christ to the soul. Earnest, devout study of the Scriptures must never be divorced from believing prayer. It is by this means that the soul is maintained in communion with God. Prayerless Bible-reading becomes dry and unprofitable, leaving the student heady and cold-hearted. But prayerful meditation on the inspired pages will nourish the soul in divine affections.

The Word reveals Christ to us for food and example. It makes known to us the mind of the Spirit; and it is the appointed medium for the cleansing of our ways.

Not by trying to imagine what Jesus would do in my circumstances do I learn how a Christian should conduct himself in this world; but by searching the Scriptures, and tracing there the lowly path of heaven's anointed One, I discern the way in which He would have me to walk.

It is forgetfulness, or ignorance, of this that causes so many shipwrecks, not only in connection with "the higher-life movement," but among believers generally. Human judgment takes the place of the revealed will of God, and grievous disaster is often the result.

The second point is of equal importance. Every Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, as we have already seen. He has the power required for holy living therefore, and need not plead and wrestle, as is the fashion with some, for "more power," and "more of the Spirit." What is required is subjection to the Word, that one may walk in the Spirit.

A simple illustration has been helpful to many: The believer may be likened to a locomotive engine, every part in working order and filled with the propelling steam—a fit symbol of the Holy Spirit. But an engine thus equipped becomes a source of terrible destruction if off the rails. The rails are the word of God. Alas, how many Spirit-indwelt people have created havoc by wild, uncontrolled emotionalism, not in accordance with the Holy Scriptures! To have the Spirit does not guarantee that one will be guided aright unless he search the Scriptures and allow them to mark out his course, any more than to be well-equipped and full of steam guarantees that an engine will proceed in safety to its destination unless it be upon the rails.

The third statement has already been before us in the paper on Sanctification by the Word; but I would press it again upon the reader's attention that the Scriptures are the water given for our practical cleansing from defilement as we go on in our appointed way through this scene. Let there be unhesitating self-judgment the moment I find my behavior or my thoughts and the word of God in conflict, and I shall undoubtedly grow in grace as well as in knowledge.

There are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one" (1 John 5:7,8, R.V.).

The blood is the witness of propitiation, and tells of Him who, having died for our sins, is Himself the Mercy-seat, to whom we come boldly, as unto a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The water is the word of God, as Eph. 5:26 and Ps. 119:9 make plain.

That word testifies to the advocacy of Christ, as a result of which the Holy Spirit applies the word to the heart and conscience of the child of God, thus cleansing his ways and sanctifying him daily.

But the three must never be separated. "A threefold cord is not quickly broken." Christ Jesus has borne my sins, and lives in glory to be my heart's loved Object. The Spirit dwells in my body, to be the power of the new life and to guide me into all truth. The word is the medium through which I am enlightened, directed, and cleansed.

In Eph. 5:18-21 it is written: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Here is the life that is life indeed, lived out in the redeemed on earth. But how am I to be "filled with the Spirit?" Is not this, after all, that very "second blessing" which I have been concerned about? Let Col. 3:16,17 give the answer: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him." The one passage is the complement of the other.

To be filled with the Spirit, I must let the word of Christ dwell in me richly. Then will the blessed results spoken of in both epistles be manifest in me.

Nowhere in Scripture is it taught that there is a sudden leap to be taken from carnality to spirituality, or from a life of comparative unconcern as to godliness to one of intense devotion to Christ. On the contrary, increase in piety is ever presented as a growth, which should be as normal and natural as the orderly progression in human life from infancy to full stature and power. In Peter's first epistle he writes:

"Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby [unto salvation, R.V.]: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (1 Peter 2:1-3). And he again emphasizes the place and importance of that word with a view to growth in spiritual strength when he says, "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all diligence, add to [or, have in] your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:3-11).

Here is depicted no sudden growth of spirituality acquired in a moment, as a result of some great renunciation, but a steady, sober walk with God, and uninterrupted growth in grace and knowledge through feeding upon the Word, and giving it its proper place in the life.

It is vain to reason that "there can be no true growth until holiness be first obtained by faith." Nowhere does the Bible so teach; and it is self-evident that he who is called upon to lay aside all malice, guile, and similar evil things, has not been delivered from the presence of a corrupt nature. All the New Testament exhortations to godliness are addressed to men of like passions with ourselves, who need to watch and pray lest they enter into temptation, because of the fact that sin still dwells in them, ever ready to assert itself if there be not continued self-judgment.

As another striking example of this, I would have the reader notice the teaching of the apostle Paul in regard to the old and new man, in the epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians. Beginning with Eph. 4:21, he writes: "If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation [or, behavior] the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts: and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another" (Eph4:21-25). And he follows this up with exhortations against stealing, corrupt communications, grieving the Holy Spirit, and bitterness, wrath, anger, and similar unholy things. How out of place such instruction if he is supposed to be telling the wholly sanctified how to behave! Fancy exhorting a sinless man not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed until the day of redemption!

But there is neither confusion nor incongruity if I see that "the old man" stands for all that I was in my Christless days. That man is now put off. In his place I put on the new man; that is, I am called to manifest the man in Christ.

The companion-passage in Colossians is even more explicit: "But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew,...but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:8-11). And upon this he now bases a positive exhortation to put on (as one would put on his garments) "tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering," and a spirit of forgiveness toward all men; while, as a girdle to bind all in place, he counsels "the putting on of love, the uniting bond of peace."

To practice what these several scriptures inculcate will be indeed a higher manifestation of Christian living than we generally see, and this is the only real, practical sanctification.

In closing this series of papers on a subject so generally misapprehended, and concerning which controversy has been common in many quarters for years, I commend all to Him whose approbation alone is of lasting value, and whose grace it is that gives the soul to enjoy in some little measure the preciousness of Him in whom holiness and righteousness have been fully told out for all His own. May He deign to use these faulty pages for the blessing of His people and the glory of His matchless name!

I have written, I trust, with malice toward none and charity toward all, however mistaken some may be as to the line of teaching they endorse. And I gladly bear record to the pious, God-fearing lives of many who profess the "second blessing"; but I have no manner of doubt that their devotedness and godliness spring from a totally different source than that to which they mistakenly ascribe it, namely, to the very thing I have been here inculcating—meditation on the word of God, coupled with a prayerful spirit, thus leading out the heart to Christ Himself. Of this may we all know more until we see Him face to face and be forever wholly sanctified!

Cleansing From All Sin, and the Pure in Heart - The Two Natures

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

"Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered [or, atoned for]. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." — Ps. 32:1,2.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."—Mat. 5:8.

DIFFERENT as they may seem to be in subject-matter, the two passages just quoted are most intimately linked together. The blessedness therein described belongs to every one who has honestly turned to God in repentance and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior whose precious blood cleanseth from all sin.

Those who fancy they see in this wondrous cleansing an advance on Paul's declaration that "by Him all that believe are justified from all things," thereby betray their ignorance of Scripture and their low thoughts of the value attached by God to the atoning work of His beloved Son. When we speak of justification, we think of the entirety of sin and of sins, from the charge of which every believer is eternally freed. On the other hand, the thought of cleansing suggests at once that sin is defiling, and, till purged from its defilement, no soul can look up to God without guile, and thus be truly pure in heart.

The blessedness of psalm 32 is not that of a sinless man, but of a man who, once guilty and defiled, has confessed his transgression unto the Lord and obtained forgiveness for the iniquity of his sin. But he has also found in the divine method of cleansing from the defilement of sin, that henceforth the Lord will not impute sin to the one whose evil nature and its fruit have all been covered by the atonement of Jesus Christ. True it is that David looked on in faith to a propitiation yet to be made. We believe in Him who has in infinite grace already accomplished that mighty work whereby sin is now forgiven and iniquity purged. God is just, and cannot forgive apart from atonement.

Therefore He justifies the ungodly on the basis of the work of His Son.

But God is holy likewise, and He cannot permit a defiled soul to draw nigh to Him; therefore sin must be purged. The two aspects are involved in the salvation of every believer.

He who is thus forgiven and cleansed is the man in whose spirit there is no guile; he is the one who is pure in heart. He has judged himself and his sins in the presence of God. He has nothing now to hide. His conscience is free and his heart pure because he is honest with God and no longer seeks to cover his transgressions. All has come out in the light, and God Himself then provides the covering; or, to speak more exactly, God, who has already provided the covering, brings the honest soul into the good of it.

This is the great theme of 1 John 1:5-10, to which we must now turn.

For the reader's convenience, I will quote it in full:

"This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." Immediately he adds (though, unfortunately, the human chapter division obscures the connection),

"My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world" (1John 2:1, 2).

This, then, is "the message," the great, emphatic message, of the first part of John's epistle—that " God is light," even as "God is love" is the message of the last part.

How solemn the moment in the soul's history when this first great fact bursts upon one! "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." It is this that makes all men in their natural condition, unsaved and unforgiven, dread meeting Him who "seeth not as man seeth," but is a "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

When Christ came the light was shining, or lightening all who came in contact with it. He was Himself the light of the world. Hence His solemn words, "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" (John 3:19-21). The unrepentant soul hates the light, and therefore he flees from the presence of God who is light. But he who has judged himself and owned his guilt and transgressions, as David did (in Psalm 32), no longer dreads the light, but walks in it, fearing no exposure, for he has already freely confessed his own iniquity. The day of judgment can hold no terror for the man who has previously judged himself thus, and has then, by faith, seen his sins judged by God upon the person of His Son, when made sin upon the cross. Such a man walks in the light. If any claim to be Christians and to enjoy communion with God who are still walking in the darkness, they "lie, and do not the truth."

But if we have been thus exposed—if we turn from darkness to light and walk therein—then "we have fellowship one with another;" for in that light we find a redeemed company, self-judged and repentant like ourselves, and we know that we need not shun further manifestation, for "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."

We must not pass hastily by this much-abused and greatly misapplied passage. It has been made to teach what is utterly foreign to its meaning. Among the general run of "holiness" teachers, it is commented upon as though it read: "If we walk up to the light God gives us as to our duty, we have fellowship with all who do the same; and having fulfilled these conditions, the blood of Jesus Christ His Son washes all inbred sin out of our hearts, and makes us inwardly pure and holy, freeing us from all carnality."

Now if this be the meaning of the verse, it is evident that we have all a large contract to fulfil ere we can ever know this inward cleansing. We must walk in a perfect way while still imperfect, in order to become perfect! Could any proposition be much more unreasonable, not to say unscriptural?

But a serious examination of the verse shows there is no question raised in it as to how we walk. It is not a matter of walking according to the light given as to our duties; but it is the place in which, or where, we walk that is emphasized: "If we walk in the light." Once we walked in the darkness. There all unsaved people walk still. But all believers walk in that which they once dreaded—the light; which is, of course, the presence of God. In other words, they no longer seek to hide from Him, and to cover their sins. They walk openly in that all-revealing light as self-confessed sinners for whom the blood of Christ was shed.

Walking thus in the full blaze of the light, they walk not alone, but in the company of a vast host with whom they have fellowship—for all alike are self-judged, repentant souls. Nor do they dread that light and long for escape from its beams; for "the blood of Jesus Christ," once shed on Calvary's cross, now sprinkled upon that very mercy-seat in the holiest from whence the light—the Shekinah-glory—shines, "cleanseth us from all sin." Literally, it is, "cleanseth us from every sin." Why fear the light when every sin has been atoned for by that precious blood?

The moment the soul apprehends this all fear is gone. Mark, it is no question of the blood of Christ washing out my evil nature—eliminating "sin that dwelleth in me"—but it is that the atoning work of the Son of God avails to purge my defiled conscience from the stain of every sin that I have ever been guilty of. Though all the sins that men could commit had been laid justly to my single account, yet Christ's blood would cleanse me from them all!

He therefore who denies his inherent sinfulness, and declares he has not sinned, misses all the blessing stored up in Christ for the one who comes to the light and confesses his transgressions, It is perhaps too much to say that verse 8 refers to holiness professors; yet such may well weigh its solemn words: "If we say that we have no sin [nature], we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Primarily it describes such as ignore the great fact of sin, and would dare approach God apart from the cross of Christ. They are self-deceived, and know not the truth. But it is surely serious enough to think of real Christians joining with these, and, while still in danger of falling, denying the presence of sin within them. Far better is it to say, honestly, with Paul,

"I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18).

The great principle on which God forgives sin is declared in verse 9. "If we confess," He must forgive, in order to be faithful to His Son, and just to us for whom Christ died. How blessed to be resting, not only on the love and mercy of God, but on His faithfulness and justice too! To deny that one has sinned, in the face of the great work done to save sinners, is impious beyond degree; and the one who does so is stigmatized by that most obnoxious title, "a liar!"

These things are written that believers might not sin. But immediately the Holy Spirit adds, "If any man sin, we [that is, we Christians] have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." My failure does not undo His work. On the cross He died for my sins in their totality; not merely the sins committed up to the moment of my conversion. He abides the effectual propitiation for our sins, and, for the same reason, the available means of salvation for the whole world.

Trusting Him, I need hide nothing. Owning all, I am a man in whose spirit there is no guile. Living in the enjoyment of such matchless grace, I am among the pure (or single) in heart who see God, revealed now in Christ.

To be pure in heart is therefore the very opposite of double-mindedness. Of some of David's soldiers we read, "They were not of double heart;" or, as the Hebrew vividly puts it, "not of a heart and a heart." "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways," but the pure in heart are consciously in the light, and the inward man is thus kept for God.

In the man of Romans 7 we see described, for our blessing and instruction, the misery of double-mindedness; while the close of the chapter and the opening verses of chapter 8 portray the pure in heart.

The conflict there set forth has its counterpart in every soul quickened by the Spirit of God who is seeking holiness in himself, and is still under law as a means of promoting piety. He finds two principles working within him. One is the power of the new nature; the other, of the old. But victory comes only when he condemns self altogether, and looks away to Christ Jesus as His all, knowing that there is no condemnation to those who are before God in Him.

The man in Romans 7 is occupied with himself, and his disappointment and anguish spring from his inability to find in self the good which he loves.

The man of Romans 8 has learned there is no good to be found in self.

It is only in Christ; and his song of triumph results from the joy of having found out that he is "complete in Him." But it will be necessary to notice these much-controverted portions of the word of God more particularly when we come to the consideration of the teaching of Scripture as to the two natures, in our next chapter; so we refrain from further analysis of them now.

Coming back to the central theme of our present paper, I would reiterate that "cleansing from all sin" is equivalent to "justification from all things," save for the difference in view-point. Justification is clearing from the charge of guilt. Cleansing is freeing the conscience from the defilement of sin.

It is the great aspect of the gospel treated in the beginning of Hebrews 10. This has been already taken up at some length in the paper on "Sanctification by the Blood of Christ," and I need not go into it again here, save to add that the purging of the conscience there referred to should be distinguished from maintaining a good conscience in matters of daily life. In Hebrews 10 the conscience is looked at as defiled by the sins committed against God, from which the atoning work of His Son alone can purge. But he who has been thus purged, and has therefore "no more conscience of sins," is now responsible to be careful to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and man, by walking in subjection to the Word and the Holy Spirit, By so doing a "good conscience" will be enjoyed, which is a matter of experience; while a "purged conscience" is connected with our standing.

Should I, by lack of watching unto prayer, fall into sin, and thus become possessed of a bad conscience, I am called upon at once to judge myself before God and confess my failure. In this way I obtain once more a good conscience. But as the value of Christ's blood was not altered in the sight of God by my sin, I do not need to seek once more for a purged conscience, as I know the efficacy of that atoning work ever abides. So far as my standing is concerned, I am ever cleansed from all sin; otherwise I would be accursed from Christ the moment failure came in; but in place of this, the Word tells one, as already noted, that "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins." Satan will at once accuse the saint who sins; but the Fathers estimation of the work of His beloved Son remaining unchanged, every accusation is met by the challenge, "The LORD rebuke thee...is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (See Zech. 3:2.) And at once, as a result of the advocacy of Christ, the Holy Spirit begins His restoring work, using the Word to convict and exercise the soul of the failed one, and, if need be, subjecting him to the rod of chastening, that he may own his sin and unsparingly judge himself for taking an unholy advantage of such grace. When this point is reached a good conscience is again enjoyed. But it is only because the blood cleanseth from every sin that this restoring work can be carried on and the link not be broken that unites the saved soul to the Saviour.

"Whosoever Is Born Of God Doth Not Commit Sin"; or, The Believers Two Natures WE must now notice, somewhat at length, what is practically the only remaining proof text for the theory we have been examining—that of perfection in the flesh. We turn to 1 John 3.  "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law [or, doeth lawlessness; lit. trans.]; for sin is the transgression of the law [or, sin is lawlessness]. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. in this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother" (vers. 4-10).

Let the reader note well two points at the outset: First, This passage speaks of what is characteristically true of all who are born of God. It does not contemplate any select, advanced coterie of Christians who have gone on to perfection or obtained a second blessing. And it is folly to argue, as some hard-driven controversialists have done—in subject alike to Scripture and to reason—that only advanced believers, who have attained to holiness, are born of God, the rest being but begotten! This position is not tenable for a moment in view of the plain declaration in the same epistle that "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."

Second, If the passage proves that all sanctified Christians live absolutely without sinning, it proves too much; for it also tells us that "whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." Are the perfectionists prepared to own that if any of their number lose the "blessing" and fall away, it proves that they never did know God at all, but were hypocrites all the days of their former profession? If unwilling to take this attitude toward their failed brethren and to place themselves in the same category when they fall (as they all do eventually), they must logically confess that "committeth sin" and "sinneth not" are not to be taken in an absolute sense, as though the one expression were "falls into sin," and the other, "never commits a sin."

A little attention to the opening verses of chapter 2, which have already been noticed in our previous paper, would deliver from radicalism in the understanding of the passage now before us. There, the possibility of a believer failing and sinning is clearly taught, and the advocacy of Christ presented to keep him from despair. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." No interpretation of the balance of the epistle contradictory to this clear statement can possibly be correct.

John's epistle is one of sharp contrasts. He deals in abstract statements.

Light and darkness we have already seen contrasted. No blending of these is hinted at. John knows no twilight. Love and hatred are similarly contrasted throughout the epistle. Lukewarmness in affection is not here suggested. All are either cold or hot.

So it is with sin and righteousness. It is what is characteristic that is presented for our consideration. The believer is characteristically righteous: he does righteousness, and sinneth not: that is, the whole bent of his life is good; he practises righteousness, and consequently he does not practise sin. With the unbeliever the opposite is the case.

He may do many good acts (if we think only of their effect upon and his attitude toward his fellow-men), but his life is characterized by sin.

He makes sin a practise. In this are manifested who are of God, and who are of Satan.

The essence of sin is—not the transgression of the law, but "lawlessness." No scholar questions now the incorrectness of the Authorized Version here. Sin is doing one's own will—that is lawlessness. This was what marked every man till grace reached him.

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53:6). He, the sinless One, was manifested to free us from our sins—both as to guilt and power. "In Him is no sin." Of none save Him could words like these rightfully be used. "The prince of this world cometh," He said, "and hath nothing in Me."

We who have been subdued by His grace and won for Himself no longer practise sin. To every truly converted soul sin is now a foreign and hateful thing. "Whosoever practiseth sin [literal rendering] hath not seen Him, neither known Him." This verse must not be lightly passed by. It is as absolute as any other portion of the passage. No one who has ever known Him can go on practicing sin with indifference.

Backsliding there may be—and, alas, often is. But the backslider is one under the hand of God in government, and He loves him too well to permit him to continue the practise of sin. He uses the rod of discipline; and if that be not enough, cuts short his career and leaves the case for final settlement at the judgment-seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:15; 11:30-32, and 2 Cor. 5:10).

The point of John's teaching is that one who deliberately goes on in unrighteousness is not, and never has been, a child of God. He who is by faith united to the Righteous One is himself a righteous man. The one persistently practicing sin is of the devil, "for the devil sinneth from the beginning"—the entire course of the evil one has been sinful and wicked.

The 9th verse gets down to the root of the matter, and should make all plain: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit [or practise] sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin [or, be sinning], because he is born of God." It is the believer looked at as characterized by the new nature who does not sin. True, he still has the old carnal, Adamic nature; and if controlled by it, he would still be sinning continuously. But the new nature, imparted when he was born again,

"not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible," is now the controlling factor of his life. With this incorruptible seed abiding in him, he cannot practise sin. He becomes like the One whose child he is.

The doctrine of the two natures is frequently stated and always implied in Scripture. If not grasped, the mind must ever be in confusion as to the reasons for the conflict which every believer knows within himself, sooner or later.

This conflict is definitely declared to go on in every Christian, in Gal. 5:16,17. After various exhortations, which are utterly meaningless if addressed to sinless men and women, we read, "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust [or desire] of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth [or desireth] against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot [or might not] do the things that ye would." The flesh here is not the body of the believer, but the carnal nature. It was so designated by the Lord Himself when He said to Nicodemus: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said, unto thee, Ye must be born again" (John 3:6,7). The two natures are there, as in Galatians, placed in sharp contrast. The flesh is ever opposed to the Spirit. The new nature is born of the Spirit, and controlled by the Spirit; hence it is described according to its character.

Agreement between the two there can never be; nevertheless, there is no instruction as to how the flesh may be eliminated. The Christian is simply told to walk in the Spirit; and if he does, he will not be found fulfilling the desires of the flesh. This is the man who "sinneth not."

The nature of the conflict is fully described in a typical case—probably the apostle's own at one time—in Rom. 7, which has already been before us. The man therein depicted is undoubtedly a child of God, though many have questioned it. Some suppose him to be a Jew seeking justification by the law. But the subject of justification is all taken up and settled in the first five chapters of the epistle. From chapter 6 on, it is deliverance from sin's power that is the theme.

Moreover, the man of Rom. 7 "delights in the law of God after the inward man." What unconverted soul could speak like this? The "inward man" is the new nature. No Christless soul delights in what is of God. The "inward man" is opposed to "another law in my members," which can only be the power of the old nature, the flesh.

These two are here, as in John 3 and in Gal. 5, placed in sharp contrast. Paul is describing the inevitable conflict that every believer knows when he undertakes to lead a holy life on the principle of legality. He feels instinctively that the law is spiritual, but that he himself, for some unexplained reason, is fleshly, or carnal, in bondage to sin. This discovery is one of the most heart-breaking a Christian ever made. Yet each one must and does make it for himself at some time in his experience. He finds himself doing things he knows to be wrong, and which his inmost desires are opposed to; while what he yearns to do he fails to accomplish, and does, instead, what he hates.

But this is the first part of a great lesson which all must learn who would matriculate in God's school. It is the lesson of "no confidence in the flesh"; and until it is learned there can be no true progress in holiness. The incorrigibility of the flesh must be realized before one is ready to turn altogether from self to Christ for sanctification, as he has already done for justification. Two conclusions are therefore drawn (in vers. 16, 17) as a result of carefully weighing the first part of this great lesson.

First, I consent that the law is good; and, in the second place, I begin to realize that I myself am on the side of that law, but there is a power within me, with which I have no desire to be identified, which keeps me from doing what I acknowledge to be good. Thus I have learned to distinguish "sin that dwelleth in me" from myself. It is a hateful intruder, albeit once my master in all things.

So I have got this far (in verse 18), that I know there are two natures in me; but still, "how to perform that which is good I find not." Mere knowledge does not help. I still do the evil I hate, and I have no ability to do the good I desire. Nevertheless I am a long way toward my deliverance when I am able to distinguish the two laws, or controlling powers, of the two natures within my being.

After the inward man, I delight in the holy law of God. "But I see another law (or controlling power) in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (ver. 23).

So wretched am I made by repeated failure, that I feel like a poor prisoner chained to a dead body—which nevertheless has over me a terrible control. "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" This is the cry that brings the help I need.

I have been trying to deliver myself. I now realize the impossibility of this, and I cry for a Deliverer outside myself. In a moment He is revealed to my soul, and I see that He alone, who saved me at the beginning, can keep me from sins power. "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." He must be my sanctification as well as my redemption and my righteousness.

In myself, with the mind, or the new nature, I serve the law of God: but with the flesh, the old nature, the law of sin. But when I look away from self to Christ, I see that there is "no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (chap. 8:1,2).

I will not therefore struggle to be holy. I will look up to the blessed Christ of God and walk in the Spirit, assured of victory while occupied thus with Him who is my all. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (vers. 3,4).

What a relief it is, after the vain effort to eradicate sin from the flesh, when I learn that God has condemned it in the flesh, and will in His own good time free me from its presence, when at the Lord's return He shall change these vile bodies and make them like His own glorious body. Then redemption will be complete. The redemption of my soul is past, and in it I rejoice. The redemption of my body is yet to come, when the Lord Jesus returns, and this mortal shall put on immortality.

For the present, walking in the Spirit, the believer sins not. His life is a righteous one. But he needs ever to watch and pray lest in a moment of spiritual drowsiness the old nature be allowed to act, and thus his testimony be marred and his Lord dishonored.

I conclude with an illustration often used, which may help to clear up any difficulty remaining as to the truth set forth in 1 John 3. A man has an orchard of seedling oranges. He wishes to grow Washington navels instead. He therefore decides to graft his trees. He cuts off all branches close to the parent stem and inserts in each one a piece taken from a Washington naval tree. The old fruit disappears entirely, and new fruit is now on the trees in keeping with the new nature of the Washington navel inserted in them. This is a picture of conversion.

A few years roll by and we are taken by this gentleman for a walk through his orchard. On every hand the trees are loaded with beautiful golden fruit.

"What kind of oranges are these?" we ask.

"These are all Washington navels," is the answer.

"Do they not bear seedlings now?" we inquire.

"No," is the reply; "a grafted tree cannot bear seedlings."

But even as he speaks we catch sight of a small orange hanging on a shoot low down on the tree.

"What is that? is it not a seedling?" we ask.

"Ah," he answers, "I see my man has been careless; he has allowed a shoot to grow from the old stem, and it is of the old nature of the tree. I must clip off that shoot;" and so saying, he uses the knife.

Would any one say he spoke untruthfully when he declared that a grafted tree bears Washington navels only? Surely not. All would understand that he was speaking of that which was characteristic.

And so it is with the believer. Having been born again, the old life, for him, is ended. The fruits of the flesh he is now ashamed of. The old ways he no longer walks in. His whole course of life is changed. The fruit of the Spirit is now manifested, and he cannot be sinning, for he is born of God.

But the pruning-knife of self-judgment is ever needed. Otherwise the old nature will begin to manifest itself; for it is no more eradicated than is the old nature of the seedling- tree after having been grafted. Hence the need of being ever in subjection to the word of God and of unsparing self-judgment. "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." To deny the presence of the old nature is but to invite defeat. It would be like the orchardist who refuses to believe it possible that seedlings could he produced if shoots from the old trunk were allowed to grow on unchecked. The part of wisdom is to recognize the danger of neglecting the use of the pruning-knife. And so, for the believer, it is only folly to ignore that sin dwells in me. To do so is but to be deceived, and to expose myself to all manner of evil things because of my failure to recognize my need of daily dependence upon God. Only as I walk in the Spirit, looking unto Jesus in a self-judged and humble condition of soul, will my life be one of holiness.

Perfection, as Used in Scripture

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

IT is a common custom with one-sided special pleaders to attach arbitrary meanings to certain words, and then press them as the only correct definitions. No terms have suffered more in this respect than the words "perfect" and "perfection," as found in our English version of the Scriptures. From the first publication of the revered John Wesley's "Plain Account of Christian Perfection" to the present time, it seems to have been taken for granted that by perfection we are to understand sinlessness. Yet Mr. Wesley himself did not exactly so define it, and he seemed to fear a radical use of the doctrine that would be hurtful to souls, against which he carefully sought to guard by distinguishing angelic, Adamic, and Christian perfection. Today the average work on holiness pictures the perfect Christian as a man restored, to all intents and purposes, to the Adamic condition, save that the usages of society and the condition of men still in the natural and carnal state demand the continuance of "coats of skin!"

It will be well for us, therefore, to turn at once to Scripture and mark the use of the expressions and their connection as we have already done in regard to the word "sanctification." It is not by getting dictionary definitions or theological explanations that we learn the exact force of English words when used to translate Hebrew and Greek originals, but by observing the manner in which they are used in the Bible. For instance, in any ordinary sermon on "Perfection" the attention is generally first directed to Noah and Abraham. Of the former we read, "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (Gen. 6:9). The margin gives "upright" in place of perfect, though either word would properly express the original. Noah was an upright man, perfect in his ways. That is, he was one against whose behavior no charge could be brought—until, alas, this perfect life was marred by the drunkenness so shamefully exposed by heartless Ham. Who but a biased partizan could dream of Noah's perfection implying freedom from inbred sin! Yet many have been the sermons preached and exhortations based on this statement of the ancient record, in which he has been held up as an antediluvian example of entire sanctification. Even in ordinary conversation the word perfect is used as here. A teacher says of a pupil who has successfully passed an examination, with no errors to his charge, "He is perfect." Does he mean, "sinless?"

To Abram, Jehovah said, "I am the Almighty God; walk before Me,and be thou perfect" (Gen. 17:1). Again a glance at the margin would help to avoid a wrong conclusion. "Upright," or "sincere," are given as alternative readings. Yet the zealous advocate of a second work will overlook or ignore this altogether, and argue that God would not tell justified Abram to be perfect if He did not mean there was for him a deeper work which He was ready to perform in him, whereby all carnality would be destroyed and the patriarch would become perfect as to his inward state. But there is no such thought in the passage.

Abram was called to walk before God in sincerity of heart and singleness of purpose. This was, to be "perfect."

The next proof-text generally referred to comes after the lapse of many centuries, and is part of our Lord's sermon on the mount: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" Matt. 5:48). These are serious words indeed, and we do well not to pass them lightly by.

At the outset we may observe that if to be perfect here means to be absolutely like God, then no Christian has ever yet attained to the state prescribed. Only one mentally unbalanced could pretend to such perfection as this. But a careful consideration of the preceding instruction will make clear at once what is meant. The Lord had been proclaiming the law of the kingdom, the compelling power of grace.

He bids His disciples love their enemies and do good to their accusers and persecutors, that in this they may manifestly be children of their Father in heaven, whose loving favor is shown to just and unjust alike.

He does not withhold the blessings of sunshine and rain from the evil-living or hateful, but shows mercy to all. We are called to be morally like Him. To love only our friends and well-wishers is to be on a level with any wicked man. To be kind to brethren only is to be clannish like the publicans. But to show grace and act in love toward all is to be perfect, or balanced, like the Creator Himself. Surely all Christians strive for this perfection—but who dare aver that he has fully attained to it—so that he is never unjust or partial in his dealings with others?

Perfection in its ultimate sense we all come short of. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect," writes the apostle Paul, "but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:12-14). Could disclaimer of perfection, as to experience and attainment in grace, be stronger or more distinct than this?

Whatever others may fancy they have reached to, Paul at least was not one of the perfectionists.

Yet in the very next verse he uses another word which is rendered "perfect" in our English version; and he says, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." Is there contradiction, or inconsistency, here? No. The error is in the mind of him who would so think. "Perfect" in verse 15 has the sense of "full grown," and refers to those who have passed out of the period of spiritual childhood. They are such as have become intelligent in divine things; and one way in which they manifest that intelligence is by confessing with Paul that they are not yet perfect as regards experience.

Christ Jesus has apprehended, or laid hold of, us with a view to our entire conformity to His own blessed image. We are predestinated to this, as Rom. 8:29 tells us. With this before us, we press on, forgetting the things of the past, and reaching forth to this glorious consummation. Then, and then only, we shall have come to Christian perfection. "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).

In Heb. 6:1 we read again of perfection; and in this instance one can readily understand how a person uninstructed as to the true scope and character of that epistle might easily misapply the exhortation, "Let us go on unto perfection." The contention of the holiness teacher as to this is generally as follows: These words are clearly addressed to believers. The Hebrews who are contemplated had already been turned to God in conversion. They were undoubtedly justified. [One might add, "and sanctified too" (!); but this is lost sight of; and little wonder, for it would not agree with the theory.] Therefore if such persons are urged to "go on unto perfection," perfection must be a second work of grace, to which the Lord is leading all the "merely justified." Now none could successfully deny the premise thus stated; but granting it to be sound and unassailable, the conclusion drawn by no means necessarily follows.

That the Hebrew Christians were exhorted to press on to something they had not yet reached is clear. But that this was identical with the so-called "second blessing" is not at all clear.

The truth is that the Greek word "perfection" in this instance is only another form of the word translated "perfect" in Phil. 3:15, which we have already examined and seen to be synonymous with full-grown.

"Let us go on to full growth" would be a true and just rendering, and is not at all ambiguous. It implies a proper spiritual development, such as should be before all young believers, but which it was needful to press upon these Hebrews, as they were dwarfed or stunted Christians, because of not having cut loose from Judaism with its withering, blighting influence.

Paul had already reproved them for this in the previous chapter. Note his words: "Ye are dull of hearing, For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God: and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age [or those who are perfect], even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5:11-14).

We learn from Acts 21 the reason why these Hebrew believers had become stunted in spirituality and knowledge. James, himself an apostle, together with all the elders of the church in Jerusalem, met together to receive Paul and his companions upon their returning thither; and after hearing of what God had wrought among the Gentiles, we are told "they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the law" (ver. 20): and upon this they base an appeal for Paul to fall in with certain Jewish rites, in order that he may not be an object of suspicion. Anxious to propitiate his own nation, the great apostle agrees, and is only prevented by divine Providence from an act which would have been clearly contrary to the 9th and 10th chapters of the Hebrew epistle.

Think what it would have meant for him who wrote, "Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin," if he had himself assisted in offering the sacrifices prescribed in the case of a Nazarite who had fulfilled his vow! (Read Num. 6:13-21, and compare with the whole account in Acts 21:23-26.) This failure God mercifully prevented, though at the cost of His dear servant's liberty. Afterward the venerable apostle, by divine inspiration, wrote the epistle to the Hebrews, to deliver those Jewish Christians from the bondage of the law and their subjection to the ordinances of the first covenant. (I know some question Paul's authorship of Hebrews, but in my judgment Peter settles that in his second letter to the Jewish believers. See 2Peter 3:15,16.)

"Therefore," he says, in chapter 6, "leaving [the word of the beginning] of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms [or washings], and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit" (vers. 1-3). (The A.V. is misleading here. They were not to leave any divine principles, but the word of the beginning; that is, all teaching that was not connected with Christ risen and glorified!) This the apostle does in the balance of the epistle, as he unfolds the varied lines of truth connected with Christ's priesthood, the new covenant, the one sacrifice, the walk of faith, and the Lord's discipline.

This vast circle of the truth of Christianity is the perfection to which they, and we, are called to go on to. He who comprehends and enjoys in his soul the teaching of Hebrews—chapters 7 to 13—is a perfect Christian, in the apostle's sense. He is now full-grown, and able to partake of strong meat, in place of being only fit to feed upon milk.

Into that glorious outline of the faith of God's elect I dare not attempt to go here, for to do so would but divert attention from the subject in hand. (Others have done this in detail. Mr. S. Ridout's "Lectures on Hebrews" and W. Kelly's "Exposition of Hebrews," are invaluable.) It is only by reverent and continued reading of the Scriptures that any can thus become perfect. The exhortation to Timothy is of all importance: "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not, to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). In the same letter Paul writes: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2Tim 3:16,17).

This is no mystical, inward perfection, but that well rounded knowledge of the mind of God which His word alone can give. He who does not neglect the appointed means will be enabled to enjoy the answer to the prayer with which Hebrews closes: "Now the God of peace...make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (Heb. 13:20,21).

One other passage we must examine before dismissing our brief study of perfection. It is James 3:1,2: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." With what we have already gone over, this verse needs little explanation. James, clearly, did not possess, nor did he know of any one who did possess, the second blessing of sinless perfection. He speaks by the Spirit of God, and tells us that we all offend in many things. If a man can be found who never offends in word—who never utters an unkind, an untruthful, or an idle word—he is in very deed a perfect man; but has he all sin rooted out of him? Far from it! He is able to control his carnal nature in place of being controlled by it; he is "able also to bridle the whole body" What need of bridling the body if all tendency to sin is gone—if inbred evil is eradicated? Is it not plain, on the face of it, that the perfect man is not a sinless man, but a man who holds himself in check, and is not under the power of sin that still dwells in him? Read the entire chapter thoughtfully and prayerfully, and ask yourself what holiness professor has ever fully met the requirements of this standard of perfection. Who among all the people of God never has to confess failure in word? If any do not, it will be because they deceive themselves, and the truth is not controlling the heart and conscience.

Briefly, then, I recapitulate what has been before us.

All believers are called to walk before God, as Noah and Abram, in uprightness and sincerity of heart. This is to be perfect as to the inward life. In so doing we are called to manifest love and grace toward all, let their treatment of us be as it may; that thus we may be perfect in impartiality as is our Father—God.

All believers are called to pass from the primary classes, in the great school of divine revelation, on to perfection; that is, lay hold of the fulness of what God has graciously been pleased to make known in Christianity. But none are perfect in the absolute sense; though he who can control his tongue is perfect as to ability to bridle every passion; for no evil thing that works in man is more wilful than the tongue.

When we behold Him who is perfect in wisdom, grace, and beauty, we shall be like Him where He is and be forever perfected, beyond all reach of sin and failure.

"Let us therefore, as many as be perfect [full-grown], be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing" (Phil. 3:15,16).

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and of Fire

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

 IT is remarkable how many expressions from the Scriptures, of diverse and widely differing meanings, are pressed into service by the perfectionists to support their views, and supposed by them to be synonymous with St. Paul's "second benefit." We have already examined some of them, and shown they have no reference whatever to the theory of the eradication of inbred sin at some time subsequent to conversion. Of all these expressions, the one that heads this chapter is ever given the most prominent place, and it is triumphantly alleged, with no possibility of serious refutal, that in this at least we certainly have what to many in the beginning of this dispensation was a blessing received after having been born again. Were not the apostles all children of God before Pentecost? Did they not all have the forgiveness of their sins? Surely. Yet who can deny that they received the Spirit only at Pentecost? And if this was so with them, how can we suppose there is any other way now of becoming fit for service? Each individual must have his own Pentecost. If he does not, he is likely to miss heaven after all." And here the holiness teacher feels sure he has clinched his favorite doctrine beyond all possibility of disproof.

Some distinguish between the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that of fire, and thus make a third blessing (!); but the majority consider the two as one,—the Spirit coming upon and within the justified man, like a flame of 

"Refining fire go through my heart, Illuminate my soul:

Scatter Thy light through every part,

And sanctify the whole."

We must therefore turn again to our Bibles and carefully examine all that is thus recorded concerning the Spirit's baptism, noticing too, some other operations of the same Spirit, which have been greatly misunderstood by many. (If I could feel sure that all my readers would procure a copy of S. Ridout's "Lectures on the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit," I would not take the trouble to write this chapter. But if any find my briefer remarks at all helpful, let me urge them to obtain a copy of this larger work.)

It was John the Baptizer who first spoke of this spiritual baptism.

When the people were in danger of giving the forerunner an undue place, he pointed them on to the coming One, the latchet of whose sandal he felt unworthy to unbind, and he declared, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that comes after me is mightier than I, ... He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and He shall thoroughly purge His threshing floor, and shall gather His wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable" (Matt. 3:11,12, N.T.).

In Mark's account no mention is made of fire. The only portion of John's declaration quoted is, "There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." (Mark 1:7,8). There is a reason for the omission of "and fire," as we shall see in a few moments.

Luke's account is the fullest of all. After telling of John's mission, by emphasizing the large place that coming wrath had in it (as also in Matt. 3:7-10), "The axe," he declares, "is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Luke 3:9). But who will execute this solemn sentence? Will it be John himself or Another to come after him? And if Another, will His coming be alone for judgment? John gives the answer farther down: "I indeed baptize you with water, but the mightier than I is coming, ... He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His threshing floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable" (Luk 16,17, N.T.) In the Gospel of John, again, as in that of Mark, nothing is said of fire.

It is only, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." (Joh 1:32-34).

The only other promise of the Spirit's baptism is that given by the risen Lord Himself ere His ascension, as recorded in Acts 1:5. After commanding the disciples to tarry at Jerusalem for the promise of the Father soon to be fulfilled, He says: "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Again, there is no mention of fire.

In chapter 2 of the Acts we have the historical fulfilment of these promises. The Holy Spirit descended from heaven and enveloped all the one hundred and twenty believers in the upper room, baptizing and indwelling them. There is no mention of the fire. Instead of that we read of something very different. "Cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them." Observe the statement carefully. It does not say a baptism of fire, but tongues, having the appearance of fire, sat upon each one. Was this that fiery baptism of which John spake? I think not—and for a very good reason.

Twice we have found the double expression used, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire." Three times we have seen the last expression omitted. Why this difference? John is addressing a promiscuous company in both Matthew and Luke. Some are repentant, waiting for Messiah; others are proud, haughty, hypocrites, and unbelievers, Some are humbly baptized in water, as signifying the death their sins deserve. Others evade the baptism, or would undergo it while unrepentant. John says in effect: Whether you are baptized by me or not, you shall all be baptized by the coming mighty One, either by the Holy Spirit, or in fire! He will make a separation between the true and the false. Every corrupt tree will come down and be hurled into the fire—baptized in the fire of judgment.

The wheat will be gathered into the garner: they will be the Spirit-baptized ones. The chaff will be cast into the fire: this will be their baptism of wrath.

In the accounts given by Mark, John, and in the Acts, there are no unbelievers introduced. Both John and Jesus are speaking only to disciples. To them they say nothing of the baptism of fire. There is no judgment—no wrath to come—for them to fear. They receive the promise of the baptism of the Spirit only, and this was fulfilled at Pentecost.

From this point on, that is from Acts 2, we never hear again of this baptism as something to be waited for, prayed for, or expected. The promise of the Father had been fulfilled. The baptism of the Holy Spirit had taken place. There was never another Pentecost recognized in the Church. Only twice, thereafter, is the baptism so much as mentioned in the New Testament, once in Peter's account of the reception of Cornelius and other Gentiles with him into the Christian company (Acts 11:16), and then in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians where it is shown to be something past, in which all who were believers had shared: "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles" (1 Cor. 12:13), and the epistle is addressed to "all that in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:2). Many of them were weak Christians, many were carnal, many failed to enter into much of the glorious truth pertaining to the New Dispensation, but all were baptized by the one Spirit into the one body of Christ.

We must therefore enquire carefully what that spiritual baptism accomplished, and why it took place subsequent to the new birth or conversion of the apostles and other believers in the opening of the book of Acts.

First, let it be noted, the baptism of the Spirit was a future thing until Jesus was glorified. It was after His ascension that He was to send the Spirit, who had never hitherto dwelt upon the earth. While Christ was here the Spirit was present in Him, but He did not then indwell believers. "The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." In His last hours with His disciples He spoke of sending the Comforter, and He contrasted the two dispensations by saying, "He hath been with you, and shall be in you."

Secondly, observe that He was not to come for the cleansing or freeing of the disciples from sin. True, He would indwell them, to control them for Christ and empower them for holiness of life, and for authoritative testimony. But His special work was to baptize or unite all believers into one body. He came to form the body of Christ after the Head had been exalted in heaven, as Man, at God's right hand. The Saviour's work on the cross cleanses from all sin. The Holy Spirit unites the cleansed into one body with all other believers, and with their glorified Head.

Thirdly, the body being now formed, individual believers no longer wait for the promise of the Father, expecting a new descent of the Spirit; but upon their believing they are sealed with that Holy Spirit, and thus are linked up with the body already in existence.

In the early chapters of Acts we have a number of special manifestations of the Spirit, owing to the orderly formation of that mystical body. In Acts 2, the one hundred and twenty in the upper room are baptized into one body. Those who believed and were baptized with water, to the number of over three thousand, received the same Spirit, and were thus added by the Lord to the newly-constituted Church or assembly.

In Acts 8 the word of life overleaps Jewish boundaries and goes to the Samaritans, who are obliged to wait till two apostles come from Jerusalem ere they receive the Spirit—"that there be no schism in the body." These ancient enemies of the Jews must not think of two churches, or two bodies of Christ, but of one; hence the interval between their conversion and the reception of the Spirit upon the laying on of the apostles' hands. The Jews and Samaritans had maintained rival religious systems and temples for hundreds of years, and the contention was very bitter between them (see John 4:19-22).

So it is easy to see the wisdom of God in thus visibly and openly uniting the converts of Samaria with those of Jerusalem.

In Acts 10 the circle widens. Grace flows out to the Gentiles. Cornelius (already a pious man, undoubtedly quickened by the Spirit) and all his company hear words whereby they shall be saved—brought into the full Christian position—and as Peter preaches, the Holy Ghost falls on them all upon their believing, a manifestation of power accompanying it, as a testimony to Peter and his companions;—they spake in foreign languages by divine illumination of the mind and control of the tongue.

They are added to the body.

One exceptional instance remains; that recorded in Acts 19. Apollos has been preaching the baptism of John in Ephesus, knowing not the gospel of Christ's death and resurrection and the Spirit's descent. He was carrying to the dispersed Jews in Gentile cities the message of John. Instructed by Aquila and Priscilla, he received the full revelation and went on to Corinth. Paul followed him to Ephesus, and found certain disciples, who clearly came short of the Christian place and walk. To them he said, "Did ye, upon your believing, receive the Holy Spirit?" They replied, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Now Christian baptism is "in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." So Paul asks "Unto what then were ye baptized?" This brings all out. They answer, "Unto John's baptism."

Upon this the apostle preaches the truth of the Christian revelation, setting forth Christ as the one predicted by John, who had now come, died and risen, and who had sent the Holy Spirit down from heaven.

They received the message with joy, were baptized by authority of the Lord Jesus, and upon the imposition of Paul's hands, received the Comforter. They too are added to the body, and the transitional state had come to an end.

Thereafter no mention is ever made of an interval between conversion and the reception of the Spirit. He now indwells all believers, as the seal that marks them as God's (Eph. 1:13-15; see R.V.), whereby they are sealed till the day of the redemption of their bodies (Eph. 4:30). If any have Him not, they are none of Christ's (Rom. 8:9). The indwelling Spirit is the Spirit of adoption, "whereby we cry, Abba, Father." It is therefore impossible to be a child of God and not have the Spirit. He is the earnest and the first-fruits of the coming glory (Rom. 8:11-17,23). He is our Anointing, and the youngest babe in Christ has this divine Unction (1 John 2:18-20,27).

Because we have the Spirit, we are called to "walk in the Spirit," and to be "filled with the Spirit," that thus our God may be glorified in us (Gal. 5:16; Eph. 5:18). But the Spirit's indwelling does not imply or involve any alteration in or removal of the old carnal nature, for we read, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary one to the other, so that ye cannot [or, might not] do the things that ye would" (Gal. 5:17).

Believers' bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and we are called to guard them from pollution, and hold them as devoted to the Lord. It is because we are thus made members of Christ and joined to the Lord that we are exhorted to flee fornication and all uncleanness (1 Cor. 6:12-20). How utterly opposed to the so-called holiness system would exhortations such as these be! Think of teaching a man that because he has the Holy Spirit, all tendency to sin has been eliminated from his being, and then exhorting him to flee fleshly lusts which war against the soul!

Because I am indwelt by the Spirit I am called to walk in a holy way, remembering that I am a member of Christ's mystical body formed by the Spirit's baptism at Pentecost.

The baptism of fire I shall never know. That is reserved for all who refuse the Spirit's testimony, who shall be cast into the lake of fire when the great day of His wrath has indeed come. (If any object to this, and consider the fiery baptism to be synonymous with the "tongues like as of fire" on Pentecost, I would ask them to carefully read again Matthews account of John's ministry.) Then,

"Deep down in the hell where all Christless ones go, 

Immersed in despair and surrounded with woe,

They be hurried along on the fiery wave,

With no eye to pity and no arm to save."

God grant, my reader, that you may never know this dreadful baptism, but that if not already numbered among those baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ, you may now receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith, as did the Galatians of old when they believed the things spoken by Paul (Gal. 3:2,3).

Dead to Sin, and Perfect Love

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

WHAT is it to be dead with Christ, dead to sin and to the rudiments of the world? Upon the answer to this question hangs the truth or error of the perfectionist system.

In commencing our inquiry I would remind the reader of what we have already looked at (in chapter 2) as to the distinction between standing and state. Standing has reference to what I am as viewed by God through the work of His Son. State is my actual condition of soul.

"That I may be of good comfort," says Paul, "when I know your state." He speaks elsewhere of "this grace wherein ye stand." The two things are very different.

Death with Christ has to do with my standing. "Reckon yourself dead" refers to my state. It should readily be apprehended that no one but the thieves on the cross ever died with Christ actually, and one of them was lost. Thomas on one occasion said, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." He referred to a literal death with Lazarus and with Christ, for whom to go into Judaea seemed to the disciples to be imperiling His life.

But Christ is now living in glory; and it is nineteen hundred years too late for any one to die with Him, so far as experience is concerned.

Supposing the "death" of Rom. 6 were state or experience, therefore, it could not be properly described as dying with Christ, but as Christ, or for Christ. To many it may seem needless to dwell upon this; but no one would think so who is familiar with the misuse of the expression in the holiness preaching and perfectionist literature of the day.

In these death is made to be experience. Believers are exhorted to die.

They try to feel dead; and if in measure insensible to insult, deprivation, and praise or blame, they consider they have died with Christ; never realizing the illogical use of the language in question.

When did Christ have to die to these things? When was He ever annoyed by blame or uplifted by praise? How then could stoical resignation be likened to death with Him?

One verse of tremendous import puts the scriptural use of the term beyond all cavil: "In that He died, He died unto sin once" (Rom. 6:10).

If it be said that I have "died with Him," it must be in His death, and to the same things to which He died. What then are we to learn from so solemn a statement?

Notice one thing very carefully. It does not—could not—say, "In that He died, His death was the end of inbred sin"! Yet this is what it should have said if my death with Him is the death of my inbred sin.

But this could never be; for He was ever the Holy One in whom was no sin. Yet He died unto sin. In what sense? Manifestly as taking my place. As my Substitute, He died unto sin in the fullest possible sense—sin in its totality, the tree and the fruit—but all mine, not His! "He loved me, and gave Himself for me;" and in so doing He died unto sin, bearing the judgment of God due to me, the guilty one. God "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). And having been made sin in my room and stead, and died for it, He has done with it forever—He has died unto it once for all, and in His death I see my death, for I died with Him!

When and where did I die with Him? There on His cross, nineteen centuries ago, when He died, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." There I, and every other child of God, died unto sin with Him, henceforth to live unto God, even as it is written, "And He died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and has been, raised" (2 Cor. 5:14,15, N.T.).

Who, that desires to be taught of God and to learn alone from Scripture, need stumble here? Christ's substitutionary death is accounted by God as my death, and the death of all who believe in Him; and through that death we are introduced into our new standing as risen from the dead, and seen in Christ before His Fathers face. "He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). This is my new and glorious position because I have died with Christ. I need not try to die, or pray to die, or seek to feel dead (absurdity beyond expression!); but Scripture says, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God"

(Col. 3:3). The practical results of this are many. Learning that I have died with Christ, I see at once the incongruity of denying this in my practical walk, or in any way owning the right of sin, which indwells me still, to exercise control over me. It was once my master, but Christ has died to sin—root, branch, and fruit; and His death was mine.

Therefore I must in faith reckon myself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ my Lord (Rom. 6:11). Mark, I do not reckon the sin to be dead, or uprooted, or anything of the kind. I know it is there, but I am dead to it. Faith reckons with God, and says,

"In Christ's death I died out of the sphere where sin reigns. I will not obey it therefore any longer." And while walking by faith, "sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace"

(Rom. 6:14). What folly to speak of sin not having dominion if it be dead! The very pith and marrow of the apostle's teaching is that though it remains in my mortal body, I am not to let it reign there (Rom. 6:12).

While I live in this world I shall never be actually free from sin's presence; but I can and should be delivered from its power. God hath "condemned sin in the flesh" not rooted sin out of the flesh; and as I condemn it too, and refuse all allegiance to it, walking in the Spirit with Christ as my soul's object, I am delivered from its control.

I reckon myself dead unto sin because in Christ I died to it; but it is only as I keep the distinction between the two phases of death clear in my mind that I am freed from confusion of thought.

Hoping I have been enabled of God to make this plain to any troubled one, I pass on to consider a question often asked at this point: "If what has been taught is the truth, how can I be perfect in love with sin still dwelling in me?" For an answer to this we must turn to 1 John 4:15-19. To avoid one-sidedness, we shall quote the entire passage; and may I ask the reader to weigh every word, observing too that I am using a literal translation in closer accord with the original Greek text than our much-prized Authorized Version gives in this particular instance.

"Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and have believed the love which God has to us. God is love; and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Herein has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as He is, we also are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: for fear has torment; and he that fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him, because He has first loved us."

Now, with the passage before us, allow me to ask the reader four questions:

1st. Whose love is it which we have believed? See the answer in the first part of verse 16.

2d. Whose love is it in which we are called to abide? Read the latter part of the same verse.

3d. Where do we find perfect love manifested—in me, or in the cross of Christ? Note carefully verses 17 and 18.

4th. What is the result in me of coming into the knowledge of love like this? The 19th verse supplies the answer.

Now let me attempt a paraphrase of the passage, in place of an exposition, which for so simple a scripture seems needless.

"Every one confessing the truth as to Jesus is at one mind with God, having received a new divine life, and thus is enabled to enjoy fellowship with God, whose mighty love we know and believe, having, indeed, rested our souls upon the greatness of that love toward us. God Himself has been revealed as love; and in that love we dwell. Knowing its perfection as manifested in the cross of Christ, we do not dread the day of judgment, because we know that love has already given Jesus to bear our sins. His death was ours; and now God sees us in Him, and we are, in God's sight, as free from all charge of guilt as His Son.

Therefore we have no fear, for it is impossible that there should be fear in love: yea, this perfect love of God has banished every fear which could only torment us if this love had not been apprehended. If any still are in fear, as they think of meeting God, it is because they have not fully seen what His love has done. Their apprehension of His love is still very imperfect. But where His love is known and rested in, we love in return, for perfect love like His cannot but induce love in its object, when truly enjoyed."

Need words be multiplied? Is it not plain that there is no hint of that perfect love being developed in me, and thus my reaching a state of perfection in the flesh? On the contrary, perfect love is seen objectively in the cross of Christ, and enjoyed subjectively in the soul of the believer.

Relative Sanctification

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

NOTHING more clearly establishes the proposition we have been insisting on throughout—that sanctification is not the eradication of our sinful nature—than the way the word is used relatively, where it is positively certain there is no work of any sort contemplated as having taken place in the soul of the sanctified. Having carefully considered the absolute and practical aspects of sanctification, without which all profession is unreal, it may now be profitable to weigh what God has to say of this merely outward, or relative, holiness.

Already, in the chapter on sanctification by blood, we have seen that a person may in a certain sense be sanctified by association and yet all the time be unreal, only to become an apostate at last.

It is also true that in another sense people are said to be sanctified by association who are the subjects of earnest, prayerful yearning, and may yet—and in all probability will—be truly saved. But they are sanctified before this, and in view of it.

The seventh chapter of 1 Corinthians is the passage which must now occupy us. It contains the fullest instruction as to the marriage relation that we have in the Bible. Beginning with 1 Cor 7:10 , we read, "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife." As to this, the Lord had already given explicit instruction, as recorded in Matt. 19:1-12.

But owing to the spread of the gospel among the heathen of the Gentiles a condition had arisen in many places which the words of the Lord did not seem fully to meet, having been spoken, as they were, to the people of the Jews, separated as a whole to Jehovah. The question that soon began to agitate the Church was this: Suppose a case (and there were many such) where a heathen wife is converted to God but her husband remains an unclean idolater, or vice versa; can the Christian partner remain in the marriage relationship with the unconverted spouse and not be defiled? To a Jew the very thought of such a condition was an offense. In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah certain of the returned remnant had taken wives of the surrounding mixed nations, and the result was confusion. "Their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people" (Neh. 13:24). This state of things was abhorrent to the godly leaders, who did not rest until all the strange wives had been put away, and with them the children, who were considered likewise unclean, and a menace to the purity of Israel.

With only the Old Testament in their hands, who could have wondered at it if some zealous, well-meaning legalists from Jerusalem had gone like firebrands through the Gentile assemblies preaching a crusade against all contamination of this kind, and breaking up households on every hand, counseling converted husbands to cast out their heathen wives and disown their children as the product of an unclean relationship, and urging Christian wives to flee from the embraces of idolatrous husbands, and, at whatever cost to the affections, to forsake their offspring, as a supreme sacrifice to the God of holiness?

It was to prevent just such a state of affairs that the verses that follow those we have already considered were penned by inspiration of the God of all grace. Concerning this anomalous state the Lord had not spoken, as the time had not come to do so. Therefore Paul writes: "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath a husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy [or, sanctified]. But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" (1Cor 7:12-16).

What an example have we here of the transcendent power of grace!

Under law the unclean partner defiled the sanctified one. Under grace the one whom God has saved sanctifies the unclean.

The family is a divine institution, older than the nations, older than Israel, older than the Church. What is here, and elsewhere in Scripture, clearly indicates that it is the will of God to save His people as households. He would not do violence to the ties of nature which He Himself has created. If he saves a man who is head of a household, He thereby indicates that for the entire family He has blessing in store.

This does not touch individual responsibility. Salvation, it is ever true, is "not of blood"; but it is, generally speaking, God's thought to deliver His people's households with themselves. So he declares that the salvation of one parent sanctifies the other, and the children too are sanctified.

Is it that any change has taken place within these persons? Not at all.

They may still be utterly unregenerate, loving only their evil ways, despising the grace and fearing not the judgment of God. But they are nevertheless sanctified!

How does this agree with the perfectionists' view of sanctification? As it is evident the word here cannot mean an inward cleansing, his system falls to the ground. The fact is, he has attached an arbitrary meaning to it, which is etymologically incorrect, Scripturally untrue, and experimentally false.

In the case now occupying us the sanctification is clearly and wholly relative. The position of the rest of the family is changed by the conversion of one parent. That is no longer a heathen home in God's sight, but a Christian one. That household no longer dwells in the darkness, but in the light. Do not misunderstand me here. I am not speaking of light and darkness as implying spiritual capacity or incapacity. I am referring to outward responsibility.

In a heathen home all is darkness; there is no light shining whatever.

But let one parent of that family be converted to God; what then? At once a candlestick is set up in that house which, whether they will or no, enlightens every other member. They are put in a place of privilege and responsibility to which they have been strangers hitherto. And all this with no work of God, as yet, in their souls, but simply in view of such a work. For the conversion of that one parent was God's way of announcing His gracious desires for the whole family; even as in the jailers case He caused His servants to declare, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." The last few words do not guarantee salvation to the household, but they at once fix upon the jailer's heart the fact that the same way is open for the salvation of his house as for himself, and that God would have him count upon Him for this. They were sanctified the moment he believed, and soon rejoicing filled the whole house, when all responded to the grace proclaimed. (I desire heartily to commend here an excellent work on this subject by the late beloved C. H. M., "Thou and Thy House.")

This, then, is, in brief, the teaching of Holy Scripture as to relative sanctification—a theme often overlooked or ignored, but of deep solemnity and importance to Christian members of families of whom some are still unsaved. "What knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" Labor on; pray on; live Christ before the rest from day to day, knowing that through you God has sanctified them, and is waiting to save them when they see their need and trust His grace.

I cannot pursue this theme more at length here, as to do so would divert attention from the main theme that is before us; but I trust that the most simple and uninstructed of my readers can now perceive that sanctification and sinlessness must in the very nature of the case be opposing terms.

And with this paper I bring to an end my examination of the use of the actual term sanctification in Scripture. But this by no means exhausts the subject. There are other terms still to be examined, the meaning of which the perfectionists consider to be synonymous with it, and to teach their favorite theory of the entire destruction of the carnal mind in the sanctified. These will be taken up, the Lord willing, in a few more papers in continuance.

Sanctification by the Blood of Christ

Holiness, the False and the True - by H. A. Ironside

Eternal THE great theme of the epistle to the Hebrews is that aspect of sanctification which has been designated positional, or absolute; not now a work wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit, but the glorious result of that wondrous work accomplished by the Son of God when He offered up Himself to put away sin upon the cross of Calvary. By virtue of that sacrifice the believer is forever set apart to God, his conscience purged, and he himself transformed from an unclean sinner into a holy worshiper, linked up in an abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ; for "both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren" (Heb. 2:11). According to 1 Cor. 1:30, they are "in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us ... sanctification." They are "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). God sees them in Him, and looks at them as He looks at His Son. "As He is, so are we in this world" (1John 4:17). This is not our state. No believer has ever been wholly like the Lord Jesus in a practical way. The highest and best experience would not reach up to this. But as to our standing (our new position), we are reckoned by God to be "as He is."

The basis of all this is the blood-shedding and blood-sprinkling of our Saviour. "Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:12). By no other means could we be purged from our sins and set apart to God.

The main argument of the epistle is very fully developed in chapters 8 to 10, inclusive. There the two covenants are contrasted. The old covenant asked of man what it never got—that is perfect obedience; because it was not in man to give it. The new covenant guarantees all blessing through the work of Another; and from the knowledge of this springs the desire to obey on the part of the object of such grace.

In the old dispensation there was a sanctuary of an earthly order; and connected with it were ordinances of a carnal character, which nevertheless foreshadowed good things to come—the very blessings we are now privileged to enter into the enjoyment of.

But in the tabernacle God had shut Himself away from sinful man, and He dwelt in the holiest of all. Man was shut out. Once only every year a representative man, the high priest, went in to God, "but not without blood." Every great day of atonement the same ritual service was performed; but all the sacrifices offered under the law could not put away one sin, or "make him that did the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience."

The perfection of Hebrews, let it be noted, is not perfection of character or of experience, but perfection as to the conscience. That is, the great question taken up is, How can a polluted sinner, with a defiled conscience, procure a conscience that no longer accuses him, but now permits him unhinderedly to approach God? The blood of bulls and of goats cannot effect this. Legal works cannot procure so precious a boon. The proof of it is manifest in Israel's history, for the continual sacrifices proved that no sacrifice sufficient to purge the conscience had yet been offered. "For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins" (chap. 10:2).

How little do holiness professors enter into words like these! "Once purged!" "No more conscience of sins!" What do such expressions mean? Something, dear reader, which, if but grasped by Christians generally, would free them from all their questionings, doubts, and fears.

The legal sacrifices were not great enough in value to atone for sin.

This having been fully attested, Christ Himself came to do the will of God, as it was written in the volume of the book. Doing that will meant for Him going down into death and pouring out His blood for our salvation: "By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (10:10). Observe, then, that our sanctification and His one offering stand or fall together.

We believe the record, and God declares "we are sanctified." There is no growth, no progress, and certainly no second work, in this. It is a great fact, true of all Christians. And this sanctification is eternal in character, because our great Priests work is done perfectly, and is never to be repeated, as the following verses insist: "For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (ver. 14).

Could words be plainer or language more expressive? He who doubts shows himself either unwilling or afraid to rest on so startling a truth!

That one true sacrifice effectually purges the conscience once for all, so that the intelligent believer can now rejoice in the assurance that he is forever cleansed from his guilt and defilement by the blood-sprinkling of Jesus Christ. Thus, and thus only, the sanctified are perfected forever, as regards the conscience.

A simple illustration may help any who still have difficulty as to this expression, peculiar to Hebrews, "a purged conscience." A man is in debt to another who has again and again demanded payment. Being unable to pay, and that because he has unwisely wasted his substance, and this known to his creditor, he becomes unhappy when in the latter's presence. A desire to avoid him springs up and takes control of him. His conscience is uneasy and defiled. He knows well he is blameworthy, yet he is incapable of righting matters. But another appears, who, on the debtors behalf, settles the claim in the fullest manner, and hands to the troubled one a receipt for all. Is he now afraid to meet the other? Does he shrink from facing him? Not at all; and why? Because he has now a perfect, or a purged, conscience in regard to the matter that once exercised him.

It is thus that the work of the Lord Jesus has met all God's righteous claims against the sinner; and the believer, resting upon the divine testimony as to the value of that work, is purged by the blood of Christ and "perfected forever" in the sight of the Holy One. He is sanctified by that blood, and that for eternity.

Having been turned from the power of Satan unto God, he has the forgiveness of sins, and is assured of an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus (Acts 26:18).

But there is an expression used farther on in the chapter that may still perplex and bewilder those who have not apprehended that profession is one thing, and possession another. In order to be clear as to this, it will be necessary to examine the whole passage, which I therefore quote in full, bracketing the expression referred to. "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and [hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified], an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" (Heb. 10:26-29).

In what we have already gone over we have seen that he who is sanctified by the one offering of Christ upon the cross, that is, by His precious blood, is perfected forever. But in this passage it is equally plain that one who counts the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, shall be forever lost. In order not to miss the true force of this for our souls, it is necessary that we give some attention to what we have already designated "positional sanctification." Of old all the people of Israel, and all who were associated with them, were set apart to God both on the night of the passover and afterwards in the wilderness. But this did not necessarily imply a work of the Spirit in their souls. Many were doubtless in the blood-sprinkled houses that solemn night, when the destroying angel passed through to smite the unsheltered first-born, who had no real faith in God. Yet they were by the blood of the Lamb put in a place of blessing, a position where they shared in many hallowed privileges. So afterward with those who were under the cloud and passed through the sea, being baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All were in the same position. All shared the same outward blessings. But the wilderness was the place of testing, and soon proved who were real and who were not.

At the present time God has no special nation, to be allied to which is to come into a position of outward nearness to Him. But He has a people who have been redeemed to Himself out of all kindreds and tongues and peoples and nations, by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. All who ally themselves by profession with that company are outwardly among the blood-sheltered: in this sense they are sanctified by the blood of the covenant. That blood stands for Christianity, which in its very essence is the proclamation of salvation through Christ's atoning death. To take the Christian place therefore is like entering the blood-sprinkled house. All who are real, who have judged themselves before God, and truly confided in His grace, will remain in that house.

If any go out, it proves their unreality, and such can find no other sacrifice for sins; for all the typical offerings are done away in Christ.

These are they of whom the apostle John speaks so solemnly: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us: but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us" (1 John 2:19). (In the KJV, the italicized addition "no doubt," is superfluous; the passage is complete without it, It is a positive statement, and admits of no exception.)

These unreal ones were positionally sanctified; but as they were ever bereft of faith in the soul, they "went out," and thus did despite to the Spirit of grace, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing. These sin wilfully, not in the sense of failing to walk uprightly merely, but as utterly abjuring, or apostatizing from Christianity, after having become conversant with the glorious message it brings to lost men.

But where it is otherwise, and the soul is really resting on Christ, positional sanctification becomes eternal: because the sanctified and the Sanctifier are, as we have seen, linked up together by an indissoluble bond. Christ Himself is made unto them wisdom, and this in a threefold way: He is their righteousness, their sanctification, and their redemption.

Here is holiness! Here is an unassailable righteousness! Here is acceptance with God. "Ye are complete in Him," though daily needing to humble oneself because of failure. It is not my practical sanctification that gives me title to a place among the saints in light, It is the glorious fact that Christ has died and redeemed me to God. His blood has cleansed me from all, or every, sin; and I now have life in Him, a new life, with which guilt can never be connected. I am in Him that is true. He is my sanctification, and represents me before God, even as of old the high priest bore upon his mitre the words "Holiness unto the Lord," and upon his shoulders and his heart the names of all the tribes of Israel. He represented them all in the holy place. He was typically their sanctification. If he was accepted of God, so were they.

The people were seen in the priest. And of our ever-living High Priest we may well sing:

"For us He wears the mitre

Where holiness shines bright;

For us His robes are whiter

Than heaven's unsullied light."

That there should be a life of corresponding devotedness and separation to God on our part no Spirit-taught believer will for a moment deny, as we will now consider.