The Theology of Holiness Part 6

There are so many rich and blessed teachings in this epistle that we must needs make selection and leave many pa.s.sages to be carefully and prayerfully pondered by the reader, with the a.s.surance that there is very much gold to be found for the digging; but we would call attention in a special manner to John's description of perfect love. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

It is clearly to be inferred from these expressions that whilst all Christians do and must love G.o.d, yet there is a stage denominated perfect love, which many Christians have not yet reached. And this stage of religious experience is marked distinctly by the absence of fear. Most certainly our apostle does not mean for us to understand that we shall ever get beyond that reverential and filial fear, which is the right and proper accompaniment of our childlike relation to our Heavenly Father. But he specially describes the fear that will be gotten rid of as tormenting fear, and this fear he declares that "perfect love casteth out." Now we can readily see the reasonableness of this statement. Fear about the future, whether as to temporal or spiritual things, fear of evil tidings, fear of man, fear of death, in short, all tormenting fear is caused by the presence of inbred sin. As a matter of course, therefore, when sin is cast out, fear is cast out with it. Now perfect love is the positive side of entire sanctification; it implies the absence of inbred sin and the unmixed love of G.o.d occupying the soul. Such love, therefore, most truly must cast out fear.

The impenitent sinner neither fears nor loves G.o.d. The awakened sinner fears him, but does not love Him. The justified believer both fears and loves. Sometimes the fear is in the ascendant and sometimes the love.

The entirely sanctified believer loves with all his heart, and has no tormenting fear. Praise the Lord.

And the beloved apostle instructs us also as to the method of obtaining the blessing of perfect love. It is by the prayer of faith, and the prayer of faith involves the idea of a preceding entire consecration.

"For," says John, "if our heart condemn us, G.o.d is greater than our heart," which probably signifies that He also will condemn us, and, therefore, we cannot utter a believing prayer for such a blessing as entire sanctification while we are not wholly given up to the Lord, for while that is our case, our heart will continue to condemn us.

But he continues, "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards G.o.d." And again, "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the pet.i.tions that we desired of Him."

Nowhere is the philosophy of the plan of full salvation more beautifully portrayed than in these precious words. We are shown here that (1), the seeker of entire sanctification must be wholly consecrated to G.o.d. (2), That he must pray in faith. (3), That he must pray according to G.o.d's will. (4), That then he may know that he has the very thing he asks for. Here is wisdom. Let every seeker act upon it. Amen.

Nor does John leave us in doubt as to the witness of the Spirit to our conscious cleansing. "If we love one another" (i.e. with a true and pure and unselfish and self-sacrificing Christian love) "G.o.d dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us." "Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit." Now to have G.o.d's love perfected in us, and to have Him to dwell in us, can mean nothing less than entire sanctification, and we know this, as John tells us, by His Spirit. We have, therefore, the witness of the Spirit to perfect love as well as to adoption.

CHAPTER X.

ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AS TAUGHT BY JAMES AND JUDE.

James and Jude were brothers. They were also "brethren of the Lord."

Whether this expression means actual brothers, namely, children of Joseph and Mary, or whether it means only cousins, also whether these two men were apostles or not, are questions which I leave to the Biblical critics. Receiving without argument their respective epistles as belonging to the inspired canon, I am to inquire what their teaching is in reference to the one theme of this book, that is, entire sanctification.

James, as a writer, is intensely practical. As Bishop of Jerusalem he presided specially over the Jewish Christian Church, and his epistle is addressed "to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad," i.e., to the Jews of the Dispersion, primarily, no doubt, to the Christian Jews, but also secondarily and by way of warning to the unconverted Jews.

James was "zealous of the law." He fully agreed with Paul and with Peter that the yoke of circ.u.mcision and the Mosaic law was not to be imposed upon the Gentile Churches, but he, no doubt, strongly insisted that Jewish converts should be still very careful to observe the outward law. His epistle is like Matthew's gospel, and savors strongly of the Sermon on the Mount. As a bishop and overseer of a Jewish flock of Christians, while he fully a.s.sented to Paul's teaching on justification by faith, he, nevertheless, urged upon the people with vehemence that they should show their faith by their works and that they should be "doers of the word and not hearers only." As Paul completely demolishes the doctrine of salvation by the works of the law, so James in his epistle offers us an inspired and a vigorous protest against every form of Antinomianism. Thus the two writers, both moved by the Holy Ghost, present the two aspects of gospel truth so plainly that he may run that readeth. "We are saved by faith, not by works," says Paul. "Aye," says James, "but we are saved in good works, not out of them," and we must be careful to maintain good works, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Good works are necessary, not as the ground or the cause of salvation, but as the fruit and resultant and test of the salvation which we have received by faith.

James, therefore, is not antagonistic to, but only complementary of the great apostle of the Gentiles.

And mark how he strikes or aims right at the mark of Christian perfection in the very beginning of his epistle. He a.s.sures us that if we let patience have her perfect work, we shall be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Christian perfection, then, according to James. is perfect patience.

Christian perfection according to John, is perfect love. Christian perfection, according to Paul, is maturity or being "thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Christian perfection, according to Peter, is in being established, strengthened, settled. Surely none but a caviller will find any want of harmony between these different modes of expression. They all imply deliverance from sin, which is always instantaneous, and some of them imply a mature Christian character, which is always gradual.

James gives a vivid description of inbred sin under the name of l.u.s.t.

"Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own l.u.s.t and enticed. Then when l.u.s.t hath conceived it bringeth forth (actual) sin; and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death."

We cannot doubt that James, like the other writers of the Bible, believed in a personal devil, for he speaks of a wisdom which is "devilish" and if a man is enticed to sin by the natural depravity of his heart, we must not overlook the fact that the enticement implies an enticer, and that the wicked spiritual adversary of our race knows how to adapt his baits to the peculiar form in which inbred sin is strongest in each individual, and thus, if possible, to entrap and destroy him. Depravity exists by nature in all, but in one man it is particularly felt in the direction of covetousness, in another, of pride, in another, of ambition, in another, of sensuality. Satan's temptations in the first of these would most likely be something which holds out the prospect of getting gain by sinning; in the second, it would be something to feed his intense admiration of self, to cherish his pride; in the third, it would be the hope of political or some other kind of power on the condition of sacrificing principle; in the fourth, it would be the gratification of bodily appet.i.tes as in drunkenness, gluttony, or licentiousness. Thus the trap is set for every man, and the trapper is wary. G.o.d save us from his wiles.

And as Peter tells us to lay aside inbred sin, as it exists in the form of malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and shows itself in evil speakings, so James tells us to lay apart "all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness," or "overflowing of wickedness." Ah, beloved, most truly did Jesus say that the heart of man is a fountain of wickedness, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts and all actual sins; yes, there is by nature in each one of us a superfluity of naughtiness, an overflowing of wickedness, a natural depravity, an inbred sin, and this must be "laid apart," it must be gotten rid of by bringing and subjecting the heart where it dwells to the fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost, and then shall we be in a position to receive, with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save our souls.

St. James speaks of the "law of liberty," and of the "royal law," the latter being, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and both mean, I apprehend, just what we have already alluded to as the law of love.

"Love," says Paul, "is the fulfilling of the law," and this is liberty, and this is royalty, the freedom to do G.o.d's will because we love it, and to have all the antagonisms to that blessed will expelled from our hearts, and all lawful affections and pa.s.sions subdued and subjected to Him who is our King, and who reigns without a rival in our hearts.

"I worship Thee, sweet will of G.o.d, And all Thy ways adore; And every day I live, I seem To love Thee more and more."

If this is not the true liberty and the true royalty, where shall we find them? Not on earth, at least.

James does not spend words in exhorting us to seek more religion, but he tersely defines pure religion. And that is what we want. It does not depend upon age, nor size, nor growth. A stalk of corn may be pure as soon as it raises itself above the surface of the ground. Another stalk may be impure and diseased when it is many feet in height. A Christian may seek and find pure religion and undefiled, very soon after he is born again. Another Christian may spend years and years in seeking more religion, and yet not become the possessor of purity of heart.

This pure religion, according to our author, consists in works of beneficence and love as to its outward manifestations, but its true inward principle is in keeping one's self "unspotted from the world."

Oh, that all my readers with myself, may thus keep themselves unspotted from the world, which involves the idea of being sanctified wholly, and in the end "may be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless."

But an objector here interposes with a quotation from James which is supposed to preclude the possibility of living without sin. "In many things we offend all." But this expression is not to be thus interpreted. To make it mean that all Christians must continue in the commission of sin to the end of their lives, would not only be doing violence to that which is the very trend of our author's teaching, namely, a spotless morality and a pure and holy life, but it would also prove too much. For a little further on we read, in reference to that unruly evil, the tongue, "Therewith bless we G.o.d, even the Father; and therewith curse we men which are made after the similitude of G.o.d,"

and again, "Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body." Surely no expositor would maintain from such language that James was a tamer of horses and a profane swearer. The truth is, that James, out of kindness and courtesy, includes himself among his hearers or readers, and means to show us how liable we are to give offence through rash and ill-advised words, and then, on the other hand, he does not fail to mention the man who does not offend in word, and who is able, by the grace of G.o.d, to bridle the whole body, that is, to live without sin, and whom, again, he styles a "perfect man."

Our author further informs us that heavenly, divine wisdom is first pure, then peaceable. The carnal Christian, or babe in Christ, would often reverse this arrangement. He is clamorous for peace, often to the extent that he would have a wisdom that is first peaceable and then pure, but the Holy Ghost puts purity first, and He is always right. No compromise must be made with error in doctrine, or evil in practice, even for the sake of peace. But when we become possessors of a wisdom which is first pure, then, also, the other qualities follow in proper succession, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated and the rest.

Listen, again, to the stern moralist and preacher of holiness, "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded." Here, again, we can but thankfully admire the perfect accuracy of the Holy Ghost, as regards the method of full salvation. To cleanse the hands is to obtain pardon and absolution for what we have done, and it is always the first work of the unsaved man to repent and seek the forgiveness of his sins. When this forgiveness has been obtained, then his hands are cleansed, but he may still be double-minded. He may still be unstable in all his ways. His spiritual course may still be zig-zag. His life may still be a series of sinning and repenting, and sinning again and repenting again, till he cries out in his misery, "O wretched man that I am, who (not what) shall deliver me from this body of death?" And then James's prescription comes home to him, "Purify your hearts, ye double-minded." Seek and obtain the blessing of entire sanctification, and, henceforth, with one mind and one purpose, run joyfully in the way of Christ's commandments. Justification first and entire sanctification afterwards. First cleanse your hands, then purify your hearts. And with this agree the words of the Psalmist, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place?" "He that hath clean hands," that is, whose sins have been pardoned, "and a pure heart,"

that is, who has been sanctified wholly. The teachings of the Holy Ghost are marvelously harmonious in the Old Testament and the New.

Finally, James a.s.sures us that the "prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up." And not only physical but spiritual blessing may be received in the same way for "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." His conclusion is that "The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working,"

R.V., but I prefer to regard the Greek participle in the original as in the pa.s.sive voice, and then the meaning would be, as suggested by Dr.

S.A. Keen in his Faith papers, "The prayer of a righteous man being energized" (by the Holy Ghost) "availeth much."

I should understand the "prayer of faith," therefore, to be a prayer begotten in the heart of the believer by the Holy Ghost, and with the prayer is communicated also the corresponding faith, and when this is the case, the answer is sure. Faith, in this use of the word, is a special gift, and may be given to some and withheld from others, also given at one time and withheld at another, just as G.o.d in His infinite and unerring wisdom may decide. This kind of faith is one of the special gifts of which we have an account in the 12th of 1st Corinthians, and differs, therefore, from the grace of faith or the power of believing the gospel unto salvation when it is presented, which is given to all men, and for the exercise of which, by actually believing, all are held responsible. "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned."

And it is Jude, the brother of James, who exhorts his readers to pray in the Holy Ghost, the very same kind of praying which James calls the prayer of faith, and about which Paul also declares that "the Spirit Himself also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of G.o.d."

A Holy Ghost prayer, therefore, such as Jude alludes to, is a prayer that is energized by the Holy Ghost. It is not the Holy Ghost who does the groaning, but He causes the heart of the consecrated believer to groan, by kindling those intense desires after some specific blessing, which often are, indeed, too deep for clear expression by utterance, and with the groanings, also, the faith is given, which takes hold of G.o.d's Almightiness for the answer. Such prayers do, indeed, move the hand that moves the world, and whether it be for the healing of the sick, or the conversion of sinners, or the entire sanctification of believers, or the supply of temporal needs, or anything else which the Holy Spirit may suggest, the blessing is sure to come.

I am not forgetting that the a.s.sistance of the Holy Spirit is needed, and that it is obtainable in all true prayer, but ordinary prayer must be founded upon the promises of G.o.d and an exercise of will power to believe those promises, and therefore, it must be accompanied, in order to be effectual, by ordinary faith, the act of believing. Extraordinary prayer must be inspired directly by the Holy Spirit, and the gift of faith must come directly from Him. So that we have ordinary prayer, ordinary faith and ordinary results in the one case, while in the other, we have extraordinary prayer, extraordinary faith and extraordinary results. Praise the Lord.

Jude tells us that as Christian believers we are to "hate even the garment spotted by the flesh," that is, to keep entirely clear of all the pollutions of sin, symbolized by the garment of the leper which was regarded as unclean, and which pa.s.sage, when spiritually interpreted, must mean the unspotted holiness of the true Christian. And as to the question of one's ability to live without sin, he commits us to the care of Him who is "able to keep us from falling," the very thing we need and which we cannot do for ourselves, and "to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy." First, then, we are to be sanctified wholly, then kept from falling by the power of Christ through the indwelling Spirit. Finally, presented without spot, blameless and faultless in the presence of G.o.d's glory in heaven. And this is the gospel according to Jude.

CHAPTER XI.

SANCTIFIED BY G.o.d THE FATHER.

There is one expression in the epistle of Jude, which I purposely omitted in the preceding chapter, that it might have a more prominent place in the present one.

Nowhere else in the Bible are we expressly declared to be "sanctified by G.o.d the Father." It is cause of rejoicing, however, that every person of the G.o.dhead, every member of the adorable Trinity, is concerned in the sanctification of a human soul. And this fact, like many others, points to the extreme importance of the subject on which we are treating; for if the working of G.o.d the Father, G.o.d the Son and G.o.d the Holy Spirit is required, and is brought into active operation in order to cleanse our hearts from the pollution of sin, and fit us for heaven, then it must be in the estimation of the triune G.o.d, a matter of prime necessity that we should be thus cleansed. If G.o.d, therefore, regards it as an essential that we be sanctified wholly, let us beware of the thought that it is only optional, that it is possible, if possible at all, only for the few and not for the many, and that it can be done without, or what is practically too nearly the same thing, postponed until we see, or think we see, the near approach of death.

What every person of the G.o.dhead is urging upon our acceptance now, let us not dare either to reject or postpone. "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

Paul said to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, "And now, brethren, I commend you to G.o.d, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."

Ah, beloved reader, we can never estimate the debt we owe to the unbounded grace of G.o.d. Grace means unmerited favor. Grace is G.o.d's infinite love in active working for the salvation of man. And, the source of our sanctification, just as of our justification, and indeed of every gospel blessing provided for us, is the grace of G.o.d. And when our souls are stirred up to ecstatic grat.i.tude and love, by the thought of the "unspeakable gift" of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the unspeakable blessings derived from and through Him, let us not forget that behind it all and over it all, is the broad and incomprehensible declaration, "G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son."

Absolute sovereignty, authority, supremacy and paternity belong to G.o.d the Father. The Father sends the Son. The Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit. Neither the Son nor the Spirit, nor both together, ever send the Father. The Father "created all things by Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ cast out devils "by the Spirit of G.o.d." The Son reveals the Father, for "no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." And the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus, for "no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost." "He shall testify of Me." "He shall take of Mine and show it unto you." "He shall not speak of Himself; but what He shall hear" (from the Father and the Son) "that shall He speak."

Thus the greatest gift that G.o.d the Father has given or could give to His creature man is the gift of His Son. The greatest gift that G.o.d the Son has given to man after He gave Himself for us is the gift of the Holy Ghost, for it is not only said, "I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter," and "whom the Father will send in My name," but also, "If I depart I will send Him unto you," so we may say in general terms, that the Holy Ghost as a personal sanctifier, energizer and Comforter, is the promise of the Father and the gift of the Son. And it may be added that the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit to man is the gift of entire sanctification or perfect love. Glory be to G.o.d the Father, G.o.d the Son and G.o.d the Holy Ghost. Amen.