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The Requirement of Entire Sanctification |
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By Pastor Nick Wilson First Church of God Kittanning, PA |
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Modern society is seemingly obsessed with the bottom line. Whether we are speaking of work, school or hobbies, we want to know what, specifically, is required of us. The busyness of our lives has driven us to a place where we work to meet the minimum requirement of our commitments, because there is always another commitment that needs our immediate attention. This reality is not limited to secular society. It has also become a part of our spiritual lives.
When it comes to Christian living we want to know what we have to do, what we have to believe, and how we need to act. This desire has pushed us away from doctrinal understanding of redemption and toward short statements of faith and lists of essential and non-essential doctrines. One of the doctrines that is absent from many of those lists is sanctification, or holiness. It has been relegated to secondary status by some and labeled irrelevant by others. In our current quest to “change the world,” we have placed the foremost need for the Holy Spirit to change hearts on the back burner in relation to Christian doctrine and thought.
In spite of our contemporary theological tendencies, a thorough study of Scripture presents us with an inescapable truth: sanctification is a requirement for the Christian. It is not an optional addition to the Christian life, but a necessity for those who are surrendered to God’s plan of redemption. From the first chapter of Genesis to the twenty-second chapter of Revelation, the Bible proclaims that, without exception, the Christian was created to live a sanctified life. Kevin DeYoung explains: “The fact of the matter is, if you read through the instructions to the New Testament churches you will find few ex-
plicit commands that tell us to take care of the needy in our communities and no explicit commands to do creation care, but there are dozens and dozens of verses that enjoin us, in one way or another, to be holy as God is holy” (DeYoung, 20).
Michael Lodahl sheds further light on the matter, “There is no mistaking it: throughout the Bible the expectation that God's people can and should be holy is an explicit theme. That divine call is rooted in the confession that God is holy and seeks a people who will represent the Holy One” (Lodahl, 191).
God’s desire to sanctify man, or to make man holy for God’s purposes, is not only a common theme in Scripture, it is the common theme of Scripture. Scripture clearly teaches us that the requirement of sanctification was established by God’s character, exhibited in God’s creation, corrupted by God’s creature, restored by God’s Son, and fulfilled by God’s Spirit in our hearts.
The Requirement of Sanctification in Creation Our understanding of the requirement of sanctification must begin in creation. The proclamation of Genesis 1:1 is, “In the beginning, God created . . .” (ESV). The account of the days of creation begins the revelation of the character and nature of God. However, this account conveys more than the nature of God’s creation; it shows us the purpose of all that He created.
The first verses of Genesis teach creation in its broadest sense: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). The ensuing passage shows us a narrowing focus as God works to create a place to be inhabited by those who would bear His image. Each step of creation becomes more specific as God prepares a place for His people. It should not be overlooked that God would spend five days creating the earth and everything on the earth, and the sixth day creating man. He spent five times as much time preparing for man as He spent creating man. The preparation that took place before man inhabited the earth is beyond our comprehension, as we read in Job, “He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds . . .He covers the face of the full moon . . . He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness . . . . Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him” (Job 26:7-10, 14).
This groundwork was laid through the unfathomable lengths to which God went when He created all that exists, so that the creation of God would bear the image of His holiness through those who would dwell within it. Creation itself was set apart for the purpose of God before it was ever inhabited by mankind—who were created to bear God’s image. Creation and sanctification are inextricably linked when we consider the initial purpose of God and His plan of redemption to that purpose. It is God’s created order to which the New Testament continually directs us in reference to human holiness.
The New Testament reminds us that all things were created through Christ, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). The Apostle Paul goes one step further by pointing out that God’s character and nature are still visible through His creation. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). We cannot consider sanctification from a New Testament perspective without using God’s created order—His sanctified creation—as His measuring rod. It is through that order that we begin to understand His character and attributes, so it is in creation that our understanding must begin.
As we have seen, creation had a purpose; it was the dwelling place of man. Adam was created and placed in creation. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15). This became the venue for man to live, work, and carry out life’s purpose, in the image of God in which he was created, and Adam did these things without the tyrannical reign of sin over his heart and soul. According to C.E. Brown, “Possessing the image of God, Adam had dominion over the animals, over nature, and over his own natural body so that his emotions, appetites, and instincts were all free from the disease of sin” (Brown, 75). So God’s purpose was not limited to the universe He created, it included His image-bearer, Adam. It is to man’s purpose in bearing God’s image that we now turn.
The Requirement of Sanctification and the Fall
God’s image in man is twofold. Man was created to bear the natural image of God, which speaks of intellectual knowledge. Man was created with the ability to know and understand. Paul wrote to the Colossian church about the restoration of God’s natural image when he said that we have put off the old self, “and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Col. 3:10). The image of God has an element of knowledge, but is not limited to knowledge alone. The other component of this twofold image is character. Man was created in the moral image of God. This is what we read in Ephesians when Paul wrote that through redemption we “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:24).
Bearing the image of God gave man a responsibility. According to William Greathouse, “The image refers, above all, to the God-given commission to ‘image’ God on earth, that is, to be the agents who represent and realize God's benevolent and peaceful sway on earth” (Greathouse, 41). Sanctification is a requirement because it is imperative if man is to realize the purpose for which he was created.
Man is not born with the capacity to fulfill his God-given purpose today. The image in which man was created was corrupted by sin through the fall. Genesis 5:3 tells us that Adam had a son who was born, not in the image of God, but in his own image. The sin committed by Adam and Eve had a profound effect on the plan and purpose of God. Sin, because of its nature, cannot coexist with the image of God. “To sin is to will to do wrong. Sin is a willful transgression of the law and will of God,” explains Kenneth Jones (Jones, 45). This willful element of sin makes it impossible to live in God’s image while simultaneously rebelling against His will. H. Ray Dunning describes sin this way, “Sin is to be defined in terms of the image of God in the sense that it is the missing of the mark of man's destiny, which is to stand in right relationship to God. This means that sin is a perversion of man's fully human existence, which in essence is the absence of holiness” (Dunning, 480).
Sanctification is required for the Christian because without it God’s purpose is an impossibility. Unless His holy image is restored in man, there is no way to fulfill the original purpose of creation. “Salvation history,” according to Ben Witherington, “could be described as the story of the attempt to restore human beings so that they once more properly reflect the image of God on earth, which they were always intended to do” (Witherington, 20). The corruption of His image in us is not a penalty for sin, but the consequence. God set out to overcome this consequence through the redemption of man.
The Requirement of Sanctification in the Old Testament
Sanctification began through a commitment to ritual purity in the Old Testament. God’s command to His people was, “Consecrate yourselves . . . and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44). This command is repeated throughout the Exodus as God revealed Himself to Israel. The fulfillment of that command came in the context of adherence to the laws that God had given through Moses on Mount Sinai. This law is what set the people apart from other nations. If the people were to be holy, as God is holy (Lev. 11:45) then they would need to know God. They would have to experience His character and see His nature as He revealed Himself to them. Through the law, God became a part of the lives of the people of Israel.
“God's disclosure of himself is not grasped speculatively, not expounded in the form of a lesson,” explains Walther Eichrodt, “it is as he breaks in on the life of his people in his dealings with them and molds them according to his will that he grants them knowledge of his being” (Eichrodt, 37). If the people would submit to the commands of God there would be no mistaking the difference between God’s people and the nations who surrounded them.
The task of surrender to a law proved to be too much for fallen man. Human ingenuity and commitment were not enough to overcome the sin that had taken hold of the heart of man. God tried to create distinction between the holy and profane, but even priests, such as Nadab and Abihu, refused to recognize such distinction (Lev. 10:1-2). Though God revealed Himself through the law and the worship it commanded, the people continually elevated the means of worship to the object. The law became an end in itself, and rather than providing a means to sanctified living it turned the hearts of the people to the world. Greathouse rightly assesses the situation, “When a person or place or thing (such as the ark of the covenant) is treated as if he, she, or it has inherent holiness, some aspect of the created world is being elevated to a status that can be attributed only to the Creator; this is idolatry” (Greathouse, 17). The people’s failure to recognize the distinction between those things which God proclaimed holy, and others which were profane, led them into almost every imaginable form of idolatry over the course of their history.
Sanctification was a requirement throughout the Old Testament, but it remained an impossibility. The need to be distinct and different from the world was becoming clear, but the plan to accomplish this by redeeming man was not yet complete. God is not content with reforming behavior, but wants to change the sinful heart of man.
The Requirement of Sanctification through Christ
It is in Jesus Christ that the possibility, and requirement, of sanctification is realized. John the Baptist proclaimed, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11). The language used by John expresses the work of Christ as a work that immerses us in work of the Holy Spirit. While the Old Testament Law directed us toward the character of God, Jesus came to immerse our lives in the very Spirit of God. His work was not to simply provide forgiveness of sin, but to transform our hearts and minds.
Jesus came as the fullness of the revelation of God’s character and nature. The very image which man was created to bear. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Heb. 1:3). The Muslim lives to imitate the life of Muhammed, but the sanctified Christian can do more than simply imitate. Jesus revealed God to us, and then made provision to conform us to that same moral image. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). This sanctifying work changes the way we act by first changing the way we think. “It has been said,” states Witherington, “that we become what we admire. In the New Testament we are urged to look on Christ, to adore him, to praise him, and then to be conformed to his image through the internal work of God and the imitating of Christ, thus becoming sons and daughters of God” (Witherington, 23). It is this internal work of God that provides all that is necessary for us to live within the image of God on earth and fulfill once again the purpose for which man was created. This is what we refer to as sanctification. Its requirement is met through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood” (Heb. 13:12).
Sanctification is a requirement for the Christian because it is for this purpose Jesus died. Our spiritual experience of God’s redemptive work does not stop at justification. It is absolutely essential that the entire plan of redemption be carried out in our lives because it is through this redemption that we are restored to the men and women God created us to be.
The Requirement of Sanctification in the New Testament
The New Testament is clear in its explanation of the need for sanctification. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica, “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3). He also desired that, “the God of peace himself sanctify you completely,” and that, “your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23).
In Christ we realize the need for sanctification because it is inseparable from His purpose and work. The New Testament defines the way that this experience takes place. According to Kenneth Jones, “Not a single text describes conversion and baptism of the Holy Spirit as occurring at the same time” (Jones, 123). A thorough examination of Scripture leads us to the conclusion that sanctification is a work of God’s grace that takes place after our conversion. This subsequent work is explained by J. Kenneth Grider: “When we are believers, Christians, already-forgiven persons, asking God for entire sanctification, our psychological frame of mind is quite different. We do not repent of our sins and turn from them, since that has already been done. We yield ourselves to God as His children, willing to be altogether donated to God's cause . . . Our frame of mind is vastly different from that of an unbeliever seeking forgiveness; and surely it would be at least next to impossible to have at the same time the two states of mind that are appropriate for receiving the two works of grace” (Grider, 379).
At our conversion, Jesus’ blood pays the price for the sins that we have committed over the course of our lives. At that time, the Holy Spirit begins preparing us to be sanctified as He reveals the nature and character of God to us. As our minds and hearts are purified we come to understand the words of Leonard Ravenhill, who said, “God does not want a partnership with us, He wants ownership of us” (Ravenhill, 42). It is when God is given this ownership of every aspect of our lives that we have been set apart for His work, and prepared to bear His image in this world.
The Requirement of Sanctification in Everyday Living
Sanctification is a requirement for the Christian because man was created to be holy. Kenneth Jones describes this holiness as it applies to our lives, “Holiness means living under God's direction, belonging only to God, being guided by the Holy Spirit, and learning from the God who made us” (Jones, 4). Until it affects our everyday lives, the requirement of sanctification is little more than theory. Without the experience of sanctification, we find ourselves no better able to fulfill God’s purpose for us than the ancient Jews who struggled to uphold the law. However, we were never intended to struggle to pursue a distant deity. We were created for the purpose of fellowship with a God who loves us and wants us to intimately know Him. He does not want access to our lives only when we are in dire need, but in our everyday living. God wants to be a part of all that we do and experience. Sanctification fulfills this desire of God for man.
Sanctification is a requirement in the Christian life because it is through sanctified Christians that a fallen world is brought face to face with the love of God. According to Diane LeClerc, “When the power of sin is cleansed by grace, we are filled with a new power through grace to be obedient to God's deepest desires for us. Our intentions are purified, and our capacity to love grows into a true ability to love” (LeClerc, 183). When our capacity to love is purified and fulfilled the world begins to see God at work. Without the experience of sanctification, we have little to offer those who are fallen and so desperately need God.
God created man for the express purpose of bearing His image in this world. After fallen man corrupted the image of God, God redeemed them to bear His image in a fallen world. There is a great deal of discussion about the mission of the church in Christian circles today. We place great emphasis on outreach and evangelism. We make it a point to continually lift up our God-given mission. However, this mission and purpose can never be fulfilled to the glory of God without the sanctification of God’s people. We may draw a crowd without holiness, but we will never truly show the world what it means to walk in the fulness of God’s love and to model and reflect His character.
Sanctification is a requirement for the Christian because it was established by God’s character, exhibited in God’s creation, corrupted by God’s creature, restored by God’s Son, and fulfilled by God’s Spirit in our hearts.
Bibliography Brown, Charles Ewing. The Meaning of Sanctification. Anderson: Warner Press. 1948 DeYoung, Kevin. The Hole in Our Holiness. Wheaton: Crossway Books. 2014 Dunning, H. Ray. Grace, Faith, and Holiness. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press. 1988 Eichrodt, Walther. Old Testament Theology, Vol. 1. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. 1961 Greathouse, William. Wholeness in Christ. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press. 1998 Grider, J. Kenneth. A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press. 1994 Jones, Kenneth. Commitment to Holiness. Anderson: Warner Press. 1985 LeClerc, Diane. Discovering Christian Holiness. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2010 Lodahl, Michael. The Story of God. Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press 2008 Ravenhill, Leonard. Why Revival Tarries. Minneapolis: Bethany House. 1987 Witherington, Ben. The Indelible Image, Vol. 1. Downers Grove: IVP Academic. 2009
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