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The Cleansing of Entire Sanctification |
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By Pastor Bobby Morrison Horse Creek Church of God Chuckey, TN |
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When I was a boy growing up on a small farm in East Tennessee, my dad raised two or three pigs each year that we would eventually slaughter for meat. My job was to make sure there was water in what we called “the mud hole.” Pigs have a natural desire to roll around in the mud until they are as filthy as can be. Once a year when the Greene County Fair would come to town, we would go and see all the various exhibits which always included a walk through the livestock barns. There we would find all kinds of farm animals including cows, sheep, chickens, and pigs. These pigs however were not like those we had on our farm which were covered with mud. These pigs had been washed by their masters, and now they were ready to present to the public. As the public took notice of these beautifully washed and refined creatures, their owners received recognition and praises for having such nice animals. When the fair was over, and the owners took their pigs back to their respective farms, the natural tendency of those pigs was to return to their mud holes where they would once again wallow in the mire until they were muddy just like all the other pigs that had not been taken to the fair.
This is analogous to a sinner who at the time of regeneration is washed in the blood of the Lamb. He has been made clean spiritually. He has become a new creature in Jesus Christ. He will most likely appear as being different to those who knew him before he was saved.
Even though this sinner has been washed, cleaned up, and ready to be presented to the public, he may still have a tendency to return to the mud hole of sin and wallow in it until he is no longer recognizable as a Christian. But why would a Christian who has been saved from sin and set free from its bondage ever want to go back to the quagmire of sin? We might ask, Why did the Children of Israel repeatedly want to return to Egypt after being set free from the bondage of slavery? The answer is they were taken out of Egypt, but Egypt with its good food, fresh water, and decent homes was not yet taken out of them.
The new-born Christian has the same issue, but in a spiritual sense. He has been taken out of the bondage of sin, but the sinful nature has not yet been taken out of him. Many authors have written about the sinful nature of man. D.O. Teasley calls it “native depravity,” and defines it as the moral nature in the human heart which manifests itself in a bent or tendency to sin. F.G. Smith refers to the sinful nature of man as “inherited sin,” or a disposition to do wrong received through natural generation. And Charles Ewing Brown calls this sinful nature “indwelling sin,” which is an active tendency to sin even after salvation. Biblical names for this sinful nature include: “the old man” (Rom. 6:6), “the body of sin” (Rom. 6:6), “the root of bitterness” (Heb. 12:14-15), “the carnal mind” (Rom 8:7), and “the flesh” (Gal. 5:16-21).
In reference to the need for the cleansing, or the removal, of the inherited sinful nature of man, most authors refer to 1 Thess. 5:23-24, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." They say that to be “wholly” or “completely” sanctified by God means that the heart of the Christian, which is sinful by nature, is cleansed. The cleansing of the inherited sinful nature empowers the Christian to say no to all temptations to sin and to take the path of escape that God makes available when temptations arise (1 Cor. 10:13); thus the spirit, soul, and body of man are kept blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What must happen to change or cleanse this “inherited sinful nature” of man? The most common response is that a second work of divine grace is needed to cleanse the believer's heart of this sinful nature. Several different terms are used to define this second work of grace. C.E. Brown terms it “the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of power, which fully purifies the heart from the last remains of the inherited, sinful nature” (65). F.G. Smith terms it “a second work of divine grace wrought in the heart of the Christian believer, a work known as holiness perfected or entire sanctification.” And D.O. Teasley wrote that “sanctification is a purification of the moral nature and an infilling of the Holy Spirit” (105).
When does this second work of grace take place in the heart of the believer? The timing of this second work of grace varies with every believer. Just as the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his need for salvation, the Holy Spirit will convict the saint of carnality in the heart that needs to be cleansed. Just as the sinner came to Jesus to be saved, the saint, when convicted of a carnal heart, needs to come to Jesus asking for a cleansing of his heart to remove the carnality therein due to his inherited nature of sin. The timing of this Holy Spirit conviction will be different for each believer. Some who are saved may be aware of the sinful nature of man at the time of their salvation experience, and they may experience the second work of grace immediately after the act of salvation. Others may be like me: I was unaware of my inherited sinful nature at the time I was saved. I became aware of the need for a cleansing of my heart after I had heard several messages on the topic of “entire sanctification.” The Holy Spirit spoke to me through scriptures like 2 Cor. 7:1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." The Holy Spirit spoke to me through certain hymns like “Consecration” and “With Thy Spirit Fill Me.” After having heard about “entire sanctification” and being convicted of the need of it by the Holy Spirit, I had a choice to make; Do I surrender my talents, my time, and my all to God, or do I continue to harbor carnality in my heart which makes me more prone to committing sin when temptation comes?
This leads us to the question of how does one become wholly sanctified and experience the second work of grace when the spiritual heart is cleansed of its sinful nature. For entire sanctification to take place in the heart of the believer, he must come to the point of full surrender. This condition of full surrender is known as consecration. Arlo Newell wrote:
"Consecration is more than an emotional response to religious ecstasy. It is the instantaneous, willful, decisive act of surrender on the part of God's child –forevermore yielding every avenue of one's being to the control of the Holy Spirit. Such a commitment does not end with one glorious moment, but is a continuing, growing experience of obedience to God's will. While claimed instantaneously by faith, it is to be lived out progressively. While beginning with a crisis, it is also a process in spiritual development. In the act of sanctification nothing essentially human is removed. Rather, it is the cleansing of the inner self as we consecrate all to God."
Once the believer has come to the point of consecration, it is God who then does the cleansing as stated earlier in 1 Thess. 5:23-24 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly . . . . Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." It is God who by grace saves sinners through their faith in Jesus Christ, and it is God who will wholly sanctify the saints when they consecrate themselves to God. Once we have experienced this cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, we must not think that we have reached “spiritual perfection.” We are told in 2 Pet. 3:18 "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen." As we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, it is very likely the Holy Spirit will continue to convict us of where we don't measure up to the holiness of Christ, and it will be necessary for us to perhaps repent of what the Holy Spirit has revealed to us and to ask anew for a third, fourth or even more cleansings of our heart as our shortcomings are revealed to us.
Growing in grace and becoming spiritually mature is an ongoing process. We should be careful not to place limits on God's works of grace and His ways of refining every blood washed one. He will work as He pleases in every one who answers the call to salvation, the call to entire sanctification, and the call to be holy as He is holy.
We are blessed to have the opportunity to be saved and to have our sins washed away by the blood of the Lamb. We are even more blessed to have the opportunity of our inherited nature of sin to be cleansed and continually refined by the Holy Spirit. The nature of those pigs I raised as a boy could never be changed. No matter how many times they might be washed, they would always return to the mire of the mud-hole. Praise be to God that our “inherited sinful nature” can be cleansed through His sanctifying power, and we are thus no longer prone to return to the mud-hole of sin and to wallow in its mire until we are no longer recognizable as Christians. Teasley, D.O. The Double Cure or Redemption Two-fold (Guthrie, OK: Faith Publishing House, nd) 18 Smith, F.G. Sanctification and the Baptism of The Holy Spiri; (Prestonsburg, KY: Reformation Pub., 1992) 5 Brown, C.E. The Meaning of Sanctification (Salem, OH: Schmul Pub., 1982) 71 F.G. Smith. Sanctification and the Baptism of The Holy Spirit (Prestonsburg, KY: Reformation Pub., 1992) 1 Arlo Newell. Receive The Holy Spirit (Anderson: Warner Press Inc., 1978) 33-34
Deeper Than the Stain Has Gone By Adger M. Pace
Dark the stain that soiled man's nature, Long the distance that he fell. And the blood of God's own Son, Deeper than the stain has gone!
Conscious of the deep pollution,
All unworthy, we who’ve wandered Yet we walk the holy highway, Walking by God’s grace alone Knowing Calv’ry’s fountain reaches Deeper than the stain has gone!
When with holy choirs we’re standing In the presence of the King, And our souls are lost in wonder While the white robed choirs sing; Then we’ll praise the name of Jesus, With the millions ‘round the throne; Praise Him for the pow’r that reaches Deeper than the stain has gone!
Praise the Lord for full salvation, God still reigns upon His throne. And I know the blood still reaches Deeper than the stain has gone.
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