SANCTIFIED BY GOD THE SON.
As the source of our entire sanctification is in the unmerited love and
grace of God the Father, so the ground of it is in the blood of Christ
the Son. Justification and Sanctification are by no means identical,
but as regards the origin, the ground, and the means, they are
precisely parallel. We are told that justification is by grace, and,
again, that it is by the blood of Jesus, and, still again, that it is
by faith. It is, therefore, God's grace, it is Christ's blood, it is
man's faith by which we are justified. The originating cause of our
justification is the grace of God. The procuring cause is the blood of
Jesus Christ. The instrumental cause is our own faith.
And all this is equally true of our entire sanctification. We are not
justified in one way and sanctified in another. We are sanctified as
well as justified by the grace of God. We are sanctified as well as
justified by the blood of Christ. We are sanctified as well as
justified by our own faith.
All gospel blessings are founded upon the vicarious sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He "of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
(justification) and sanctification and redemption."
And sanctification, no more than justification, releases us from our
dependence upon the atonement. If we are either justified or sanctified
today it is not because we deserve it, but because Christ died for us.
If we shall be either justified or sanctified at any future period of
our eternity, it will not be because we deserve it but because Christ
died for us. And so forever and forever we shall need the merit of His
death, and we shall rejoice to join in the song of redemption "unto Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen." We are everlastingly linked to the
atonement of Jesus Christ, and this both for the pardon of past sins,
and the entire cleansing of the heart.
"Thou shalt call His name Jesus because He shall save His people from
their sins," which signifies, I apprehend, both the forgiveness of
sins already committed and saving them from the commission of sins in
the future. Here, then, we have justification and regeneration. "Behold
the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world." This must mean
the sin of our nature, the sin that dwelleth in us, the sin that doth
so easily beset us, in a word, inbred sin. And to have the inbred sin
taken away means nothing more and nothing less and nothing else, than
entire sanctification. Yes, beloved, we are sanctified by God the Son.
"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." Here
we have a positive statement that upon certain conditions to be
fulfilled by us, we shall experience a cleansing from outward sin, and
inward sin, and sin of ignorance, and conscious sin, and open sin and
secret sin, and all sin. There is no mistaking the length and breadth
and all comprehensiveness of this glorious promise. Beloved, let us
walk in the light as He is in the light, and so know, for ourselves,
that this wondrous declaration is divinely true.
And this is a result of His atoning sacrifice, which result He had in
view, no less than the removal of our guilt when He laid down His life
for us. "Wherefore, Jesus, also, that He might sanctify the people with
His own blood, suffered without the gate." Glory to His Name.
He died, therefore, not alone that we might be saved from guilt and
condemnation and penalty, but that we might be saved from sin, or
sanctified wholly. And I would that every one of my Christian readers
might unite in the hymn.
"The cleansing stream I see, I see,
I plunge and oh, it cleanseth me.
It cleanseth me. Yes, cleanseth me."