Summary of a Bible Reading at Oakland, Calif., Sept. 1921

Our subject to-day is not as simple as the one we were last considering (Justification). Its complexity lies in the fact that the terms " sanctification " and "to sanctify" have a primary and a secondary meaning. To "sanctify" primarily means to separate, or to set apart:and this in a double sense-to separate from and set apart to. What has been separated from its ordinary use, and used for God's service may be said to be sanctified. Scripture speaks of sanctification in different ways and connections. We have sanctification by faith, by blood, by the Word, by the Spirit, etc. There is also a positional sanctification, and a practical sanctification which implies growth, and which we call "progressive."

As illustrating the primary signification of the terms, we may take John 17:19. The Lord Jesus says, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself." He is not using the term " sanctify " in the sense of making holy. He speaks of separating Himself from His disciples and setting Himself apart in the glory with His Father, to be up there in heaven an absorbing object for the heart of His disciples on earth.

In John 17:17 and Jude i we have sanctification by God the Father. In i Pet. 1:2; Rom. 15:16 ; 2 Thess. 2:13 we have sanctification by the Spirit. In Heb. 2:11 we have sanctification by the Son. These passages all show that God is the source of sanctification, not man.

Heb. 10:10 shows us what we call "positional" sanctification. We are sanctified by the will of God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all-a permanent sanctification, an unchanging and abiding place of acceptance with God. This is an accomplished fact. Our realization of it is another matter. The fact is revealed to us, but we enjoy it in varying measures, according to the simplicity of faith and understanding of our place in Christ through grace. All true Christians are in this sanctified position; but if it is mere profession, not a genuine faith in the heart, it is only an external relationship with God, and such may turn away from what they have professed, as is shown in verse 29. In such a case it is merely an external sanctification, or outward separation. We may take, as a picture, the case of Rahab and the scarlet line. That scarlet line marked out, separated, her house from the rest. People could come there, but they must abide there to be safe. For any one to have gone out of her house would have been despising the scarlet line. So men, by the profession of faith, come into Christianity; and if only outwardly Christians, they give it up, they "draw back unto perdition." But speaking of those in whom Christianity is an inward reality, the apostle says, "We are not of them who draw back" (ver. 39).

We should understand then that there is a vital relationship with the truth, and one that is only external. 2 Thess. 2:13 speaks of the vital relationship. Their sanctification was that which is effected by the working of the Holy Spirit through belief of the truth; the truth received in the heart-not merely professed. I hope we are all clear as to these two aspects of sanctification-the vital and the external.

Let us turn to another scripture which speaks of vital sanctification, i Cor. 1:2; "To them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus." Mark, sanctified in Christ -not in the flesh, but in Christ. It is an abiding sanctification. It is as unchanging as is the righteousness "imputed " to us, of which we were speaking the other day. It is as in verse 30, "Of Him are ye in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." God, viewing us in Christ, contemplates us always as perfectly righteous, and as constantly sanctified.

A warning now is necessary. In speaking of sanctification, or of being sanctified, we should always make it clear that we speak of what we are in Christ. We never should claim to be sanctified in ourselves. And let none misuse the doctrine of sanctification in Christ to make it a cloak for not living in practical sanctification. This, alas, is a growing evil. It is the development of what we have in i Tim. i:19 as to Hymenaeus and Alexander and such like. The truth, applied by the Spirit to our heart and conscience, separates us more and more from the world, from all evil, and enables us to set ourselves more and more apart unto God.

We read in i Thess. 4:3, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication." I once thought that sanctification meant the rooting out of all inbred sin. It is not necessarily the rooting out of anything, but separation to God, and therefore from all evil.

In i Cor. 6:ii there is an important statement. In verses 9 and 10 mention is made of some of the characteristics of the natural man. They apostle there speaks of the unclean and their deeds:then he says, That is what some of you were once, but now you are a washed people. They had been cleansed by faith in the gospel of "Christ. Being thus cleansed they had become a justified and separated people. We may note this is said to be "in the name of the Lord Jesus (1:e., of what He is to the believer), and by the Spirit of our God" (1:e., in the power of the Holy Spirit).

Acts 26:18 shows how we come into this permanent sanctification. We receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among the sanctified ones by faith that is in Christ, 1:e., faith that lays hold on Him, or builds on Him. Those who have put their trust in Him have, first, forgiveness; then, an inheritance with the sanctified, or separated ones.

We have been speaking of sanctification as an established fact. Sometimes people take i Cor. i:30 as experience. Note it is not being made, but is made unto us. It is an abiding fact.

Gal. 5, 24 says:"They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." In chap. 2:20 it says, "I am crucified with Christ," that is God has done this, once for all, in the cross of Christ; but here, in 5:24, it is what we did when we submitted to, or accepted, what God has done. It may not have been very intelligently, but in trusting the Christ of the cross it implied the renunciation of the flesh. It was there we assumed the responsibility of "reckoning ourselves dead to sin," to the world, and so on.

In 2 Cor. 4:10, ii we have what we are to do day by day. Only so far as we "bear about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus " will the life of the Lord Jesus be manifested in us. That we have died, in Christ's death, is a fact true of all believers, as Col. 3:5 affirms:"Therefore mortify your members which are upon the earth:fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." It is bearing about in our bodies the dying, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our daily life. The "dying of the Lord Jesus" was His surrender to God. God puts us through circumstances to work that out in us. We have the same result in the end of the loth verse as in the nth. The dying of the Lord Jesus was His own act, not what others did to Him. It is what He submitted to, as God's faithful witness.

Heb. 13:12, "Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate." This sanctification by His blood shed for us is, of course, permanent and unchanging. In Eph. 5 :25, 26 we have a sanctification by water, 1:e., by the Word, by the truth applied to our ways here. A people sanctified once for all, yet need sanctification day by day. Sanctification by blood, we possess abidingly. Neither do we need the sanctification by water in the sense of being regenerated, but we do need to be continually sanctified by the truth-the day by day correction of our ways, which the word of God does if we submit to it. We should not say as Peter said to our Lord, coming to us with the cleansing water of the Word, " Thou shalt never wash my feet" (John 13:8), but let us own it is our need and His right to cleanse, to sanctify us; and submit to the Word, as our Lord by the Spirit applies it to us.

In 2 Cor. 7:i we read, " 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 cleansing of ourselves is putting our feet into His hands, and in direct connection with, "Come ye out from among them (the unsaved, the unclean), and be ye separate." In other words, Christ (not here personally, but by His Word) cleanses His people. It is for us to submit to it.

There is filthiness of the flesh and filthiness of the spirit, lusts of the mind, as well as lusts of the body. Suffer the exhortation:Do we earnestly desire this sanctification by the Word ? Do we not often fight against it ? that is, resist it, rather than submit to it ? There is need of emphasizing this aspect of sanctification. And another thing:let us not be too particular as to who comes to us with the Word. To refuse the washing because of the vessel in which it comes, because of some real or fancied unfitness in the one used, may be to resist the Lord, as well as rob myself of much needed blessing. A good word to keep in mind is, " Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it."

We might notice i Tim. 4:5:"It is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." God says in verse 4, " Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving." God thus sanctifies, or sets apart, even our food. By thanking God for what He has thus given for our use, we sanctify it to ourselves.

Lastly, in i Thess. 5:23 we have, "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is for the sanctification of the entire man that he prays. He desires the saints to be preserved in holiness, in spirit, and soul, and in body, so that when in the presence of the Lord they may look back over their pathway without regrets. You may say, His standard was very high. Could he have been content with less ? Is our standard short of that ?

Let us close with Jude 24, 25:"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." God is able to do it-will do it if we submit to Him.