1. Whatever inspired men have prayed that we might attain is
attainable. Jesus prayed for the sanctification of his disciples? and not
for them only, but for all those who should believe on him through the
words of his disciples (John 17: 17-20). Paul prayed that the Thessalonians
might be "wholly sanctified" (1 Thess. 5: 23). To confirm in their
minds the certainty of the answer to his prayer, he said, "Faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24). No reasonable
person would conclude that either Jesus or Paul was praying for an attainment to
be realized at death or in the future life. Moreover, the prayer of Jesus was
definitely and fully answered with respect to his immediate disciples by the
Pentecostal experience (compare Acts 2: 1-4 and Acts 15: 8, 9).
2. Whatever other men under like circumstances with us
have attained we may hope to attain, for God is no respecter of persons.
"Unto the church of God which is at Corinth to them that are
sanctified" (1 Cor. 1: 2). Jude, the brother of James, wrote to certain
persons who were at that time sanctified: "Jude, the servant of Jesus
Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and
preserved in Jesus Christ, and called" (Jude 1). "For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified " (Heb. 10:11). It can
not be denied that the Corinthians, the Hebrews, and those Christians to whom
Jude wrote, were living men. Those who believe that sanctification is not
attainable until after death are driven to the absurd position that Corinth was
not a city in Greece, but a place of departed spirits; that the Hebrews were not
living men; and that the letter of Jude was addressed to the dead.
It is a generally accepted truth that all for whom Jesus
died may have all for which he died. Jesus tasted death for every man (Heb. 2:
9). Jesus died to sanctify the people with his own blood (Heb. 13:12). Therefore
the people, every man, may be sanctified. And all that comes to us through the
blood must come in this life, for "there are three that bear witness in
earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood" (1 John 5: 8). We
conclude, therefore, that all men may be sanctified in this life.
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