Ye shall receive power, that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.—Acts
1: 8.
Sanctification is the crowning work in the plan and the
experience of salvation; it completes and perfects the graces begun in
justification, by the removal of native depravity and by the bestowment of
divine power
That man was originally pure we have before learned.
Redemption means to buy back; therefore redemption in its highest sense means
the restoration of moral purity. Thus, sanctification restores to us that
valuable treasure, moral perfection, lost through the sin of our foreparents.
Sanctification brings us back morally to Eden and makes us to partake of the
tree of eternal life, for Christ brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel (2 Tim. 1:10).
Sanctification not only frees us from the innate
depravity of the race, but also endowsus with divine power. Jesus said to his
disciples, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you." Who of us has not, while in the justified experience, felt the
need of this endowment with power? It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit
that we can truly succeed in our struggle against sin and in our service to God.
Loss of Eden and of the divine image robbed man of moral power and enslaved him
to sin. Salvation releases man from bondage, restores the divine image, and
endows him with power from on high. This power of the Holy Spirit not only
imparts the power to live holy, but inspires us in preaching the gospel of
deliverance to others. "Unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto
you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven " (1 Pet. 1: 12) .
In addition to purifying us from depravity and imparting
to us divine power, the experience of sanctification brings us into possession
of the Holy Spirit, who is our divine guide. "The Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you"
(John 14: 26). "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth is come, he will guide
you into all truth" (John 16: 13).
In neglecting the doctrine and experience of
sanctification, some pastors have failed to bring their members to an
established experience of purity, power, and divine guidance. The question has
been asked by the earnest inquirer and urged by the observant critic, Why do so
many persons make a failure of the Christian lifer! The answer to this question
is not far to seek. The justified believer is very often not led on to the state
of perfection in sanctification. After the first glow of conversion has been
dimmed by trials and temptations, very often the newly converted, tempted by
Satan as well as by the world, and impelled by his own depravity, falls back
into the sinful life. The deeper consecration in the sanctified life, the purity
of heart and the endowment with power belonging to that experience, are the seal
and preservation of a Christian experience, the crown and glory of redemption.
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