Entire Sanctification

 The Apostle Paul had already concluded that, if in the future he was not to serve sin, "the body of sin" must "be destroyed" (Rom. 6:6). And he was forced to confess that he did not know how to dispose of this troublemaker. "For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not" (7:18). Thus baffled and discouraged by the persistence of his unsubjected foe, he admitted his inability to free his spiritual life from the carnal inclinations of an unsanctified heart; and the contrast between his spiritual aspiration and his real condition wrung from his anguish-ridden soul his confession of a state of wretchedness."

Again, deliverance from the inbeing of sin is a divine work because He has been given thankful credit for its accomplishment. For when the unsuccessful struggle, described in the seventh chapter of Romans, brought the man (Paul) to the very brink of despair, he turned his eyes from the law as a source of help, and centered his attention on the Victim of the middle cross; and cried out, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" And immediately a stream of living light from the Divine Presence dispelled the darkness from his melancholy spirit; and he shouted back, "Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 7:25). "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Cor 4:6).

Then he explains that this deliverance was wrought by and through the operation of the Holy Spirit. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). And thus in the eighth chapter of Romans he shouts over the destruction of "the body of sin," which was the very thing he so much lamented the presence of in the seventh chapter.

Still the text of this discourse is the very best and most positive proof that entire sanctification is a divine work. "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly." Now in the foregoing discussion we have found these facts:

(1) Entire sanctification includes cleansing.
(2) Its cleansing aspect is a divine work.
(3) That the Thessalonians, the very people to whom the text refers, were the very best examples of "born-again Christians."
(4) Paul's effort to get them sanctified wholly is therefore positive proof that sanctification comes after regeneration, hence a second work of grace.
(5) Jude's letter to the sanctified, along with other proofs submitted, is incontestable proof that sanctification is obtainable in this life.
(6) And finally, the fact that Paul prayed victoriously for the Thessalonians to be preserved blameless soul, body, and spirit unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; and furthermore God declared on oath that provisions are made for a holy life here and now (Luke 1:73-75), all combine to furnish a foundation for a faith to secure a pure heart out of which will flow a holy life in the sight of God.

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