SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
THE GOSPEL AND
ITS MINISTRY
Chapter Nine - SANCTIFICATION.
WE have thus seen how a sinner is once and for ever
justified, when he believes in Christ, and stands thenceforth righteous before
God, beyond every demand of law and every charge of sin. We have seen further
how.the personal moral quality which is akin to such a standing, pertains to
the new creation in which the believer has his place. And, in conclusion, we
have noticed how practical conformity to that standing, and cultivation of that
quality, are characteristic of true Christian life. All this, moreover, springs
from, and rests upon the truth that God is righteous.
But God is not
only righteous, He is also holy; and every requirement of righteousness has its
correlative claim in regard to holiness. Sin not only brings the sinner before
the judgment seat, it excludes him from the sanctuary. He is not only guilty,
but defiled. And though faith accepts the blessings that are ours in Christ,
and humbly takes the place they give, and the heart presses forward to the day
of full redemption, when the redeemed shall be presented faultless before God;
yet, sure and full though the blessing be, and bright and clear the hope, the
sad stern facts around us and within are no less real. Sinners in a world of
sin, though justified and born of God, and on our way to certain glory how can
we pray and serve and worship, here on earth, for God is holy? It is not a
question, now, of our place in Christ at God's right hand, nor yet of a new
nature by virtue of a new birth from heaven. It is what we know ourselves to be
as we walk the streets or fall upon our knees to pray ; ourselves, the
responsible living persons in whom this new nature dwells. How can we approach
a holy.. holy, holy God? In the Epistle to the Romans, the scene was laid in
the hall of judgment. The righteous God was on the throne. At the bar there
stood the sinner, guilty, condemned, and silent. The righteous sentence had
gone forth, and he had not a word to offer why it should not be fulfilled. And
we saw how, when all hope was dead, sovereign grace could justify the guilty
even as he stood, and call him from the very bar of judgment to fellowship with
Christ in glory.
But now we turn to the Epistle to the Hebrews, and
here a new scene presents itself. The centre object is a holy shrine, and not
the throne of righteousness. It is surrounded, not by lost and guilty outcasts,
but by a redeemed and happy people. They are in the wilderness, however, beset
by need and infirmity and sin. But they have a great leader to provide for need
on the journey to the rest before them, and a priest to help their infirmities
and to make atonement for their sin. The priest is theirs in virtue of a
covenant, and the covenant has also a sanctuary, an altar, and a sacrifice.
Here then we have a people exactly like ourselves, in circumstances like our
own. For our present difficulty is not at all how redemption can be obtained,
or a home in heaven made sure; that question has been set at rest. But it is as
to the place redemption gives us during our sojourn here on earth, and the
provision made to maintain us in this place, seeing we are weak, and wayward,
and sinful, and in circumstances of difficulty and trial. Let us seek then, by
the help of the typical history of Israel, to trace out the truth we are in
search of for ourselves.
But, first of all, let this be clearly
settled, that Israel's redemption was accomplished ere ever they sang their
hymn of triumph upon the wilderness shore of the sea. Their redemption depended
solely on the passover in Egypt, and the waves that rolled between them and the
House of Bondage - death in its spiritual significance, and death in its
separating power. It was in no respect, therefore, the work of priesthood, or
the result of priestly sacrifice. The sacrifice of the passover was not a
priestly act. Priesthood pertained to the covenant, and this was not an
ordinance of the covenant at all. The yearly festival which the covenant
enjoined was but a memorial celebration of the one great passover of their
redemption ; and it was as thus redeemed that Jehovah entered into covenant
with them. We must remember therefore, that in following Israel's story, the
moment we turn the page of the 12th chapter of the Book of Exodus, we are
dealing with a people whose pressing need was not redemption but
SANCTIFICATION.
Here, then, is precisely the point at which have
ourselves arrived in this inquiry. Let us pursue the matter further, and seek
to ascertain how Israel was sanctified, and thus to discern truth with
reference to ourselves. Israel was a redeemed people. But God had a purpose in
this redemption, and that purpose had yet to be fulfilled. He redeemed them
from Egypt and from the power of Pharaoh, that He might establish them as a
holy people in covenant with Himself. Covenant was based upon redemption, and
followed as an separable consequence.
But the covenant ~ inaugurated with
the blood of burnt-offerings an peace-offerings sacrificed to Jehovah, and it
was the blood of the covenant, sprinkled on the peop that their sanctification
was accomplished. ThU it was that they were introduced into the place c which
they were entitled by virtue of redemption, and became in fact what they were
already by the promise and purpose of their God.
Truth has many sides,
but here I am dealing with but one. In one sense redemption is a result of
covenant, and here sanctification precedes it; for the meaning of
sanctification b a setting apart for God. But In another sense, redemption is
the foundation of covenant, and sanctification follows as a consequence. Both
These seem to be Included in the opening words of t Pet. "Elect through
sanctification of the Spirit unto sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ."
Christ is the great Paschal Lamb of our redemption. He is also
the Burnt-offering of the covenant. We are "redeemed with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." "We are sanctified by
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." The covenant is
inseparable from redemption, and it is by the blood of the covenant that the
believer is sanctified. And this is no mere form of words, no piece of idle
rhetoric. Sanctification was a reality for Israel. Without it, there could have
been no covenant, no priest, no sanctuary. And it is likewise a reality with
us, and just as necessary. It is as much a fact as our justification, and as
absolute and complete. By nature not righteous but guilty, we have seen how the
sinner is justified. By nature not holy but defiled, he is likewise sanctified,
And both depend alike, and only, upon blood. He is righteous, moreover, because
God has declared him righteous; and it is by the call of God that he is holy.
"And such were some of you," the apostle reminds the Corinthian Christians,
after naming transgressors of the grossest kind, "but ye are washed, but ye are
sanctified, but ye are justified" "Sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints,"
as he had described them in the salutation of the epistle.
Sanctification in this sense, therefore, is not a gradual change or a
progressive work, nor yet a moral attribute ; it is an act, like justification,
accomplished once for all. Just as the guilty sinner passes, immediately when
he believes, into a new condition relatively to sin and a righteous God, and
becomes thereby and thenceforth righteous; so the defiled sinner gains, as
immediately and in the same way, a new standing relatively to sin and a holy
God, and becomes thereby and thenceforth holy. "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall
be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it."
But
it will doubtless be argued, However true and blessed this may be, it fails to
satisfy our need, for this is only the setting out upon our pilgrimage; and
though perfectly sanctified when we believe, we may soon become defiled again.
What provision then has been made to keep us holy on the way? This is precisely
what we learn, in part by comparison and in part by contrast, from the Epistle
to the Hebrews. And here let me give the reader a threefold clew to the seeming
difficulties which make that wonderful and blessed book so profitless to many.
Judaism, first of all, is here regarded not as the apostate faith which
crucified Messiah, but as that holy religion whose aim and work it was to lead
to Him. The true Israelite had no need to be converted to Christianity. He had
already, as a Jew, experienced the new birth of water and the Spirit, without
which no one can see the kingdom; and he accepted Christ, not as the founder of
a new religion, but as the author and fulfiller of the true and holy faith
which had already knit his soul to God. It is to such that the book is
especially addressed. Secondly, the believer is looked at, not as seated in the
heavens in Christ, but as here on earth ; nor yet as a member of His Body, but
as one of a company of "holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling,"
setting out on their wilderness journey home. And thirdly, the book takes up
our spiritual history at the point which Israel had reached in the 24th chapter
of Exodus. Redemption is complete. The covenant has been established. The
people have been sanctified. And having thus made purification for sins, the
Mediator of the covenant is gone up to God.
And here it is that
priesthood meets us. As yet we have known no priestly functions. It was not a
priestly hand that killed the passover, or sprinkled the door of the dwelling
with its blood. It was not a priestly hand that sacrificed the dedication
offering of the covenant; and the sanctification of the people was the work of
the mediator, not of the priest. It is as "brought again from the dead, in
virtue of the blood of the everlasting covenant," and now passed into the
heavens, purification for sin being made, that the Son of God has been
proclaimed a Priest.
Here the type fails us. Moses went up to the Mount
as mediator of the covenant, and would then have been called to the priesthood,
had not the offices become separated, owing to his want of faith (Ex. iv. ia).
Aaron, therefore, was made priest; but it was then, and not before, that he
received the call. His formal consecration was still later. See Lev. viii. ix.,
which is connected with Ex. xxiv., and gives us the fulfilment of that which
took place on the Mount. And mark that it was Moses who ofliciated in regard of
these offerings (comp. Ex. xxix.); and further, that he was associated with
Aaron in the act which typified Christ's coming forth hereafter as Royal Priest
to bless His people (Lev. ix. 23). It is most important to see that the Lord's
priesthood dates from His enthronement in heaven. See Heb. ii. i. (where the
word is "that He might become"); v. 5-10, VI. 20, vii. 23, 24, viii. 1-4. He
could not be a priest while on earth (Heb. viii. 4). See chap. xvi. Heb. iv.
15. Our English Version is ambiguous here, arid the words have been very
generally perverted to mean that the Lord's temptations were exactly similar to
ours, the result alone being different. Were this so, He must have known the
powerof Sin within - the source of so many of our trials. But the words are
"apart from sin". So that throughout these temptations, in their origin, in
their process, in their result, sin had nothing in Him: He was free and
separate from it" (Alford).
We have thus not only a great leader,- the
Captain of our salvation, and a home to which He guides; but if through sin or
frailty we fail to follow Him aright, and turn aside or stumble by the way, we
know Him also as a great High Priest, who can sympathise and help. He can
sympathise, for He was in all points tried as we are; He can help, for the
trial found no sin.
But to offer sacrifices for sins was Aaron's peculiar
vocation. There are other priestly functions different from this, and higher;
but this was the characteristic of the Aaronic order. It was founded on the
necessity for, expiation. If then the sacrifice had in fact accomplished the
work it typified, and sin had been put away, there would have been no need for
the priesthood of the law. A priest there must have been truly, for there can
be no worship without a priest and a sanctuary; but not a priest of the Aaronic
type. Faith grasped the truth which the sacrifice prefigured; but sin was not,
in fact, put away, and therefore, on account of the inefficacy of the blood
with which they had to do, there was a remembrance again of sins continually,
and every transgression demanded a new Sacrifice to maintain them in holiness
befitting the covenant. But now, by the death of Christ, expiation has been
accomplished, sin has been purged, and not only is the worshipper sanctified,
but the sanctified ones are perfected for ever. There is therefore no longer
room for sacrifice, no need henceforth for blood.shedding. The Aaronic
priesthood is at an end; the priesthood of the Son of God is of a different
order altogether,- the order of Melchisedec. But the priesthood is connected
with the covenant; and if the one be changed, the other follows as of course.
And it is with the new covenant that the believer has to do, a covenant in
keeping with the priesthood of Meichisedec, a covenant based on the great fact
that sins and iniquities are for ever expiated, and on the promise that God
will remember them no more. To the covenant, again, there pertains a sanctuary.
The sanctuary of the old covenant bore witness by its very structure that there
was a place of access still closed against the worshipper, and "a greater and
more perfect tabernacle" yet to be revealed. The new covenant and the
priesthood of Christ have to do with this the true tabernacle in heaven
itself.
Ours, therefore, is an eternal redemption, and an everlasting
covenant; we have the Son of God Himself as the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, the Holiest in the heavens as our sanctuary, and the blood of
Christ to perfect us, and make us fit for such a shrine. If, then, the question
should still be pressed, What have we further that is akin to the great yearly
sin-offering of the law, and the offerings for trespasses and sins of
ignorance? I answer, the need of these repeated sacrifices arose entirely from
the inefficacy of the blood of the covenant to which they pertained; but the
blood of the new covenant has brought us remission fully and absolutely, and,
"where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." We have seen
how, when once justified by blood, we stand in perfect righteousness; so now we
see how, once sanctified by blood, we stand in holiness as absolute and
perfect.
But though sin can no longer master the sacrifice which purges
it, and is as powerless to exclude us from the sanctuary as to drag us into
judgment, still we are in daily contact with what defiles ; is there then no
need for cleansing? There is truly, and full provision for it, too, through the
same death which justifies. Every ordinance of the old covenant that was
required by reason of the "weakness and unprofitableness" of the sacrifices, we
are for ever done with; but there was a special rite to meet the need that was
inseparable from the circumstances of the people, and this has its abiding
antitype for us. A Jew of blameless life might possibly have had no cause to
resort to the offerings for sins and trespasses; yet he could not on that
ground absent himself upon the great day of atonement, for that depended on the
inherent inefficiency of the sacrifice. But even if sin had been fully purged,
and the worshipper absolutely sinless, he would have been none the less liable
at any moment to become defiled; for under the ceremonial law the Israelite
became unclean by contact with death in any form. And this defilement was met
by water, not by blood. But it was by water which owed its efficacy to a
sacrifice accomplished. I allude, of course, to the offering of the red heifer,
enjoined in the i9th chapter of Numbers. The victim was led forth without the
camp, where it was slain and burnt to ashes, part of the blood being first
brought in and sprinkled before the tabernacle of the congregation. The ashes
were then laid up outside the camp, and water that had touched those ashes
availed to purify. The Israelite who had become unclean was sprinkled with this
"water of separation," and then, having washed his clothes, and bathed his
person, he was cleansed from the defilement.
It is impossible that the
blood of Christ can do less than make perfect the sinner whom it sanctifies;
but, even in the case of those who are so richly blest, there can be no
fellowship with a holy God, no access to His presence, if that be allowed which
is opposed to Him. The touch of evil cannot but defile; and if we insist that
there is no need to come back again to blood, it is not that we make light of
sin, but that we pay due homage to the sacrifice that has once and for ever
purged it. The blood has achieved its work; our future cleansing results from
"the water of the Word," as applied by the Holy Ghost. The sprinkling of the
water which had flowed over the ashes of the sacrifice, typified our bringing
the Spirit's testimony about the death of Christ to bear upon ourselves in
regard to that which has defiled us. The washing which followed upon that
sprinkling is the clearing ourselves practically from the evil. It is not
enough to judge the evil while continuing in it; it is not enough to turn from
it, however zealously, without having to do with God respecting it. But to turn
from it, even as we judge it in the presence of the Cross by that Word which is
sharper than a two-edged sword, is to bring us face to face with a Priest whose
work secures to us divine compassion, and the grace our weakness needs.
And here it is, indeed, that true priestly work begins. I have already noticed
that Israel was not only redeemed, but brought into covenant with God, and
sanctified, apart from priesthood; and in the 19th chapter of Numbers, we have
again a sacrifice and a rite in which the high priest took no part. And this is
the more remarkable because these, the three great sacrifices that were not
sacerdotal, were precisely those which were offered once for all, and could
never be repeated.
The death of Christ was not a priestly sacrifice. It was
the foundation of the covenant, and, as I have already said, it is to the
covenant that priesthood pertains. It was "after He had made purification for
sins and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" that the Son of God
was proclaimed a Priest Purification by blood, as we have seen, was not
priestly work, but the prerogative of the Mediator of the covenant. The
purification by water was the work of neither priest nor mediator ; and in
keeping with the truth that any hand could sprinkle the water of separation,
there is the exhortation, "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit."'
I have said that Hebrews teaches us partly by
contrast and partly by comparison; and in exemplification of that remark I may
here give another key to that Epistle, and a clew by which to follow aright the
teaching of the types. Everything pertaining to the old covenant, which existed
in virtue of some unchanging principle, or of the condition and circumstances
of the people, finds Its exact correlative in the new covenant. But on the
other hand, with respect to all in the old covenant that depended on the
powerlessness of the ordinance, $be Inefficacy of the sacrifice, we learn from
the absence of any antitype the perfectness of the new. They had a sanctuary,
and so have we. But the veil that divided theirs is rent for us, and the
holiest is open. Christ Is the fulfilment of the great sacrifices I have
enumerated; but if we turn to seek the antitype of their continually repeated
sin-offerings, we are reminded by their absence of the virtue of the blood shed
on Calvary. They had a priest, as we have. But Aaron's special work arose from
the special need which now has been for ever satisfied. The priesthood of the
Son therefore is of another order.
To make intercession and
reconciliation for sins, and to offer gifts and sacrifices, here are the
functions which belong essentially to priesthood: it was the peculiarity of the
Aaronic priesthood that the sacrifices they offered were for sins. Our great
High Priest has no need to sacrifice for sins. He did this once for all ere
ever His priesthood was proclaimed. But, like Meichisedec of old, He receives
and offers up to God the gifts of the believer's service and the sacrifice of
his praise and worship, feeding him in return with the bread and wine of
heaven, and crowning all with the blessing Of His God. (Gen xiv.
11-2O).
But the words which follow those I have this moment cited
remind me that what I have said of righteousness is no less true of holiness:
the word has various meanings. When we predicate of someone that he is holy, we
may be giving expression, if we are speaking in scriptural language, to any one
of three ideas, which, though allied, are by no means inseparable. We may mean
that he is one of those who have been sanctified by the blood of Christ, or in
other words that he is a Christian. All such are holy in a sense both true and
deep, irrespective of their conduct.
But a holy person may become
defiled, even as were the Corinthian saints at the very time the apostle wrote
to them. They had been made holy in Christ Jesus, and were holy by their
calling, but yet they were unclean through dreadful sin unjudged among them. I
may speak of holiness therefore as describing a life, or practical condition,
in keeping with the Christian's calling. He is holy and separated to God by
virtue of his calling: his daily life ought to be in accordance therewith.
Christians are holy persons; they ought therefore to live "as becometh holy
persons" they ought to be holy in this practical and secondary
sense.
But it will be observed that in both these senses, holiness
describes a relation rather than a quality; it represents a condition, not an
attribute. And this brings us to a third meaning of the word, a meaning which
it bears in the verse already quoted" Let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the
Lord." "Perfecting holiness" observe; proving that the holiness he speaks of is
incomplete and capable of degrees. Therefore he is not speaking here of
attaining holiness by the blood, nor yet of maintaining ourselves in the
position into which it brings us, but of cultivating in a practical way the
character akin to such a state.
Now, in either of the senses in which
hitherto I have used the word, to speak of incomplete holiness or
sanctification, is a mere contradiction in terms. An unconverted person is
absolutely unholy, and a Christian is absolutely holy. That, in virtue of the
blood, the Christian is perfectly and for ever holy, is the most prominent
truth of the Epistle to the Hebrews. "Christ has perfected for ever them, that
are sanctified." And again, in its secondary sense, holiness admits of no
degrees. Here it is not advancing that we speak of, but continuing in holiness.
The Israelite who touched defilement became not less holy, but unholy; and,
until his purification was accomplished, he was absolutely unclean; but, when
the rite was fulfilled, he became immediately and absolutely clean.
If
we forget this, we shall be betrayed into light and sinful thoughts of God.
Lovingly to touch a dead wife's hand, excluded the Jew as absolutely from the
tabernacle, as would her blood if in guilty anger he had shed it." It was a
severe and stern enactment, and must seem, more than strange to those who fail
to see its spiritual significance. There is no question of degrees in the
holiness of a thrice holy God. It is not that great, sins shut the sinner out,
while allowance can be made for triffing faults. Perfection is the only
standard that can avail with Him; and full provision has been made, not only to
make us, but to keep us, perfect.
But yet, in saying this, we stand at
an immeasurable distance from all the low thoughts of God, and light views of
sin, that alone can lend an air of plausibility to such a delusion as that any
cultivation of piety, or attainment in sanctity, can ever give us right to seek
His presence, or fitness to be there. It is only and altogether in virtue of
the blood of Christ that the saintliest saint on earth can hold fellowship with
God. A higher title is impossible, and no lower will avail.
But this
holiness is merely the correlative of forensic righteousness. "Merely," I say,
not to make little of it, for the one is as real and as essential as the other,
but because something more is needed for the home of God. No one shall be there
who is not intrinsically holy. And here I would beg the reader to turn back to
the preceding chapter, and to read the latter part again, substituting holiness
for righteousness throughout. Our moral fitness for heaven, in this respect as
in the other, is independent of attainments achieved on earth. As regards
rewards for faithfulness and service upon earth, no two of the redeemed, it may
be, will stand upon a level; but the perfectness of the new creation will be
shared alike by all. The standard is not what the Christian becomes by the work
of the Spirit, here, but what Christ now is as seated at the right hand of God.
I cite the words again, The new man "is created in righteousness and holiness
of truth." No change of scene can add virtue to the blood of Christ, therefore
heaven itself can add nothing to the holiness in which we stand by reason of
that blood. No holy living upon earth can add to the intrinsic perfectness of
Christ Himself; therefore it can add nothing to the holiness which shall be
ours when made like unto Him who is the head of the new creation.
I
have thus endeavoured to unfold, and establish on the authority of Scripture,
the truth of the believer's absolute and perfect sanctification in Christ. I
have also spoken of what I may venture to term continuous sanctification, the
constant conformity to that standard in his life on earth. Thirdly, I have
alluded, though still more briefly. as being still further beyond the scope of
my subject, to progressive sanctification, the cultivation of holiness as a
moral quality. And lastly, I have shown that the sinner's meetness for heaven
in this respect, as in regard of righteousness, depends not on attainment here,
but on his perfectness as a part of the new creation in Christ.
And now
it is once more with a feeling of reluctance that I lay down my pen. I cannot
but fear lest the great truth I have sought to unfold should suffer in the
estimation of some, through being divorced from practical exhortation is to a
holy life. But I take comfort from the hope that thoughtful minds will in no
way share the prejudice. Valuable though exhortation be, truth has a power
independent of the appeals we base upon it; and, therefore, no teaching that,
is truly doctrinal can fail to be likewise practical. In dealing with this
subject I have already gone. somewhat beyond the due limits of my theme,. which
is the gospel, and not the Christian life; but I have struggled in vain to keep
within them.
The unusual interest which the doctrine of holiness
excites, combined with the fact that the great truth of sanctification by blood
is unknown to our creeds, and but little noticed in our religious literature,
has not only made the task important, but has vastly increased my difficulties
in the effort to fulfil it. I now dismiss it with a parting word. Even by those
who own it, this truth is sometimes spoken of as though it were a fiction or a
theory. But with the Israelite his sanctification was one of the most true and
solemn facts of his existence. Upon it depended, not alone his citizenship in
the commonwealth, but his life itself. And shall it be deemed less real in this
dispensation, when shadows have given way to substance, types to their
fulfilment? If the sanctification of the Jew was a great and practical reality,
how much more the sanctification of the believer now. "If the blood of bulls
and goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
And again, the
practical maintenance of holiness is the true effort of a heart that grace has
mastered. But yet, as with the prisoner who struggles to his window, and wipes
out every stain, making it shine again, with a zeal no sense of duty could
arouse, his thought is only of the sunlight he is yearning for, so is it with
the soul that is alive to God. All true life leads to Him, and holiness is
eagerly pursued, only to be forgotten in the enjoyment of its end and aim.
Hence the exhortation and warning, "Follow holiness, without which no man shall
see the Lord."
RECONCILIATION.
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