EXEGESIS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT MESSAGE
OF FULL SALVATION

J. Kenneth Grider, Ph.D.
(Professor of Theology, Nazarene Theological Seminary)

Wesley and the scholars of his day were not confronted with many of the problems facing Bible interpreters of the mid-twentieth century, such as those created by radical, critical biblical scholarship, advances in archaeological discoveries, and the secularistic movements of more recent times. Furthermore, with the exception of certain noted scholars of the modern Wesleyan movement such as Daniel Steel, the Wesleyans of the 19th and 20th centuries, especially in America, were concerned primarily with preaching the message of full salvation, as that message was defined and proclaimed by Wesley and the men of his day. Certainly the needs of their era justified their primary emphasis upon the proclamation of this biblically based message. However, just so the current situation demands greater attention to a more careful exegetical study and interpretation of the Scriptures in relation to the biblical message of full salvation for the current situation. Furthermore, in instances not a few Wesleyans have unwittingly borrowed elements of both methodology and message from non-Wesleyan sources which when carefully analyzed cannot be harmonized with the biblical message of full salvation as that message was understood and taught by Wesley. This situation calls for a renewed emphasis upon careful biblical exegesis by Wesleyan scholars today that a sound and respected scholarship may undergird the message that they proclaim in this late-twentieth century.

Some of the common errors within the Wesleyan movement of modern times may be profitably noted here. Among these errors are such concepts and pronouncements as the following:

(1) That Jesus saves and the Holy Spirit sanctifies, and that we receive Jesus when we are saved and the Holy Spirit when we are sanctified wholly (see Gal. 5:17; John 3); (2) that the carnal mind is to be described as rebellion, or as self-will, which tends to underrate regeneration; (3) that we are to surrender as believers in order, by faith, to receive entire sanctification, whereas we ought instead to talk about consecrating, since surrendering is what an enemy does; (4) that original sin is transmitted according to the Genetic Mode, an invention of men like Miley, whereas St. Paul teaches that racial sin stems from Adam's representing the race badly (Rom. 5:12-21)--Paul does not need to say anything about our parents passing it on to us; (5) that the phrase "oldman," used three times by Paul (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:19-25; Col. 3:9), is a synonym of original sin, instead of a way of speaking of the pre-regenerate state--which is characterized by both acts of sin and original sin.

It will help us not to preach the crisis experience from the wrong texts, such as Ephesians 5:18. Many have heard exhortations to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, or sanctified wholly, on the basis of this text, which reads, "but be filled with the Spirit." What is in the Greek cannot without awkwardness be put into the English, so the usual rendering has led many to think of this as an exhortation to be sanctified wholly. The word for "filled," however, is in the present tense, and not the aorist. As such, it means that we are to be filled with the Holy Spirit moment by moment, as persons already "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13, ASV). The present tense of the next verbs, as Paul continues, does come out in the English, which should have directed us long ago to checking the tense of "filled," for Paul says that we are to be filled in "speaking" (v. 19), "singing" (v. 20), and "subjecting" (v. 21) ourselves "to one another"--wives to husbands (5:22), children to parents (6:1), servants to masters (6:5).

Among these strong passages is Ephesians 5:25-27. This is a far stronger holiness passage than the KJV reveals. Paul the Apostle is expressly clear at this point that Christ died for the church that He might sanctify it after washing it by regeneration. The KJV simply states that Christ died for the church in order to "sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." The phrase, "sanctify and cleanse," in the KJV suggests a mere redundancy. But the word for "cleanse" in the Greek is an aorist participle, Katharisas. As is well known, aorist participles customarily express action which in time is prior to the time of the action expressed in the main verb of a sentence. Even A. T. Robertson, who was not in the Wesleyan theological tradition, had to admit this with regard to the aorist participle. He wrote, "This is indeed the common use of the aorist participle."(1) In the Ephesians passage, the main verb is "sanctify." The experience denoted, then, by the aorist participle, preceeds sanctification; and the experience denoted by that participle is regeneration, the work of grace which includes cleansing from the depravity that is acquired through mans' own acts of sin (according to this passage in Ephesians and according to Titus 3:5 where we read of "the washing of regeneration"). Thus the ASV correctly renders Ephesians 5:26 in this way: "that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word." The New ASB New Testament renders it similarly, and with the same words as those found in the RSV: "that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word."(2)

The Greek, then, and the main English versions, except the KJV make sanctification subsequent to regeneration in Ephesians 5:26--and, of course, the punctiliar aorist tense in the participle suggests decisive rather than gradual sanctification.

The KJV gives a better rendering of the Greek in Acts 19:2 than the other main English versions do, and sound exegesis supports this as a strong holiness passage. The KJV has Paul asking the Ephesian "disciples," "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" The ASV has him asking, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?"; the New ASB also has "when ye believed" the NEB, "when you became believers." But the aorist participle appears here: pisteusantes. As noted earlier, such a participle expresses action which is prior in time to the action of the main verb of a sentence. The main verb here is elabete, "received ye"--the Holy Spirit. The "believing" on Christ would be prior in time to receiving the Holy Spirit. So, the KJV rendering, "Did ye receive the Holy Ghost since ye believed," is clearly what Paul is asking. "After your conversion," he asks, "were you baptized with the Holy Spirit?"

In Acts 19:1-2 there are three aorist participles. One is "having passed through"--" having passed through," Paul "came" to Ephesus. Everyone knows that Paul "passed through the upper coasts" before coming to Ephesus. The aorist participle expresses action prior to the action of the main verb, which in this sentence is "came." A second aorist participle is "having found," which is in a thought where the main verb is "he said." Again, finding them was prior in time to saying something to them. No one's theology gets involved in these first two instances of aorist participles in this brief passage. But in the next instance of an aorist participle, theology is in the middle of things. And it is difficult for most non-Wesleyans to permit the aorist participle here to be an aorist participle. If one does, the "having believed" on Christ would be prior in time to the matter of receiving the Holy Spirit. But Wesleyan interpreters may permit the aorist participle to be itself, and need not avoid preaching from Acts 19:2 just because the other main English versions at least weaken the strength of Paul's question.(3)

It will help to an understanding of the nature of sanctifying faith, and with the understanding, believers can be guided into their inheritance of sanctification.

Some believers pray at the church altar; or elsewhere, and seem to have no trouble. They may enter into this deeper life immediately following their conversion; they may even go to the altar only once as seekers of this grace. There the Holy Spirit witnesses to them that the work of sanctification is accomplished.

Other people find themselves in much more trauma about sanctification. They too hear sermons on sanctification and respond to the minister's invitation to pray, but nothing special happens. Sometimes they are told, by well-meaning altar workers, to have faith that their Pentecost has occurred, and to leave in the lord's hands the matter of any witness of the Spirit to their hearts that the work has been accomplished.

It is true that we are sanctified by faith (Acts 15:8-9; 26:18). Yet, the nature of faith is often misunderstood. The writer once taught that faith is flashbulb-like; and that since it is, entire sanctification is Instantaneous. One of his "arguments" that entire sanctification is instantaneous was because it is received by faith. But perhaps it is instantaneous for other reasons: because it is a divine act of instantaneous cleansing, a baptism in which the Holy Spirit falls upon the believer.

Faith that procures entire sanctification is a believer's trust that God will sanctify him. This trust might often seem instantaneous because, if the believer is fully prepared for entire sanctification, especially by an entire consecration, God sanctifies him as soon as he begins to trust. Yet the trust, the faith, the reliance, is a steady and dynamic and plunging expectancy, as is even suggested by the fact that the word "faith" is a noun, and not a verb.

Biblical exegesis supports this understanding of faith. An example is in Jesus' statement, "If you have faith, and never doubt," thus and thus will be done (Matt. 21:21, RSV). The word for "doubt" diakrithete, is in the aorist tense, meaning that one is not to doubt even for an instant. But the Greek word for "have," exete, is in the present tense, so that Jesus is saying that a person is to maintain faith in a continuing way in order for God to act on his behalf.

In Mark 11:22 Jesus says, "Have faith in God" echete pistin theou). Here the word for faith is a noun, so it has no tense, but the helping verb, for "have," is in the present tense, so the faith in God which Jesus wants men to have is a steady trust.

That faith is a reliance with a durative quality is shown by the way in which the word is constantly used in the New Testament. Stephen was "full of faith" (Acts 6:5). There is an "obedience of faith" (Rom. 16:26). Faith can "abide" even as "hope" and "love" can (I Cor. 13:13). Christians "walk by faith" (Gal. 5:7), "live by faith" (Gal. 2:20), use it as a "shield" (Eph. 6:16). Faith "dwelt" (I Tim. 1:5) in people; it was "kept" (11 Tim. 4:7). The faith of people was "growing abundantly" (I Thess. 1:3), they were "rich in faith" (Jas. 2:5), they overcame "the world" by faith (I John 5:4), they "died in faith" (Heb. 11:13). This plunging and durative trust is that human response to grace by which believers are "justified" (Rom. 5:1) and kept justified, and it is that response by which they are sanctified wholly. When we turn to the verb "believe," we find that sometimes it is in the present tense, and sometimes in the aorist. We are to "repent (metanoeite) and believe (pistevete) in the gospel" (Mk. 1:15), and both verbs, here, repent and believe, are in the present tense. But in Acts 16:31, where Paul exhorts the jailer, "Believe in the lord Jesus, and you will be saved," the tense of believe, pisteuson, is aorist. Believe is in the present tense in John 11:25: "he that believeth in me" (opisteuon). But again, it is aorist in John 1:7: "that all men through him might believe (pisteusosin)."

In the two passages in Acts where believers are said to be sanctified by faith, there are no verbs related to man's response to help us interpret whether or not the faith is to be durative. Acts 15:9 reads that God "cleansed their hearts by faith (te pistel)." In Acts 26:18 Paul says he was sent that men might receive "forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." Since it is a noun that is used in both instances, we may surely understand that the faith by which the believer is instantaneously sanctified is an expectant and receptive trust which is durative and not simply crisic.

When the verbal "believe" is used, therefore, it appears in both the present and the aorist tenses; but when the noun form, "faith," is used, there is consistency in the New Testament's attaching it to present tense auxiliary verbs, and to types of experience that have durative quality.

The conclusion, therefore, about faith as the one human condition of the instantaneously received grace of entire sanctification is that faith may be an active, plunging reliance upon God in which a believer keeps responsively trusting that God will sanctify him when he meets God's conditions Then, when those conditions are met, God sanctifies the believer instantaneously through the fiery baptism with the Holy Spirit. At that time the faith that it will occur becomes transfigured by the experience of it into knowledge - faith that it has occurred. At the same time, it is reasonable to suppose that some sort of witness to the work is received. It is then that the believer says, not, "I believe that God sanctifies me," but "God sanctifies me."

Several advantages would accrue to the mission of those of the Wesleyan persuasion if they were guided by this kind of understanding, as they lead believers into the instantaneous experience of entire sanctification. (1) They would help believers actually to receive the purging experience before testifying to it. (2) They would avoid mere psychologisms, mere techniques, or institutional holiness. (3) They would thereby emphasize the continuing trust that is needful for the dynamic and growing life lived in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.

1. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in Light of Historical Research (New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1914), p.860. Robertson says that sometimes such a participle expresses action simultaneous with that of the main verb, but that it never expresses action that is subsequent to that of the main verb (Ibid.).

2. The New ASB capitalizes "He," whereas the RSV does not. Many of us have learned by now not to expect a careful rendering by the NEB. In it we have, "to consecrate it, cleansing it by water and word."

3. See this kind of exegesis supported in Charles Ewing Brown, The Meaning of Sanctification, p.197.

Edited by Nick Nettles