The THEOLOGICAL Interpretation of Holiness

“THEOLOGY” IS a forbidding word to many. It suggests hairsplitting and dry-as-dust dis­tinctions without end.

But theology is a very important part of the total Chris­tian enterprise. It is, by definition, the systematic arrange­ment and exposition of truth about God and man in

redemption. It seeks to bring religious truth into a coherent pattern in which each fact or datum finds expression. It is concerned with wholeness, with relatedness.

A theological interpretation of holiness will point out its lines of connection with every other major truth in Chris­tian doctrine.

I remember a discussion years ago with Dr. H. Orton Wiley, author of the monumental, three-volume Christian Theology. The discussion concerned a course in the college curriculum dealing particularly with the doctrine of holiness. Dr. Wiley objected. “How can you teach the doctrine of holiness without relating it to the doctrines of sin, salva­tion, the Holy Spirit, Christ, the atonement, grace, love, and all the rest” he asked.

There was no answer.

The truth is that every major theme in Christian the­ology is important for an understanding of holiness. No truth stands alone. It is supported by, and has implications for, every other truth in the whole system of doctrine.

There is a new interest among theologians today in the doctrine of sanctification as it develops in the New Testa­ment. Such is the contention of William Hordern, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Canada, in the chapter entitled “Sanctification Rediscovered” in Volume I of New Directions in Theology Today. [(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966). The quotations that follow in the text have been taken from the chapter indicated.] Dr. Hor­dern writes:

An important development in recent theology is a renewal of interest in sanctification. The theological analysis of Chris­tian salvation is often divided into justification and sanctifi­cation. Justification deals with how a man becomes a Christian. It describes God’s forgiving acceptance of the sinner and the sinner’s response of faith. Sanctification is the act of God whereby the forgiven man is made righteous, it describes how a man grows in his Christian life.

Dr. Hordern goes on to comment that this new theologi­cal concern with sanctification comes at a very appropriate time in the history of the Church. There is abroad in the world today a widespread wave of criticism directed against the life and practice of the Church, as contrasted with former criticisms of its teachings.

During the fifties of this century, as Hordern notes, the Church, in America at least, “sailed on a wave of popular approval.” There was little serious criticism. “Happily, for the sake of the church’s soul,” Dr. Hordern writes, “those days have passed.”

From within and without, organized Christianity is being subjected to searching criticism. There are deep doc­trinal issues being raised. But more painfully, it is the life and practice of the Church which is being challenged most seriously.

Because sanctification is that aspect of salvation that deals primarily with the character and life of the Christian, the challenges of today are leading theologians to take a

new, long, hard look at the biblical teaching about this ne­glected subject. Sanctification has to do with the inner changes the grace of God makes. In words that are correct as far as they go, justification is “Christ for us,” while sancti­fication is “Christ in us.”

Bonhoeffer, Brunner, Barth, and Dewolf, as well as the “new conservatives,” are among those cited as having shown special interest in taking a “new look at the doctrine of sanctification.”

There is in all of this a broad use of the term “sancti­fication.” Yet the closing paragraph of Hordern’s chapter is noteworthy:

The concern for sanctification, as we have discussed it, transcends theological schools of thought. Those who are dedi­cated to it are not in complete agreement with one another.

But the fact that men of different theologies and backgrounds are converging on this doctrine indicates that it represents an area of vital concern to theology and the church today.

It is this convergence of “men of differing theologies and backgrounds” and the surprising unity of opinion among them in defining sanctification theologically that should be underlined here.

R. H. Coats wrote in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics: “In general, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit of God, in delivering men from the guilt and power of sin, in consecrating them to the service and love of God, and in imparting to them, initially and progressively, the fruits of Christ’s redemption and the graces of a holy life.” [Edited by James Hastings New York: Charles Scrib­ner’s Sons, 1924), XI, 181.]

Presbyterian Kenneth J. Foreman wrote in The Twen­tieth Century Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge:

In Protestant thought, sanctification is the name given to what in Roman theology is called infused grace; but with a difference. In the latter, grace is conceived as a force, some­times all but impersonal; in the former, sanctification is a con­tinuing activity of God by his personal Spirit. Sanctification is what makes goodness possible; it is not the good and gracious acts of men, but that operation of the Spirit which produces these acts. [L. A. Loetscher, editor in chief (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1955), p. 1053.]

Southern Baptist Charles A. Trentham wrote: “Sancti­fication is thus the perfecting of the Christian life or the pro­gressive cleansing of the soul.” [Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists (Nashville: Broad-man Press, 1958), p. 1184.]

Dr. Charles Hodge is recognized as one of the leading Calvinistic theologians of the nineteenth century. He wrote: “Sanctification, therefore, consists in two things: first, the removing more and more the principles of evil still infecting our nature, and destroying their power; and secondly, the growth of the principle of spiritual life until it controls the thoughts, feelings, and acts, and brings the soul into the image of Christ.” [Systematic Theology (New York: Charles Scribner and Co., 1872), p. 221.]

Admittedly, these definitions stress the progressive ele­ment in sanctification, and some of them imply that it cannot be completed during the course of this earthly life. But all agree that the goal of sanctification, as it has been under­stood in Protestant theology of all schools, is the removal of the principle of evil still infecting the nature of the believer, or complete deliverance from sin. All agree that sanctifica­tion is not identical with nor effected at the time of justifi­cation. And all agree that there is a sinful nature remaining in believers which must be dealt with.

It is this which brings into special significance the truth of I Thess. 5:23-24, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

There are instances in the New Testament where the context shows the sanctification described to be ceremonial r partial and incomplete (cf. Matt. 23:17, 19; 1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11; 7:14; I Tim. 4:5; Heb. 9:13; and I Pet. 3:15).

Where such indication is lacking, we should consider the sanctification referred to as “whole” or “entire” in the Pauline sense in I Thess. 5:23. Such uses include John 10:

36; 17:17, 19; Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16; Eph. 5:26; 1 Thess. 4:3, 7; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Tim. 2:15; 2 Tim. 2:21; Heb. 2:11; 10:10, 14, 29; 12:14; 13:12; 1 Pet. 1:2; and Jude 1.

Four specific themes in theology have particular bear­ing on our understanding of Christian holiness:

I

Central to the Christian faith are the atoning death and the victorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross is the focal point for all that distinguishes true Chris­tianity from both its rivals and its imitations.

It is a strange fact, as the late Vincent Taylor pointed out, that all theological discussions of the Cross relate to justification-how the death of Christ makes possible the forgiveness of our sins.

Yet the New Testament makes it clear that the atone­ment has as much to do with sanctification as it does with justification. “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:25-26). “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:10, 14). “Where­fore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Heb. 13:12).

It is by the provision of a real cleansing of the heart from the stain of racial sin that the Cross becomes vital in our understanding of holiness. The writer to the Hebrews asks in one of his great rhetorical questions, “For if the blood of bulls and of 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, who through the eter­nal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:13-14)

First John 1:6-7 also makes the same point: “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

In these passages, we have a real inner cleansing as contrasted with the “positional holiness” or “holy in Christ” view made so popular by the widely used Scofield Bible. The doctrine of positional holiness is, in brief, that the be­liever’s sanctification is not an impartation of the divine nature to him, freeing him from inner sin, but is an imputa­tion of Christ’s righteousness by virtue of which God counts him holy in spite of the continued corruption of his heart.

One brother is alleged to have testified in prayer meet­ing: “The righteousness of Christ in my life is like a beauti­ful, white covering of new-fallen snow in a barnyard hiding the filth and corruption of my heart.”

Someone in the back spoke up: “Yes, Brother, but what do you do when the thaw comes”

This is a proper question because the thaw always comes.

In its actual development, the “holy in Christ” theory leans heavily on the fourth chapter of Romans, in which it is stated that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (verse 3). It is assumed that “for” means “instead of,” and that Abraham’s faith was a substitute for a righteous character.

But God does not deal in fictions. When God counts a an righteous, it is because His grace has trade him righteous. “For” as used here means “as a condition of” or “as a requisite for.”

There is a basic misunderstanding of the very word Paul used. “To count, reckon, or impute” are all English translations of a Greek word which, as C. Ryder Smith ha! pointed out, is a bookkeeping term and means “to take account of what is.” [The Bible Doctrine of Sin (London: The Epworth Press, 1953), p. 140.] Paul’s point here is that Abraham’s righteousness was an asset he had received without earning it by works. But it was an asset that was genuine and real, not fictional or imaginary.

When a bookkeeper enters figures on the asset side of the balance sheet, those figures represent values which ac­tually exist. To put down sums as assets for which there are no corresponding realities is one of the ways embezzling is done. Men go to jail for such practices as this.

God is most certainly not the cosmic embezzler. His books are accurate and true. What He imputes, He imparts. He does not whitewash — He washes white through the blood of His own Son.

The basic issue is whether the righteousness and holi­ness of which the Bible speaks is fiction or fact, imputed ­but not actually given — or imparted. Peter’s statement at this point is clear and forceful: “As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). There is nothing fictional or imaginary about the holiness of God. Nor is there anything fictional or imaginary about the divine nature He imparts (2 Pet. 1:4).

Even more specific is John’s statement about those who have hope of seeing and being like the Lord at His appear­ing: “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). The purity of the believer is to be the same in quality as the purity of the Saviour.

There is no suggestion that a human being will become like God in His infinity and deity. A single ray of sunshine is never the sun itself. But each ray shares the light and purity of the sun. The likeness is a matter of quality, not quantity. But it is a real likeness.

It is through the atonement that the prayer of the Psalm­ist is answered in the provision of the Saviour: “Purge me with hyssop [the desert shrub with which the blood of the sac­rifice was sprinkled], and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7), is answered with the assurance, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

II

Another theme at the heart of theology is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Overshadowed in historical theology by the doctrines of the Father and the Son, the doctrine of the Spirit has come to new recognition within the past few decades.

The theology of the Holy Spirit is crucial for an under­standing of sanctification. Christian holiness is bought by the blood of the Cross. It is wrought by the Holy Spirit ap­plying the merit of that Blood to the cleansing of the heart. Everything in Christian experience from the earliest dawn of conscience down to the resurrection from the grave comes to us through the agency of the Third Person of the Trinity. Daniel Steele rightly called Him “the Executive of the Godhead.”

a. The Holy Spirit is the Source of conviction for sin and the earliest interest in things spiritual (John 16:7-11).

b. The Holy Spirit brings into human life the power for righteousness which is regeneration, “the new birth” (John 3:3-7).

c. The Holy Spirit gives us His witness to sins forgiven and sonship to God (Rom. 8:15-17).

d. We are led through the Christian life by the Spirit (Rom. 8:14), and He guides us into all truth (John 16:13) and helps us pray as we ought (Rom. 8:26-27).

At the Last Supper, Jesus made five historic statements concerning the Holy Spirit-passages that have come to be known as “The Paraclete Sayings” from the Greek term Parakletos, translated “Comforter” (John 14:15-18, 26-27; 15:26-27; 16:7-11 and 12-15).

The first “saying” summarizes the whole. That there is a dispensational or historical aspect to these words is, to be sure, true. But the whole tone of the Last Supper dis­course, as well as the specific extension of the prayer of John 17 to “them also which shall believe on me through their word,” makes its truth the heritage of believers in every age and clime.

It is Christ’s own who are addressed. Those who love Him will keep His commandments (John 14:15). For such, He will pray the Father, “and he shall give . . . another Comforter” (verse 16). A parakletos is literally “one called alongside to help--a helper, an advocate, a counselor, one to support, hearten, and strengthen. “Another” implies that Jesus himself had already been such to them.

The Parakletos is “the Spirit of truth.” People identified with the world cannot receive Him, although He convicts them; and when they repent and believe, He regenerates them and begins to dwell with them (verse 17). “With” and “in” do not mean “outside” and “inside” as a first glance might indicate-for verse 23 uses “with” in the same sense as “inside.” Rather to “dwell in” means to take up a fixed and settled abode-to “abide with you for ever” (verse 16).

This “abiding forever” is identified in Acts 1:5 as being “baptized with the Holy Ghost” and in Acts 2:4 as being “filled with the Holy Ghost.” It is a far cry from the tran­sient and fleeting presence implied in the idea of “breathing out” in daily confession of sins and “breathing in” the Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit’s fullness that fully sanctifies. Sanctifi­cation is identified in the New Testament as being the special work of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:16; 1 Thess. 4:7-8; 2 Thess. 2:13; and 1 Pet. 1:2).

The continuity of the Holy Spirit’s work in Christian experience must always be kept in mind. The new birth is a “birth of the Spirit.” He is the young Christian’s Guide and Witness (Rom. 8:14-17). “You know him,” Jesus said to His disciples before Pentecost; “for he dwelleth with you” (John 14:15-17).

Holiness is the result of the “baptism with” the Spirit, the fullness of the Spirit. One hesitates to put too much weight on the language of metaphor. But there is an obvious difference between birth and baptism. And in the order of grace as well as the order of nature, birth must of necessity precede baptism.

Nor is there any puzzle as to how the same Spirit may be at one time the Source of regeneration and later become the Source of entire sanctification. He is the same Person in a different relationship. A man may have the same girl as first his fiancée and later his bride. A man may have the same doctor first as his physician and later as his surgeon. It isn’t a matter of more or less of the girl or more or less of the doctor. It is a matter of the relationship and of the function.

III

The doctrine of sin is central in Christian thought. A theologian’s stance in regard to the nature of sin tends to color and control his whole thought about God, man, and salvation. To minimize sin is to minimize the Saviour. To misunderstand sin is to misunderstand salvation. Sin is the source of our whole human predicament.

One of the clearest distinctions in biblical theology is the distinction between sins as acts or deeds, and sin as an attitude or disposition. Our human problem in regard to sin is twofold. It is the problem of the wrongs we have done, the guilt we have incurred-what Paul had in mind when he wrote, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). But it is also the problem of what we are, the nature we have inherited-estranged from God, corrupted, and bent toward evil. This is what Paul meant when he spoke of the “sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:17).

The new birth, experienced in any genuine conversion to Christ, puts an end to sinning when understood as avoida­ble transgressions of the revealed will of God. Some have broadened the idea of sinning to include mistakes, unavoid­able faults and failures, lapses of memory, or unconscious deviations from perfect righteousness. But to do this makes nonsense of such scriptures as John 5:14; Rom. 6:1, 15; 1 John 2:1-4; 3:6-10; and 5:18. If God means what He says, then regenerating grace stops a career of sinning.

But the new birth does not end the problem of inner sin — sin as attitude, disposition, propensity, or tendency. The New Testament witnesses to this in many ways. There is an echo in the justified life of the struggle Paul describes in Rom. 7:14-25, a struggle not entirely ended until the posi­tion described in Rom. 8:2-4 is reached.

The carnal mind is enmity against God (Rom. 8:7). Even babes in Christ experience its presence (1 Cor. 3:1-3). Unsanctified Christians need to cleanse themselves of all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1). “Flesh” and “Spirit” are locked in unrelenting struggle until the “flesh” is “crucified . . . with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:17, 24).

The “old man” as the corrupt cause of the former man­ner of life must be “put off’ (Eph. 4:20-24; cf. Rom. 6:6). Sinful dispositions and tendencies are to be put to death (Col. 3:5-7).

God’s people must beware of an evil heart of unbelief, the potential cause of backsliding and apostasy (Heb. 3:12). The root of bitterness springing up troubles the believer. Following peace with all men, and holiness, is the cure (Heb. 12:14-15).

There is a double-mindedness resulting in instability and cured only in the purifying of the heart (Jas. 1:8; 4:8).

“Sin in Believers” as John Wesley used the phrase [The title of one of Wesley’s “standard sermons.” Ser­mon XIII, Works, V, 144-56.] con­sists not in the choices they make or acts in violation of God’s law they commit. It exists as a latent condition or state, a principle or propensity rather than an activity. It is variously described as the carnal mind, the mind of the flesh, the flesh, the old man, the root of bitterness, the seed of sin, indwell­ing or inbred sin, original sin, or depravity.

It is with this problem of inner sin that entire sanctifi­cation deals. The result is what Scripture describes as a “pure heart” (Matt. 5:8; Acts 15:8-9; Titus 2:13-14; Jas. 4:8; I Pet. 1:22; I John 1:7; 3:3). The baptism with the Spirit thoroughly purges (Matt. 3:11-12). Our “old man” is crucified so that the “body of sin” might be destroyed (Rom. 6:6-7). The “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” makes us free from “the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2-4).

To “be holy” may mean much more but it can never mean less than to “be cleansed” or “made free from” the taint of sinfulness. Only on these terms can we serve God “in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life” (Luke 1:73-75), “holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph. 1:3-6), “blameless and harmless . . . without rebuke” (Phil. 2:14-16), enjoying a religion that is “pure” and “un­defiled” (Jas. 1:27), “holy in all manner of conversation [living]” (1 Pet. 1:14-16), “without spot, and blameless” (2 Pet. 3:14).

Unless we are to think of God as making impossible and therefore unreasonable demands upon His children, we must recognize that “all His commandments are enablings.”

In fact, those who deny the reality of cleansing from sin face a rather impossible dilemma. If God purposes to purify the hearts of His people and cannot, He is not the infinite God the Bible reports Him to be. On the other hand, if God can purify the hearts of His people and will not, He is less than holy, taking more pleasure in sin than in righteousness. Neither alternative can be accepted.

The whole tenor of the scriptural revelation of God sup­ports the view that He is both able and willing to fulfill His promises-breathtaking though they may be. If it be not “thought a thing incredible . . . that God should raise the dead” (Acts 26:8), it should not be thought incredible that His people would be enabled to walk “in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

IV

The great word of both the Bible and theology is salva­tion. While we have drifted into the habit of identifying “salvation” or “being saved” with conversion, the true meaning of the term is far greater. The New Testament uses the term “salvation” to describe the whole consequence of Christ’s redemptive work in human lives.

Salvation in the Bible, therefore, has a past, a present, and a future. We have been saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8; 2 Tim. 1:9). We are being saved by the power of the Cross (1 Cor. 1:18; 2 Cor. 2:15, cf. Greek). We shall be saved when Christ comes again (Matt. 10:22; Acts 15:11; Rom. 13:11; Heb. 9:28; 1 Pet. 1:3-5). Salvation is free (justi­fication); it is full (entire sanctification); and it is final (glorification).

In a special way, the human name of our Lord conveys the idea of salvation: “Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The term from is quite emphatic here, and it is a word that sug­gests deliverance from without. In no possible way, can it be considered as meaning “in,” “with,” or “among.”

It is with the idea of salvation from the presence and power of inner sin that we are concerned here. W. E. Vine gives as one of the meanings of “salvation” in the New Testa­ment “the present experience of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin. This present experience on the part of believers,” he says, “is virtually equivalent to sanctifica­tion.” [Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Lon­don: Oliphants, Ltd., 1940), III, 316.]

In a similar vein, Ryder Smith claims that “it goes with­out saying that Paul’s exposition of such terms as `justify’ and `sanctify’ is an exposition of salvation. “ [The Bible Doctrine of Grace (London: The Epworth Press, 1956), p. 74.]

That salvation in its full and unqualified sense includes sanctification is seen rather clearly in 2 Thess. 2:13, “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” Salvation is “through sanctification of the Spirit,” not “as a preparation for sanctification.

Titus 2:11-14 also shows that the salvation which comes from the grace of God includes both redemption from all iniquity and the purification unto Christ of a people for His

own, marked by their zeal for good works. This is not some­thing to be achieved in a future life, but to enable us to “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.”

Heb. 7:25 says, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” The Phillips transla­tion most accurately catches the meaning of the phrase “to the uttermost” as being “fully and completely.”

It is of salvation in this full sense that it has been said:

God thought it.

Christ brought it.

The Spirit wrought it.

The Blood bought it.

The Bible taught it.

The devil fought it.

Love sought it.

Faith caught it.

And happy the Christian who can say,

I’ve got it!