The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 477

;

:

SANCTIFICATION Mediator, but upon

man and

IS

Satan.

A MYSTERY The

prayer,

"

437

Lord, sanctify

me," upon the lips of the unconverted, not under the Covenant First wilfully to destroy God's of Grace, is most unbecoming. property, and then to take the ruined thing to Him demanding that He heal and restore it, antagonizes the right and reverses the ordinances. Nay, outside of the mysteries of the Covenant of Grace, under the obligations of simple justice, we are not to ask " Lord, sanctify Thou us," but God is to enforce His righteous claim: :

"

Sanctify thyself."

mean

Sanctify thyself does not

The keeping

law and

Let the sinner

things. fulfil

of the

man

should fulfil the law.

two entirely

different

be sanctified, and then he shall also

first

First sanctification, th^n fulfihnent of the law.

the law.

It is like

that

sanctification are

a harp with broken strings.

The harp was made

to pro-

duce music by the harmonious vibration of the strings. But the production of music is not the mending of the harp. The broken strings must be replaced, the new strings must be tuned, and then is it

possible to strike the melodious chords.

is like

that harp

:

God

created

it

The human heart

pure that we might keep the law

Hence being profaned and which an impure heart can not do. must be sanctified then will be able to fulfil the law. it unholy, it For the sake of clearness, two acknowledged facts should be ;

noticed First, if

man had never been profaned by sin,

it

would never have

entered his mind to sanctify himself; and yet the law would have

This shows that sanctification law are two entirely different things. Second, sanctification continues until a man dies and enters heaven. Then he is holy. Hence there is no sanctification in heaven. Yet the only occupation of the saints in heaven is the doing of that which is good. Hence sanctification is a matter by itself; it does not consist in the doing of good works, but must be an accomplished fact before a single good work can be done. Since man profaned himself, he is called of God to resanctify himself. Hence the claim of sanctification contains not even the shadow of a mystery. It has nothing to do with the mysteries, therefore is no dogma. It is the simplest and most natural verdict of God's right in the conscience. That we speak of unholiness implies that we are convinced that we ought to be holy.

been

fulfilled

without disturbance.

and fulfilment

of the

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