The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 498

:

SANCTIFICATION

458 wrought

and He insures that

be finished at the Jerusalem but the manner and measure of progress depend solely upon His pleasure and purpose. in the soul,

moment appointed

for

it

shall

our entrance into the

New

;

Jiirst, sanctification is closely related to Christ, and is part of the Covenant grace which He insures to us as our Surety. It is not merely His work, but a grace inherent in His Person, and so identified with Him that the apostle exclaims " Who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification?" It is related to the unio mystica : He vitally in us, and we vitally in Him He the Vine, and we the branches: " It is not I that live, but Christ liveth All these indicate in me"; He the Head, and we the members. the vital union between the believer and the Mediator. The unborn child may be said to breathe through the mother's breath, and the mother to breathe in the child. The same is true here, altho the comparison illustrates, but does not exhaust the matter. Hence God's child can never be but in Christ, Not that he is always conscious of it. He often feels as tho Christ were far from him, and, deceived by this, he often strays so far that the bond of union seems to be utterly dissolved. This is really not so, for Christ never loses His hold; but to him it seems so. And this is :

;

1

the cause of the difficulty. is left

him

;

all his

reason the liturgy says

"

Outside of Christ

we do

tantamount

own

lie in

For this

the midst of

risk and charges, having but and a corrupt nature. Then

God is With Kohlbrugge we say the converted and the unconverted

we have anything in

to a denial of

we

leave the patriarchal tent to take the

so at our

inheritance, viz., a dead soul

to imagine that

"

:

When with Dinah we

death."

road to Shechem,

Adam's

In this condition his sinful nature alone

treasure of grace is left with Jesus.

ourselves acceptable to

Immanuel.

Considered outside of Christ,

are exactly alike." But, altho we forsake Him, He never forsakes us; there is between the converted in his deepest fall and the unconverted this immeasurable difference, that the soul of the former is inseparably bound to Jesus and the soul of the latter is not.

/^

Second, the sanctification of the saint is unthinkable without

implanting of the holy disposition by the Divine That we become more and more conformable to the

Christ, because the

Spirit is

" :

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