Instantaneous Sanctification and The Spirit Witness
Those who believe in Wesleyan theology understand that there is a point in time...an instant when they come to know that they are sanctified entirely. I would like to make some observations about that instant and the witness of the Spirit that accompanies entire sanctification. I want to do this in relation to my contention that the holiness movement has been to focused on experience. I will present my understanding for the purpose of dialogue. I stand to be corrected if anyone can biblically demonstrate errors in my thinking.First of all we need to define some biblical metaphors of depravity. The "old man" is the totality of the old, unconverted life. The "flesh" is that life lived apart from relationship with God. The "carnal mind" is a sinful mind-set...a lawless attitude...the self-centered thought pattern of the "flesh." It is the "law in my members, warring against the law of my mind (Romans 7:23)" Some of what these metaphors represent normally remain in the new believer until the instant of entire sanctification and tend to make the new Christian double minded.
However, I think it is confusing to view the newly converted person as having two natures—a sinful nature that needs eradicated and a godly nature that was received in justification. Rather, he has a single nature that tends to have a double mind or a divided heart (divided between some remaining love for sin and love for God). This seems to fit the general biblical structure of the justified, not-fully-sanctified person.
At first thought, double mindedness may seem to be about the same as two natures, but I think there is a distinct difference. Wesleyans believe that justification is sanctification begun. Accordingly, a new Christian can be viewed as being in the process of the remaining love-for-sin being diminished until the instant of entire sanctification. But if the sinful aspect is a nature needing to be eradicated, how could it be viewed as being progressively sanctified? Furthermore, how could we view the godly nature (the other nature) as becoming more and more sanctified. If one nature is totally sinful needing to be eradicatied, it can’t be sanctified, and if the other nature is a godly nature why does it need to be sanctified.
By this reasoning it becomes obvious to me that we need to understand sanctification as a work of grace that cleanses the entire mono-nature of sinful attitudes and tendencys (the result of love for sin). The nature needs to be corrected and purified. When a person is justified, his nature is changed...regenerated...but he does not receive a new, additional nature. The totality of the person is changed and cleansed, but needs more purification of mind and heart to be fully focused on loving God. Some may view the unjustified person as already having two natures before he is justified...a sinful nature and a human nature. This gets even more confusing. After the person gets justified, would the human nature than be in the process of being sanctified while the sinful nature remains unsanctified?
With these thoughts in mind, I believe we are now ready to consider what has come to be know at instantaneous sancitification. I have been emphasizing that holiness people may be too focused on experience. And I don’t mean that experience should not be considered. I think it is a means of verifying what happens by faith. But if it is true that we are too focused on experience, the dual nature belief could be contributing to that overemphasis. The problem it creates goes in one of two directions. The seeker is either inclined to seek and seek and seek for a dramatic experience whereby he can sense that the nature is eradicated, or he tends to claim entire sanctification and wait for a witness of equally dramatic proportions.
His mental picture of two natures increasingly at war would seem to condition the seeker to expect a dramatic experience and not to be satisfied with a faith assurance, especially if he is expecting an emotional feeling as a witness which often goes along with this mental picture. I believe the person of the single nature perception can more readily pursue holiness with the goal to simply surrender ("cease from his works" - Heb 4) and believe God for sanctification that is entire in regard to removing all resistance to God in the form of love for sin.
I believe that the moment he surrenders, he receives faith to believe for cleansing because now he sees God clearly instead of as in a "mirror dimly" (I Cor 13:12). He has pursued holiness and seen God as a result (Heb 12:14). He is like other sanctified persons who "with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit." (2Cor 3:18). Notice, the unveiled faces do not see "dimly." They are now in a process of being transformed (progressively sanctifiied) because they have seen God clearly in the instant of entire sanctification.
I want to be open-minded. But I believe the person of a dual nature perception would have difficulty with the surrender aspect because he would either be trying to force the alien nature to surrender or just waiting for God to do it. He is very likely to be hindered in his mind from taking that all-important step of surrender. Therefore, he must either wait and wait and wait for God to "slay the old man," or he must claim that God does it...a form of the "name it and claim it" idea. Obviously, God often can get past our limited understanding if we are sincere, but all of us who have tried to help council and pray people through know that many are frustrated at this point.
What about the witness of the Spirit?
"He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself" (1Jo 5:10). I speak with certainty here. The fact that the Holy Spirit gives one the power to believe is the witness of the Spirit. It is as simple as that. The fact that one’s heart has been cleansed and that he has been filled with the Holy Spirit normally has a profound effect on his attitude and on his emotions. But those emotional effects are not the witness. The witness is the faith that God gives.
We are sanctified by faith. But too many have given the impression that the witness is the joy. This is confusing, especially when it is suggested that the joy they should expect may reach the level of a flood of ecstasy. Thus seekers become programed to expect a profound, earth-shaking emotion as the witness. To further compound the matter, many point to an unusually profound, emotional experience that someone has had as an example of this witness.
All of this programs people to think of the instantaneous as an experience somewhat akin to what the existentialist is looking for...a defining emotional experience that forever thereafter will change his life. If one does receive a profound emotional experience and understands this to be the witness, he may become subject to doubts when the emotion subsides. On the contrary, if he knows that faith is the witness he probably will be more stable in his new-found relationship with God, because he can choose to continue to believe as the Holy Spirit aids him even when he feels lousy.
Surrender is the door to the instant of entire sanctification.
I don’t think I have to convince thinking, mature Christians that the Bible shows that faith is an act of the will that is made possible through the aid of the Holy Spirit. Faith starts with belief and that belief matures into trust. Therefore, as we pray for anything, the goal is to come to the point where a peaceful trust takes over. Many have called this "praying through." In this state of mind we rest in trust that the prayer will be answered. Admittedly, we don’t always find it easy to pray through on some issues. Many factors contribute to this problem, but the ideal is to pray through to this point of letting go and letting God. Therefore, in any prayer-quest the ideal is to pray to a point of completely surrendering all of our efforts even our prayer efforts to God in favor of restful trust.
How often I have heard preachers say that they have never seen anyone get sanctified who did not claim it. Here I want to focus on experience in a legitimate way. As I have been emphasizing, we seem to focus too much on experience, but I have also said that experience is valid as a verification of faith. (I believe this is primarily what John Wesley was doing in his interviews with people concerning sanctification.) Therefore, I can focus on experience in this way without being inconsistent in my argument that we focus too much on experience.
I believe the common understanding that people do not get entire sanctification until they claim it before faith comes shows our serious lack of understanding the principles of praying through. If it is true, as I have endeavored to show, that we should endeavor to pray to a point of being able to surrender all our concern to God in favor of a restful trust in any pray-quest, how much more should this kind of surrender come into play in the matter of seeking entire sanctification. In this seeking-prayer, the goal is to surrender all of our concern about making a life for ourselves. We must surrender our attempts to discover what is good for us and what is bad for us on our own (what Eve did). . In other words, we must quit leaning to our "own understanding" (Pr 3:5). Furthermore, we must surrender our very selves...our everything...to God.
How do we know that we are surrendered?
If the seeker is instructed to pray for God to help him surrender his everything to God according to Hebrews 4, than faith will come. The surrender motif may be what we so often miss. When I began seek entire sanctification, I was instructed to dedicated my life to God and then claim entire sanctification. So I tried to dedicate my life and did so to the extend I was mentally capable of understanding that I had. Then I tried to claim it. This was empty, positive thinking. It was akin to the "name it, claim it" teaching of the word-faith movement. And I would soon begin having doubts after I had claimed it.
I suppose that the dedication idea could contain the idea of surrender, but it wasn’t coming through to me or to many other people who heard the same kind of preaching. When I finally heard preaching that emphasized that sanctification was about surrendering my life to God, to live a life sacrificed to Him, my heart was convicted of what I needed to do. I acted accordingly and faith came. I was able to effortlessly believe.
My long experience in seeking to be sanctified verified to me that I could not get sanctified by claiming it. But I believe many are still in the state of having claimed entire sanctification without ever having received the witness of faith. They only have a positive-thinking faith...a name it, claim it faith...a "new age" kind of faith. If this is true, it is no wonder that we are not empowered to conquer the world for Jesus. And it is no wonder we have lost the holy awe of what entire sanctification that fills us with the Holy Spirit can do for us.
posted by Pastor Larry Grabill @ 6:47 AM
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