Nature and Effects of Entire Sanctification
The work of entire sanctification, like other spiritual operations, is not accurately and fully definable. It does not follow, however, as some have erroneously supposed, that sanctification must therefore be nothing because incapable of logical definition. Regeneration is equally indefinable and might as reasonably be rejected on this ground as entire sanctification, but some would reject one for this cause and retain the other. Many things that limited human wisdom is unable to explain fully are commonly believed and experienced. An illustration of this is that mental operation called thought. We all believe in the reality of thought, but what it is and exactly how thinking is done is unknowable to us. The mind itself is a mystery. Yet we believe we have minds, and we use them constantly during waking hours. But though psychologists may tell us much concerning the phenomena of the mind, yet they cannot tell us many important facts that we wish to know about the mind itself. So likewise we may know phenomena resulting from entire sanctification, but cannot know fully what it is. Likewise we know only the phenomena resulting from native depravity, but are unable to tell fully and exactly what that depravity is. We also know by His works in nature that there is a personal God, but we are unable fully to define and to comprehend God Himself. We may say He is a spirit, but we are unable to know what is a spirit. All we can naturally know of God is His phenomena.
Some things can be known only by experience. A person born blind can have no comprehension of color, even though one may try earnestly to explain it to him. He has nothing in experience with which to compare it. So also a practical idea of the nature of entire sanctification is possible only to one who has the experience. Exactly so, one can know the nature of regeneration only by being converted. But while such knowledge is possible only to those having the experience in their own hearts, yet it is a fact that many who have experienced regeneration are unable to give the philosophy of the experience; so some may have experimental knowledge of sanctification and yet be unable to tell exactly what it includes. But, happily, it is unnecessary to understand fully and to be able to reason out the nature of Christian experience in order to possess the experience. One desiring to take a trolley-ride does not need to possess a technical knowledge of electricity nor does he need to be able to comprehend and explain the intricacies and processes by which the current from a trolley-wire propels the car. All he needs to know is how to get aboard the car, to pay his fare, and to get off at his destination. But how foolish he would be who would refuse to board the car on the ground that he did not understand the philosophy of electricity, and who would demand that the motorman explain it fully to him before he would get on! But those who reject sanctification on the ground that we do not understand its philosophy are, we think, as unreasonable. Is it not better to accept it because God offers it, even though we cannot understand some things concerning it?
The Philosophy of the Second Cleansing
In the very nature of the case it is impossible that a cleansing of the heart subsequent to justification could be a cleansing from those sins which are already forgiven. Therefore we believe it must be a cleansing from that depravity in the nature which, as we showed in a former chapter, exists in the regenerated. This cleansing we understand is really a restoration of that derangement of the moral nature which resulted from Adam’s sin and which is inherited by all his posterity. It is simply an undoing of the perversion of man’s nature. It should be understood that depravity is not a root, a stump, a germ, nor any other physical entity, but a change in man’s nature. The difference between a depraved person and Adam before the fall is like the difference between the lion and the lamb. The fact that the lion is ferocious and the lamb gentle is due to the very nature of them, and is not fully explainable.
This depravity is especially a derangement of two faculties—the affections and the will. It manifests itself in inordinate love for things—for the creature rather than the Creator; it causes one to love that which is harmful and sinful; it causes him to love sinful things and hate God and right. It weakens the will; even though the unconverted one controlled by depravity may desire to do good, he finds himself unable to do so. The effects of depravity are described by Paul in Romans 7:14-25. Depravity gives a tendency to sin by the exaggeration of temptations from the natural. The second cleansing by a restoration from depravity overcomes that tendency to sin. Through depravity those natural qualities and desires which God placed in man are perverted until they become sinful.
God created man with a natural pride which we know as self-respect, which causes one to seek to be agreeable and pleasing to his fellows. But depravity causes him to want to be not only well thought of, which is proper, but to want to be thought of as better than anyone else. This is selfish and therefore sinful pride and is condemned as sin in God’s Word.
God placed in man a sense of justice, or that which causes a natural anger, indignation, or displeasure at an injustice. This is that which God felt toward sinful Israel and which Jesus felt as mentioned on one occasion. It is that which every good man feels at the sight of oppression of the helpless by the strong. It is good that man has this feeling. It is fundamentally necessary to his moral nature. But depravity causes him not only to feel displeasure at what he does not approve, but also causes him to have a vindictive selfish anger or hatred that would lead him to do wrong himself by retaliating. Also, depravity turns natural approbativeness into sinful pride, jealousy, and envy; natural acquisitiveness and the disposition to provide for dependents is turned into covetousness, dishonesty, and theft; the physical appetites are perverted into inordinate lust; natural desire for pleasure is turned to revelry; and wholesome humor to foolishness and jesting.
Sanctification does not take away those qualities which properly belong to human nature, but it does restore them from that perverted condition. A wholly sanctified man will possess natural pride or self-respect, feel displeasure at injustice, have the disposition to be provident, have physical appetites, will desire pleasure, and have a sense of humor; but he will be saved from the perversion of these.
What Sanctification Does Not Do for Us
The failure to distinguish clearly between human nature and the depravity of that nature has led many to misunderstanding much as to what effects should result from the cleansing from that depravity in the work of entire sanctification. It has caused some to claim for sanctification that which it does not provide, and because some who sought the experience failed to obtain that which they had been told sanctification would do for them, they have often been led either to reject the doctrine and experience entirely or else to doubt their having the experience and, as a result, become greatly discouraged. Such unreasonable claims for the experience of sanctification are always harmful. The harmful effects may not be apparent at once; but possibly years after, one thus wrongly instructed may be led to doubt his experience or to reject sanctification.
Another common error of teachers of sanctification has been to minimize the work of conversion in order to magnify more that of the second cleansing. Still another error is in preaching what sanctification does in a particular life—to preach personal experience and imply that the effects must be the same in all lives. As already explained, some are more depraved than others, because of either inherited or acquired depravity, therefore there must be a difference in the effects of entire sanctification; for the effects of cleansing from depravity must, in the nature of the case, be just as varied as are the effects of the depravity. Likewise, because some do not notice the effects of depravity so much as do others, they do not notice the effects of cleansing from it so much as do others.
Briefly, it may be said that sanctification does not make us infallible, does not make absolutely perfect in all respects, does not save from the possibility of sinning, and does not destroy the human nature.
How Does a Sanctified Person Feel?
Physical appetites and desires still remain in the sanctified for the reason that they are a part of the human nature and depravity is no essential part of them; these were in Adam before he sinned. However, depravity commonly manifests itself through these physical desires, and sanctification does purify these desires in that sense; but the desire itself was given of God for a good purpose and is not to be despised. Some have supposed that sexual desire should not exist in the sanctified and have been troubled because it did exist in them. The sanctified person is still human; but this sexual desire is exalted from its abnormal, lustful condition to that in which man was created so far as the heart is concerned.
Another person is troubled because he fails clearly to distinguish between natural and sinful pride. Normal self-respect and the quality of approbativeness are natural to man, and one should not suppose these will be destroyed in sanctification. Undepraved human nature is good, and these qualities are given man for his good that he might be respectable and pleasing to others. It is that selfish, sinful desire to be regarded as better than anyone else that is destroyed in sanctification.
Others are troubled because of a failure to recognize the difference between a proper displeasure at an act of injustice and vindictive anger or hatred. This sense of justice is essential to moral character, and without it man would be unable to determine what is right conduct toward his neighbor. But that which enables him to recognize what is right conduct in himself or others must also cause him to recognize that which is wrong in others. A good man must be displeased at injustice, and he will have certain feelings in the matter. To illustrate: if you see a strong, rough man cruelly beating a little boy or a crippled person, you will probably feel something within you stirring, and it is proper that you should have such feelings. We do not say you should blindly follow such feelings, for they might lead you to a sinful act, though they are good in themselves, just as certain physical appetites are good in themselves, yet may lead to sin if not controlled. The sanctified man will have these natural feelings, but he does not have that perverted, abnormal, or augmented form of them which we know as hatred or vindictive anger. The sanctified person may have feelings of impatience, and these if not controlled may lead him to do that which is sinful in itself; however, the feelings themselves are not sinful nor a result of depravity, but may be traceable to qualities that are good in themselves. We are instructed in God’s Word to “add… patience.” (2 Peter 1:5-8) It is a result of Christian growth, as are virtue and knowledge. it may not be possible always to draw a fine line of distinction between the natural and the depraved in some of these things either in one’s own experience or in that of others, but the important thing is that we have the experience.
Christian Perfection and Adam’s Perfection Distinguished
As far as heart-purity is concerned, we understand that Christian perfection is identical with Adamic perfection; but in various other respects there is much difference. The fall into sin affected the race, not only morally, but also mentally and physically. Not until we are glorified in heaven will these effects of the fall (such as physical death) be overcome. Adam, we understand, had a body not incapable of injury, fatigue, or disorder, yet there is reason to believe it was sound, healthy, and sufficient to meet all the demands put upon it by man’s duties and needs. But the sanctified man, even though his body is healed by God’s power, yet, as in Paul’s case, his duties may cause extreme weariness, weakness, and suffering. In other words, man’s body has suffered as a result of the fall of the race into sin.
Likewise, it is reasonable to believe that Adam possessed an intellect, not perfect, but so balanced and sufficient as to meet his needs. But how inadequate are the intellectual faculties of man in his present condition! His perceptive faculties are impaired, his judgment is enfeebled, the memory fails to perform its work, and the imagination is weakened. It is hardly possible to think that God created man without the mental capacity to do properly the work he should do. Evidently the fall has affected man’s intellect. Though it is true that heart-purity and right living may by a course of long training overcome these physical and mental deficiencies in a small measure, yet it must be allowed that in these things Christian perfection is vastly below the Adamic perfection.
Also, it must be allowed that in many qualities which have to do with the moral there is a lack of balance through an under-development or an over-development of those brain cells which have to do with that faculty of man’s nature. To illustrate: if a person’s foreparents have been much given to foolishness and lightness, and if he himself has during many years freely given place to it, he will likely find after he is wholly sanctified that he has an undue tendency to the humorous and must watch continually lest it hinder his spiritual development. Heart-purity is not the remedy for his trouble. It is caused by an over-development of certain brain cells. Just as it has taken many years and possibly generations to effect this development, so it will likewise probably take years or generations of training in sobriety to overcome it.
Likewise, there may be a lack of balance developed in this way in approbativeness, the sense of justice, acquisitiveness, self-respect, pessimism, optimism, physical desires, etc. One may be fully sanctified in heart, yet the effects of depravity in the physical and mental may have to be overcome and struggled against throughout many years. This is why some persons have special trials in one line and others in another. But God’s grace is sufficient for these things. It is here that we need to “grow in grace,” (2 Peter 3:18) and to add the fruits of the Spirit. Some persons by careful spiritual living have done much to overcome these faults, as we commonly call them. We are aware of the fact that some enthusiasts for sanctification would try to have us believe that Christian perfection is almost absolute perfection; but we have tried to claim for it only that which is in harmony with the Bible, experience, and reason.