A Startling Discovery

As time went by, Howard Gray learned more and more to put into practice the things that had been taught him by Brother Miles. He found a surer way to keep a clear conscience. He was learning the way of faith. He had many temptations to trust to his emotions, but gradually he came to know how to maintain a steadfast confidence.

One day he had occasion to go to a city that was some distance from his home. While walking along the street he came face to face with one of his old associates, Jack Lee. After they had talked a little while, Jack looked at Howard quizzically and said, “Sam Logan was telling me the other day that you had gone in with those holy folks out at the Ridge and had become so good you couldn’t sin.”

“Well,” said Howard, “part of your information is correct, and part of it is not. I am attending church at the Ridge now and really have been converted, but I do not claim, neither do any of the others there, that it is impossible to sin. Such a thing would be utterly unreasonable. What we do believe is that by the grace of God we can live without committing sin.”

“Now, Howard,” said Jack, “you know the Bible teaches that everybody sins. Why, I have heard the preachers tell that ever since I can remember. You can’t live without sin; neither can anyone else.”

“How do you know that?” asked Howard. “What sin is it that one cannot keep from doing? Is it not possible to keep from lying, stealing, swearing, gambling, or in fact, from any other kind of sin?”

“Well,” said Jack hesitatingly, “of course one can keep from doing such things, but there are other things.”

“What other things?” asked Howard.

“I—I don’t know that I can tell you, but I have always heard the preachers say you couldn’t live without sin.”

“That may be true, Jack, but the Bible does not teach such a thing. Paul talked about having a conscience “void of offence toward God, and toward men.”* (Acts 24:16) Now, I know by my own experience that one can have a clear conscience and can have the assurance that he is pleasing God in what he does. See here, Jack, you look at this matter from the wrong standpoint. You look at the weakness of man and not at the grace of God. You are not a Christian, and you naturally think of other people as being like yourself, just as I formerly did. Without the grace of God you cannot live without sin, though you can avoid a great many sinful things, but when one receives the grace of God into his heart it makes a great change and makes things possible that were not possible before.

“If you do not love anyone very much, you will not be very anxious to please him, but if you love someone very much, you will have a great desire to please the one you love. It will please you to please him. It will grieve you to displease him. Now, God puts His love in our hearts and we love Him sincerely and that makes us want to do our very best to please Him, and then by the grace He gives us, we can do what pleases Him. Jesus said, ‘If a man love me, he will keep my words.’* (John 14:23) Again he says, ‘He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.’* (John 14:21) He also says, ‘He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.’* (John 14:24) Doing right is not a compulsory thing for a Christian; it is the desire of his heart. He loves God; therefore, he can say with the Psalmist, ‘I delight to do thy will, O my God.’* (Psalm 40:8) When we love God it is not hard to serve Him and keep His commandments and we shrink from sin with loathing and abhorrence.

“There is another side to this question, too, Jack. God loves us, and you know it is not nearly so hard to please one who loves us as to try to please one who does not love us. Therefore, we can please God, for God is not hard to please. God is altogether reasonable and asks nothing but what is reasonable. Two people who really love each other sincerely and try to please each other have little trouble in doing so. It is just that way with serving God. It is not hard to please Him and we love to please Him; so living to please Him is an easy thing. Of course, He requires us to do what we ought to do, but when we sincerely try to do that, our lives are acceptable with Him.”

“Well,” said Jack, “I must say that puts things in a different light. I never looked at it in just that way before. It sounds reasonable.”

“It is reasonable,” said Howard, “and not only is it reasonable, but it is what the Bible teaches and what every true Christian experiences.”

As the days went by, Howard became more and more settled in his Christian life. He came to understand God better and to know better how to serve Him. While this was true, he became aware that there was something within him that did not harmonize with the gracious workings of the Spirit of God within him. There was something that had a strong tendency to respond to temptation; that made it necessary for him to be on his guard continually, and that required an earnest effort on his part to maintain the victory. It was like a foe within him. It was the traitor to his own best impulses and purposes. He did not have that evenness of temper and that self-mastery that he felt he ought to have. Indeed, there was something within him that seemed to be in league with those external powers of evil and gave strength to outer temptation. He was able, however, by God’s grace, to live a life without condemnation before God. But the very fact that such a foe was within him caused him serious disquietude of soul. What troubled him most was that that inner warfare seemed to increase rather than to decrease as the days went by. Not only did this inner foe trouble him, but he had a realization that he lacked something. He was conscious that although he was at peace with God and had many joyful times with the Lord, there was yet, especially at times, a want of completeness, a realization that he lacked that fullness of power about which he had read in his Bible and of which he had heard others speak, and of which he was conscious within himself that he needed.

The lives of some of the people at the Ridge showed to him that they had something he did not have. He felt blessed fellowship with them; he did not feel condemned in their presence, but he was conscious that there was something in their lives that was not in his own. He saw manifested in them a power that was not in his own life, a fullness of joy, an abundance of grace for which he longed. He heard them testify with joy that they no longer had to combat that inner foe. They said it had been cast out, destroyed. Howard had no reason to doubt this. He did not understand just what this difference between himself and the others was; he could not formulate his desires in logical statements, but within his heart there was a yearning for something that he did not have. That something some of the others seemed to possess, and his soul cried out, “That is what I want.” He had heard some teaching on a higher work of grace, but he had been so much absorbed at that time in the contemplation of his own sinfulness and of his need of being born again that he had not comprehended in a very full measure the meaning of what he had heard. He could recall some of it and that seemed to enlighten him somewhat, but to a great degree the subject was full of mystery to him.

Howard made the matter a subject of prayer. He studied the Scriptures, but the result was that he only became more and more conscious of an inner need that he knew not how to express. He determined again to go to see old Brother Miles and have another talk with him. “For,” said he within himself, “he helped me so much when I went to him before that I am sure he will be able to tell me this time what I need to know.” So at church the next Sunday he expressed to Brother Miles his desire to have a talk with him.

“Why, certainly, Howard,” said Brother Miles. “Come and go home with me now, and we shall talk it over this afternoon and take all the time we need to consider the matter from every standpoint.” After they had partaken of a bountiful country dinner, Brother Miles said, “Now, Howard, I am ready to talk with you. I think I know what the trouble is, for I have been observing you and I know some of the things young Christians experience, but go ahead and tell me in your own words just what you have experienced and what you need to know.”

Howard told him of the disquieting discovery of what seemed to be a foe within him and of that lack of divine grace and power that he felt in his soul. He expressed his confidence in his salvation but said that he could not understand that while he had peace with God there was still that inner unrest and that inner foe to combat and at times such a sense of need of more grace and power.

“There was a time,” said Brother Miles, “when I experienced the same thing of which you are speaking. I was converted when I was a young man. I was very happy for a considerable time after I was converted, but then my troubles began. Like yourself I found an inner foe that often caused me sore difficulties. I had no one to instruct me. I battled on against this foe for years. It happened that I found out what it was from the testimony of other Christians. They told me that there was an evil nature within, a nature inherited through our forefathers from Adam. They said that we could never get rid of it, but that until our dying day we must combat it, that we must try to overcome it and bring it into subjection. They gave me no hope of anything but a life of conflict with it. This was very discouraging to me, but I determined that if that was the best experience that could be had I would go ahead and serve the Lord anyway and do my best to overcome this inner nature. For many years I struggled against it. More than once it got the better of me and brought me into condemnation, but each time I went to God immediately and He, in mercy, forgave me and gave me the victory over it.

“But there came one blessed day when I heard the good news that there was a cure for this inner trouble. I heard the doctrine of entire sanctification preached, but it was not in a way that caused me to understand how to obtain the experience. However, it did convince me that there was such an experience for me. I began to seek it at once. Not understanding how to proceed, I did not seem to gain ground as much as I desired. I struggled along for quite awhile until one night the Spirit of God flashed into my soul a comprehension of what I must do. In a little while I found myself able to draw near to God and reach out to Him for that which my heart craved with a simplicity of heart and earnestness and yearning that I had not experienced before. My faith took hold upon God and I became conscious that a change had taken place. I need not describe the emotions of that hour, for they were no part of the experience itself. But from that time on, I have had an experience that I never had before. I have had no further trouble with that inner foe. I have had the conscious realization that God cleansed me from the last remains of sin and that He filled me with His own Spirit and power.

“Since that time my life has been on a higher plane. I do not say that I have lived any more righteously from an outward standpoint; a man must live righteously to be a Christian at all. But I have found it easier to serve God. I have found that that inner answer to temptation no longer troubles me. As I heard one man express it, ‘Whereas temptation used to get right up close to me and take hold of me, now there seems something between it and myself, so that it cannot approach so closely to me.’ At the same time there has been a great deepening of my spiritual life. I have come to know God as I did not know Him before. I have entered into closer communion with Him. I now have richer fellowship with Him, and an inner quietness that I did not know before. The presence of the Holy Spirit within me is more real and more effectual in His working. There is within me a readier response to the Spirit. I do not feel that I am any more a Christian than I was before I attained to this experience, but it is a much more satisfactory experience than that which had preceded it. It is impossible to describe this experience so one who has not himself experienced it can understand it. You can feel your need of it and thus you can realize in some measure what it will do for you. It is not important, however, that you have an intellectual knowledge of all its details. What is really important is that you understand it enough to receive the experience and the details will take care of themselves.”

Howard had listened eagerly, and he now responded, “That is just it, Brother Miles, what I want to know is how to get the experience that my heart craves. I want what I see that you possess and what some of the others at the Ridge have. But I wish you would explain the doctrine to me as far as you conveniently can. I am sure you can explain many things to me.”

“Yes,” said Brother Miles, “there are many things that can be explained. The Scriptural basis for the doctrine can be explained, though of course it will not be needful for me to go into all the details. I can also tell you some of the teachings of the great teachers on the subject. Almost all Christians have believed and taught that man has an inherited nature that was transmitted through the race. Not only has it been believed and taught by Christians in general that there is a depraved, sinful nature in mankind, but it has also been taught by probably nine-tenths of the Christians through the ages that this sinful depravity remains in the regenerated believer. The leading denominations in general have acknowledged and taught that this is true, not only as a theological matter, but as a matter of personal experience. This element has been variously termed ‘native depravity,’ ‘inherited sin,’ ‘Adamic sin,’ etc. One careful writer has said: ‘That man is fallen and sinful by nature has been generally held by mankind. Among all people in all ages men have believed this. With the exception of Pelagians and a few others, Christians have universally believed in native depravity in some sense.’ Again this writer has said: ‘The doctrine of native depravity is vital to the doctrine of the new birth, sanctification, and to an experimental religion generally.’

“I shall now call to your attention some things the Bible says upon the subject. You may get that Bible there on the writing desk, turn to the passages, and read them for yourself. We shall turn first to Genesis 6:5. There it says, ‘And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.’ Now turn to Genesis 8:21, ‘The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.’ David testified in Psalm 51:5, ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ Again in Psalm 58:3 he said, ‘They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.’ There are many other passages in the Old Testament that bear similar testimony to the sinfulness of mankind.

“Turning to the New Testament, we find the seventh chapter of Romans giving a very vivid picture of that inner sinful nature. Paul called it ‘sin that dwelleth in me.’* (Romans 7:20) He also called it a law that was in his members warring against the law of his mind, ‘bringing [him] into captivity to the law of sin which [was] in [his] members.’* (Romans 7:23) He also shows in this chapter the effect that that indwelling sin had upon his life, bringing him into bondage to sin. He wished to do good, but how to perform it he found not. He approved the law of God, but could not keep it because his good resolutions and purposes were overwhelmed by this indwelling sin. In Ephesians 2:3 he said that we ‘were by nature the children of wrath.’

“The Bible throughout assumes this sinful nature in man. Jesus said, ‘Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts’* (Mark 7:21) He also said to the Pharisees, ‘Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean.’* (Matthew 23:26) In studying such a subject from the Scriptures it is necessary for us to keep in mind that they do not teach things from a systematic theological standpoint, but rather from a practical standpoint and whatever theological teaching they may contain is incidental. No, we do not find any systematic theological explanation of the doctrine of native depravity, or inherited sin, but what is everywhere assumed in the Bible is supposed to need no proof. The Scriptures not only assume that this depravity is in the sinner, but also assume that it is in the Christian. This assumption has proved to be a practical fact in the life so that it is commonly acknowledged by Christians everywhere that the regenerate children of God have this element still remaining in them. There are comparatively few who question this: the vast majority acknowledge it. But we need no stronger proof from the Scriptures of inherited sin in the regenerated than the proof that a cleansing is provided after regeneration. It is true that a great many people teach that we never can be cleansed from this inherited sinful nature in this world. This is inconsistent with the teaching of the Scriptures on the point and also with the experience of thousands of earnest Christians, not alone of this present age, but of past ages. Before going further, however, I might call your attention to the fact that a number of the great creeds recognize the fact that this inherited sinful nature still remains in the regenerated. The Anglican Church creed says, ‘And this infection of the nature does remain, yea, in them that are regenerated.’ The Westminster Creed of the Presbyterians says, ‘This corruption of nature, during this life, doth remain, in them that are regenerated.’ Dr. Miley, in his Systematic Theology, says, ‘That somewhat of depravity remains in the regenerate, or that regeneration does not bring to completeness the inner spiritual life, is a widely accepted doctrine.’ Indeed, exceptions are so few that the doctrine must be regarded as truly universal.”

“My experience,” said Howard, “is all that I need to convince me that that nature is still in me. What I want to know is whether or not I can get rid of it. I believe that I can for I believe some have.”

“Yes,” said Brother Miles, “you can, for some have; yes, many have; tens of thousands have. But, while you are convinced by your own experience, it will be a good thing for you to know the Scriptural basis upon which the doctrine of cleansing of this sinful nature is based. Paul, after having spoken very highly of the Christian experience and conduct of the Thessalonians, said to them: ‘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.’* (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24) He prays for two things for them: first, that they might be sanctified wholly; second, that they might be preserved blameless. Then he promises them that God will do both. Entire sanctification, therefore, is an experience for those who already have been regenerated. It is a higher, deeper, broader experience than the experience that precedes it. The expression ‘wholly’ in this text means entirely, fully, completely. The word sanctification always has in it, when applied to mankind, the idea of cleansing. It is never without this idea when applied to a spiritual experience as it is in this text. There is therefore a cleansing of the heart after regeneration.

“This entire sanctification, or entire cleansing, is the work of God, as verse 24 shows when Paul says, ‘Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it,’ and in verse 23 when he says, ‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.’ Entire sanctification, therefore, is a divine work wrought in the soul, a work of purification and cleansing. This is perfectly in harmony with John 15:1-6, where under the figure of a vine and its branches a cleansing is taught for those who have already been grafted into the vine. Jesus said, ‘Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.’ The word purgeth here means ‘cleanseth.’ That is the meaning of the original term employed here. There is, therefore, a cleansing of those who are already in Christ.

“Jesus prayed for His disciples, those who had been with Him in the ministry for three years or more, just before He left them, saying, ‘Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.’* (John 17;17) Verse 19 says, ‘That they also might be sanctified through the truth.’* (John 17:19) But were these disciples already Christians? They were believers in Christ, as many Scriptures make clear. In Luke 10:20 we are told that their names were written in heaven, and in John 1:12-13, we are told that those who believe in Christ are born of God. They were not of the world, as we read in John 14:17 and 15:19. They were obedient to God, as it says in John 17:6, ‘They have kept thy word.’ It was for these same disciples who were followers of Jesus that Christ prayed that they might be sanctified.

“There is another part in this great work that must not be overlooked. Sanctification may be called the negative part, for it is the removal of that inherent nature of sin and the purification of the heart. There is also a positive side that is carried along in the Scriptures with the negative; that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told His disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high, and He also said to them, ‘Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.’* (Acts 1:5) In John, chapters 14 to 17, we find sanctification coupled with His promise that they should receive the Holy Ghost as the Comforter who would abide with and in them.

“In the second chapter of Acts we have a picture of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the mighty outpouring of power that accompanied His coming. He did not fall upon sinners, for Jesus had already declared that sinners could not receive the Holy Spirit. John 14:17 says, ‘The Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.’ Peter tells us what occurred on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost came. In comparing what happened to the household of Cornelius, as recorded in the tenth chapter of Acts, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter says, ‘And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.’* (Acts 15:8-9) Just as Jesus coupled together the coming of the Holy Ghost and sanctification, so Peter in his comments upon the subject linked the two together as being the experience of the apostles at Pentecost and of the household of Cornelius at a later day. The coming of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by a purifying of their hearts by faith, and this purifying of their hearts by faith was what Jesus meant when He spoke of sanctification.

“In the eighth chapter of Acts we have the experience of the Samaritans recorded. First, they received the gospel from Philip, the evangelist. They believed what Philip taught and were filled with great joy, just as are others who believe the gospel and receive divine pardon from their sins. Great joy does not come from just hearing the gospel. It comes only to those who partake of the blessings of the gospel in the salvation of their own souls. Later on, Peter and John went down to Samaria, and of them it is said, ‘Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.’* (Acts 8:17) There can be no doubt that the same result, that is, the cleansing that went with the baptism of the Holy Ghost in the two instances previously noted, accompanied that baptism at Samaria.

“That there should be two works of divine grace is not at all inconsistent when we consider the fact that there are two forms of sin: first, committed sin, or sins which we do or intend to do, and for which we become guilty, and of which we must repent and receive forgiveness of God; and second, that inherited sinful nature, for which we are not guilty, but from which we need cleansing, which still remains in the regenerate heart, and from which, thank God, the Scriptures plainly teach we may be cleansed and thus be brought into the blessed condition of which Jesus spoke when He said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’* (Matthew 5:8)

“We have now noted a few of the most prominent texts that bear upon this second cleansing, and while there are many others in the New Testament that teach the same thing, there are also many figures of the Old Testament that typically teach two cleansings. It would take more time than I have at present to go into the details of these. I shall just read you something from a book I have here entitled Holy Spirit Baptism and the Second Cleansing. I shall read what it says concerning the typical symbolism of the old tabernacle and temple. Beginning on page 77, we read:

The tabernacle was divided into two rooms, called the holy place and the holiest place. At the entrance of these two places was a veil. Two altars were placed one before each of these veils. Blood was sprinkled upon each of these altars. What could be more perfectly typified by these two rooms, two veils, two altars, two sprinklings of blood, than the fact that there are two cleansings in the work of one’s salvation? Outside the first veil was the brazen altar and the layer. On this altar the blood of the offerings for sin was sprinkled. This sprinkling is generally allowed to be typical of justification from committed sin (Hebrews 9:13-14). At the layer they washed before entering the house of God. This has been generally and rightly understood as being typical of regeneration (Titus 3:5). But the blood of sin offerings for the priests was also to be sprinkled on the golden altar inside the first room, before the second veil. Of what was this typical? Christ’s blood was shed to cleanse from sin. If that blood typical of Christ’s blood when sprinkled on the brazen altar typified justification, what must the sprinkling of it on the golden altar typify but the second cleansing or the entire sanctification of the believer?

This is clearly taught also in Hebrews 10:19-22: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Here the exhortation is to “brethren,” those already justified and regenerated, to go “into the holiest” from the holy place where they then were. They were to enter it “by the blood of Jesus,” by which believers have their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience [justified at the brazen altar] and their bodies washed with pure water [regenerated at the layer], which admitted to the first apartment, after which they are urged to go on into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. This clearly teaches that these altars, veils, rooms, etc., foreshadowed the way of salvation and that there is a double phase to salvation entered by a twofold cleansing by the blood. And this agrees perfectly with the idea that the tabernacle was a type of the church, for is it not a fact that the church contains those merely converted as well as those wholly sanctified? This is in perfect harmony with the sanctifying of the church in Ephesians 5:26. Thus we see that the two apartments in God’s ancient house have a counterpart in this spiritual house, the church.

[Russell R. Byrum; Holy Spirit Baptism and the Second Cleansing]

“Of the abundance of Scriptural teachings on this subject, I shall mention one more; that is, the soul-rest referred to in the fourth chapter of Hebrews. Perhaps it does not refer exclusively to the entirely sanctified state, but it is evident that it is more fully true of this state than of the regenerated state. That rest which remains to the end, and into which the Israelites could not enter because of their disobedience, is a rest of soul, as Jesus said, ‘I will give you rest… and ye shall find rest unto your souls.’* (Matthew 11:28-29) This soul-Sabbath well expresses and illustrates the blessed rest of soul that comes to all who enter that glorious experience, entire sanctification. There is a rest of soul in this experience that is entered into and maintained by faith in God. That is the true Sabbath, a rest not of one literal day a week, but a spiritual rest that is constant and abiding.

“Howard, I entered into this rest twenty years ago. I have had soul-rest through all these years. There has been no conflict with that inner foe. To be sure I have had trials and difficulties, for while one may have rest and peace within, he may be beset from without by many things, but these outer things, if met in faith and faithfully, need not disturb that inner quiet and rest. It is only when one has the experience of this rest in his own soul that he can understand the full force of the Scriptural teaching and know within himself the blessed reality of having what Christ promised.”

“I believe this, Brother Miles,” said Howard, “and I desire more than anything else in the world to enter into this experience myself.”

“You may do so,” said Brother Miles, “without delay. Begin to seek the experience definitely and earnestly and it shall be yours.”