Courtesy of Chapel Library
A.W. Pink (1886--1952)
What is “sanctification”? Is it a quality or position? Is sanctification a legal thing or an experimental? That is to say, “Is it something the believer has in Christ or in himself? Is it absolute or relative?” By which we mean, “Does it admit of degree or no? Is it unchanging or progressive?” Are we sanctified at the time we are justified, or is sanctification a later blessing? How is this blessing obtained? By something that is done for us, or by us, or both? How may one be assured he has been sanctified: what are the characteristics, the evidences, the fruits?...Are sanctification and purification the same thing? Does sanctification relate to the soul, the body, or both? What position does sanctification occupy in the order of Divine blessings? What is the connection between regeneration and sanctification? What is the relation between justification (1) and sanctification?...Exactly what is the place of sanctification regarding salvation: does it precede or follow, or is it an integral part of it? Why is there so much diversity of opinion upon these points, scarcely any two writers treating of this subject in the same manner? Our purpose here is not simply to multiply questions but to indicate the many-sidedness of our present theme…
The great importance of our present theme is evidenced by the prominence that is given to the Scripture: the words: holy, sanctified, etc., occurring therein hundreds of times. Its importance also appears from the high value ascribed to it: it is the supreme glory of God, of the unfallen angels, of the Church. In Exodus 15:11, we read that the Lord God is “glorious in holiness”—that is His crowning excellency. In Matthew 25:31, mention is made of the “holy angels,” for no higher honor can be ascribed them. In Ephesians 5:26-27, we learn that the Church’s glory lieth not in pomp and outward adornment, but in holiness. Its importance further appears in that this is the aim in all God’s dispensations (2). He elected His people that they should be “holy” (Eph 1:4); Christ died that He might “sanctify” His people (Heb 13:12); chastisements (3) are sent that we might be “partakers of God’s holiness” (Heb 12:10).
Whatever sanctification be, it is the great promise of the covenant made to Christ for His people. As Thomas Boston (4) well said, “[Sanctification] shines like the moon among the lesser stars. Sanctification is the very chief subordinate end of the Covenant of Grace, (5) standing therein next to the glory of God, which is the chief and ultimate end thereof. The promise of it is the center of all the rest of these promises. All the foregoing promises—the promise of preservation, the Spirit, the first regeneration or quickening (6) of the dead soul, faith, justification, the new saving relation to God, reconciliation, (7) adoption, (8) and enjoyment of God as our God—do tend unto it as their common center and stand related to it as means to their end. They are all accomplished on sinners on design to make them holy.” (9) This is abundantly clear from, “The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Luk 1:73–75). In that “oath” or covenant, sworn to Abraham as a type of Christ (our spiritual Father: Heb 2:13), His seed’s serving the Lord in holiness is held forth as the chief thing sworn unto the Mediator (10)…
Not only is true sanctification an important, essential, and unspeakably precious thing, it is wholly supernatural. “It is our duty to enquire into the nature of evangelical holiness, as it is a fruit or effect in us of the Spirit of sanctification because it is abstruse (11) and mysterious, and undiscernible unto the eye of carnal reason. We say of it in some sense as Job of wisdom, ‘Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our
ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof…And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding’ (28:20-23, 28). This is that wisdom whose ways, residence, and paths are so hidden from the natural reason and understandings of men.
“No man, I say, by mere sight and conduct can know and understand aright the true nature of evangelical holiness. It is, therefore, no wonder if the doctrine of it be despised by many as an enthusiastical fancy.(12) It is of the things of the Spirit of God, yea, it is the principal effect of all His operation in us and towards us. And ‘the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God’ (1Co 2:11). It is by Him alone that we are enabled to ‘know the things that are freely given unto us of God’ (2:12) as this is, if ever we receive anything of Him in this world or shall do so to eternity. ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’: the comprehension of these things is not the work of any of our natural faculties, but ‘God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit’ (2:9-10).
“Believers themselves are oft-times much unacquainted with it, either as to their apprehension of its true nature, causes, and effects, or, at least, as to their own interests and concernment therein. As we know not of ourselves the things that are wrought in us of the Spirit of God, so we seldom attend as we ought unto His instruction of us in them. It may seem strange indeed that, whereas all believers are sanctified and made holy, they should not understand nor apprehend what is wrought in them and for them and what abideth with them! But, alas, how little do we know of ourselves of what we are and whence are our powers and faculties, even in things natural. Do we know how the members of the
body are fashioned in the womb?” (13)
Clear proof that true sanctification is wholly supernatural and altogether beyond the ken (14) of the unregenerate is found in the fact that so many are thoroughly deceived and fatally deluded by fleshly imitations and satanic substitutes of real holiness. It would be outside our present scope to describe in detail the various pretensions that pose as Gospel holiness, but the poor Papists, taught to look up to the “saints” canonized by their “church,” are by no means the only ones who are misled in this vital matter. Were it not that God’s Word reveals so clearly the power of that darkness that rests on the understanding of all who are not taught by the Spirit, it would be surprising beyond words to see so many intelligent people supposing that holiness consists in abstinence from human comforts, garbing themselves in mean (15) attire, and practicing various austerities (16) that God has never commanded.
Spiritual sanctification can only be rightly apprehended from what God has been pleased to reveal thereon in His holy Word and can only be experimentally known by the gracious operations of the Holy Spirit. We can arrive at no accurate conclusions of this blessed subject except as our thoughts are formed by the teaching of Scripture, and we can only experience the power of the same as the Inspirer of those Scriptures is pleased to write them upon our hearts…Even a superficial examination of the Scriptures will reveal that holiness is the opposite of sin; yet the realization of this at once conducts us into the realm of mystery, for how can persons be sinful and holy at one and the same time? This difficulty deeply exercises (17) the true saints: they perceive in themselves so much carnality, (18)
filth, and vileness that they find it almost impossible to believe that they are holy…We must not here anticipate the ground that we hope to cover, except to say, the Word of God clearly teaches that those who have been sanctified by God are holy in themselves. [May] the Lord graciously prepare our hearts for what is to follow.
From Studies in the Scriptures by A.W. .Pink, born in Nottingham, England., reprinted and available from Chapel Library.
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1 justification – Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of
Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 32) See FGB 187, Justification, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
2 dispensations – God’s arrangement of events by divine rule and care.
3 chastisements – authoritative corrections of one who is at fault; corrective punishment.
4 Thomas Boston (1676-1732) – Scottish Presbyterian minister and theologian.
5 Covenant of Grace – God’s gracious, eternal purpose of redemption, conceived before the creation of the world, first announced in Genesis 3:15, progressively revealed in history, accomplished in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and appropriated by faith in Him.
6 regeneration or quickening – God’s act of creating new life in a sinner by the power of the Holy Spirit, resulting in repentance and faith in Christ and holiness of life.
7 reconciliation – the change in relationship from being an enemy at war with God to peace with Him: in Christ, God reconciled sinners to Himself by Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection, thereby setting them free to restored union with God.
8 adoption – Adoption is an act of God’s free grace whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God. (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 33, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY)
9 Thomas Boston, “A View of the Covenant of Grace from the Sacred Records” in The Com-plete Works of the Late Rev. Thomas Boston, Vol. 8 (London: William Tegg, 1853), 487.
10 Mediator – a go-between; “It pleased God in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus His only begotten Son, according to the Covenant
made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and Man; the Prophet, Priest and King; Head and Savior of His Church, the heir of all things,
and judge of the world: Unto whom He did from all Eternity give a people to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified,
and glorified.” (1689 London Baptist Confession 8.1, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY)
11 abstruse – difficult to understand.
12 enthusiastical fancy – mystical delusion; misdirected religious imagination.
13 John Owen, “A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit,” The Works of John Owen, Vol. 3 (Edinburg: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1981 ), 371-73.
14 beyond the ken – outside the limits of one’s knowledge.
15 mean – shabby; poor in quality.
16 austerities – rigidly severe self-disciplines; extremely strict moral practices.
17 exercises – causes painful mental struggle.
18 carnality – fleshly, worldly, or sensual inclinations.
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