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‎"Yes, my reader, it is possible to work in the name of Christ, and even to preach in His name, and though the world knows us, and the Church knows us, yet to be unknown to the Lord! How necessary it is then to find out where we really are; to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith; to measure ourselves by the Word of God and see if we are being deceived by our subtle Enemy; to find out whether we are building our house upon the sand, or whether it is erected on the Rock which is Christ Jesus." ~ A.W. Pink

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"They are Arminians to a man; they deny the absolute sovereignty of God, his eternal choice of an elect people, and that Christ bore their sins only. They deny the total depravity of man, for they insist that he possesses a free will and can accept Christ and be saved by a decision of his own; thus directly repudiating God’s word, as found in John 1:13; 6;44; 8:36; Rom 9:16, and other passages. And where any teacher or preacher is unsound on these basic truths, no confidence must be placed on him on any other subject. If he is all wrong at the foundations, his superstructure is bound to be faulty."

A. W. Pink

Justification and Sanctification

Courtesy Chapel Library

A.W. Pink

(1886-1952)

There are two principal effects that sin produces that cannot be separated: the filthy defilement it causes, [and] the awful guilt it entails. Thus, salvation from sin necessarily requires both a cleansing and a clearing of the one who is to be saved. Again: there are two things absolutely indispensable in order for any creature to dwell with God in heaven: a valid title to that inheritance, [and] a personal fitness to enjoy such blessedness. The one is given in justification; the other is commenced in sanctification. The inseparability of the two things is brought out in [the following verses]…“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1Co 1:30). “But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified” (1Co 6:11). “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jo 1:9).

“These blessings walk hand in hand; and never were, never will be, never can be parted. No more than the delicious scent can be separated from the beautiful bloom of the rose or carnation: let the flower be expanded, and the fragrance transpires. Try if you can separate gravity from the stone or heat from the fire. If these bodies and their essential properties, if these causes and their necessary effects, are indissolubly connected, so are our justification and our sanctification.”(43)

“For like as though Adam alone did personally break the first covenant (44) by the all-ruining offence, yet they to whom his guilt is imputed do thereupon become inherently sinful through the corruption of nature conveyed to them from him, so…Christ alone did perform the condition of the second covenant. (45) [And] those to whom His righteousness is imputed do thereupon become inherently righteous through inherent grace communicated to them from Him by the Spirit. So teacheth the Apostle in…Rom 5:17, ‘For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.’ How did death reign by Adam’s offence? Not only in point of guilt whereby his posterity were bound over to destruction, but also in point of their being dead to all good, dead in trespasses and sins. Therefore, the receivers of the gift of righteousness must thereby be brought to reign in life, not only legally in justification, but also morally in sanctification.” (46)

Though absolutely inseparable, yet these two great blessings of Divine grace are quite distinct. In sanctification, something is actually imparted to us; in justification, it is only imputed. Justification is based entirely upon the work Christ wrought for us; sanctification is principally a work wrought in us. Justification respects its object in a legal sense and terminates in a relative change—a deliverance from punishment, a right to the reward; sanctification regards its object in a moral sense and terminates in an experimental change both in character and conduct—imparting a love for God, a capacity to worship Him acceptably, and a [fitness] for heaven. Justification is by a righteousness [outside of] us; sanctification is by a holiness wrought in us. Justification is by Christ as Priest and has regard to the penalty of sin; sanctification is by Christ as King and has regard to the dominion of sin: the former cancels its damning power; the latter delivers from its reigning power.

They differ, then, in their order (not of time, but in their nature), justification preceding, [and] sanctification following: the sinner is pardoned and restored to God’s favor before the Spirit is given to renew him after His image. They differ in their design: justification removes the obligation unto punishment; sanctification cleanses from pollution. They differ in their form: justification is a judicial act by which the sinner is pronounced righteous; sanctification is a moral work by which the sinner is made holy: the one has to do solely with our standing before God, the other chiefly concerns our state. They differ in their cause: the one issuing from the merits of Christ’s satisfaction; the other proceeding from the efficacy of the same. They differ in their end: the one bestowing a title to everlasting glory; the other being the highway that conducts us thither. “And an highway shall be there…and it shall be called The way of holiness” (Isa 35:8).

From Studies in the Scriptures, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.
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42 See FGB 193, Hypocrisy, available from CHAPEL LIBRARY.

43 James Hervey (1714-1758), Theron and Aspasio: A Series of Dialogues and Letters upon the Most Important and Interesting Subjects, Vol. 2 (London: Rivington, 1789), 67.

44 first covenant or Covenant of Works – the agreement or administration that God established with Adam in the Garden of Eden before his fall into sin. It established man’s obligation to obey God with the penalty of death for disobedience (Gen 2:16-17).

45 second covenant or Covenant of Grace.

46 Thomas Boston, “A View of the Covenant of Grace from the Sacred Records” in The Complete Works of the Late Rev. Thomas Boston, Vol.8 (London: William Tegg, 1853), 454.

The Importance of Sanctification

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.

What is Apostasy?

Courtesy Chapel Library - Free Grace Broadcaster #205 - Fall 2008

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

What is Apostasy?

In the past, dear reader, there have been thousands who were just as confident that they had been genuinely saved and were truly trusting in the merits of the finished work of Christ to take them safely through to Heaven, as you may be. Nevertheless, they are now in the torments of Hell. Their confidence was a carnal one…They were too confident that their faith was a saving one to thoroughly, searchingly, frequently test it by the Scriptures, to discover whether or not it was bringing forth those fruits that are inseparable from the faith of God’s elect. If they read an article like this, they proudly concluded that it belonged to someone else. So cocksure were they that they were born again so many years ago, they refused to heed the command of 2 Corinthians 13:5: “Prove your own selves.” Now it is too late. They wasted their day of opportunity, and the “blackness of darkness” is their portion forever.

In view of this solemn and awful fact, the writer earnestly calls upon himself and each reader to get down before God and sincerely cry, “Search me, O God: reveal me to myself. If I am deceived, undeceive me ere (1) it be eternally too late. Enable me to measure myself faithfully by Thy Word, so that I may discover whether or not my heart has been renewed, whether I have abandoned every course of self-will and truly surrendered to Thee; whether I have so repented that I hate all sin and fervently long to be free from its power, loathe myself and seek diligently to deny myself; whether my faith is that which overcomes the world (1Jo 5:4) or whether it be only a mere notional thing which produces no godly living; whether I am a fruitful branch of the vine or only a cumberer (2) of the ground; in short, whether I be a new creature in Christ or only a painted hypocrite.” If I have an honest heart, then I am willing, yea anxious to face and know the real truth about myself.

Perhaps some readers are ready to say, “I already know the truth about myself. I believe what God’s Word tells me: I am a sinner with no good thing dwelling in me. My only hope is in Christ.” Yes, dear friend, but Christ saves His people from their sins. Christ sends His Holy Spirit into their hearts, so that they are radically changed from what they were previously. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of God in the hearts of those He regenerates, and that love is manifested by a deep desire and sincere determination to please Him Who loves me. When Christ saves a soul, He saves not only from Hell, but from the power of sin. He delivers him from the dominion of Satan and from the love of the world. He delivers him from the fear of man, the lusts of the flesh, the love of self. True, He has not yet completed this blessed work. True, the sinful nature is not yet eradicated. But one who is saved has been delivered from the dominion of sin (Rom 6:14). Salvation is a supernatural thing that changes the heart, renews the will, transforms the life, so that it is evident to all around that a miracle of grace has been wrought…A faith that does not issue in godly living, in an obedient walk, in spiritual fruit, is not the faith of God’s elect. O my reader, I beg you to diligently and faithfully examine yourself by the light of God’s unerring Word. Claim not to be a child of Abraham, unless you do the works of Abraham (Joh 8:39).

What is apostasy? It is a making shipwreck of the faith (1Ti 1:19). It is the heart’s departure from the living God (Heb 3:13). It is a returning to and being overcome by the world, after a previous escape from its pollutions through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Pe 2:20). There are various steps that precede it. First, there is a looking back (Luk 9:62), like Lot’s wife, who though she had outwardly left Sodom, yet her heart was still there. Second, there is a drawing back (Heb 10:38): the requirements of Christ are too exacting to any longer appeal to the heart. Third, there is a turning back (Joh 6:66): the path of godliness is too narrow to suit the lustings of the flesh. Fourth, there is a falling back, which is fatal: “That they might go and fall backward, and be broken” (Isa 28:13).

From Studies in the Scriptures, reprinted by Chapel Library.
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(1) ere - before
(2) cumberer - that which clutters.

A.W. Pink (1886--1952): --1952): Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, author of Studies in the Scriptures and many books including his well-known The Sovereignty of God; born in Great Britain, immigrated to the U.S., and later returned to his homeland in 1934; born in Nottingham, England.

Gleanings in the Godhead - 1. The Solitariness of God

by A.W. Pink

Revised: February 14, 2005

Part 1: Excellencies Which
Pertain to the Godhead as God

1. The Solitariness of God

Perhaps The Title of the chapter is not sufficiently explicit to indicate its theme. This is partly because so few are accustomed to meditate upon the personal perfections of God. Comparatively few who occasionally read the Bible are aware of the awe-inspiring and worship-provoking grandeur of the divine character. That God is great in wisdom, wondrous in power, yet full of mercy is assumed by many as common knowledge. But to entertain anything approaching an adequate conception of His being, nature, and attributes, as revealed in the Scripture, is something which very few people in these degenerate times have done. God is solitary in His excellency. "Who is like unto Thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Ex. 15:11).

"In the beginning, God" (Gen. 1:1). There was a time, if "time" it could be called, when God, in the unity of His nature (though subsisting equally in three persons), dwelt all alone. "In the beginning, God." There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to sing His praises. There was no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that not for a day, a year, or an age, but "from everlasting." During a past eternity God was alone—self-contained, self-sufficient, in need of nothing. Had a universe, or angels, or humans been necessary to Him in any way, they also would have been called into existence from all eternity. Creating them when He did added nothing to God essentially. He changes not (Mal. 3:6), therefore His essential glory can be neither augmented nor diminished.

God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His own good pleasure; for He "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11). That He did create was simply for His manifestative glory. Do some of our readers imagine that we have gone beyond what Scripture warrants? Then we appeal to the Law and the testimony: "Stand up and bless the LORD, your God, for ever and ever; and blessed be thy glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise" (Neh. 9:5). God is no gainer even from our worship. He was in no need of that external glory of His grace which arises from His redeemed, for He is glorious enough in Himself without that. What was it that moved Him to predestinate His elect to the praise of the glory of His grace? It was "according to the good pleasure of His will" (Eph. 1:5).