This morning, we are going to move to our tenth Article of Faith, which is:
X. Christian Holiness and Entire Sanctification
Here is the description of this 10th tenet of our faith:
We believe that sanctification is the work of God which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. It is wrought by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit in initial sanctification, or regeneration (simultaneous with justification), entire sanctification, and the continued perfecting work of the Holy Spirit culminating in glorification. In glorification we are fully conformed to the image of the Son.
We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.
It is wrought by the baptism with or infilling of the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service.
Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wrought instantaneously by grace through faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness.
This experience is also known by various terms representing its different phases, such as “Christian perfection,” “perfect love,” “heart purity,” “the baptism with or infilling of the Holy Spirit,” “the fullness of the blessing,” and “Christian holiness.”
We believe that there is a marked distinction between a pure heart and a mature character. The former is obtained in an instant, the result of entire sanctification; the latter is the result of growth in grace.
We believe that the grace of entire sanctification includes the divine impulse to grow in grace as a Christlike disciple. However, this impulse must be consciously nurtured, and careful attention given to the requisites and processes of spiritual development and improvement in Christlikeness of character and personality. Without such purposeful endeavor, one’s witness may be impaired and the grace itself frustrated and ultimately lost.
Participating in the means of grace, especially the fellowship, disciplines, and sacraments of the Church, believers grow in grace and in wholehearted love to God and neighbor.
This Article of Faith is the most poorly explained of all of the Articles. The understanding of it has also changed throughout the years. In fact, it used to be called, simply, “Entire Sanctification,” and did not include the words “Christian Holiness.” Those words were added in the 2009-2013 edition of the manual in order to more adequately explain what the Nazarene church, as a whole, believed.
We are going to look at entire sanctification first, because it must take place before Christian Holiness can truly begin.
Because this is such an important part of who we are as Nazarenes, our district began requiring every district licensed pastor to attend a holiness conference at least once. We found that many of our young pastors did not know how to explain holiness or sanctification. Oddly enough, I understood this concept very well because my dad, the Southern Baptist preacher, preached it all the time. In fact, when I was going through his books, I found one of his very old bibles. On one of the blank pages in the front, he had written (show photo) “Sanctification, the Second Work of Grace.” This is one of the terms that we use for Entire Sanctification.
It is important to understand that the Apostle Paul uses different verbs when he talks about sanctification. When using a verb that signifies past tense or a completed event (like ‘have been’ or ‘was’), Paul is either talking about the Salvation experience or the event of Entire Sanctification, which I will explain in a moment. When he uses a verb that signifies an ongoing process (like ‘am being’), he is talking about Christian holiness.
You have heard me, on many occasions, talk to you about the importance of coming to the place where you are willing to stop driving the car. We sing about this moment in our lives when we sing All to Jesus I surrender. Jesus Himself had this moment when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He asked that the cup of His crucifixion be taken away from Him, but then said, “not My will, but Yours be done.”
I want to explain the process like this: ^when you were lost in sin, you didn’t have a relationship with Christ and He wasn’t in your life. You told yourself “I can do whatever I want to do.” ‘I’ was in control of everything you did. In all probability, if you were old enough, you bought into the world’s philosophy of “if it feels good, do it.”
^^When the Holy Spirit called you and you realized that you were utterly lost in your sin and that you needed a Savior, you repented and asked for forgiveness, and asked Jesus into your life.
However, for the most part, you were still in charge of most of the things that were going on in your life. You probably didn’t give much thought to how you spent your money. Tithing was nowhere near your radar. Your time was your own, except maybe on Sunday mornings when your new Christian friends told you that you should be in church. You gave God His hour and a half per week (that pastor better not go over God’s time allotment). If you were single, you still dated whoever you were attracted to (“I don’t have to date a Christian. If it gets serious, I’ll just start taking them to church with me”). You still watched whatever you wanted to watch and spoke pretty much the same way you always did (“son of a biscuit eater”). You picked that Bible up on Sunday mornings as you left the house (“now, where did I leave my Bible? Oh, it’s under the TV guide”). What you really had was fire insurance.
And then it happened. It could have been anything. Maybe the pastor preached about something that hit you square in the eyes (“has my wife been talking to him?”). Maybe there was a life event that happened that overwhelmed you. Maybe a relationship was close to disaster. Maybe you knew that God was calling you to do something that you had not wanted to do. Or maybe you just got tired of the responsibility of calling all the shots and getting half of them wrong. Whatever the reason, you decided that it was time to give Christ the reigns of your life. ^^^It is as this point that the real work of perfection can begin to be accomplished in your life. This is Entire Sanctification. It is that point that you come to when you allow Christ to really begin to change you from within. In order for that to happen, you had to get off the throne of your life and let Christ run you. That means all of you. Yes, you’re gonna find places, as you go, that you were holding back from Him, but you will become more and more willing to give those things to Him as your heart becomes ever more softened to His voice.
So, that point in your life where you are finally willing to give Him control of your life is entire sanctification. However, it can’t happen as long as you are in control. The Apostle Paul put it like this (Galatians 2:19-20):
…I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
In order to truly have the relationship that we are supposed to have with Christ and come completely under His authority, we must die to self and our own will. Paul told the Romans (Romans 6:11):
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
You see, if you consider yourself to be dead to sin and your selfish desires, or your own will, you will be more likely to relinquish control of your own life to Jesus and His desires for you.
Let me relate this event to you the way my dad would have: When you asked Jesus Christ into your heart, you made Him your Savior, but you were still the lord of your life. When you submitted completely to His authority over you, you made Him your Lord. Salvation (Jesus as Savior) and Sanctification (Jesus as Lord) are two separate events.
So that is what we call the event of entire sanctification. However, that doesn’t mean that the process is over. Far from it. Once that event has occurred, you must begin the process of Christian Holiness. Our Lord was quite clear about it (Luke 9:23):
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Jesus said that we have to deny ourselves. That means that we don’t give in to every earthly desire. We all have things that we are enticed by, but we are required to deny ourselves. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want you to have things. It means that He must be the priority and that there are certainly things that we are not to do because He calls us to be set apart. It was also said to let us know that following Christ was never meant to be easy.
Paul told the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 7:1):
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.
As we have learned in our Bible studies, to be holy is to be set apart. That means that we aren’t to live like the world does. Some people might say that they don’t think that living like everybody else is that bad as long as you’re a good person. That’s not what Paul was just telling the Corinthians. He told them to cleanse themselves from defilement.
As we learned in Bible study on Wednesday night, God expects us to be different. That is holiness. Paul told the Ephesians (Ephesians 5:1-2):
Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul tells us that the correct sacrifice to God is to live in love. In fact, the Bible says many times that obedience is better than sacrifice. And when we have given up our will and desire to do God’s will, He will work on us and in us to change us into the instruments of His will. That is holiness. There are a few verses that I want to leave you with that help us understand the process of holiness. The first one is Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
You see, the act of allowing God to transform us by the renewing of our minds is holiness. We can only achieve this by spending time in His Word and in prayer. Christian Holiness is not allowing ourselves to be conformed to the world.
We live in a nation that no longer values hard work. We want everything handed to us. That is why our post-modernist society doesn’t like the biblical truth that, though we don’t work for our salvation, we do work to become more Christ-like. That is Christian Holiness.
Finally, I am glad that the job of becoming more Christ-like doesn’t rest solely on my shoulders. I’ll bet that most of you can recite the last verse that most accurately describes this process. Philippians 1:6 says:
*NIV
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is the one that started the work in you and He will continue that work for as long as you let Him. It is a true partnership. You cannot do it on your own and He won’t do it without your submission.
Entire Sanctification is the point of submission that each and every one of us must come to if God is going to help us grow in perfection and Christian Holiness is the process of perfection that God has began in us because we submitted to His authority of our lives. It is the walk that God calls us to walk. If you aren’t on this walk, then you are stagnant. Like a pool of water that never moves, your faith will eventually turn sour and unhealthy…
(Invitation)
(Prayer)
*All scriptures are in NRSV unless otherwise stated.
* Humorous illustration from SermonCentral
