No one can ever be fully satisfied in this redemption life until this
second work of grace is accomplished in the heart. Justification brings
us into the blessed kingdom of God's love. Sanctification perfects his
love in us. This second grace enables us to realize not only the meaning
of perfect love, but we also comprehend the glorious fact that God has
wrought in us perfect purity and holiness. This implies our being
perfect in God's will, and because we have yielded our will completely
to him. Every disposition of our will which sought its own way is now in
perfect conformity with his and as Jesus could say in Gethsemane, "Thy
will be done," which meant death on Calvary to him, so we have said the
same to God with a vivid consciousness that once for all it meant death
to us. It has required the perfect will of Jesus to obtain this grace of
sanctification for us, and it now requires our perfect will to receive
it from him. Here is where we can stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God. Another beautiful characteristic of sanctification is
perfect unity. One of the most striking features of the religious world
today is division among those who profess to believe in and follow
Christ. There is no greater evil existing than this. Men have made
creeds and sects and have persuaded the people to join them, until the
disgusting spectacle of division is seen everywhere, and the
non-professing world is amazed at the sickening sight. Hireling
preachers are pleading for their respective denominations, and while
many honest children of God are dissatisfied with this sad state of
affairs, they are taught from the pulpit that God has made these
divisions and it is the duty of every Christian to join and support
them. But such is not the will of God; he has designed that his people
should all be one, and in his prayer Jesus expresses the extent of this
unity. "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be one in us." This certainly implies a
wonderful and perfect unity. Many sect advocates cry, "Impossible,
impossible; God's people cannot be one." But the whole theme of Jesus'
prayer is unity. As we carefully read this prayer we can readily
perceive the divine method to effect this unity. It is plain and
simple: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.... Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word; that they all may be one." Then in Heb. 2:11 we see
again that this is God's plan--"For both he that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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