The All-Sufficiency of Christ. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The All-Sufficiency of Christ. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. I
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
But what are we to learn from the fact that "sanctification" is placed
in the group with "redemption?" We learn that what redemption _will
be_ to the body, that sanctification _is_ now to the soul. In a word,
sanctification, in the sense in which it is here used, is immediate,
and complete, a divine work. The one is no more progressive than the
other. The one is as immediate as the other. The one is as complete
and as independent of man as the other. No doubt, when the body shall
have undergone the glorious change, there will be heights of glory to
be trodden, depths of glory to be penetrated, wide fields of glory to
be explored. All these things shall occupy us throughout eternity.
But, then, the work which is to fit us for such scenes will be done
in a moment. So also is it, in reference to sanctification. The
_practical_ results of it will be continually developing themselves;
but the thing itself, as spoken of in this passage, is done in a
moment.
What an immense relief it would be to thousands of earnest, anxious,
struggling souls to get a proper hold of Christ as their
sanctification! How many are vainly endeavoring to work out a
sanctification for themselves! They have come to Christ for
righteousness after many fruitless efforts to get a righteousness of
their own; but they are seeking after sanctification in a different
way altogether. They have gotten "righteousness without works," but
they imagine that they must get sanctification with works. They have
gotten righteousness by faith, but they imagine they must get
sanctification by effort. They do not see that we get sanctification
in precisely the same way as we get righteousness, inasmuch as Christ
"is made unto us" the one as well as the other. Do we get Christ by
effort? No; by faith. It is "to him that worketh _not_." (Rom. iv. 5.)
This applies to all that we get in Christ. We have no warrant whatever
to single out from 1 Cor. i. 30, the matter of "sanctification," and
place it upon a different footing from all the other blessings which
it enfolds. We have neither wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, nor
redemption in ourselves; nor can we procure them by aught that we can
do; but God has made Christ to be unto us all these things. In giving
us Christ, He gave us all that is in Christ. The fullness of Christ
is ours, and Christ is the fullness of God.
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