Now the graces that have been mentioned, namely, justification,
regeneration, adoption and the witness of the Spirit, are all received
co-instantaneously. They always accompany each other, and whoever has
one of them has them all. The witness of the Spirit, it is true, is not
always a constant experience. It may be intermittent, but,
nevertheless, whenever it is present, it accompanies or attends the
other experiences to which we have alluded. And we may add that all
these graces are but different aspects of the same salvation and are
properly and conveniently designated, in common language, by the single
term conversion, which term, therefore, must be understood to include
and imply justification, regeneration, adoption and the witness of the
Spirit. It is proper, also, in this connection to remark that
conversion is always a definite and instantaneous event, and never a
prolonged process. Just so certainly as every human being that comes
into this world has a definite, natural birthday, so every one that
comes into the kingdom of God has a definite, spiritual birthday. Some
people do not know when their natural birthday occurs, nevertheless,
they know that they have been born. Some Christians do not know when
their spiritual birthday occurs. Nevertheless, they know that they
have been born again. Conversion is the crossing of a definite line
out of Satan's kingdom into God's kingdom. There is no half-way ground,
there is no neutral territory, there is no place where a man can
truthfully say, I am neither converted nor unconverted. One moment he
is out of the ark of safety, the next moment he is in it.
Entire sanctification is an act of God's grace by which inbred sin is
removed and the heart made holy. Inbred sin or inherited depravity is
the inward cause of which our outward sins are the effects. It is the
bitter root of which actual sins are the bitter fruits. It is the
natural evil tendency of the human heart in our fallen condition. It is
the being of sin which lies back of the doing of sin. It is that within
us which says No, to God, and Yes, to Satan. It exists in every human
being that comes into the world as a bias or proclivity to evil. It is
called in the New Testament, the flesh, the body of sin, our old man,
sin that dwelleth in me, and the simple term sin in the singular
number. In the Old Testament it is called sin and iniquity. "Behold,"
says David, "I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me." And when the Seraph brought the live coal and laid it upon the
mouth of Isaiah, the prophet, his words were, "Lo, this hath touched
thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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