SANCTIFICATION IN RELATION TO RECONCILIATION
[p. 307] SANCTIFICATION IN RELATION TO RECONCILIATION
Hebrews 9: 24 - 28; Hebrews 10: 1 - 25
Rem It has been suggested that we should look a little at sanctification in relation to reconciliation.
Ques What is the meaning of sanctification?
Rem The primary thought is of setting apart. The earliest mention of it is in Exodus 13. “Hallow unto me every firstborn”. You get shelter in chapter 12, sanctification in chapter 13, salvation in chapter 14. It is looked at from two sides, positional and practical, absolute and progressive.
FER I should like to hear a little more of what you say.
Rem First you are brought into a new position, and then into a new practice.
Rem It involves that you are separated to God, a new person altogether, not merely being brought into a new place.
Rem If you do not begin with Christ in sanctification you have not the scriptural thought. You have, “I sanctify myself”, that is positional, it is a new position. He is gone up there.
Rem There is a verse too in John 17: “Sanctify them through thy truth”.
Rem The two sides are so distinct and clear. How do you look at it?
FER I accept pretty much what you say, but I do not very much like ‘positional’. I think I know what you mean. Sanctification is in another Man — positional in a sense. The point to me is that Christ is sanctification. He “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. Sanctification is in another Man. It is important to see that sanctification does not apply in connection with the wilderness, but with the [p. 308] service of God. It is being set apart for the service of God, having boldness to enter the presence of God. It is more a complete setting apart for God, the whole body, soul and spirit being preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.
Ques Is sanctification connected with approach?
FER Yes; I think it is being set apart for holy use.
Ques What do you mean by being set apart in another Man?
FER Christ is sanctification, hence it is through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Ques Do your remarks apply to every Christian blessing?
FER Yes. “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”; but then sanctification is in another Man.
Ques What is the difference between consecration and sanctification?
FER Consecration goes further than sanctification. In consecration the hands are filled, which is not the idea in sanctification. The latter is the recognition of being set apart for holy use.
Rem You could not be set apart in the flesh.
FER It involves “the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. The meaning of that is, apart from the flesh.
Rem That is bringing in reconciliation.
FER It is very near akin. Sanctification is our part, and reconciliation is God’s part. Sanctification is by the will of God. Waving the sacrifices appointed before the Lord (Leviticus 8: 25 - 27) with the hands full is connected with consecration. Sanctification is preparatory to consecration.
Rem You could not get consecration without sanctification.
FER I think not.
Ques Would you say a word [p. 309] on reconciliation?
FER Sanctification is on our part, and reconciliation is on God’s part. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them”. We have to be set apart for the service of God.
Rem That is the subjective effect of the truth upon us.
FER Yes; but sanctification is not only that. “By which will we have been sanctified”.
Rem It is absolute in Christ, and progressive by the Spirit in us.
FER It is progressive in one sense, but Christ “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption”. Blood is the witness of death — sanctification is by the death of Christ, “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”.
Rem You might have external sanctification without being really in it.
Rem A kind of sacramental sanctification.
Rem In Acts 26: 18 Paul was to go to the gentiles “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”. The “sanctified” were the remnant of the Jews who had inheritance by faith in Christ, and we have part in it too: “Fellow — citizens of the saints, and of the household of God”. We are associated with the remnant amongst the Jews.
Ques Would the passage in Acts explain 1 Peter 1? The saints take the position in which Peter addresses them.
FER Exactly.
Ques In Acts 20: 32, “inheritance among all them which are sanctified”. Were those only the remnant?
FER All believers, whoever they might be.
[p. 310] Ques Where does Colossians 1: 12 come in? “Has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light”.
FER It is inheritance with the saints, whoever they may be. In order to enter into it, you must take into account the facts in Hebrews 9. First, Christ has gone into heaven, “now to appear before the face of God for us”. Then, “Once in the consummation of the ages he has been manifested for the putting away of sin by his sacrifice”, and He “shall appear to those that look for him the second time without sin for salvation”. There is no revival of what is connected with our responsibility. Every liability has been met, there is no revival of sins.
Ques Why is that in connection with sanctification?
FER To bring out that there is another Man. You cannot revive the Victim — the Priest has been revived, but the Victim is gone, and the one for whom the Victim was offered is gone too. The conscience is perfected for ever by that one sin-offering.
Ques. What is conscience?
FER It is the link between the old and the new, between what we were and what we are. Hence, “By one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified”; they are perfected in regard to conscience.
Ques What is the force of “perfected in perpetuity”?
FER The conscience witnesses that there is no imputation for ever — in perpetuity, without break; not in reference to time exactly, but in the sense of continuity.
Ques “Their sins and their lawlessnesses I will never remember any more”. Is it to the conscience that the Holy Spirit witnesses?
[p. 311] FER The point is, the conscience is in the line of the Spirit.
Rem The Spirit gives us to know now what Israel will know in the future.
FER Exactly so. There are three points: the work of Christ, the will of God, and the witness of the Spirit.
Ques What is the conscience in an unconverted person?
FER It is the witness of error.
Ques Not the knowledge of good and evil?
FER No, it is distinct from that — conscience is a witness-bearer.
Ques What is an evil conscience?
FER When conscience witnesses evil. A good conscience witnesses good — you might say where there is no consciousness of conscience.
Ques Has a man any power over his own conscience?
FER No, except to dull his conscience. In a continued course of evil, it ceases to bear witness, it becomes seared.
Ques Will you distinguish between conscience and a knowledge of good and evil?
FER The effect of the conscience bearing witness is the thoughts “accusing or else excusing one another”. This is consequent on the conscience bearing its witness within.
Ques Did both come in from the fall?
FER No; I think that from the outset there was a certain sense of good and evil, but they got the real sense of good and evil from eating of the fruit of the tree, and then the conscience bore witness to it.
Returning to the subject of sanctification, the central figure of it is Christ. The sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”, and “By the which will we are [p. 312] sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once”.
Ques What is the will of God?
FER All the pleasure of God. It includes God’s bringing many sons to glory. That is a great part of His will, and Christ is the Leader of salvation. “By the which will we are sanctified” involves that we are apart from all that which came to an end in the death of the Victim. It is so important to see that there is a revival of the Priest, but not a revival of the Victim. God “condemned sin in the flesh”. I have to accept that the Victim is gone.
Ques What do you mean by the revival of the Priest?
FER Christ was the offering Priest. He offered Himself, and viewing Him in that character, He, of course, still lives; while, viewed as the Victim, He took the place of the sin-offering.
Rem The sanctified ones are set here for the pleasure of God.
FER But not apart from the Sanctifier. Many make it individual, and leave out the Sanctifier.
Rem And then they get self-occupied.
FER Christ was the offering Priest, not the high priest. He was not in the high-priestly place. The Lord offered Himself. He left the whole scene by the actual offering of Himself here on earth.
Rem For one moment Christ was both Victim and Priest.
FER Yes. The sacrifice has been offered, and there is now no revival of the Victim, but the Priest is revived. He has “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself”. We have not yet sin actually put away, but we have got the sacrifice, and now Christ has gone to appear in the presence of God for us. The putting away of sin is a public thing for the universe.
[p. 313] It is wonderful to me that there is One introduced who is to give effect to the will of God in its whole extent. If people realised that, it would result in a complete deliverance. It is not Christ as Saviour, but as Head. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”. He is the central figure in the will of God. Some limit it to the work, but to me it is the Person. He becomes the expression of the will of God. Everything depends on Him in the new heavens and the new earth. The whole thing is held together in One who became Man — in Him as Man every company and everything is held together as one.
Rem That is, reconciliation is brought in.
FER I think so.
Ques What do you understand by reconciliation?
FER Reconciliation is the heading up all things in Christ. All distance is removed, that God may have complacency. Christ fills the whole place — that is the great point.
Rem “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me ... that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day”.
FER Yes, the last day will bring it all out.
Ques Is a sanctified company a worshipping company?
FER I think so.
Rem Israel will be a sanctified nation, set apart from all nations on earth, a holy nation.
FER Yes, separate from all nations.
Ques To go back a little, what is justification?
FER I thought all were clear as to that.
Ques. How far does it go?
FER A man is cleared in the eye of God from every liability.
Rem But I thought it was that he was [p. 314] accounted righteous.
FER Not in a positive way.
Ques What is the difference between forgiveness and justification?
FER Justification goes farther than forgiveness. There is no imputation. “Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity”. It is not positive, but “justification of life” is positive — life is positive.
Ques What is the difference between sanctification and holiness?
FER If you were holy, you would not need to be sanctified.
You have this thought of sanctification in regard to Israel, a people with God’s sanctuary in their midst — the principle runs through Scripture. The will of God equally applies to Israel. In the meantime, we are as a sanctified company, and “he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. We therefore have “boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus”. We are identified with the Sanctifier; the sanctified are worshipping priests because they are sons. We have sanctification in Christ, and by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once. We are apart from the flesh, and at the same time conscience is perfected for ever.
Ques Could you present briefly the distinction between reconciliation and sanctification?
FER Sanctification applies to us that we may be set apart from the flesh and the world in connection with Christ, while reconciliation brings in the will of God in regard to all things, that God may have complacency in all things.
Ques What is the meaning of progressive sanctification?
FER I do not know. Perhaps — — will explain.
Rem Progressive is connected with progress. There ought to be progress in the things of God.
[p. 315] We ought to be more practical than we were years ago.
FER I am doubtful about progress in sanctification. I think the more you enter into divine love the more holiness is promoted, but not sanctification. The latter is in the will of God.
Rem We are set apart for a purpose.
FER I think so. Everything depends on the One who is the Sanctifier. Holiness may be promoted, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God”.
Rem “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord”.
FER Yes. It seems to me that everything goes on in the saints by the knowledge of God. He is the spring of everything.