BLJ: Today we look at the negative side of entire sanctification. Many people just want to speak of the positive side, e.g., Being filled with the Holy Spirit. However, the positive side of being filled can only occur when the negative side has been completed, i.e., the removal of the old man, carnality, self. We need both the positive and the negative side of holiness to have the complete picture.
ERADICATION IS ESSENTIAL
Christ-centered or self-centered! "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Josh. 24:15).
CATHERINE'S CONVICTION
In her book, BEYOND OURSELVES, Catherine Marshall taught that "There is no maturity or fulfillment of man's personality apart from the slaying of egocentricity." She then continues: "It was pointed out that the 'have died' is the past perfect tense; it looks back to a definite point in the
ERADICATION IS ESSENTIAL
Christ-centered or self-centered! "Choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Josh. 24:15).
CATHERINE'S CONVICTION
In her book, BEYOND OURSELVES, Catherine Marshall taught that "There is no maturity or fulfillment of man's personality apart from the slaying of egocentricity." She then continues: "It was pointed out that the 'have died' is the past perfect tense; it looks back to a definite point in the
past. Therefore this matter of getting rid of the old tyrant self is a deliberate step, exactly as entering into the Christian life is a deliberate step." Mrs. Marshall goes on to say: "We accept by faith the fact that God has heard us; that the next action will be His. We reckon by faith that He has indeed undertaken the execution." [30]
She seemed to understand clearly that the tyrant self must be crucified. She also understood that we must by faith submit to the slaying, and that God does the slaying, but only with our consent. She ties the "ego-slaying" and the "faith-factor" into one operation, which is very proper and definitely Scriptural. There seems to be no evidence, however, that she understood sanctification as a second definite work of grace, or ever attained unto it.
BLJ: Carnal traits must be surrendered one by one for slaying by the Holy Ghost. The surrendering is one at a time, but the slaying is in an instant and wipes out all carnality at the same time.
It is humiliating indeed when we discover that one like Catherine Marshall, who was not in the holiness ranks, believed in dying to carnal self; while many deluded souls INSIDE the true, conservative holiness ranks believe only the positive aspect of holiness. It is nothing less than a spiritual tragedy in both directions when this lady understood the negative aspect of holiness; while, on the other hand, strong advocates of experiential holiness fall into the opposite peril, denying and rejecting the negative aspect -- death to their own carnal nature -- a position which renders the positive aspects of purity null and void in their own lives.
H. A. BALDWIN'S BASIC BELIEF
H. A. Baldwin wrote: In these days of softness and self-indulgence anything is preferable to death. The cry is for an easier route, a sort of chloroform route in which the seeker can go to sleep and awake in Canaan, or spread his wings and fly over Jordan. The flesh revolts from destruction. No matter how much the seeker for holiness desires to be clean, the dissolution of the self-life is necessarily accompanied with pain. Life is sweet. Men die hard. In like manner the carnal mind refuses to die till it is forced to the cross. [31]
(Notice: in this quotation by Baldwin, the two references to "route," associated with death to the carnal mind. Hence the term "death-route." The term "death-route" is of fairly recent usage, but the idea which it represents is almost as old as time.
BLJ: Don't be afraid of the death-route because the death-route leads to eternal life.
She seemed to understand clearly that the tyrant self must be crucified. She also understood that we must by faith submit to the slaying, and that God does the slaying, but only with our consent. She ties the "ego-slaying" and the "faith-factor" into one operation, which is very proper and definitely Scriptural. There seems to be no evidence, however, that she understood sanctification as a second definite work of grace, or ever attained unto it.
BLJ: Carnal traits must be surrendered one by one for slaying by the Holy Ghost. The surrendering is one at a time, but the slaying is in an instant and wipes out all carnality at the same time.
It is humiliating indeed when we discover that one like Catherine Marshall, who was not in the holiness ranks, believed in dying to carnal self; while many deluded souls INSIDE the true, conservative holiness ranks believe only the positive aspect of holiness. It is nothing less than a spiritual tragedy in both directions when this lady understood the negative aspect of holiness; while, on the other hand, strong advocates of experiential holiness fall into the opposite peril, denying and rejecting the negative aspect -- death to their own carnal nature -- a position which renders the positive aspects of purity null and void in their own lives.
H. A. BALDWIN'S BASIC BELIEF
H. A. Baldwin wrote: In these days of softness and self-indulgence anything is preferable to death. The cry is for an easier route, a sort of chloroform route in which the seeker can go to sleep and awake in Canaan, or spread his wings and fly over Jordan. The flesh revolts from destruction. No matter how much the seeker for holiness desires to be clean, the dissolution of the self-life is necessarily accompanied with pain. Life is sweet. Men die hard. In like manner the carnal mind refuses to die till it is forced to the cross. [31]
(Notice: in this quotation by Baldwin, the two references to "route," associated with death to the carnal mind. Hence the term "death-route." The term "death-route" is of fairly recent usage, but the idea which it represents is almost as old as time.
BLJ: Don't be afraid of the death-route because the death-route leads to eternal life.
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