What is Entire Sanctification or Christian Perfection? Part 1

BLJ: Today we want to review what is the nature of entire sanctification. Some oppose the doctrine without a proper understanding of what the doctrine represents. The explanations from several church leaders really helps you tom understand what the teaching truly is.


What is entire sanctification or Christian perfection?

Negatively, it is that state of grace which excludes all sin from the heart. Positively, it is the possession of pure love to God. "Blessed are the pure in heart." "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "Love is the fulfilling of the law." "The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart." In the grace of justification, sins, as acts of transgression, are pardoned. In the grace of sanctification, sin, as a malady, is removed, so that the heart is pure. In the nature of the case, the eradication of sin in principle from the human heart completes the Christian character. When guilt is forgiven in justification, and all pollution is removed in entire sanctification, so that grace possesses the heart and nothing contrary to grace, then the moral condition is reached to which the Scriptures give the name of perfection, or entire sanctification. Though the leading writers of our Church define this gracious state in different phraseology, there is an essential agreement among them; their disagreements are more in infelicities of expression than in real differences, and more speculative than fundamental. Their essential agreement will be seen in the following quotations:

1. Mr. Wesley says: "Both my brother [Charles Wesley] and I maintain, that Christian perfection is that love of God and our neighbor which implies Deliverance From All Sin."

"It is the loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. This implies that no wrong temper, none contrary to love, remains in the soul; and that all the thoughts, words, and actions are governed by pure love." -- Vol. vi. p. 500.

"It is nothing higher, and nothing lower than this -- the pure love of God and man. It is love governing the heart and life, running through all our tempers, words, and actions." -- Vol. vi p. 502. -- "Certainly, sanctification (in the proper sense) is an instantaneous deliverance from all sin." -- Vol. vii. p. 717.

2. Ray. John Fletcher says: "It is the pure love of God and man shed abroad in a faithful believer's heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him. to cleanse him, and to keep him clean, 'from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit,' and to enable him to 'fulfill the law of Christ,' according to the talents he is intrusted with, and the circumstances in which he is placed in this world." Last Check, p. 567.

3. Dr. A. Clarke: "What, then, is this complete sanctification? It is the cleansing of the blood, that has not been cleansed; it is washing the soul of a true believer from the remains of sin." -- Clarke's Theology, p. 206.

4. Rev. Richard Watson says: "We have already spoken of justification, adoption, regeneration, and the witness of the Holy Spirit, and we proceed to another AS DISTINCTLY MARKED, and as graciously promised in the Holy Scriptures. This is the entire sanctification, or the perfected holiness of believers. "Happily for us, a subject of so great importance is not involved in obscurity."

The reader will note the declaration of Mr. Watson, that this subject "is not involved in obscurity."

Of the nature and extent of Christian purity, Mr. Watson says: "By which can only be meant our complete deliverance from all spiritual pollution, all inward depravation of the heart, as well as that which, expressing itself outwardly by the indulgence of the senses, is called 'filthiness of the flesh.' " -- Institutes, vol. ii. p. 450.

5. Rev. Joseph Benson: "To sanctify you wholly is to complete the work of purification and renovation begun in your regeneration." -- Com. I Thess. v. 23.

6. Bishop Hedding says: "The degree of original sin which remains in some believers, though not a transgression of a known law, is nevertheless sin, and must be removed before one goes to heaven, and the removal of this evil is what we mean by full sanctification." "Regeneration is the beginning of purification. Entire sanctification is finishing that work." -- Sermon.

7. Dr. George Peck says: "By being saved from all sin in the present life, we mean being saved, first, from all outward sin all violations of the requirements of the law of love which relate to our outward conduct; and, secondly, from all inward sin all violations of the law of love which relate to the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will." -- Christian Perfection, p. 65.