93. Should a clear evidence of justification precede the seeking of entire sanctification?
This should usually be the case; but there may be exceptions, as in those persons who have lost their justification by refusing to seek holiness. We think such persons, in some instances, may regain the light of justification in connection with their entire sanctification. But God's usual order is, first the light justification, and then the work of entire sanctification.
Many, we fear, who commence seeking entire sanctification in a backslidden state, on being blessed, conclude they are in the possession of perfect love, when in fact they are only reclaimed backsliders. Such often bring reproach upon the cause of holiness. It is very desirable to start in the clear light of regeneration and justification to seek for the Canaan of perfect love.
94. Will you give your views of Mark xi. 24? "What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
There has been some difference of opinion in regard to the meaning of this passage.
1. We do not presume this passage to teach that any blessing can be received independently of the established conditions of its bestowment.
2. No one believes it to teach that faith in the fact of receiving a blessing, is the condition of receiving it. Such faith would involve the absurdity of believing it is done and it will be done. The effort of faith is not to embrace the fact of receiving a blessing, so as to make the belief that we receive, the condition on which we receive.
3. This passage does not teach that any are to believe they receive without a present, appropriating faith in the merits of Christ.
4. It does not teach that any are to believe they receive without reasonable and proper cause for so doing. When a soul is clearly conscious of having complied with the terms of salvation, God's promise and warrant render safe and proper the belief that he NOW accepts and saves.
5. "Believe that ye receive them." When? Just when you comply with the conditions; not before you comply with them, and not after you have complied with them. You are not to believe that you receive them after you have got them, on the one hand, or before you obtain them, on the other.
6. "And ye shall receive them." When? Not before you believe, but just when you believe. "Believe that ye receive; " not shall receive, not have received; but that ye receive just now, while you are believing. "According to your faith be it unto you" is the established order of God and evangelically believing and receiving are inseparably joined together, and can not be put asunder. As when the lungs breathe, the air is received, so believing is tantamount to receiving.
7. "Must I believe I receive the blessing just now without evidence that I now do receive it?" You are by no means to believe without evidence; but the evidences upon which your faith is to rest for the blessing now are the promise, faithfulness, and certainty of God's word, and not your feelings or imaginations, which may deceive you. You are to believe that you receive on the authority of Jesus Christ, you, on your part, having complied with the divinely appointed conditions.
8. The faith that saves, that claims the promise, that relies on God's word, must precede the consciousness or interior witness of possession. There can be no room for saving faith after visible or tangible manifestations, or after the blessing is received. It is a matter of knowledge then.
Mr. Fletcher says: "Beware of looking for any peace or joy previous to your believing; and let this be uppermost in your mind."
You say, "I do not see any evidence, I do not feel any evidence, that I receive the blessing." If you have completely submitted to God, you are to believe, and have no right to doubt God's word because of any absence of feeling. Your faith for salvation is not to rest upon sight or feeling. The Bible says faith is the evidence of things not seen. Faith in feeling, or in seeing, or in the witness of the Spirit, does not save; but faith, simple, naked faith in the word of God, does.
9. Seeing, feeling, and possessing the evidences of salvation must be subsequent to its reception. The blessing is conditioned on faith, and this faith must rest on the truth of God, as the evidences of possessing the blessing can not exist before the blessing is received.
10. Men are prone to live by sense rather than by faith, and are inclined to trust every thing and everybody but God. This passage teaches the great and important duty of entirely trusting and believing God.
Rev. W. McDonald says:--
"If I can not believe for entire sanctification until the evidence of its possession is clear, I can never believe for it; for the evidence of its possession must be subsequent to its possession, unless we receive the evidence first and the blessing afterward. The scriptural order is, faith first, the blessing next, and the evidence last. But with many it is the evidence first, the blessing next, and the faith last.
"This difficulty arises from confounding faith and evidence. That which assures us that the blessing is ours, is the evidence which God gives, the witness of the Spirit. And if we do not believe until this evidence is received, we shall never believe for this evidence which we so much desire is conditioned on faith, which faith must be exercised before the blessing is received." -- New Testament Standard, p. 195.
Dr. True says "You need not be afraid to believe that you receive while you pray; for according to the testimony of thousands, you will thereupon receive the direct witness of the Spirit. This is what you have hoped to receive first in order to believe but it comes, if it comes at all, as the confirmation of your faith." -- Article in the "Guide." Dean Alford's rendering is: "All things that ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received, and ye shall have them."
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