Can the human mind produce holiness?
Will intellect narrow its view until we can see God clearly?
Are there truths that will transform the lust of the flesh into beauty?
Can greed be controlled to extol the virtue of benevolence?
Plato spent a lifetime convinced that the soul was made up of three parts: 1. Intellect, 2. the will, 3. desire. His premise was: to be moral the intellect must control the desire by the power of will. Holiness by discipline. Plato was wrong. Intellect is not the path to purity.
The word holy has nothing to do with accumulated virtue. In the Old Testament people, places and things were consecrated holy; separated for service only to God. In the words of Lawrence O. Richards ,"removed from the realm of the common and moved to the sphere of the sacred,". Holiness has to do with position not intellect. Moses, standing in the presence of Divinity, is commanded to respect his position... "Take off your sandals for the place you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Entire sanctification is that moment when we qualify through full surrender and faith to stand forever in the presence of the holy God. Those who insist that we must accumulate holiness by surrendering little bits of our sinful nature over a lifetime are harboring cherished sin. True growth and maturity can only occur after the baptism with the Holy Spirit. God has prepared for us a second work of grace.
Quality of spiritual life must begin with the preparation of the medium. We are the soil in which God plants the gospel of truth. Good soil is cleared of thorns and weeds which interfere with the growth that God desires. Those who ignore the necessity of the death of the earthly nature are pretending to be Christian. They constantly lose themselves in doing good while sinking deeper into personal depression because they bear no fruit. Holding to a doctrine of growing into holiness is like aging your dirty laundry to make it clean..
Our duty is to God. Those who abandon spiritual fruit for good works are simply getting clients dressed up and fed for the trip to Hell. History shows that great philanthropy will not cure the evil that grips a nation. We must get back to the doctrine which sets us apart from the "do-gooders' of this world. God will not give us a place in Heaven because we saved the whale or cleaned the environment. The only passage to glory is clean hands and a pure heart; sins forgiven, and spirit, soul, and body made holy and preserved blameless (I Thess. 5:23). We are a holy people only if we are wholly sanctified, uncorrupted by the earthly nature.
Quality of spiritual life must begin with purity. Entire sanctification is connected to the intellect. Jesus said in the sermon on the mount that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness would be filled. Growth is indeed a relative word. Wesley believed that growth is vital to Christian perfection. He felt that growth, before and after the instantaneous second work of grace was vital. Are you holding out on God? Is there an area of cherished sin that still tempts you from within? Do you long to be the champion of an earthly dream or goal? Satan is the prince of this world and uses good and noble desires to trap the souls of humankind. True quality of life and service cannot begin in the life of a believer until the old nature is eradicated from the heart and soul. Surrender your narrow vision of selfish ambition and embrace the eternal implications of a divine nature.
Pray:
Dear father in heaven: I surrender all cherished sin. every last thought word and deed that interferes with your will. Create in me a clean heart. By faith I claim the blessing of perfect love.
"The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it." - 1 Thess. 5:24
The seed was all the same and right. The difficulty was in the ground (the heart). The seed sown by the way-side is devoured by the fowls of the air (devils). The stony ground does wonderfully well for a time, but is burnt out by the summer sun (tribulation and persecution).
The thorny ground crop survived still longer, but is utterly choked by the growing thorns (the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches). The good ground is a wonderful success, thirty, sixty and one hundred fold.
Now what shall be done? It is God's will that all succeed. We need sanctification right here.
The good is a regular sample of God's plan. When converted, they go right into sanctification without faltering. Their first love is exchanged for perfect love, and there they abide forever.
John Wesley says: Grace Paddy was convicted, converted and sanctified in the short space of twelve hours.
This good ground people came directly through from Egypt into Canaan by way of Kadesh-barnea and had no Jordan to cross.
This is the way God wants all to come. They created the forty years' wilderness journey and the big, rough, rolling Jordan by their own unbelief.
What shall we do with the way-side ground? Fence it in (take them into the church). Then the rains and freezes will soften and pulverize, and receive seed deep down in rich, loose earth where fowls can't find it. So it will germinate, spring up and do well.
What shall be done for the "stony ground?"
Limestone is the most valuable building material and the greatest fertilizer in the world. God wants to give the crowbar and sledge of sanctification to pry out your rocks and break them to pieces. The larger pieces you can utilize to erect your buildings and fences. For the innumerable fragments, God will give you a tornado of fire to turn into lime and make your ground rich as the very garden of the Lord. Thus the power of the Holy Ghost, the fire of sanctification, will make the stony ground good.
Now what is to become of the thorny ground?
God wants to give you the long, sharp mattock of entire sanctification to dig every thorn and root out of your ground, and fire from heaven to burn them up and enrich your soil with the ashes.
I toiled amid rocks and thorns for nineteen years, but glory to God! fifteen years ago the Lord came with a mighty earthquake, and a cyclone of fire, tore up all the ground and burnt the rocks into lime and the thorns into ashes. Since that time I have been singing glory, plowing the rich fields of Canaan. God wants to save all. But only the good ground (good hearts, i.e., clean hearts, washed in the blood of the lamb) will be saved.
The above article was first published as chapter eight of Dr. Godby's book Sanctification first printing 1884.