“SANCTIFICATION.”
By Ethelbert W. Bullinger
[Selected Writings II. Holiness: God’s Way Better Than
Man’s. 1999, Invictus
for “Truth For Today Bible Fellowship.
This is one of the four things which God has
made Christ to be unto His people. They are:
“Wisdom, and Righteousness, and
Sanctification, and Redemption” (1 Cor.
It is a common practice with those who do not
see the truth of “the two natures” to constantly speak of Sanctification as if
it were a progressive work by which the Old nature is constantly improved until
it is made meet for the inheritance of the saints (i.e., sanctified ones) in light.
But the opposite is the fact. Scripture never
speaks of “a change of heart.” That is man’s formula. God speaks of a “new
heart” being created: but never of the old heart “changed.” True, with
From this it is surely clear that if the
natural man can neither “receive” nor “get to know the things of the Spirit of
God,” how can he be sanctified? The flesh is eternally opposed to the spirit; i.e, the Old
nature is eternally opposed to spirit, which is the New
nature, as Gal. 5:17 testifies. Conflict is not Sanctification! Neither is the
Spirit of God in His operations in our New nature
improving that with which He is carrying on a warfare.
Those who are looking for Sanctification as a
progressive work are looking for a ground of peace in a sanctified nature,
instead of being occupied with that peace which has been made by the perfect
sacrifice of Christ. Instead of being occupied with Christ’s finished work for them, they are taken up with an ever
un-finished work in them. It is a
question of Christ or self; and the only reason why multitudes of Christians
are occupied with progressive sanctification is because it exalts self. Whereas
the work of the Spirit is just the opposite – viz.: to glorify Christ. “He shall
glorify me” were the Saviour’s words (John
“But OF HIM are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us… Sanctification”
This is one of four things which we have in
Christ. Christ is made unto us “Righteousness.” How? And
When? By our works? By anything we can do?
Righteousness is expressly declared to be “to him that worketh
not” (Rom 4:5). So it is with all that we have “in Christ.” As it is with
Righteousness, so it must be with Sanctification. Righteousness is declared to
be “without works,” but
Sanctification is put on precisely the same ground as Righteousness. As we get
the one, so do we get the other, for we get both in Christ.
Surely our readers must see that we can no more work out a
Sanctification for ourselves that we can work out a Righteousness of our
own.
True, it is written of holiness – “without
which no man can see the Lord” (Heb.
True, our walk is marked by failures, and
infirmities, and falls, and sins. This is quite a different matter, our walk is
quite distinct from our standing in Christ, and cannot affect it in the
slightest degree.
“MADE MEET.” This is the absolute truth as to
the present position of all who are in Christ as the result of His eternally
perfect work for us. And it is occupation with Him and with what God has made
us to be in Him that will cause us and enable us to “walk worthy of His
calling.”
It will not be brought abut by occupation with
our walk.
We do not live by the study of biology, or
breathe by the study of pneumatics, or hear by the study of acoustics, or get
warm by studying the theory of heat. In like manner we cannot grow by trying to
add one cubit to our height: or add one year to our life by “talking thought”
about it.
How then can our walk be made worthy of our calling? Only by the word of Christ
dwelling in us richly: only by the application of that word to our hearts.
Hence it is written:
“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is
truth” (John
It is the special office of the Holy Spirit to
constantly apply this Word to us. Hence,
“God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess.
But this is not any attempt to improve our
walk. Thus occupied, the New nature feeds and grows
and becomes strong. There will be growth here, but, as to our standing in
Christ, that is perfect, and in Him we are righteous and holy in all His
righteousness and all His holiness.
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