Spiritual Crucifixion

QUESTION: The Telescope, my religious weekly, in an article on "Spiritual Circumcision" has the following sentences which I wish you to discuss: (1) "Paul makes no distinction between believers, saying that they crucified, while others are not." (2) "That spiritual crucifixion is in the past tense and refers to justification." (3) "There is no text in proof that a second work is required that the believer may be spiritually crucified."

ANSWER: (1) This does not harmonize with 1 Cor. 3:1-3, where "brethren," "babes in Christ," are described as largely carnal and very much in need of such a change as Paul testifies to in Gal. 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer (American Revision) I that live, but Christ liveth in me." Again, in Phil. 2:19-21, Paul sorrowfully complains that even in his company of Christian ministers only Timothy was like himself wholly consecrated to Christ and dead to selfishness, and that "all" the rest of them "seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ." This very plainly teaches that there is a wide difference between Christians, some being dead to self, while others are in great need of self-crucifixion, having a selfish regard for themselves, obstructive of their highest usefulness in places where they may have abundant occasion for self-denial and self-sacrifice in promoting the glory of Christ and the well-being of his Body, the church. The Telescope has made the discovery that "crucifixion and death mean only separation." This is well said and it implies a separation from the bent to sinning sought and found by one who is already forgiven and inspired with spiritual life. (2) Justification or pardon is an instantaneous work done for us. It takes place in the mind of God while the new birth and spiritual crucifixion are definite and momentary works of the Holy Spirit wrought in us, the past tense (the Greek aorist) denoting that each of these works is an act and done once for all. (3) 1 Thess. 5:23 is a decisive proof-text which no opponent can explain away. The Greek word "wholly" is used in the New Testament only here. It signifies "perfect, complete in all respects." "Entire" is in the Greek used but twice in the New Testament, "denoting," says Thayer, "ethically, free from sin, faultless." The aorist tense of "sanctify" implies that the act of entire purification is instantaneous and decisive. A similar text is 2 Cor. 7:1, together with the four preceding verses. What sin can be left after cleansing all defilement of the flesh (sins through the body) and spirit (mental sins)? There can be no other kind of sins. Finally, all prayers for entire sanctification and all exhortations to seek it imply its absence in many believers and the possibility of its immediate obtainment, are such proof-texts.

— Steele's Answers pp. 61-63.

The Measure of the Usefulness of a Preacher

The chief effect of Spirit-baptism is to secure strength of impulse and continuity of effort in the worker himself. Love makes all toil for its object a delight, and furnishes a motive for constant activity in behalf of others.

We have recently heard a venerable bishop quoted as saying that "a revival may occur at any place where are God and a Methodist preacher." We understand by this that every preacher, who is as holy and as believing as he ought to be, may at will, at any time and in any place, see the simultaneous conversion of sinners. The necessary inference is, that all who do not constantly witness this are living in a cold and semi-backslidden state. This inference is afflicting thousands of Christian ministers who enjoy the fullness of the abiding Comforter. Both the inference and the assertion from which it is drawn are untrue.

Spiritual Dynamics

It is generally supposed that the copious effusion of the Spirit upon the believer to his utmost capacity will render him like an electric battery, emitting such shocks of power that sinners will instantly tremble, and fall down and cry for mercy, as did the thousands under the pentecostal preaching of Peter. Such phenomena do sometimes occur in modern times, but they are exceedingly rare. We are convinced that these large measures of power in individual believers would be more common were the whole Church full of faith in her glorified Head. But even then all would not be endowed with equal measures of spiritual power, all not having suitable spiritual capacity. 

Evangelistic or converting power is by no means commensurate with strength of faith and fullness of the spirit or out-gushing emotional experience. Unusual success in this direction requires that there be, in addition to entire consecration to God, a peculiar constitution of the sensibilities, and a personal magnetism' sanctified by the Holy Ghost. It is not derogatory to the Creator to say that he endows men with this magnetic power for this very purpose, not that it may be prostituted to selfish or Satanic uses, but that it may be subsidized by the Holy Spirit and used as a spiritual force to push forward Christ's kingdom. Instead, therefore, of vainly struggling for a gift not designed for us, let us employ to the utmost the gift of which we are possessed, even if it does not glare like a meteor upon the gaping world, nor cause our names to resound through the trumpet of fame. 

Our theory of spiritual dynamics is this: The Holy Spirit sheds abroad love in the believer's heart. Love is power. This power is always efficient to conquer sin, and in its higher degrees to overcome self. But its effect upon others is modified by our temperament and mental constitution.

What is Saving Faith In Jesus Christ?

QUESTION: Briefly describe saving faith in Jesus Christ.

ANSWER: This is a very important request. There is much which passes for faith in Christ which does not save. An eclectic faith does not save, the faith that dwells upon pleasant Gospel truths and ignores or rejects all disagreeable truths. In these days many are trusting in a fragmentary God regarding only the love side of the Divine character, forgetting that he is the Executive of the moral law. Saving faith believes all that Christ taught about heaven and hell, about eternal life and eternal punishment. Saving faith receives Jesus as Lord as well as the Teacher. To Him the will must bow. We must enthrone Him over our lives and render Him unhesitating obedience. Many seekers fail at this point. Again, there must be perfect trust in Him as the only Savior. Many think they are believing in Christ, while they are secretly leaning on their morality, their good works, the priest, the sacraments, the church. Again, an impenitent faith is unsaving. Penitence is the only soil out of which true faith can spring.

— Steele's Answers pp. 60, 61.

A Hypothetical Case

QUESTION: A. and B. are children of God having the witness of the Spirit to their adoption. both aspire after perfect love as the heritage of the believer. A. is suddenly killed in a railroad disaster. According to the Wesleyan theory he is instantaneously sanctified and taken to heaven. Why does God not do the same blessed work in B. who sat by his side and escaped unharmed? (2) Where in the Bible are we taught that he does not?

ANSWER: As there was an element of sovereignty in taking the one and leaving the other, so there may well be an element of sovereignty in the different conditions of their sanctification. B. will be sanctified wholly when, through his persevering faith, Christ is revealed to him by the Holy Ghost as altogether lovely, while A. was in the twinkling of an eye entirely purified when Christ was revealed to his disembodied spirit in the moment of his death. Both had title to heaven and both desired a fitness for their inheritance. The only arbitrariness in this case is the manner in which the transforming vision of the Son of God should take place. (2) This question resolves itself into another, namely, Where in the Scriptures are we taught that all regenerated persons are not wholly sanctified? We answer, All Scriptures which exhort the regenerate to cleanse themselves, and all in which prayer for entire purity of heart is offered in behalf of those who are already justified.

— Steele's Answers pp. 59, 60.

Sin Burnt Out

QUESTION: Is there any distinction between entire sanctification and having the power of sin burnt out?

ANSWER: No. both mean the extinction of the hereditary proclivity to sin, as C. Wesley poetically expresses it:

"Refining fire, go through my heart;

Illuminate my soul;

Scatter thy life through every part,

And sanctify the whole."

 

— Steele's Answers p. 59.

Can Christians Live Without Sin?

QUESTION: Are we to understand that the regenerated can live without sin?

ANSWER: "Sin properly defined," says Wesley, "is the willful transgression of the known law of God." The new birth implants a new principle in the heart which gives him victory over sin. The principle is love to God "shed abroad in the hearts by the Holy Spirit." It is unnatural for one who loves God willfully to violate his known command. Hence John says: "He that is born of God sinneth not." There is an improper definition of sin of a wider sweep embracing the least deviation from the absolute holiness of God, not only in voluntary and intelligent acts, but also in the depraved tendency inherited from Adam and perfectly involuntary. This is called by theologians "original sin." The Methodists, and Arminians generally, teach that this lacks the essential elements of sin which are volition and guilt. From this kind of sin regeneration does not deliver. But it does enable the believer to resist every temptation to transgress the visible, fiery boundary between what is known to be right and what is known to be wrong. It does greatly weaken that "bent to sinning" which entire sanctification removes, but it does not remove the soul from the sphere of temptation. Every soul in probation is within bow-shot of the devil, as was the Son of God himself while on the earth.

— Steele's Answers pp. 58, 59

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EDITOR'S NOTE: I have discovered that people are often shocked to discover what John Wesley actually taught on this topic. Compare what Steele says above with what Wesley says in the quotes compiled here: THE JUSTIFIED AND REGENERATE STATE DOES NOT ADMIT OF COMMITTING SIN.

The Only Salvation of Orthodoxy

Not only does the natural man, devoid of spiritual illumination, strongly drift toward Unitarian views of Christ; but the Christian Church, under high intellectual culture and low spirituality, tends in the same direction. Hence the only salvation of orthodoxy is in the baptism of the Holy Spirit — the anointing that abideth and teacheth — poured by the Divine hand upon the mass of believers. What the world needs is not a mere teacher to communicate something about God, but to know God himself by his own personal manifestation to each heart.

How Could Christ Have Been in Heaven While on Earth?

QUESTION: How could Christ be in heaven while on earth, as taught in John 1:18 and 3:13?

"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John 1:18 KJV)

"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:13 KJV)

ANSWER: The first text, "in the bosom of the Father," we understand as an oriental figure to express endearment, beautifully translated by the Twentieth Century New Testament, "God the only Son, who is ever close to the Father's heart." The other text, "even the Son of man which is in heaven," in several critical texts, and oldest manuscripts ends with the word "man," omitting "which is in heaven." See the margin of the Revision. By this explanation we rid Johns's Gospel of of the unthinkable idea that only a part of the personality of the Son of God was incarnated.

— Steele's Answers pp. 57, 58.

The Only Begotten God

QUESTION: In the Revision there is this marginal reading, to John 1:18: "Many very ancient authorities read 'God only begotten.'" (1) What are these authorities? (2) If this is the true reading, does it relate to the Incarnation?

ANSWER: (1) Three of the four oldest manuscripts, two of the oldest versions, three ancient commentators, and the following critical editions: Tregelles, Weiss, and Westcott and Hort sustain this marginal reading. Several ancient writers quote it as written by John, and others use the expression "the only begotten God," without referring it to the Scriptures, just as we use many scriptural phrases, without saying they are quotations. We predict that the next revision will put this marginal reading in the text, and the present text in the margin. (2) We do not believe that either of these readings relate to the virgin birth. Adam Clarke and Moses Stuart believed that the Logos did not become the Son of God till he became the son of Mary. Richard Watson felt called to refute this error. His extended and unanswerable argument in proof of the "eternal Sonship of Christ" is found in his Institutes.

— Steele's Answers  pp. 56, 57.