Section 3

The Way to Christ

Chapter 28.

Bible Sanctification

1. WHAT inspired prayer sets the standard of Christian experience?
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." I Thess. 5:23.

2. How necessary is the experience of sanctification?
"Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." Heb. 12:14, R.V.

3. What encouragement is held out as an aid in attaining this experience?
"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thess. 4:3.

NOTE.-Whatever is the will of God concerning us can be realized in our experience if our wills are in harmony with His will. It is therefore a matter of great encouragement to know that our sanctification is included in the will of God.

4. What distinct purpose did Christ have in giving Himself for the church?
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." Eph. 5:25,26.

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5. What kind of church would He thus be able to present to Himself?
"That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Verse 27.

6. In the experience of sanctification, what attitude must one assume toward the truth?
"God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."  2 Thess. 2,13.

7. What instruction shows that sanctification is a progressive work?
"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Peter 3:18.  See chap.  1:5-7.

8. What description of the apostle Paul's experience is in harmony with this?
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:13,14.

9. By what is this cleansing from sin and fitting for God's service accomplished?
"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"  Heb. 9:13,14.  See also chap. 10:29.

10. What change is thus brought about?
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Rom. 12:2.

11. Can anyone boast of sinlessness?
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8.

12. What are we exhorted by the prophet to seek?
"Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought His judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." Zeph. 2:3.

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13. In whose name should everything be done?
"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Col. 3:17.

14. In all we do, whose glory should we have in view?
"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Cor. 10:31.

15. What classes of persons are necessarily shut out of the kingdom of God?
"For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." Eph. 5:5.  "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Cor. 6:9,10.

16. What must be crucified and eliminated from our lives if we would be holy?
"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience." Col. 3:5,6. 

17. When purged from these sins, in what condition is a man, and for what is he prepared?
"If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." 2 Tim. 2:21. 

NOTE.-"Sanctification is the term used to describe the work of God the Holy Ghost upon the character of those who are justified. We are justified in order that we may be sanctified, and we are sanctified in order that we may be glorified. 'Whom He justified, them He also glorified.' Rom. 8:30. The grace of God is given to make us holy, and so to fit us for God's presence in eternity; for 'without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' Heb. 12:14."-"The Catholic Religion" (Episcopal), by Rev. Vernon Staley, page 327.

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