how entire is entire sanctification

7/28/2019 How Entire is Entire Sanctification

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Entire sanctif ication is the distinctive teaching of churches in the

Holiness Movement. Tragically, both inside the movement and out,

this mirro ring of and partaking of o f God's holiness is a very

misunderstood teaching.

by Howard Culbertson, Roger Hahn, and Dean Nelson

The short course

Background Scripture

Leviticus 19:2ActsRomans 6:1-121 Thessalonians 5:231 J ohn 2:1-2

Question: What i s Entire Sanctifi cation?

Answer: Wesleyans believe that, after conversion, but beforedeath, a believer's heart may be cleansed from all sin.

Question: Does that mean sanctified people cannot sin?

Answer: Sanctified people cansin, just like Adam and Eve couldsin -- and did. However, believers who have moved to this level ofChristian life and experience are more likely not to sin than believerswho haven't. Before experiencing entire sanctification, believersoften lose struggles against inborn tendencies toward sinning andselfishness. After the experience, they find themselves most oftenfeeling a tendency toward righteousness.

Question: How perfect is "Christian Perfection" ?

Answer: Christian Perfection doesn't mean perfect in the sensethat many think. The Biblical word for perfect means that a person

is as complete as he or she was designed to be at that moment. Aseven-year-old piano player might be able to perform a one-handedversion of a song perfectly. When the child does so, his or herpiano teacher might exclaim: "Perfect!" However, as that littlemusician grows up and matures, the same teacher will expect a great deal more.

J onathan Hahn has always been more motivated by recess than by any other of hisclasses. Take it from his dad, Roger Hahn -- one of the authors of this chapter.

When he was in second grade, J onathan managed to spend an entire hour one dayavoiding working a sheet of math problems. Finally, the teacher reminded him that, before hecould go out for recess, every problem on the sheet had to be completed. Within two minutes,his teacher reported, J onathan had written an answer to every single problem. Sadly, every

entire is entire sanctification? http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/

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single one of those answers was wrong. So, the teacher sent the work sheet home forJ onathan to re-do it under the watchful eyes of his parents.

At home, his dad read the note from the teacher and then said, "J onathan, you'll have todo all these problems again."

"Why?" asked J onathan."Your answers are all wrong.""So?" J onathan shrugged. "Nobody's perfect."J onathan's concluding phrase pretty well sums up why many people today reject the idea

of entire sanctification. His words said echoed a once-popular bumper sticker: "Christians

aren't perfect -- they're just forgiven." Those who have felt they need more authority than abumper sticker to sound the "I'm-not-perfect-and-that's-OK" theme turn to 1 J ohn 1:8: "If we

claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

Question: Why teach entire sanctifi cation?

Answer: Contrary to conventional wisdom, catchy bumper sticker phrases, and someinterpretations of 1 J ohn 1:8, Christians within the Wesleyan theological tradition have insistedon teaching a transforming experiences they label "entire sanctification." Why do they do that?

Well, those in the Wesleyan theological tradition teach and preach entire sanctificationbecause the Bible does call us to love perfectly, to live with a pure heart, and to be free fromslavery to sin. Those three ideas are integral to the biblical concept of entire sanctification.

The possibility of deliverance from all sin and of renewal in God's image permeates Holy

Scripture. Take Bible prayers, for instance. Several contain clear yearnings for a holyrelationship withGod(Psalm 51; John 17:17-23); To the believers in Thessalonica Paul wrote thatsanctification was his heart's desire for them: "May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify

you through and through"(1 Thessalonians 5:23).

In addition to prayers for holiness, the Bible contains commands that we be holy. "Be holy

because I, the LORD your God, am holy" is one of several passages that call us to a high

plane of living (Leviticus 19:2; see also Matthew 5:48 and Hebrews 6:1).The Bible also has examples of people who lived in holy relationship with God. Noah was

called "a righteous man, blameless" (Genesis 6:9). J ob, it was said, was "blameless and upright"(J ob 1:1). In his first letter, J ohn remarks: "Love has been perfected among us"(1 John 4:17, NRSV).

Such Bible passages clearly point to holiness as a core message of God's revelation tous. At its heart, the Bible is not about the bad news of defeat and enslavement to sin or of the

awfulness of humanity. Rather, woven through the whole fabric of Scripture is the vision of apeople set apart into a holy relationship with our holy God.Scripture sings out the optimistic Good News that God's grace can give us victory over sin

and can move us into a holy, joyful relationship with our Creator -- a relationship we werecreated to have.

Why is it so hard to understand?

One reason people may have difficulty understanding entire sanctification is that a widevariety of terms have been used to explain it -- words like perfect love, Christian perfection,and holiness.

At times, Holiness theologians seems to say that all these terms refer to exactly the sameexperience. At other times, they try to separate them a bit. That can be perplexing.

The confusion is a bit like the "system overload" a young sportswriter experienced at asports journalism conference in Florida. A group of high school sports writers from around thecountry joined seasoned professionals covering a National Hockey League game between the

Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres. A student from Mississippi had never seen ahockey game. So, he launched a barrage of questions. A veteran sports writer sitting nearbytried to explain the meaning of offsides, icing, a two-line pass, and penalties unique to thegame of hockey. The student grew visibly irritated at the complexity of the game. As irritationevolved into boredom, he pulled out his headphones and music player, abandoning the effortto understand the hockey game going on in front of him.

Suddenly, as often happens during a hockey game, a fight broke out among the players.At that point the student from Mississippi came alive. He nudged the veteran sports writersaying, "Now this part of the game I understand!" he said.


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We don't need a fight to break out in the church to help everyone understand entiresanctification. In fact, fights over holiness (which do happen) only complicate things. What wedo need is a clear explanation that can be understood.

Here is what Wesleyan Christians believe (which many other Christians do not believe):After conversion, but before death, a believer's heart may be cleansed from all sin.

Expressions like "entire sanctification," "perfect love," and "Christian perfection" are some ofthe terms Wesleyans use to describe this experience.

Two words -- "entire" and "perfect" -- have often led to a misunderstanding of thisdoctrine. To clarify these and other areas of misunderstanding, we'll try answering questions

we think you'd like to ask.

Question: Why is the experience called entire sancti fi cation?

Answer: The doctrine and experience are called sanctification because that's the biblical

word for the act of being made holy -- something which begins at the new birth (conversion)and continues until death. The adjective entire comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 where Paul

prays that the God of peace will sanctify believers "entirely" (NRSV) or "wholly" (RSV).In the 1700's the founder of Methodism, J ohn Wesley, understood this. He often spoke of

the experience of being sanctified "entirely" or "wholly."Using those two adjectives can raise even further questions, however. Scripture clearly

says that though sanctification begins in a moment, growth in becoming more like Christhappens throughout one's lifetime. Thus, one can legitimately ask: How can one point fairly

early in that process be called entire if further sanctification cames after it?

Question: How did the word "perfect" get linked to t his experience?

Answer: J ohn Wesley himself said that the only reason he used this word the word"perfect" is because the Bible spoke of perfection. Wesley, however, did insist that the wordsperfect and perfection never be used by themselves to describe the experience. He urged his

followers to always say Christian perfection rather than simply perfection and perfected in

love rather than just perfected.

The original biblical words for perfect and perfection do not mean absolute perfection withno possibility for more improvement. The Hebrew and Greek words mean that a person orthing is as complete as it was designed or expected to be at that moment.

This can be illustrated by the marriage relationship. When two people decide to getmarried, they make commitments to each another. They decide that they will no longer livetheir lives separately. On their wedding day the marriage relationship is as complete as it canbe that day. As the marriage continues, however, the couple can grow in the relationship.

Was this couple's relationship less complete on the wedding day than it was at ananniversary many years later? No. It was as complete as it could be at each moment.

That is what Christian perfection is like. We can -- and must -- grow each day in ourrelationship with God. We are perfect at each moment of growth, as a result of having aperfect God residing in us.

Remember the example of the piano player? A little girl would likely play a simpleone-hand piece on the piano for her first recital. Her teacher may well exclaim, "That wasperfect!" Years later when that girl has grown into an accomplished musician, she could notexpect to play the same simple piece and have her teacher still be exclaiming: "That was

perfect!" Much more would be expected of her.Likewise, when a person comes to love God with an undivided heart, the Bible says this is

perfect love. That does not mean that no further growth is possible. In fact, the contrary istrue. Once we love perfectly, or completely, that's when growth becomes possible.

Question: What happens to sin when I am entirely sancti fied?

Answer: Sin, in the sense of worshiping self instead of God, rules the life of an unbeliever.In conversion, the ruling power of sin is broken, but the results of that life of sin remain.

Wesley and other theologians have described this sin that crops up in the lives of believersas including things like pride, self-will, and inappropriate desires. These are not outward actsthat clearly break the commands of Scripture for Wesley taught that such blatant sins


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stopped when a person was converted.The sin remaining in believers, he said, reflects a disposition or tendency of the heart

toward self-centeredness rather than God-centeredness. Entire sanctification cleanses theheart of this self-centeredness, bringing victory over this sin that remains in the believer. Todescribe what happens here, Wesley used Paul's words in Romans 6:11-12: "Count

yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in

your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires."

Question: Does this mean that an entirely sancti fied person cannot sin?

Answer: No, being entirely sanctified doesn't mean that a person will not sin again. Entiresanctification is not a Wesleyan form of eternal security, teaching that, once we're in, we're infor good.

The point of entire sanctification is to restore people to the kind of holiness that Adam andEve enjoyed before the Fall. They had a perfect relationship with God. Yet, inexplicably, theychose to sin.

Entire sanctification means that a person's tendency -- some call it "bent" -- is towardrighteousness rather than toward sinning. The goal and the reasonable expectation of theentirely sanctified life is to not sin, as 1 J ohn 2:1 makes clear: "My dear children, I write this

to you so that you will not sin." The expectation was that the believers would live as Christ

lived and do His will. Sanctified people not only do the will of God but also want to do the willof God. [ see illustration from Greek mythology ]

Question: What if I do sin?

Answer: First J ohn 2:1-2 answers that question of what a believer should do when he orshe sins:

Confess it1.Seek forgiveness2.Stop doing it3.Accept Christ's atonement4.

So, those of us who talk about entire sanctification must resist the temptation to deny thatwe have sinned, if indeed we have. We should also refrain from giving sin less offensivenames, such as "mistake," to downplay what we have done. (By the same token, we do notuse the word "sin" for honest mistakes or even just plain poor judgment.) [Susanna Wesley'sdefinition of sin ]

Sins of unbelievers and Christians alike violate the law of God and need the atoning bloodof Christ. When promptly confessed and forsaken, sins need not break the relationshipbetween the believer and God.

Question: How does entire sancti fication take place?

Answer: A believer with little or no "hunger and thirst for righteousness" -- as J esus said inMatthew 5:6 -- is not a candidate for entire sanctification. The experience comes only afterthe new birth and growth in grace.

Total commitment -- sometimes called entire consecration -- is the necessary humanpreparation for entire sanctification.

Wesley himself cautioned against preaching this experience to believers who were notpressing on toward the goal of spiritual maturity mentioned in Philippians 3:14.

Entire sanctification builds on a certain measure of spiritual maturity, so in most believersthere is a gradual leading up to it. However, since entire sanctification is also death to sin,there is a noticeable crisis or instant in which the experience takes place.

Some people say they can point to more than one occasion when this death occurred.However, Wesley compared death to sin with a physical death. A person may be dying forsome time, but there is an instant when life ceases. Likewise, a person may be graduallydying to sin and becoming more Christlike over a long period of time. Wesley and otherswould say there does come a point when death finally happens and the believer may be said


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to be dead to the power of sin.Paul Pate -- a 45-year-old landscaper, husband, and father of three in San Diego --

describes his experience of entire sanctification. He had been a Christian for 20 years when itbegin to gnaw at him that he was missing something in his spiritual life:

"I was a believer -- I had had a powerful conversion experience -- but therewas no power in my life. Instead of attempting to be victorious over sin, Irationalized away its existence in my life. I was like most people around me:good folks who love God, love our neighbors, share our testimony when asked,

and focus our lives on our rents, mortgage payments, jobs, and getting ahead."After spending a lot of time in God's Word, Paul Pate came upon Deuteronomy 4:28-29:

"There you will worship gods made by human hands out of wood and stone, gods that can

neither see nor hear, neither eat nor smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God,

you will find him, if indeed you search with all your heart and soul" (NEB).

Paul described what happened at that point:

"I was so dissatisfied with my life at that point, and when I read this Idecided that is what I wanted. I felt like I had only known God as a concept.Now Jesus was saying to me what He said to His disciples in J ohn 14: Have I

been with you so long and you still don't know Me?

"I wanted to know Christ as I had never known Him before."

More than a year after that search began, Paul was driving home from his sister's housein Ramona, California. Suddenly, he says, "I connected."

The presence of God filled Paul's truck in such a way that he began to weep. "On thatdrive," he said, "I reached a new level of intimacy. And then I wondered how I could haveknown Christ so long and missed this!"

Brennan Manning described a similar experience in his book The Ragamuffin Gospel.

Manning was on a winter retreat when one thought kept resounding in him during times ofsolitude: "J esus did not say this on Calvary, though He could have, but He is saying it now; I'm

dying to be with you. I'm really dying to be with you." "It was as if He were calling to me for a

second time," Manning said, "I realized that what I thought I knew was straw. I had scarcelyglimpsed, I had never dreamed what His love could be. The Lord drove me deeper intosolitude. I sought not tongues, healing, prophecy, or good religious experience each time I

prayed. My quest was for understanding and for pure, passionate Presence."1

More important than human consecration and the length of time involved is the fact that itis God who entirely sanctifies. Cleansing from sin is not something we do for ourselves; it is agift from God. Because it is God's gift, there is also a certain mystery to it. As BrennanManning and Paul Pate discovered, we cannot schedule entire sanctification to happen at ourcommand.

Question: What's left after entire sancti fi cation?

Answer: Entire sanctification is not the final goal of the Christian life. It's really just thebeginning point -- a vital step in the lifelong process of being made more like Christ.

J ohn Wesley put it this way: justification (forgiveness of sins) is the porch; entiresanctification is the door; but the house is full fellowship with God.

So, entire sanctification is the way we enter the fullness of the Christian life. The door isnot where we're headed; we want to get inside the house so that we can enjoy full fellowshipwith God.

Maintaining full fellowship with God is something the apostle Paul said was his lifelongpassion: "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I

press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me"(Philippians 3:12).

Question: What happens to me when I am entirely sancti fied?

Answer: Wesley said that entire sanctification enables people to fulfill the GreatCommandments enunciated by J esus: Love God with the whole heart, soul, mind, andstrength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself(Mark 12:30-31).


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Wesley observed that a person who had entered the experience usually felt a great senseof joy and peace. However, he also noticed that most who had experienced entiresanctification did encounter fluctuations -- peaks and valleys -- in their sense of joy andpeace.

So, though entire sanctification radically changes our desire and ability to show love, itrarely changes our basic personality. "Driven" sinners become "driven" Christians, and theymay remain so through a lifetime of sanctification. Laid-back sinners become laid-backChristians who rarely show outward signs of excitement when they are entirely sanctified. Inthis vein, religion professor Malcolm Shelton would often quip: "Some people are better by

nature than others are by grace."People tend to make their own experiences the standard for other people. Thus, thesearch for clear evidences of entire sanctification has led to some unpleasant results. Somepeople have given up hope of being entirely sanctified because they were fairly sure theirpersonalities would not allow them to exactly match another person's experience. Recognizingthe variety of ways the work of sanctification affects individuals may help us restore this hope.

Through the years, some people who believed they were entirely sanctified have shownunusual responses at that moment. Shouting, running, jumping, and weeping have all beendescribed -- and in some cases promoted -- as evidences of entire sanctification. It is clear,however, that people who have exhibited dramatic physical demonstrations have had nobetter track record in growing in grace following entire sanctification than other people whohave not experienced dramatic outward responses. Clearly, outward physical demonstrationsare not a dependable confirmation of the inward work of sanctification.

Some Christians today teach that speaking in tongues is evidence of entire sanctification.That belief is not supported either in Scripture or by experience.

We human beings cannot precisely measure the real evidence of entire sanctification.That's because the evidence is an increasing Christ-likeness. The evidence is the image ofGod becoming increasingly visible in a believer's life.

Question: Will there be people in heaven who have not experienced entire

sanctification?

Answer:

Heaven is not reserved just for Wesleyans or for those who use the phrase "entiresanctification." Plenty of devoted Christians outside the Wesleyan movement have

found this kind of relationship with Christ. Christian leaders like Billy Graham and LloydJ ohn Ogilvie -- neither of whom would consider themselves Wesleyan -- tell abouthaving a second and distinct experience of sanctifying grace. These men do not useWesleyan terminology, but their testimonies are easily recognized by people inWesleyan circles. Sadly, in churches where entire sanctification is not preached andtaught, such testimonies are too often the exception. That's why one reason theWesleyan movement must clearly enunciate God's call to holiness as well as Hisprovision for it.

1.

Since Wesley taught there was usually a period of maturing that must occur betweenthe moment of salvation and the work of sanctification, there may be some in heavenwho were in this "in between" period when they died. Eternal life is promised to allthose who believe.

2.

However, for those who have been saved and have knowingly rejected the Holy Spirit'sleading into entire sanctification, a heavenly destination may not be guaranteed. Weare called to walk in all the light that has been revealed to us.

3.

One popular theological tradition says that all believers sin every day in thought, word, anddeed. That seems so much less than the victory over sin promised by the Bible. Across theyears far too many Christians have settled for too little, emphasizing human frailties and thepervasiveness of sin. Caving into the argument that a person is doomed to stumble along inconstant failure, they have lived defeated lives. Some have given up Christianity altogether.Not only did individuals suffer personal defeat, but the reputation of the Kingdom alsosuffered.

As human beings, we were created in the image of God to live in holy fellowship with Him.Much of that fellowship was lost to sin. The experience of heart holiness offers us a


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restoration that put us back on track to fulfilling God's original plan.Because of this, genuine, wholehearted love for God, our neighbors, and the rest of His

creation is possible for us again. The doctrine of entire sanctification is the door that leads usinto glorious, full and perfect fellowship with God.

1Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah Press , 1990), 168.

Re-minting Christian Holiness" -- website by Nazarene Theological College inManchester

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