THE SECOND CRISIS IN CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
26 -- HOLINESS ALL INCLUSIVE
The experience of holiness includes all that is comprehended
by the terms, "entire sanctification," "the baptism with the
Holy Ghost," "perfect love," "the fullness of the
blessing," "filled with the spirit," "second
blessing," "heart purity," etc. While these terms are not
synonymous, because they represent different phases of the experience, no one
can have the experience of holiness without having all that these various terms
stand for.
In some localities there are those who teach that a person
should "seek their Pentecost," and "be baptized with the Holy
Ghost and fire" after they are sanctified. We would insist that it is the
baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire that sanctifies and makes us holy. Whoever
is truly sanctified and in the experience of holiness, has the baptism with
the Holy Ghost and fire. Hence they, who have not had their Pentecost, or the
baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, have not been sanctified and made holy.
These terms do not represent two or three different experiences. To have the
one is to have the other.
As in the experience of justification there is the pardon of
sin, the "washing of regeneration," the quickening into newness of
life, adoption, and the witness of the Spirit, and whoever has the one has the
other, seeing they are inseparable, so it takes all that is included by the
first named terms to make up the experience of holiness. Not only so, but he
who has the experience of holiness has all that is included in the terms used
to indicate and designate the experience of justification.
While there is a constant and endless development, expansion
and growth in grace in the experience of holiness, we would insist there is no
other work of grace, or higher state of grace than is comprehended in the
experience of holiness, until we reach the state of glorification. So when any
one pretends or professes to have an experience or something better or superior
to the experience of holiness, we know they have become unscriptural and
fanatical. There is positively nothing better than the experience of holiness
in this life; and what is more, they who in reality have the experience of
holiness want nothing better.
The gifts of the Spirit, such as the "gifts of
healing," miracles," "speaking with tongues," etc., are all
of less value than the experience of holiness. For after enumerating all the
gifts in the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians, the inspired apostle exclaims,
"And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way," (v. 31), and gives us
the thirteenth chapter, on LOVE, which is none other than the experience of
holiness. Note, he plainly says this is "more excellent." So we would
repeat, he who has the experience of holiness has the best there is this side
of glorification.
He who knows he has the best there is, will not likely
become excited, and carried away by every new fad and doctrine that may come
along. While there may be some gifts that he does not have, for no one is
supposed to have all the gifts, he knows he has that which is "more
excellent," and so is perfectly satisfied.
Not only is holiness all inclusive as relating to all that
is included in these various terms and comprehended by the highest state of
grace this side of the state of glorification, but it is the objective point of
every commandment and every promise -- of every provision in the atonement. The
purpose and object of the whole scheme of human redemption is our complete
recovery from sin and restoration to holiness. He has "blessed us with all
spiritual blessing... according as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, THAT WE SHOULD BE HOLY, and without blame before Him
in love." (Eph. 1:3, 4.) This is the objective point of every
"spiritual blessing," "that we should be holy." "Now
the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good
conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some having swerved have turned
aside unto vain jangling." (1. Tim. 1:5, 6.) There is nothing beyond
"the end" – whether "the end" he the objective point or the
terminus -- but "vain jangling." Again we say, pure love in a pure
heart, which is the experience of holiness, is "the end" -- the
highest and best state of grace there is. "Love is the fulfillment of the
law." (Rom. 13:10.)
A person may reach heaven who does not have the "gifts
of healing," the "gift of tongues," or any of the "gifts of
the Spirit," but no one will reach heaven without holiness. Hence we must
stick to the "main line," and "follow peace with all men and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb. 12:14.)
In the language of Bishop Foster concerning holiness in the
Bible, "It breathes in the prophecy, thunders in the law, murmurs in the
narrative, whispers in the promises, supplicates in the prayers, sparkles in
the poetry, resounds in the songs, speaks in the types, glows in the imagery,
voices in the language, and burns in the spirit of its whole scheme, from its
Alpha to its Omega, from its beginning to its end." "Holiness! Holiness
needed! Holiness required! Holiness offered! Holiness attainable! Holiness a
present duty, -- a present privilege, a present enjoyment, -- is the progress
and completeness of its wondrous theme! It is the truth glowing all over
webbing all through revelation; the glorious truth which sparkles, and
whispers, and sings, and shouts in all its history, and biography, and poetry,
and prophecy, and precepts, and promise, and prayer – the great central truth
of the system."
