THE SECOND CRISIS IN CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
06 -- YET CARNAL
In his letter to the Corinthians (I. Cor. 3:3) the Apostle
Paul declares that they are "yet carnal," though he had said in the
first chapter and fifth verse, "I thank my God always on your behalf, for
the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus." Thus we see that the
Apostle recognized the fact that the carnal mind did yet co-exist with the
"grace of God" in the heart of the regenerate. That although they
were "babes in Christ," and had spiritual life, "so that they
could partake of milk" -- spiritual nourishment -- and were "God's
husbandry" and "God's building," (v. 9) and had fallen heir to
"all things" (v. 21), yet there remained in their hearts that root of
evil from which sprang "envying, and strife, and divisions," which,
of course, was in their way, and contrary to the new life they had received.
And what was true of young converts at Corinth is true of
young converts everywhere. It is well to remember that God does not have a half
dozen ways of converting folks; that He does not do things arbitrarily, but
moves according to fixed laws in the spiritual world as in the natural world;
hence we may safely conclude that so far as the work divinely inwrought at
conversion is concerned, it is precisely the same in each case: no more and no
less. With Him there is no respect of persons; just as He forgives every sin,
quickens into newness of life, and adopts into His family one person who truly
repents He does every person who truly repents.
That there yet remains in every regenerate heart, subsequent
to conversion, a principle that is antagonistic to the new life is taught by
all evangelical denominations, and soon becomes the self-evident experience of
all young converts; while he has a new heart he does not yet have a pure heart.
As Mr. Wesley wrote in his Journal June 24, 1740: "Sin does remain in one that is justified, though it has not dominion over him. For he has not a
clean heart at first." Dr. Pendleton, who is a most orthodox Baptist and
an authority in Baptist theology both in England and America, has said in his
"Christian Doctrines," on page 300, speaking upon the subject of
Sanctification: "Regeneration breaks the power of sin and destroys the
love of sin, so that whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin in the sense
of being the slave thereof; but it does not free the soul from the presence and
pollution of sin. Alas! The regenerate know full well that sin is in their
hearts. This accounts for the Christian warfare." Pope, who was a Wesleyan
theologian and an accepted authority on Christian doctrine in Methodism,
speaking on the subject of sanctification, Vol. II, page 64, says:
"Sanctification in its beginnings, process and final issues is the full
eradication of the sin itself, which, reigning in the unregenerate, CO-EXISTS
WITH THE NEW LIFE IN THE REGENERATE, is abolished in the wholly
sanctified."
While the foregoing is in fullest harmony with the teaching
of the Scripture, the theologies of the various denominations and universal
Christian experience, it seems necessary that we should distinguish between
being "yet carnal" and being "carnally minded." "For
to be carnally minded is death." Rom. 8:6.
To be carnally minded, we suppose, would imply that a person
was yet under the dominion and control of this sin principle in the heart; that
where the carnal mind gains the ascendency, and reigns, and enslaves the soul,
it results in spiritual death; the margin speaks of it as "the minding of
the flesh." Thus, just as God has said "the soul that sinneth, it
shall die," so, "to be carnally minded is death."
Thus we see the nature and danger of the carnal mind. That
while "regeneration breaks the power of sin," so that it does not
reign in the heart of the young convert, it, nevertheless, greatly imperils the
soul; and in case it gains the ascendency will again plunge the soul into
death.
It is as though a man convicted of a felony and sentenced to
die were pardoned by the Chief Magistrate, and thus escaped the penalty of the
law he had broken and yet were afflicted with some malignant disease, which
were hastening him to his death; but, thank God, this disease of the soul,
designated as the carnal mind, is not an incurable disease, for Jesus, our
Great Physician, can utterly eliminate and eradicate the "least and last
remains of sin" from the soul, and make us every whit whole. "Where
sin abounded grace did much more abound." But if the cure is not sought
and obtained, this disease of the soul will eventually prove fatal, and the new
life obtained in regeneration is forfeited and spiritual death ensues.
Surely any one should see the necessity and importance of
the second work of grace; and that pardon, by which a guilty sinner escapes the
penalty of death, due to his transgression of the law, is one thing, and the
curing of the deadly disease, and restoration to perfect health of the pardoned
man is entirely another thing. What health is to the body, holiness is to the
soul.
Who would not desire complete deliverance from the deadly
malady of sin, and rejoice in being made completely whole? Thank God! In Jesus
we may have the double cure -- a full pardon for all our actual transgressions
and complete cleansing from the inherited, indwelling sin. "If we walk in
the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth
us from all sin."
I. John 1:7.
