Part 2
It seems strange that, while the inspired Apostle distinctly tells us that Christ is “made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,” we, nevertheless, should attach the idea of personal effort to one out of the four things which he enumerates. Can we guide ourselves in the ten thousand difficulties and details of our Christian course by our own wisdom or sagacity? Surely not. Ought we to make an effort? By no means. Why not? Because God has made Christ to be our “wisdom,” and therefore it is our precious privilege, having been brought to our “wits’ end,” to look to Christ for wisdom. In other words, when Christ says, “Come unto Me,” He means that we are to come unto Him for wisdom as well as for all else; and, clearly, we cannot come to Christ, and to our own efforts, at the same time. Nay, so long as we are making efforts, we must be strangers to “rest.”
The same holds good with respect to “righteousness.” Can we work out a righteousness for ourselves? Surely not. Ought we not to make an effort? By no means. Why not? Because God has made Christ to be unto us “righteousness,” and that righteousness is “to him that worketh not.” (Rom. 4:55But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:5)).
So also in the matter of “redemption,” which is put last in 1 Corinthians 1:3030But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (1 Corinthians 1:30), because it includes the final deliverance of the body of the believer from under the power of death. Could we, by personal effort, deliver our bodies from the dominion of mortality? Surely not. Ought we not to try? The thought were monstrous, impious. Why? Because God has made Christ to be unto us “redemption,” as regards both soul and body, and He who has already applied, by the power of His Spirit, that glorious redemption to our souls, will, ere long, apply it to our bodies.
Why, then, let me ask, should “sanctification” be singled out from the precious category, and saddled with the legal and depressing idea of personal effort? If we cannot, by our own efforts, get “wisdom, righteousness, and redemption,” are we a whit more likely to succeed in getting “sanctification?” Clearly not. And have we not proved this, times without number? Have not our closet walls witnessed our tears and groans evoked by the painful sense of failure after failure in our own efforts to tread with steady step and erect carriage, the lofty walks of personal sanctity? Will the reader deny this? I trust not. I would fain hope he has responded to the call of Jesus, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
It is vain to “labor” in our own strength, after sanctification. We must come to Jesus for that as well as for everything else. And, having come to Jesus, we shall find that there is no lust which He cannot slay, no temper that He cannot subdue, no passion that He cannot overcome. The self-same hand that has canceled our sins, that guides us in our difficulties, and which will, by and by, deliver our bodies from the power of death, can give us complete victory over all our personal infirmities and besetments, and fill our heart with His sacred rest.
It is, I believe, immensely important to have a clear understanding of the question of sanctification. Hundreds have gone on “laboring and heavy laden” for years, endeavoring to work out in one way or another, their sanctification; and, not having succeeded to their satisfaction—for who ever did, or ever could? they have been tempted to question if they were ever converted at all. Many, were they to tell out “all the truth,” could adopt as their own, the mournful lines of the poet,
“ ‘Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causeth anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord or no?
Am I His or am I not?”
Some persons have clear views of gospel truth. They could, with scriptural accuracy, tell an inquirer after righteousness how, where, and when he could get it. And yet, if that self-same inquirer were to ask them about their own real state of heart before God, they could give but a sorry answer. Why is this? Simply because they have not laid hold of Christ as their sanctification, as well as their righteousness. They have been endeavoring partly in their own strength, and partly by praying for the influences of the Holy Spirit. to stumble along the path of sanctification.
They would, doubtless, deem a person very ignorant of what is called “the plan of salvation,” if they found him “going about to establish his own righteousness;” but they do not see that they themselves exhibit, in another way, ignorance of that “plan” by going about to establish their own sanctification.
And truly if, in the one case, it is a sorry righteousness which is wrought out, so, in the other case, it is a lame sanctification. For if it be true that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” it is equally true that all our sanctifications are as filthy rags. Whatever has the word “our” attached to it must be altogether imperfect.
Christ is God’s righteousness, and Christ is God’s sanctification. Both the one and the other are to be had by simply coming, looking, clinging, trusting to Christ. I need hardly say, it is by the power of the Spirit, and through the Holy Scriptures that Christ is applied to us, both as our righteousness and our sanctification. But all this only takes the matter more and more out of our hands, and leaves us nothing to glory in.
If we could conquer an evil temper, we might indeed think ourselves clever; but as we are not asked to pick up a feather in order to add to our righteousness, or our wisdom, or our redemption, so neither are we asked to pick up a feather in order to add to our sanctification. In this, as in those, Christ is all, self, nothing. This doctrine is easily stated; but O, the experience!
Will any one say that we are doing away with sanctification? If so, he may as well say that we are doing away with “righteousness,” “wisdom” or “redemption.” Who will contend for self-righteousness, self-wisdom or self-redemption? Who, but the man that contends for self-sanctification? Who is likely to attain and exhibit the more elevated standard of personal sanctity? Is it the man who is perpetually floundering amid his own imperfect struggles and cobweb-resolutions; or he who is daily, hourly, and momentarily clinging to Christ as his sanctification?
The answer is simple. The sanctification which we get in Christ is as perfect as the righteousness, the wisdom, and the redemption. Am I doing away with “wisdom,” because I say I am foolish? Am I doing away with “righteousness,” because I say, I am guilty? Am I doing away with “redemption,” because I say, I am mortal? Am I doing away with “sanctification,” because I say, I am vile? Yes, I am doing away with all these things so far as “I” am concerned, in order that I may find them all in Christ. This is the point. All-all in Christ!
O! when shall we learn to get to the end of self, and cling simply to Christ? When shall we enter into the depth and power of those words: “Come unto Me?” He does not say, “Come unto My yoke.” No; but “Come unto Me.” We must cease from our own works, in every shape and form, and come to Christ, -come, just as we are-come, now. We come to Christ and get rest from and in Him before ever we hear a word about the “yoke.” To put the yoke first is to displace everything. If a “heavy laden” sinner thinks of the yoke, he must be overwhelmed by the thought of his own total inability to take it upon him or carry it. But when he comes to Jesus and enters into His precious rest, he finds the “yoke is easy and the burden light.”
(To be continued)