‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.’—1 Pet. i. 2.

It is one of the encouraging features of the present day that many of the Lord’s people are aiming at a higher standard of Christian holiness than they have ever yet known, and are looking to the great grace of their most blessed Saviour to raise them by His Spirit above the various hindrances which have hitherto impeded their progress. They desire that there should be no impediment in the service of their blessed Saviour. In their worship they would draw very near to Him, and in their life they would glorify His name. But yet, when they seek to do so, and when they fairly look at God’s character, God’s claims, God’s will, and God’s glory, they find reason to be humbled to the dust; and the more they realize His infinite mercy in Christ Jesus, the more they learn of the magnitude and multitude of their own shortcomings. Thus it sometimes comes to pass that in many true believers their greatest discouragements are intimately connected with their efforts after holiness, and many of their doubts and difficulties arise from their real desire for true sanctification. The more that they aim at the holiness of God, the more they feel their sin, and the more earnestly that they strive to rise, the more keenly do they feel the pain and humiliation of the ruin of their fallen nature. It is important therefore for those who desire holiness to look carefully into the teaching of Scripture on the great subject of Sanctification; to examine what is really promised, and to learn what the Word of God teaches us to expect. Does it, or does it not, make provision for such difficulties? And if it does, what is the provision? These are some of the questions which I desire now to consider, and I hope it may please God to fulfil to both writer and reader the prayer of the Apostle: ‘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.’

Now one of the great difficulties of the subject is, that in all languages certain words are employed to express more than one idea, and that the idea connected with the word often changes as time advances. To a certain extent this applies to the word ‘sanctification’ in sacred Scripture. It has no less than four distinct meanings in the Word of God; and, if we treat them all as if they were the same, we are sure to be confused. It has its original sense, and three others that have grown out of it. The original sense is separation unto God, or dedication; and the three that have grown out of it are legal cleansing, personal holiness, and the exaltation of the holiness of God. If therefore we wish to understand the teaching of Scripture, we must clearly examine the use of the word in these four senses. May the Lord Himself help us to do so!

If we turn then to the beginning, we shall find that the original sense of the word ‘to sanctify’ is to set apart unto God.

So in the Old Testament the Hebrew is frequently rendered ‘to hallow,’ or to set apart as a holy thing.

In this sense it is used of the Sabbath (Gen. ii. 3): ‘God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.’ He separated it from the ordinary purposes of common life, and set it apart as a day peculiar to Himself. So again the first-born were set apart unto God, and therefore said to be sanctified; as we read, Exod. xiii. 2: ‘Sanctify unto Me all the first-born—both of man and of beast: it is mine.’ So of the Temple, God said (2 Chron. vii. 16), ‘I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever.’ The same is said of the priests, the vessels of the sanctuary, and the lamb taken from the flock for sacrifice: they were all separated unto God, and thus said to be sanctified. It is in this sense that our blessed Saviour made use of the word, when He said in John, xvii. 19, ‘For their sakes I sanctify myself.’ No one can suppose for one moment that He made Himself more holy, or cleansed Himself from actual sin, for He had been from all eternity holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. There was no possibility of any increase of holiness in Him. But He did, from the deep love that filled His heart, set Himself apart unto God, to be the one perfect sin-offering for man. As the lamb was sanctified when it was taken from the flock, and set apart for sacrifice, so did He sanctify Himself when He separated Himself from all human fellowship, and, as one set apart unto God, bore alone the whole burden of human guilt.

Now, this is the sense in which the word is used whenever sanctification is spoken of as something past, or complete. There are passages in which it is described as the past act of God, as, e.g. Jude, 1, where God’s people are spoken of as being, or having been, ‘sanctified by God the Father;’ and 2 Thess. ii. 13, where they are described as having been ‘chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ The reason is, that they have already been set apart by the Holy Ghost as a peculiar people unto God. They have been like a branch of the wild olive, cut out from the old tree, and engrafted into the new. That grafting into Christ involved a separation, for it implied a cutting out as well as a grafting in; and therefore, whenever a soul has been incorporated into Christ, there has been in this sense an act of sanctification, or, in other words, of separation unto God. Such passages do not refer to personal holiness; but to the past act of God in separating His elect unto Himself. I have no doubt that this is the meaning of the text. We all know that the work of holiness is the consequence of the gift of pardon. It is not till we are forgiven through the great blood-sprinkling that the real work of holiness begins. But in these words sanctification comes before it, and the sprinkling of the blood is described as the result of the sanctifying act. The reason is, not that this verse is at variance with the rest of Scripture,—God forbid the thought,—but that the word sanctification does not here express our growth in personal holiness, but means God’s great act of separation unto Himself by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost. As the Sabbath was set apart unto God, so have we been set apart if we be in Christ Jesus: and it is both our privilege and duty to regard ourselves as chosen out of the world and now belonging, as a peculiar people, unto God. It is with reference to this act of separation that the Apostle addresses God’s people in the words, ‘Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied.’

If we take the word in this sense the passage will throw a flood of light on three important subjects: the origin of this separation, its result, and the power by which it is accomplished.

I. Its Origin. This is very clearly the electing love of God. The sanctification, or separation here described, is the application of God’s electing love to the individual. Our Lord says (John, x. 16) of us Gentiles, ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.’ In the loving purpose of God they were His when He spoke; but they were at that time either not yet born, or still living in heathenism, He said, ‘Them also I must bring.’ In other words, those who were His by the eternal covenant He must in due time separate unto Himself; and that separation, or that bringing, is the sanctification here described. It is that great act of God in which He carries into effect, or applies, His own eternal purpose.

And think what a stability this gives to the work! If it were the result of our own will it must be liable to all the failures inseparable from the weakness of our will; but as it is the carrying out of His own eternal purpose, it is unchangeable, because it is divine. Man-made conversions soon fall to pieces; but when God calls and separates His own elect, it is for ever. He incorporates them into Christ, and they are one with Him for all eternity.

Ah, brethren, if you be in Him, you may be exposed to many, and strong temptations; you may be obliged to tread in slippery places, and find your feet very weak under their burden; but in the midst of it all you may rely, not merely on daily mercy, but also on everlasting love; and may take courage in the assurance that, as He changeth not, so you will be kept by His power through faith unto salvation.

II. The passage teaches us also the Result. This great result is conversion, as taught us in the words, ‘unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.’ I can scarcely imagine a better description of the character and blessings of conversion than that contained in these words, for they present it to us in a double aspect,—on the one hand surrender, and on the other pardon.

Surrender. This is the meaning of obedience, in the passage. It must not be confounded with the holy and loving obedience of the child of God walking in his Father’s footsteps, for it is rather the surrender of the once rebellious heart when it receives Christ as its Saviour and King. It is the obedience described in Acts, vi. 7, where it is said that ‘a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.’ It was the faith to which they were obedient: not the law. They received the message of life, and yielded themselves unto the Lord. It is the obedience of Saul of Tarsus, when, having hated, opposed, and persecuted, he gave up in complete surrender, and said, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ And here lies the great difficulty with a great number. If there be the true separation unto God, there must be surrender, for it is a sanctification unto obedience; and there is no denying that the heart oftentimes recoils from it. Oh, how near have some come,—how beautifully near! almost like the young man whom Jesus loved. But that young man went back after all. He went away very sorrowful; but still he went. I hope you may not do the same! But I stand in doubt of some of you, for though almost, you are not yet altogether: though near, you are not within; though earnest, not yet safe. And why? There is no submission: you cannot give up. There are old prejudices, old thoughts, old likes and dislikes, old confidences; and you cannot make up your mind to give all up, and to surrender your whole soul into the hands of your Lord and Saviour.

Yet think what a blessing there is connected with such surrender: nothing less than ‘the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.’ That sprinkling is the personal application of the great atonement to the individual soul. The shedding of the blood was a public act, which might or might not be effectual to individuals; but the sprinkling of it is altogether a personal matter. It is the application to the individual of the great atonement made for every man. So that those who are thus sanctified, or set apart unto God, are set apart unto the sacred privilege of having their sins blotted out for ever; and those who have been brought by the Holy Ghost to the obedience of the faith, are in their own souls sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Not only do they know that there is a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness, but they themselves are cleansed by it, and walk before God in the sacred peace of full forgiveness and perfect love.

Oh, how is it that there can be any backwardness in thus surrendering to Christ! Do you not thirst for that sacred fellowship? Do you not long to be able to say, ‘Who hath washed me from my sins in His own blood?’ Is there any blessedness to be compared to that of having sin blotted out for ever? Why, then, do you still hold back? Why not give up, and just cast yourself, ruined and helpless, into the arms of your Saviour, that His own most precious blood may be sprinkled on your soul, and that by His great grace you may be His, and His for ever?

III. But we must hasten to our last subject: the Author of this most blessed change. This is distinctly said to be the Spirit. ‘The sanctification of the Spirit,’ as in 2 Thess. ii. 14.

Observe, in passing, how all the three persons of the Holy Trinity appear in the verse. There is the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sprinkling of the blood of the Son, and the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost.

It is from such passages as these that the answer in the Church Catechism is derived: ‘I believe in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth me, and all the elect people of God.’ Every branch or department of sanctification is His work. The original call, the progressive struggle, and the final victory, are all alike by His power. It was when the Holy Ghost descended at Pentecost that ‘the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved;’ and it is just in proportion as the same Holy Ghost puts forth His power now that souls are separated unto God. There is no real sanctification of any kind whatever unless it be the sanctification of the Spirit. If it is brought about by religious machinery, or any inferior agency, it is not the real thing, and will never lead to the real result. I am most anxious to press this upon you, for I think there is great danger of Christian people losing sight of it. Some people seem to think that everything depends on certain men or certain plans: but you cannot save souls by planning. We cannot bear this in mind too strongly with reference to those missions and mission preachers which are now exciting the deep interest of multitudes. I attach a very high value to those mission efforts: I have engaged in them myself, and I believe the Holy Ghost gave His blessing. But it is not a mission week, nor a mission preacher, that can sanctify or set apart souls unto God: it is God the Holy Ghost working in the heart, breaking down the old man, and constraining the soul to the obedience of the faith. Let no one then wait for a mission week or a revivalist preacher, in looking out for great results. The Holy Spirit is not limited, as some seem to think, to extraordinary means, or extraordinary agencies. It was when the Churches had settled down quietly in their quiet Christian life, that it was said of them that, ‘Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, they were multiplied.’ So we may look for this sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost to accompany our quiet Christian work; and I do look for it, and more than that, I thank God for having granted it in a most remarkable manner in these latter days. We will not wait then for some future great occasion. No, indeed: we will not wait even for the morrow. We will look for the mighty power of the Holy Ghost now; this day, this hour, before we part. How many are there amongst us still unsaved! How many that have not yet surrendered to their Lord! Oh, come then, Mighty Spirit: come! Come in power: come at once! Come to subdue,—come to quicken,—come to sanctify,—come to save!