sanctification

How Are Men Justified – Works Or Atonement – Spiritual Reading

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How Are Men Justified – Works Or Atonement – Spiritual Reading.

In general there are two opposing views of justification: one that men are justified by their own works, i.e., on the ground of something which they do themselves. This view may be variously expressed.

The good works that men speak of as a ground of their justification may be their good moral conduct, or their keeping the Golden Rule, or something of that sort. Or they may be works of religion, such as doing penance, saying prayers, joining the church, going to church, being baptised, or partaking of the Lord’s Supper, or the performance of some other religious duties.

But these all amount to the same thing: it is something that we ourselves do that brings justification, some works of our own, some works that we do, are taken as the ground of our justification.

The other view of justification is that we are justified, not by our own works in any sense, but entirely by the work of another, i.e., by the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, that our own works have nothing to do with our justification, but that we are justified entirely by Christ’s finished and complete work of atonement, by His death for us on the Cross, and that all that we have to do with our justification is merely to appropriate it to ourselves by simply trusting in Him who made the atonement. Which is the correct view? We shall go directly to the Bible for the answer to this all-important question.

1. The first part of the answer we will find in:

Rom. 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.” It is here very plainly stated that we are not justified by keeping the law of God, either the Mosaic law or any other law, and that the law is given, not to bring us justification, but to bring us a knowledge of sin, i.e., to bring us to the realisation of [our need of justification by grace. It is plainly stated here that no man is justified by works of the law.

The same great truth is found in Gal. 2:16: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, save through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” 

Justification by any works of our own is an impossibility. It is an impossibility because to be justified by works of the law, or by anything we can do, we must perfectly keep the law of God. The law demands perfect obedience as a ground of justification. It says, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.” (Gal. 3:10.).

But not one of us has perfectly kept the law of God, and the moment we break the law of God at any point, justification by works becomes an absolute impossibility. So as far as the law of God is concerned, every one of us is “under the curse,” and if we are justified at all we must find some other way of justification than by keeping the law of God.

God did not give man the law with the expectation or intention that he would keep it and be justified thereby. He gave them the law to produce conviction of sin, to stop men’s mouths, and to lead them to Christ.

Or, as Paul puts it in Rom. 3:19, 20, “Now ye know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God: because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.” 

As plain as these words of God are, strangely enough there are many to-day who are preaching the law as a way of salvation. But when they so preach they are preaching another way of salvation than that laid down in God’s own word.

2. The second part of the answer to the question as to how we are justified we find in:

 Rom. 3:24. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The word translated “freely” in this passage means, as a free gift, and the verse tells us that men are justified as a free gift by God’s grace (i.e., God’s unmerited favour) through (i.e., on the ground of) the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, justification is not on the ground of any desert there is in us, not on the ground of anything that we have done, we are not justified by our own doing nor by our own character. Justification is a free gift that God bestows absolutely without pay. The channel through which this free gift is bestowed is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We shall see later that this means through the purchase price that Christ paid for our redemption, i.e., the shedding of His blood on the cross of Calvary.

3. This leads us to the third part of the answer to the question, how men are justified. We find this third part of the answer in:

Rom. 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” 

Here we are told in so many words that we are justified, or counted righteous “by,” or more literally, “in,” Christ’s blood, i.e., on the ground of Christ’s propitiatory death. We were all under the curse of the broken law of God, for we had all broken it, but by dying in our stead on the cross of Calvary our Lord Jesus “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Gal. 3:13.)

Or, as Peter puts it in 1 Pet. 2:24, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree.” Or as Paul puts it again in 2 Cor. 5:21, “Him who knew no sin he (God) made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

We shall have occasion to come back to this passage later. All that I wish you to notice in it at this time is that it is on the ground of Jesus Christ becoming a substitute for us, on the ground of His taking the place we deserved; on the cross, that we are reckoned righteous. The one and only ground of justification is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. 

Of course, this doctrine is entirely different from the teaching of Christian Science, and entirely different from the teaching of much that is called New Theology, and entirely different from the teaching of New Thought and Theosophy, and entirely different from the teaching of Unitarianism, but it is the teaching of the Word of God.

We find this same teaching clearly given by the prophet Isaiah seven hundred years before our Lord was born, in Isaiah 53:6, where he says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid(literally, made to strike) on him (i.e., on the Lord Jesus) the iniquity of us all.” 

Get this point clearly settled in your mind, that the sole but all-sufficient ground upon which men are justified before God is the shed blood of Jesus Christ, offered by Jesus Christ as an atonement for our sins and accepted by God the Father as an all-sufficient atonement.

4. The fourth part of the answer to the question how men are justified we find in:

Rom. 3:26, “For the showing, I say, of his (i.e., God’s) righteousness at this present season: that he (i.e., God) might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.” Here we are taught that men are justified on the condition of faith in Jesus.

If possible, Rom. 4:5 makes this even more plain, “But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” Here the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle Paul, tells us that to those who believe in Jesus their faith is counted for righteousness. In other words, faith makes ours the shed blood which is the ground of justification, and we are justified when we believe.

All men are potentially justified by the death of Christ on the cross, but believers are actually justified by appropriating to themselves what there is of justifying value in the shed blood of Christ by simple faith in Him. In other words, the shed blood of Christ is the sole and all-sufficient ground of justification: simple faith in Jesus Christ who shed the blood is the sole condition of justification. 

God asks nothing else of the sinner than that he should believe on His Son, Jesus Christ, and when he does thus believe he is justified. When we believe we are justified, whether we have any works to offer or not; or, as Paul puts it in Rom. 3:28, “We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” 

Or, as it is put in the verse already quoted, Rom. 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” A man is justified entirely apart from works of the law, i.e., he is justified on condition that he believes on Jesus Christ, even though he has no works to offer as the ground upon which to claim justification.

When we cease to work for justification and simply “believe on Him who justifieth the ungodly,” that faith is reckoned to us for righteousness, and therefore we are counted righteous. The question then is not, have you any works to offer, but do you believe on Him who justifies the ungodly.

Works have nothing to do with justification except to hinder it when we trust in them. The blood of Jesus Christ secures it, faith in Jesus Christ appropriates it. We are justified not by our works, but by His work. We are justified upon the simple and single ground of His shed blood and upon the simple and single condition of our faith in Him Who shed the blood.

So great is the pride of the natural heart that it is exceedingly difficult to hold men to this doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from works of law. We are constantly seeking to bring in our works somewhere.

5. But we have not as yet completely answered the question of how men are justified:

There is another side to the truth and if our doctrine of justification is to be complete and well-balanced, we must look at that other side. You will find part of this other side in Rom. 10:8, 10, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” 

God here tells us that the faith that appropriates justification is a faith with the heart, i.e., a faith that is not a mere notion, or opinion, but a faith that leads to action along the line of that faith, and it is therefore a faith that leads to open confession with the mouth, of Jesus as our Lord.

If some one has some kind of faith, or what he calls faith, that does not lead him to an open confession of Christ, he has a faith that does not justify; for it is not a faith with the heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself tells us that heart faith leads to open confession; for He says in Matt.12:34, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” 

Faith in Jesus Christ in the heart leads inevitably to a confession of Jesus as Lord with the mouth, and if you are not confessing Jesus as your Lord with your mouth you have not justifying faith and you are not justified.

6. The rest of the other side of the truth about being justified by faith, you will find in:

Jas. 2:14, 18-24, R. V. “What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith but have not works? Can that faith save him?” 

We see here that a faith that a man merely says he has, but that does not lead to works along the line of that which he claims to believe, cannot justify, but to go on, verses 18-24, “Yea, a man will say, thou hast faith, and I have works, show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the devils also believe and shudder. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son, upon the altar? Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect (i.e., in the works to which Abraham’s faith led, faith had its perfect manifestation); and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.” 

Some see in these words a contradiction between the teaching of James and the teaching of Paul, but there is no contradiction whatever. But James here teaches us an important truth, namely, that the faith that one says he has, but which does not manifest itself in action along the line of the faith professed, will not justify.

The faith that justifies is real faith that leads to action accordant with the truth we profess to believe. It is true that we are justified simply upon faith apart from the works of the law, but it must be a real faith, otherwise it does not justify. As some one has put it, “We are justified by faith without works, but we are not justified by a faith that is without works.”

The faith which God sees and upon which He justifies, leads inevitably to works which men can see. God saw the faith of Abraham the moment Abraham believed, and before there was any opportunity to work, and counted that faith to Abraham for righteousness. But the faith that God saw was a real faith and led Abraham to works that all could see, and these works proved the reality of his faith. The proof to us of the faith is the works, and we know that he that does not work has not justifying faith.

We must not lose sight on the one side of the truth which Paul emphasises against legalism, namely, that we are justified on the single and simple condition of a real faith in Christ; but on the other side we must not lose sight of the truth which James emphasises against antinomianism, namely, that it is only a real faith that proves its genuineness by works, that justifies.

To the legalist who is seeking to do something to merit justification we must say, “Stop working and believe on Him that justifieth the ungodly” (Rom. 4:5). To the antinomian, i.e., to the one who thinks he can live a lawless, careless, unseparated, sinful life and still be justified, the one who boasts that he has faith and is justified by it, but who does not show his faith by his works, we must say, “What doth it profit, if a man say he have faith, but have not works? Can that faith save him?” (Jas. 2:14, R. V.) We are justified by faith alone, but we are not justified by a faith that is alone, but a faith that is accompanied by works.

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

Tikva

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What Is Justification By Faith – Spiritual Reading

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What Is Justification By Faith – Spiritual Reading.

The first thing for us to understand clearly is what justification is. It is at this point that many go astray in their study of this great truth. There are two fundamentally different definitions of the meaning of the words “justify” and “justification.” The one definition of Justify is, to make righteous, and of Justification, the being made righteous.

The other definition of “justify” is, to reckon, declare, or show to be righteous, and of “justification,” the being declared or reckoned righteous. On these two different definitions two different schools of thought depart from one another.

Which is the true definition? The way to settle the meaning of any word in the Bible is by an examination of all the passages in which that word and its derivatives is found. If any one will go through the Bible, the Old Testament and the New, and carefully study all the passages in which the word “justify” and its derivatives is found, he will discover that beyond a question, in Biblical usage, to “justify” means, not to make righteous, but to reckon righteousness, declare righteous, or show to be righteous.

A man is justified before God when God reckons him righteous. This appears, for example, in the fourth chapter of Romans, 2nd to 8th verses, R. V. “For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not toward God. For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness even as David also pronounced blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin.” 

It is plain from this passage, as from many other passages, that a man is justified when God reckons him righteous, no matter what his principles of character and of conduct may have been. We shall see later that justification means more than mere forgiveness.

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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What Is The Extent Of Justification In Jesus Christ – Spiritual Reading

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What Is The Extent Of Justification In Jesus Christ – Spiritual Reading.

To what extent is a man who believes in the Lord Jesus justified? This question is very plainly answered and wonderfully answered, and gloriously answered in Acts 13:38, 39, “Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins: and by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.” 

These words very plainly declare to us that every believer in Jesus Christ is justified “from all things.” In other words, the old account against the believer is all wiped out. No matter how bad and how black the account is, the moment a man believes in Jesus Christ, the account is wiped out. God has absolutely nothing which He reckons against the one who believes in Jesus Christ. Even though he is still a very imperfect believer, a very young man and immature Christian, he is perfectly justified.

As Paul puts it in Rom. 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” Or, as he puts it further down in the chapter, verses 33, 34, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” 

If the vilest murderer or sinner of any kind on earth should come in here this morning and right here now, hearing the gospel of God’s grace, should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, put confidence in Him as his Saviour, and accept Him as such, surrendering to Him and confessing Him as His Lord, the moment he did it every sin he ever committed would be blotted out and his record would be as white in God’s sight as that of the purest angel in heaven.

God has absolutely nothing that He reckons against the believer in Jesus Christ. But even that is not all. Paul goes even beyond this in 2 Cor. 5:21, “He who knew no sin he (God) made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” Here we are explicitly told that the believer in Jesus Christ is made the righteousness of God in Christ.

In Phil. 3:9, R. V. we are told that when one is in Christ he has a righteousness not of his own, but a “righteousness which is of God upon faith.” In other words, there is an absolute interchange of positions between Christ and the justified believer. Christ took our place, the place of the curse on the cross (Gal. 3:13).

He was “made to be sin on our behalf” (2 Cor. 5:21). God reckoned Him a sinner and dealt with Him as a sinner, so that in the sinner’s place, as He died, He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And when we are justified we step into His place, the place of perfect acceptance before God, or to use the exact words of Scripture, we “Become the righteousness of God in him.” 

To be justified is more than to be forgiven! Forgiveness is negative, the putting away of sin; Justification is positive, the reckoning of positive and perfect righteousness to the one justified. Jesus Christ is so united to the believer in Him that God reckons our sins to Him. The believer, on the other hand, is so united to Christ that God reckons His righteousness to us.

God sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Him and reckons us as righteous as He is. When Christ’s work in us is completed we shall be in actual fact what we are already in God’s [reckoning, but the moment one believes, as far as God’s reckoning is concerned, he is as absolutely perfect as he ever shall be.

Our present standing before God is absolutely perfect, though our present state may be very imperfect. To use again the familiar couplet:”Near, so very near to God,Nearer I cannot be;For in the person of His Son,I am just as near as He.Dear, so very dear to God,Dearer I cannot be;For in the person of His Son,I am just as dear as He.”

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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At What Time Is A Believer And Christian Justified – Spiritual Reading

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At What Time Is A Believer And Christian Justified – Spiritual Reading.

The Time Of Justification:

When is a believer justified? This question is answered plainly in one of our texts, Acts 13:39, “And by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.” What I wish you to notice particularly now in this verse is the word Is, “Everyone that believeth is justified from all things.” This answers plainly the question as to when a believer is justified.

In Christ Jesus every [believer in Him is justified from all things the moment he believes. The moment a man believes in Jesus Christ that moment he becomes united to Christ, and that moment God reckons the righteousness of God to him.

I repeat again, if the vilest murderer or sinner of any kind in the world should come into this room this morning while I am preaching and should here and now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the moment that he did it, not only would every sin he ever committed be blotted out, but all the perfect righteousness of God in Christ would be put to his account, and his standing before God would be as perfect as it will be when he has been in heaven ten million years.

Let me repeat to you again the incident I told you one Sunday night some weeks ago. I was preaching one Sunday morning in the Moody church in Chicago on Rom. 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” and in the course of my preaching I said, “If the vilest woman there is in Chicago should come into the Chicago Avenue church this morning, and should here and now accept Jesus Christ as her Saviour, the moment she did it every sin she ever committed would be blotted out and her record would be as white in God’s sight as that of the purest woman in the room.”

Unknown to me, one of the members of my congregation that very morning had gone down into a low den of iniquity near the river and had invited a woman who was an outcast to come and hear me preach. The woman replied, “I never go to church. Church is not for the likes of me. I would not be welcome at the church if I did go.”

The woman who was a saint replied, “You would be welcome at our church,” which, thank God, was true. But, “No,” the woman urged, “it would not do for me to go to church, church is not for the likes of me.” But the woman who was a saint urged the woman who was a sinner to go. She offered to accompany her to the church, but the other said, “No, that would never do.

The policemen know me and the boys on the street know me and sometimes throw stones at me, and if they saw you going up the street with me they would think you such as I am.” But the woman who was a saint had the Spirit of the Master and said, “I don’t care what they think of me. If you will accompany me to hear Mr. Torrey preach I will go along with you.”

The other woman refused. But the saved woman was so insistent that the woman who was an outcast finally said, “If you will go up the street a few steps ahead I will follow you up the street.” So up La Salle Avenue they came, the woman who was a saint a few steps ahead and the woman who was a sinner a few steps behind. Block after block they came until they reached the corner of La Salle and Chicago Avenues.

The woman who was a saint entered the tower door at the corner, went up the steps, entered the church, and the woman who was a sinner followed her. On reaching the door the woman who was a sinner looked in, saw a vacant seat under the gallery in the very last row at the back, and slipped into it, and scarcely had she taken the seat when I made the remark that I just quoted, “If the vilest woman there is in Chicago should come into the Chicago Avenue church this morning and should here and now accept Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour, the moment she did it every sin she ever committed would be blotted out and her record would be as white in God’s sight as that of the purest woman in the room.”

My words went floating down over the audience and dropped into the heart of the woman who was a sinner. She believed it, she believed that Jesus died for her, she believed that by the shedding of His blood she could be saved, she believed, and found pardon and peace and justification then and there.

And when the meeting was over she came up the aisle to the front as I stepped down from the pulpit, tears streaming down her face, and thanked me for the blessing that she had received.

And I repeat it here this morning, not knowing who may be here, not knowing what may be the secret life of any one of you who is here, not knowing what may be the sins that may be hidden in your heart, if the vilest man or woman on earth should come into the Church of the Open Door this morning and should here and now put their trust in Jesus Christ, the moment you did it every sin you ever committed would be blotted out and in an instant your record would be as white in God’s sight, not only as that of the purest woman in the room, but as that of the purest angel in heaven, and not only that, but all the perfect righteousness of God that clothed our Lord Jesus Christ would be put to your account and you would be just as near and just as dear to God as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is. That is the doctrine of justification by faith. Wondrous doctrine! Glorious doctrine!

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

Tikva

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When Does Sanctification And Being Set Apart Take Place – Spiritual Reading

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When Does Sanctification And Being Set Apart Take Place – Spiritual Reading.

We now come to the question about which there has been the most discussion, the most differences of opinion, the most controversy. When does sanctification take place? If we will go to our Bibles to get the answer to the question there need be no difference of opinion. There are three parts to the answer.

1. The first part of the answer is found in:

 I Cor. 1:2, “Unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, [their Lord and ours.” 

Here the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle Paul, plainly declares that all the members of the church of God are already sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctification in this sense is not something that we are to look for in the future, it is something that has already taken place. The moment any one becomes a member of the Church of God by simple faith in Christ Jesus, for all who have faith in Christ Jesus are members of the Church of God, that moment that person is sanctified.

Every saved man and woman in this building this morning, every one who has living faith in Jesus Christ, is sanctified. Our sanctification is involved in our salvation. But in what sense are we, that is, all believers, already sanctified? The answer to this question is found in a passage of Scripture to which we have already referred, Heb. 10:10, 14, “By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. . . . For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” 

The meaning is plain. By the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all on the Cross of Calvary as a perfect atonement for sin, every believer is cleansed forever from the guilt of sin. We are “perfected forever” as far as our standing before God is concerned, and are set apart for God. The sacrifice of Christ does not need to be repeated as were the Jewish sacrifices (V. I).

The work is done once for all, sin is put away, and forever put away (Heb. 9:26; cf. Gal. 3:13), and we are set apart forever as God’s peculiar and eternal possession. If any one asks you if you are sanctified; if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, i.e., if you have a living faith, in Jesus Christ, you have a right to say, “I am.” Every believer in Christ is a saint, a saint not in the sense in which that word is oftentimes used in modern usage, but in the Bible sense, as being set apart for God and belonging to God and being God’s peculiar property.

But there is another sense in which every believer may be fully sanctified to-day. This is found in Rom. 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.” 

In this passage we see that it is the believer’s present and blessed privilege, and important and solemn duty, to present his body to God a living sacrifice—not some part or parts of the body, but the whole body with its every member and every faculty. And when we do thus present our whole body to God a living sacrifice, then we are wholly sanctified. 

Such an offering is well-pleasing to God. As God in the Old Testament showed His pleasure in the offering by sending down fire to take it to Himself, so when the whole body is thus offered to God, God will send down fire again, the fire of the Holy Ghost, and take to Himself what is thus presented. The moment a believer does thus present himself a living sacrifice to God, then, so far as his will, the governing purpose of his life, the very centre of his being, is concerned, he is wholly God’s, or “perfectly sanctified.”

He may still, and will still, daily discover, as he studies the Word of God and is illumined by the Holy Spirit, acts of his, habits of life, forms of feeling, speech and action, that are not in conformity with this central purpose of his will, and these must be confessed to God as blameworthy and put away, and this department of his being and life brought, by God’s Spirit and the indwelling Christ, into conformity with God’s will as revealed in His Word.

The victory in this newly discovered and unclaimed territory may be instantaneous. For example, I may discover in myself an irritability of temper that is manifestly displeasing to God. I can go to God, confess it, renounce it and then instantly, not by my own strength, but by looking to Jesus and claiming His patience and gentleness, overcome it and never have another failure in that direction. And so it is with every other sin and weakness in my life that I am brought to see is displeasing to God.

2. But this is not the whole answer to the question of when we are sanctified. The second part of the answer is found in: 

I Thess. 3:12, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do towards you.” And the 4th chapter of this same epistle, the 1st and 10th verses, “Finally then, brethren, we beseech you and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, even as ye do walk, that ye abound more and more. . . . For indeed ye do it toward all the brethren that are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more.” 

And in II Pet. 3:18, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 

And II Cor.3:18, R. V., “But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, and even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 

And in Eph. 4:15, 16, “But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things unto him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.” 

From these passages we see that there is a progressive work of Sanctification, an increasing in love, an abounding more and more in a godly walk and in pleasing God, a growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, a being transformed into the image of our Lord from glory unto glory, each new gaze at Him making us more like Him; a growing up into Christ in all things, until we attain unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Here we see there is a progressive work of Sanctification.

3. But we have not found the whole answer to the question of when Men are Sanctified, even yet. We find the remainder of the answer to the question in our text:

 1 Thess. 5:23 accurately translated as it is in the Revised Version, “And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Here we are plainly told that the complete sanctification of believers, complete in the fullest sense, is something to be sought for in prayer and that is to be accomplished by God in the future and perfected at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The same thought is found in this same book, the 3rd chapter and 12th and 13th verses, “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you, to the end that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with his saints.” 

It is “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints” that He is to establish our hearts un-blamable in holiness before our God and Father and that our spirit and soul and body are to be preserved entire without blame. The same thought is found in IJohn 3:2, “Beloved, now are we children of God, it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 

It is not in the life that now is, and it is not at death, that we are entirely sanctified, spirit, soul, and body. It is at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the many reasons why the well-instructed believer constantly cries, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.”

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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What Is Sanctification And Being Set Apart – Spiritual Reading

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What Is Sanctification And Being Set Apart – Spiritual Reading.

In the first place let me make it clear that, Sanctification is not the “Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” The two are constantly confused. There is an intimate relation between the two, but they are not at all one and the same thing; and only confusion and misconception can arise from confounding two experiences which God keeps separate. That Sanctification is not the baptism with the Holy Spirit and that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is not Sanctification, will become clear as we proceed and find out from a study of the Bible just what Sanctification is.

In the second place, let me say that Sanctification is not the eradication of the carnal nature. We will see this when we come to examine God’s definition of Sanctification; for God has very clearly defined what Sanctification is and when it takes place. Those who teach “the eradication of the carnal nature” are grasping after a great and precious truth, but they have expressed that truth in a very inaccurate, unfortunate, and unscriptural way, and this way of stating it leads to grave misapprehensions and errors and abuses.

The whole controversy about “the eradication of the carnal nature” arises from a misapprehension and from using terms for which there is no warrant in the Bible. The Bible nowhere speaks about “the carnal nature,” and so certainly not about “the eradication of the carnal nature.” There is such a thing as a carnal nature, but it is not a material thing, not a substance, not a something that can be eradicated as you pull a tooth or remove the vermiform appendix. “A carnal nature” is a nature controlled by the flesh. Certainly it is a believer’s privilege not to have his nature governed by the flesh.

Our nature should be and may be under the control of the Holy Spirit, and then it is not a carnal nature; but one nature has not been eradicated and another nature put in its place, but our nature is taken out from under the control of the flesh and put under the control of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, while it is our privilege to have our nature under the control of the Holy Spirit and delivered from the control of the flesh, we still have “the flesh,” and shall have the flesh as long as we are in this body.

But if we “walk by the Spirit” we do not “fulfil the lusts of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). The 8th chapter of Romans describes the life of victory, just as the 7thchapter, 9-24 verse describes the life of defeat, when men are “carnal, sold under sin,” but it is in the 8th chapter where life “in the Spirit” is described (Rom. 8:9) that we are told that we still have the flesh, but that it is our privilege not to “live after the flesh,” but “by the Spirit,” to “put to death the deeds of the body.” So we see that the body is there, but in the power of the Spirit we do, day by day and (if we live up to our privilege) every day and every hour and every minute, continuously “put to death the deeds of the body.”

So much as to what Sanctification is not. We will see exactly what it is if we look at God’s definition of Sanctification. We shall find that the word Sanctification is used in the Bible in a two-fold sense.

The first meaning of Sanctification we will find in Lev. 8:10-12, “And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them. And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the laver and its base, to sanctify them. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head and anointed him to sanctify him.” 

Now it is perfectly clear in this passage that to sanctify means to separate or set [apart for God, and that Sanctification is the process of setting apart or state of being set apart for God. The word Sanctify is used in this sense over and over again.

Another illustration is Lev. 27:14, 17. “And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto God, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand . . . and if a man shall sanctify unto Jehovah part of a field of his possession, then the estimation shall be according to the sowing thereof.” 

Here again it is plain that to sanctify means to separate or set apart for God, and that Sanctification is the process of setting apart or state of being set apart for God. Still another illustration of this same use of the word sanctify is found in Num.8:17, “For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.” 

This, of course, does not mean that God, at the time that He smote the firstborn in Egypt, eradicated the carnal nature from the first-born of Israel. It does mean that He set apart all the first-born to be peculiarly His own. Another very suggestive illustration of the same usage of the word is found in the case of Jeremiah as stated by himself in Jer. 1:4, 5, “Now the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee: I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.” 

This plainly means that before his birth God set Jeremiah apart for Himself. There would still be much imperfection and infirmity in him, but he was set apart for God. Another suggestive illustration of the same use of the word Sanctify is found in Matt. 23:27, in the words of our Lord Jesus Himself: “Ye fools and blind; for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?” 

But perhaps the most striking illustration of all is in what our Lord says about His own sanctification in John 17:19, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Here the plain meaning is that our Lord Jesus set Himself apart for this work for God and He did it in order that believers might be set apart for God “in truth,” or “in the truth.”

This is the most frequent use of the word sanctify. There are numerous illustrations of it in the Bible. So to sanctify means to separate or set apart for God; and Sanctification is the process of setting apart or the state of being set apart for God. This is the primary meaning of the words.

But the word as used in the Bible has also a secondary signification closely related to this primary meaning. An illustration of this secondary meaning will be found in II Chron. 29:5, “Hear me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.” 

Bearing in mind the “parallelism” [which is the chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry, it is plain that to sanctify here is synonymous with the “Carry forth the filthiness out of the holy places” found in the last part of the verse. So to sanctify here means to separate from ceremonial or moral defilement, to cleanse; and Sanctification is the process of separating, or state of being separated from ceremonial or moral defilement.

The same use of the word is found in Lev. 11:44, “For I am Jehovah thy God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that moveth upon the earth.” Here again it is clear that “sanctify yourselves” is synonymous with “be ye holy” and is contrasted with “defile yourselves” and means to separate from ceremonial or moral defilement, to cleanse; and Sanctification is the process of separating or state of being separated from ceremonial or moral defilement.

The same meaning of sanctification is found in the New Testament in I Thess. 5:23, “And the God of Peace, Himself sanctify you wholly and may your Spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we see the close relation between entire sanctification and preserving wholly, without blame, and to sanctify here clearly means to separate from moral defilement, and sanctification here again is the process of separating or state of being separated from moral defilement.

The same thing is evident [from the 4th chapter of this same epistle in the 7th verse (I Thess. 4:7), “For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.” Our “Sanctification” is here set in direct contrast with “uncleanness,” and hence it is evident that sanctification here means the state of being separated from all moral defilement. The same thing is evident from the 3rd verse of this same chapter, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication.” 

Here again it is evident that Sanctification means separation from impurity or moral defilement. The two meanings, then, of Sanctification are: the process of separating or setting apart, or state of being separated or set apart, for God; and the process of separating or state of being separated from ceremonial or moral defilement. These two meanings of the word are closely allied—one cannot be truly separated to God without being separated from sin.

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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How Can You Be Sanctified And Set Apart – Spiritual Reading

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How Can You Be Sanctified And Set Apart – Spiritual Reading.

1. The first part of the answer is found in our text of this chapter: 

I Thess. 5:23, “And the God of Peace himself sanctify you wholly and may your Spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It appears from this verse that God sanctifies men, and Sanctification is God’s work. Both the separation of men from sin and their separation unto God, is God’s work. As it was God who in the old dispensation set apart the first-born of Israel unto Himself, so it is God who in the new dispensation sets apart the believer unto Himself and separates him from sin. Sanctification is primarily not our work but God’s.

2. The second part of the answer is found in: 

Eph. 5:25, 26, “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water by the word.” Here we are taught that Christ sanctifies the church and that Sanctification is Christ’s work. The question, of course, arises, in what sense does Christ sanctify the church. The answer is found in Heb. 10:10, “By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” 

Here it appears that Jesus Christ sanctifies the church by giving Himself up a sacrifice for it. By thus giving Himself up for it as a sacrifice Christ sets the Church apart for God. Just as the blood of the Passover Lamb in the 11th and 12th chapters of Exodus set a difference between Israel and the Egyptians, so our Lord Jesus by the offering of His own body has forever put a difference between the believer in Himself and the world, and has forever set every believer apart for God. The Cross of Christ stands between the [believer and the world. The shed blood of Christ separates the believer from the world, purchases him to God and thus makes him to belong to God.

3. The third part of the answer to the question, how men are sanctified, is found in:

 2 Thess. 2:13 and in other passages, “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” It appears from this passage, as from other passages in the Bible, that it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the believer, and that Sanctification is the Holy Spirit’s work.

Here the question arises, In what sense does the Holy Spirit sanctify the believer? In this sense, just as in the Old Testament type, tabernacle, altar and priest were set apart for God by the anointing oil (Lev. 8:10-12), so in the New Testament anti-type, the believer, who is both tabernacle and priest, is set apart for God by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Further than that, it is the Holy Spirit’s work in the heart that overcomes the flesh and its defilements, and thus separates the believer from sin and clothes him with divine graces of character, and makes him fit to be God’s own.

As Paul puts it in Gal.5:22, 23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.” In opposition to this work of the Holy Spirit, we read in the immediately preceding verses what “the works of the flesh” are, an awful [catalogue of vileness and sin, and we are told in the 16thverse, “Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

4. The fourth part of the answer to the question how we are sanctified is found in:

 Heb. 13:12, “Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered without the gate.” It is plain from this passage that believers are sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ. Here the question arises, In what sense does the blood of Jesus sanctify? The answer is plain: The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all the guilt of sin, and thus separates us from the mass of men under the curse of the broken law, and sets us apart for God (cf. 1 John 1:7, 9). In the Old Testament dispensation the blood of the sacrifice cleansed the Israelites from the guilt of ceremonial offenses and set them apart for God; in the New Testament anti-type the blood of Christ cleanseth the believer from the guilt of moral offenses and sets him apart for God.

5. The fifth part of the answer to the question, how men are sanctified, is found in:

John 17:17, “Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.” Here our Lord Jesus in His prayer indicates that we are sanctified in the truth, and that the truth is the Word of God. In what sense does the Word of God sanctify? This question is plainly answered in different parts of the Word of God, where we are taught that the Word of God cleanses from the presence of sin, and thus [separates us from it and sets us apart to God. (Ps. 119:9, 11; John 15:3.) As we bring our lives into daily contact with the Word, the sins and imperfections of our lives and hearts are disclosed and put away, and thus we are more and more separated from sin unto God. (cf. John 13:10.)

6. The sixth part of the answer to the question, how men are sanctified, is found in:

 1 Cor. 1:30, “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” In this passage we are taught that Jesus Christ was made unto us from God sanctification. Just what does that mean? Simply this: that separation from sin and separation to God are provided for us in Christ Jesus and by the appropriation of Jesus Christ we obtain this sanctification thus provided.

The more completely we appropriate Christ the more completely are we sanctified. But perfect sanctification is provided for us in Him, just as perfect wisdom is provided in Him (Col. 2:3). We appropriate either wisdom or sanctification or anything else that is provided for us in Christ in ever-increasing measure. Through the indwelling Christ presented to us by the Spirit in the Word, we are made Christlike and bear fruit.

7. The seventh part of the answer to the question of how men are sanctified is found in:

 Heb. 12:14, “Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord.” Here we are taught that we have our [own part in sanctification, and that if we are to be sanctified in the fullest sense, sanctification is something that we must pursue, or seek earnestly, if we are to obtain it. While sanctification is God’s work, we have our part in it, viz., to make it the object of our earnest desire and eager pursuit.

8. The eighth part of the answer to the question of how we are sanctified is found in:

 Rom. 6:19, 22, “As ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. . . . But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification.” The meaning of these words is plain, and the teaching important and practical. We are here taught that we attain unto sanctification through presenting our members as servants (bondservants, or slaves) to righteousness and becoming ourselves bondservants unto God.

In other words, if we wish to attain unto sanctification we should present our whole body and every member of it to God, to be His servants, belonging wholly unto Him, and we should present ourselves to God as His servants, to be His absolute property. This is the practical method of attaining unto sanctification, a method that is open to each one of us here to-day, no matter how weak we are in ourselves.

9. The ninth and final part of the answer to the question of how we are sanctified, is found in: 

Acts 26:18, “To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Me.” Here we are told that we are sanctified by faith in Christ. Sanctification, just as justification, regeneration, and adoption, is conditioned upon faith. Faith is the hand that appropriates to ourselves the blessing of sanctification that God has provided for us through His Son Jesus Christ by His death on the cross, and through the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. And we claim sanctification by simple faith in Him who shed His blood and by surrendering ourselves to the control of the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus Christ gives.

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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How To Be Victorious And Triumph Over The Devil – Spiritual Reading

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How To Be Victorious And Triumph Over The Devil – Spiritual Reading.

Now just for a few moments let me show you from the Word of God, how, in practical every day life, to get the victory over the Devil. There are four things to be borne in mind.

1. Read first:

James 4:7, “Be subject therefore unto God: but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This teaches us that, we are first of all to surrender to God and then to resist the Devil and that, if we do resist him, for all his cunning and power, he will flee from us. Although the Devil is strong, it is ours in God’s strength to withstand him and overcome him.

2. Now turn to: 

I John 2:14: “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye know him which is from the beginning. I have written unto you young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one.” This passage teaches us that, it is when we feed upon the Word of God and store the Word of God in our hearts, thus having it abiding in us, that we shall be able to overcome the Devil. If we neglect the study of the Bible for a single day, we leave an open door for the Devil to enter. I have been a Christian for forty-three years, but I would not dare to neglect the study of God’s word for one single day. Why not? Because there is a devil; and, if I neglect the study of the Word of God for a single day, I leave a window open for him to enter and leave myself too weak to cope with him and conquer him. But if we will feed upon the Word of God daily, and trust in God, we can resist the devil at every point. Though the Devil is cunning and strong, God is stronger, and God imparts His strength to us through His written word.

3. Turn now to: 

Eph. 6:11: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Here we are taught that, in order“to stand against the wiles of the Devil” we must “Put on the whole armour of God.” What that armour is, is found in the verses that immediately follow. This armour, this whole armour, this “panoply of God,” is at our disposal. The fact that there is a Devil, that he is a being of such majesty, dignity, cunning, and power, that he is so incessantly plotting our ruin and to undermine our faith, is no reason for fear or discouragement. By taking “the shield of faith” we shall be “able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one,” by taking “the helmet of salvation,” and the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God,” and by “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,” it is our privilege to have victory over the Devil every day of our lives, every hour of the day, and every minute of the hour.

4. The final step in the way to get victory over Satan is found in”

 Eph. 6:10: “Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.” The way to get victory over Satan is to give up all confidence in our own strength and believe in the almighty strength of Jesus Christ and claim that strength for ourselves. It is in the strength of Jesus Christ’s might that we shall get the victory over “the evil one.” In the strength of His might, as we have already said, it is our privilege to have victory over the Devil every day of our lives, every hour of the day and every minute in the hour. Hallelujah!

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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Why Did Jesus Christ Shed His Blood And Die – Spiritual Reading

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Why Did Jesus Christ Shed His Blood And Die – Spiritual Reading.

1. First of all, the Bible distinctly and repeatedly tells us by direct statement, and by countless typical reference in the Old Testament, that He died as a vicarious offering for sin; that is, that He, an absolutely perfect, righteous one, who [deserved to live, died in the place of unjust men who deserved to die.

For example, we read in Isa. 53:5, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” And in the eighth verse we read, “By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?” 

And in the 11th and 12th verses we read, “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of Himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He poured out His soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet He bare the sin of many. And made intercession for the transgressors.” 

In I Peter, 3:18 we read, “Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” And in 1 Peter 2:24 we read, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed.” 

Now the meaning of these verses and many other verses, is inescapable. They teach in language the meaning of which no one can [misunderstand (unless he is determined not to see) that the death of Jesus Christ was a vicarious atonement, that is, a just one, who deserved to live, dying in the place of unjust ones who deserved to die. It was, to use the language of the Los Angeles minister who denied his belief in it, “an atonement of blood and recompense.” This is God’s doctrine of the Atonement versus the Unitarian and Christian Science doctrine of the Atonement.

2. But this is not all. We are further taught that He died as a ransom, that is, His death was the price paid to redeem others from death. He Himself says so. His own words are, “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” 

If His life was not a ransom, that is to say, if He did not redeem others from death by dying in their place, then He was the greatest fool in the whole history of this universe. Was He a fool or was He a ransom? No one who in any real sense can be said to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ can hesitate as to his answer.

3. But even this is not all. The Bible distinctly tells us that He died as a sin offering, i.e., it was on the ground of His death, and on this ground alone, that forgiveness of sin is made possible for and offered to sinners. This we are told in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, to which reference has already been made.

In the 10thverse it is written, “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; He (i.e., Jehovah) hath put him to grief (literally, [made him sick): when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.” Now the meaning of “offering for sin” is unquestionable to any one who has studied the Old Testament offerings.

An “offering for sin” or a “guilt offering,” which is the exact force of the Hebrew word translated “an offering for sin,” was a death of a sacrificial victim on the ground of which pardon was offered to sinners (Lev. 6:6-10, R. V.).

The Holy Spirit says expressly in Heb. 9:22, in words the meaning of which is unmistakable, and the force of which is inescapable, “Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission,” and the whole context in which the passage is found shows that the blood, to which all the blood of the Old Testament types as sacrifices pointed forward, was the blood of Jesus Christ.

So then the Word of God declares that apart from the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ there is absolutely no pardon for sin. There is absolutely no forgiveness outside the atoning blood of Christ. Without Christ’s atoning blood every member of the human race must have perished forever.

4. Fourth and further yet, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died as a propitiation for our sins. God the Father gave Christ the Son to be a propitiation by His blood. That is to say that Jesus Christ, through the shedding of His blood, is that by which God’s holy wrath at sin is [appeased.

We read in 1 John 4:10, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And we read in Rom. 3:25, 26, “Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; (26) for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be just, and the justifier of Him that hath faith in Jesus.” 

The meaning of these words also is as plain as day. The two Greek words in these two passages are not exactly the same words (hilasmos and hilasterion) but are from the same root. The word used in 1 John 4:10 is hilasmos and the word used in Rom. 3:25 is hilasterion. The definition given of the first in Thayer’s Dictionary of New Testament Greek, the standard work, is “a means of appeasing.”

The definition given in the same lexicon of the second word is “an expiatory sacrifice.” So the thought that is in both passages is that the death of Jesus Christ was a “propitiation,” “an expiatory sacrifice,” the “means of appeasing” God’s holy wrath at sin, or in other words, that Jesus, through the shedding of His blood, is that by which the wrath of God against us as sinners is appeased.

God’s holiness and consequent hatred of sin, like every other attribute of His character, is real and must manifest itself. His wrath at sin must strike somewhere, either on the sinner himself or upon a lawful substitute. It struck upon Jesus Christ, a lawful substitute. As we read in Isa. 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

The word translated “hath laid,” according to the margin of the Revised Version, means literally, “hath made to light.” More literally still it means, “hath made to strike.” Reading it this way, what God says is, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath made to strike on him (i.e., on the Lord Jesus) the iniquity of us all.”

And in the eighth verse of the same chapter we are taught that “the stroke due” to others fell upon Him, and He was consequently “cut off out of the land of the living.” The death of Jesus Christ has its first cause in the demands of God’s holiness. This is the Bible doctrine versus the Unitarian and Christian Science doctrine of atonement.

The doctrine is often misrepresented and caricatured as being that “God, a holy first person, took the sins of man, the guilty second person, and put them on Jesus Christ, an innocent third person,” and it is objected that this would not be just.

No; this would not be just, and it is not for a moment the doctrine of the Bible, for the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus Christ was not “a third person,” but was Himself God, and that He was Himself man, so He is not a third person at all, but both the first person and the second person, and the doctrine is that God Himself, the offended first person, substitutes His atoning action whereby He expresses His hatred against sin, for His punitive action whereby He would express the same thing; that God, instead of visiting the sins of the sinner upon the sinner, takes the punishment upon Himself. This certainly is something more than just, it is wondrous love.

5. Further yet, the Bible teaches us that Jesus Christ died to redeem us from the curse of the law by bearing that curse Himself. We read in Gal. 3:10, “As many as are of the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.” 

So then, every one of us is under the curse of the broken law, for not one of us has continued “in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.” But we read in the 13th verse, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (literally, in our behalf): for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” By His death by crucifixion He redeemed us from the curse which we deserved by taking that curse upon Himself. This certainly is “an atonement of blood and recompense.”

6. The Bible puts essentially the same truth in still another form, viz., that Jesus Christ died as our Passover sacrifice—that is, that His shed blood might serve as a ground upon which God would pass over and spare us. We read in 1 Cor. 5:7, “For our passover also hath been sacrificed, even Christ.” 

Now what a passover sacrifice was and signified we learn from Ex. 12:12, 13, where our Lord told the children of Israel at the inauguration of the passover, “For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the Gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah, and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall be no plague upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” 

And again we read in the 23rd verse of the same chapter, “For Jehovah will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, Jehovah will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” 

Paul wrote his words with all this in mind, and in saying that Christ is our Passover sacrifice beyond a question he meant that the shed blood of Jesus Christ serves as a ground, and the only ground, upon which God passes over and spares us.

Excerpt From – The Fundamental Doctrines Of The Christian Faith By Reuben Archer Torrey.

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