The Pursuit of the Holy God - Church of God of Prophecy

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No issue has been more debated or misunderstood than the conflict about positional and relational sanctification (Note the appendix at the end of this study). During the late nineteenth century, this was the conflict that divided and hindered the pursuit of holiness and planted seeds of internal strife that crept deceptively into the powerful awakening to the moving of the Holy Spirit in the early years of the twentieth century. In fact, the transition to Pentecostalism that was birthed through the Holiness movement can continue to blossom in the twenty-first century if churches and theologians will not allow elitism to push them toward one of the extremes of sanctification and holiness. 118 As in the crux of time that wedded the Holiness and Pentecostal movements together, our ‘pursuit of holiness’ must be initiated and cultivated by answering the call of the Holy Spirit that embraces both the positional and relational aspects of sanctification. This brings us to the powerful statement of Hebrews 10:14 that has both a positional and ongoing sense in the original language: “For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (NKJV). Unfortunately, the KJV version did not catch this two-fold work of the Spirit’s sanctifying power through Jesus Christ, but this truth-formula appears in the original Greek text and an overwhelming majority of other reliable translations. This certainty was expounded upon in 1894 by the renowned Andrew Murray who wrote during the heart of the transition between the Holiness and Pentecostal movements: The chief thought of the passage is: He hath for ever perfected them that are being sanctified. The words in verse 10, In which will we have been sanctified, speak of our sanctification as an accomplished fact: we are saints, holy in Christ, in virtue of our real union in Him, and His holy life planted in the centre of our being. Here we are spoken of as being sanctified. There is a process by which our new life in Christ has to master and to perfect holiness through our whole outer being. But the progressive sanctification has its rest and its assurance in the ONCE and FOREVER of Christ’s work. He hath perfected for ever them that are being sanctified. 119 Where does this lead us? Hopefully, in a sincere earnestness to have faith to seek both an initial sanctifying experience, and yet to continue through the self-same Spirit an ongoing pursuit of His holiness. This unfortunate past of contrasting the two classical viewpoints over sanctification did not benefit the Holiness movement in the nineteenth century and it undercuts even today any real and effective outcome in the lives of those who seek to walk in holiness. Subsequently, we must do as Paul declares in Ephesians 4:14-16: As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (NASB). 118 Synan, Vinson. Spirit Empowered Christianity in the 21 st Century. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House (Strang Co.), 2011, Pages 198-204. 119 Murray, Andrew. The Holiest of All. Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co, 1894, Page 344. 46
Washing of the Blood/Water/Spirit The image of Jesus Christ at Calvary informs us a great deal about the proper relationship of the believer through the suffering and mediated death of Christ on the cross. When the soldiers came to him and found the Savior dead on the cross, they did not break His legs as customary. .................. But without full comprehension that they were fulfilling Scripture, one of them took a spear and pierced his side from which flowed both blood and water (John 19:34). It is more than coincidental that the next verse (35) records a remark that John is a witness to this particular action and that he rehearses this truth to cause others to believe. As one comes to understand the beauty of this symphonic act of divine provision, you will come to appreciate this vital illustration of how the work the Holy Spirit will perform this cleansing in our lives and usher us into a life of holiness. The Scriptures clearly follow this truth by giving evidence of the initial act of sanctification in the believer through the blood (i.e. Hebrews 13:12, Colossians 1:19-20), yet gives ample witness to the ongoing work of sanctification through the Word of God (i.e. Ephesians 5:25-26, Hebrews 10:19-22). Both of these are a glorious and harmonious act that will be continually played out through centuries in the life of every believer who looks upon Christ for the hope of holiness. As the Holy Spirit applies the shed blood of Jesus as the initial act of sanctification to bring us into good standing with the Father through the Son, so will the Holy Spirit apply the “washing of the water by the word of God” (Ephesians 5:26) to continually sanctify the believer in Christ as an onward movement toward the Father. Since the word of God is always clean, it acts like the pure water that washes us holy before the Lord. Here is a brief description of this glorious work of sanctification that ushers us toward the holy: Making real who we are in Christ is enlivened not only by looking at the realities of the past and present in Christ, but also by exercising faith in the promises of the future. As life grows out of the seed in which it is started and the soil in which it is planted, so it is drawn to the sun beyond it. Because God’s promises are grounded on what He has already done in Christ, they are gospel indicatives as sure as the realities of the past. Our effort to be holy is fueled by the ‘living hope’ (1 Peter 1:3) that one day we will be like our Lord (1 John 3:2-3) and we will live in a new creation that Peter describes as ‘the home of righteousness’ (2 Peter 3:13). 120 Dynamics between Sanctification and Holiness If we overlook the pneumatological aspect of sanctification and holiness, we will always find ourselves looking back rather than forward. Our reception of the Spirit by faith and not by the law has thrust us into new territory that those before the Resurrection and Pentecost could never have understood or experienced. As believers, we must go further than believing that there was just one historical day on which we were sanctified, we must embrace fully the reality that “we are to walk in the Spirit” (Romans 8:9-14; 1 John 1:6, 7). While every believer needs to understand and experience the initial sanctifying experience through the shed blood of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2, 6:11; Hebrews 10:29), the work of the Holy Spirit continues the ongoing application of sanctification—through the Word of God that washes us continually (1 Timothy 4:5; Hebrews 10:22). Yet, we cannot separate either of these applications, whether past, present, or future from the Holy Spirit that sanctified us and remains the sanctifying agent to open our hearts and lives to the light of God’s Word. Simply said, this is the entire impetus of John 15 and the teaching of Jesus on the vine and the branches. The flow of the Spirit must 120 Murray, Andrew. Ibid, page 180. 47
Page 1 and 2: The Pursuit of the Holy God: Answer
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Introduction ....
Page 5 and 6: character of God. YHWH would not al
Page 7 and 8: that Isaiah, Moses, the children of
Page 9 and 10: with them played the whore.” This
Page 11 and 12: of listening to God, man’s self-a
Page 13 and 14: This simple diagram illustrates thi
Page 15 and 16: In secular Greek hagiasmos conveyed
Page 17 and 18: The Scripture and observation revea
Page 19 and 20: Therefore, we must address ‘missi
Page 21 and 22: As it relates to sanctification, th
Page 23 and 24: as early as A.D. 70 while others su
Page 25 and 26: Augustine Augustine, a towering fig
Page 27 and 28: Ulrich Zwingli is the earliest theo
Page 29 and 30: sanctified.” 78 The end of the pr
Page 31 and 32: as though it were some unified enti
Page 33 and 34: If we take this in its utmost exten
Page 35 and 36: In order to obtain this experience,
Page 37 and 38: Most of those deities have sacred t
Page 39 and 40: The consensus of the council (“it
Page 41 and 42: The journey to a personal sanctific
Page 43 and 44: more we pray, the better we are, an
Page 45: forgetting those things which are b
Page 49 and 50: Righteousness speaks of the orderin
Page 51 and 52: APPENDIX The Controversy over the T
Page 53 and 54: experience. 130 Much could be writt
Page 55 and 56: The First Blessing Theology Enterin
Page 57 and 58: doctrinal issues that cannot always
Page 59: L. Morris. The Gospel according to

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