06/16/18 QUICK OVERVIEW OF ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION
"Entire Sanctification" (as indicated in 1 Th. 5:23), is not "initial" or "progressive" sanctification. It is purity of heart for believers.
1 Thessalonians 5:23
23 And 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.
This verse, this truth in this verse is directed toward believers.
When a person becomes a BELIEVER, an initial cleansing from sins takes place, so that all sins are forgiven and a person is delivered from all guilt. This is initial sanctification.
"Sanctify" means to set apart and to cleanse.
The cleansing is deliverance from sins and guilt and a life of bondage to unholy living.
The setting apart is twofold.
Set apart from sin.
Set apart to God.
The believer turns from sin and turns to God.
"ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION" is "complete" in two ways.
It is complete, total cleansing from sin (as a practice, and as an inherent disposition toward disobedience to God).
It is complete because it cleanses all of a believer's being (body, soul, spirit). This is not glorification of the body, it is the complete setting apart of the body, soul and spirit from sin and complete setting apart of the body, soul and spirit to God.
We (believers) must make the total consecration, commitment, dedication, surrender, but it takes the grace and work of God to purify us. Notice the next verse. God calls us, we respond in faith, God entirely sanctifies.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Initial Sanctification (cleansing from sins committed and separation from a life of sinning) takes place at our justification (salvation).
Entire Sanctification takes place, as a crises experience, subsequent to our salvation (regeneration), when we come to a point of total surrender and faith in God's fullness through the Holy Spirit.
Progressive (continuing) Sanctification is the believer walking in the light that God gives him and God's delivering the believer from anything that is corrupting or polluting.
A believer cannot "progress" into purity. We will progress in grace toward being purified, and we will grow in grace after being purified, but being purified is an instantaneous work of grace, obtained by faith.
Wesley said it something like this,
Entire Sanctification is something we,
Approach gradually,
Enter into suddenly, and
Grow in forever.
Regeneration enables us to not sin (1 Jn. 5:18)
Entire Sanctification delivers us from the inner battle concerning sin (Ro. 8:1-4).
