In ADVOCATE of September 26, are the following questions addressed to me, which partly for want of time, and sometimes for want of the paper present, have not been answered before now.

      I take pleasure in giving all the information I can on the above subject, which I find to be the central thought of the Bible, the great design of the death of Christ (Hebrews xiii. 12, 20, 21, x. 14), the crowning "end of the commandment," or law of Christ (1 Timothy i. 5), the object of the Scriptures (2 Timothy iii. 17), and the purpose of the ministry (Ephesians iv. 12).

      I. "Are the characters addressed as sanctified in 1 Corinthians i. 2 the same that the apostle afterward declared were 'yet carnal,' 'babes in Christ,' etc.?"

      Answer--yes. The proof and manifestation of their remaining carnality was their schismatical contentions in which about the whole church must have been involved (see i. 12: "Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," etc.

      The difficulty, I presume, in the brother's mind, is how the apostle could address as sanctified, persons who were yet carnal. But does it not look equally inconsistent for the apostle to recognize them as the "Church of God," and "brethren?" Is God's church composed of carnal men, and would the holy apostle claim brotherhood with such? These things were not understood by me until I received the precious light of entire sanctification as a second work.

      If you take the position that all sin and depravity are removed at conversion, the test would be: "No carnality or no brother." And you make the apostle guilty of brothering unconverted people; or, if converted, misrepresenting them. But Paul does positively recognize the co-existence of carnality and "babes in Christ;" of brethren, and even "sanctified."

      But observe, he does not call them fully or entirely sanctified. To be wholly sanctified is to be made perfectly pure and all given over to God. In justification the sinner brings himself a dead offering to God. With a sin-darkened heart and gross conception of the purity of God's law and the extent of its claims, he surrenders all up to the line of his consciousness. He obtains the pardon of all his sins, the removal of all acquired depravity, and the implanting of a new principle of spiritual life and moral nature. This is a great work, and perfect of itself. It is indeed a wonder that a soul so darkened by sin could grasp all this by one act of faith. What reasonable mind could expect one just struggling from spiritual death to comprehend and appropriate God's grace beyond this? Do you ask what more is needed to complete salvation? I answer, to "lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset."

      "Close-girding sin."--MacKnight. "Close girding sin."--Emphatic Diaglot. "The sin that cleaveth close around you."--Conybeare and Howson.

      This sin, bred and born in our fallen race, clings so closely, that sooner or later after conversion, the young disciple is surprised to find an evil nature yet alive, and ready to improve every favorite opportunity to resume dominion over the child of God and the new principle, or as John calls it, the "seed," or plant of regeneration. But because this "seed remaineth in him he cannot sin." Remaining sin is dethroned, and the new nature, by great care and much grace is enabled to reign. Then invariably begins the strength for perfect purity, which is seldom attained for the want of some Joshua to lead the longing soul over into the land of perfect soul-rest from that inbred sin, which was not included in our burthen of guilt, because we are not responsible for it.

      But if the hungering one is blessed with a pastor that is capable of "perfecting the saints" (Ephesians iv. 12); he is told to "go on to perfection" (Hebrews vi. 1); he is told that "Jesus Christ, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Hebrews xii. 12), and that "by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Hebrews x. 14). He then "rendered himself a living sacrifice to God" (not a dead one as before). Conformity to the world ceases, perfect "transformation" into the image God takes place, and the soul washed whiter than snow "proves what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romans xii. 1, 2; Ephesians iv. 23, 24).

      If we take the position that all persons who are not perfectly pure in heart, are not at all converted, we unchristianize the great mass of believers who know their conversion to God and yet confess that they have an evil nature yet within. But Paul did not cast away and utterly condemn his brethren who had not gone "on to perfection," and consequently were "yet carnal." True, he rebukes the out-croppings of their carnality, and in 2 Cor. vii. 9-11, and viii. 7 we find they had repented and again "abounded in everything," etc. So the apostle admonishes them (2 Cor. vii. 1) to "perfect holiness" by cleansing themselves "from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." Now, they being admonished to "perfect holiness" shows that they had a degree of holiness; hence, properly called "sanctified;" and because they were "yet carnal," in a degree, they were exhorted to a farther cleansing in order to be perfectly holy. In chapter xiii. 9 the apostle "wished their perfection," and in verse 11 commanded it.

      II. "Are those addressed as holy brethren in Heb. iii. 1, the same whom Paul afterward admonished to lay aside every weight and sin which doth so easily beset us; and was the apostle himself included in that admonition?" To the first I reply, I suppose they are. They were holy as having been separated in a general sense, from the world, by conversion; "they had come to Mount Sion, the city of the living God  *  *  *  the church of the first born" (xii. 22-23).

      But not yet having been freed from "the sin that besetteth," not having gone "on to perfection," they, like the Corinthians, Thessalonians, and about all in our day, needed to experience the great truth that "by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Heb. x. 14), i. e., entirely sanctified; and because "Christ, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate," they were commanded to "go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach" (Heb. xiii. 12-13); that is, go out and be crucified with him, die to sin. They needed the second work wrought "in them through the blood of the everlasting covenant" in order to be perfect and able to do his will (Heb. xiii. 20-21).

      Was the apostle included in that admonition? The apostle often uses "us" in commanding the brethren, through courtesy and humility. It very often occurs when the injunction only applies to the persons addressed, which is doubtless the case here, for Paul elsewhere claimed to be "crucified," "dead to sin," and "freed from sin."

[The Church Advocate 42 (January 16, 1878): 3.]

      Daniel S. Warner's "Answers to Questions on Sanctification" was first published in The Church Advocate, Vol. 42, No. 29 (January 16, 1878), p. 3. The electronic version has been transcribed from a copy of the article provided by Jean Leathers, Archivist of the Churches of God Historical Society. The query to which Warner replies was published in Vol. 42, No. 13 (September 26, 1877), p. 2:

Information Wanted.

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      Will Brother D. S. Warner please inform the readers of THE ADVOCATE whether the characters addressed as sanctified in 1st Corinthians i. 2, are the same that the apostle afterward declared were "yet carnal," "babes in Christ," etc.?

      Also, whether those addressed as holy brethren in Heb. iii. 1, are the same whom Paul afterwards admonished to "lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us," etc.? and whether the apostle included himself in that admonition?

A. LANDIS.

Parish, Iowa.

      I have let stand variations and inconsistencies in the author's (or editor's) use of italics, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling (e.g., "sayeth" for "saith"). Emendations of accidental errors are as follows:

                  Printed Text [ Electronic Text
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 p. 3, col. 3:    Hebrews xiii. 12, xxi. 21, [ Hebrews xiii. 12, 20, 21.
                  McNight. [ MacKnight.
                  Conaybar. [ Conybeare.
 

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 9 February 1998.
Updated 15 July 2003.