TH E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July, 1941
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Progressive Sanctification Through the Holy Spirit By RUTH PAXSON T HE CROSS of Christ is the Great Divide, and when a soul makes the transition by trusting in the Saviour, there is an absolute reversal of ever, to do anything that we do not want to do. He is willing to direct us through the Holy Spirit and to show us what He wants us to do. And He will enable us to rejoice in obeying.
all his relationships. Thus the Chris tian is no longer located positionally in the sphere of Satan, the world, and the flesh, but is in Christ,' in the Church which is His Body, and in the Holy Spirit. This believer may know unques tionably that he is bom again, and if he understands God’s Word he will real ize that at the moment of his new birth he was baptized by the Holy Spirit into oneness with Christ and with His Body, the Church. But all too many Christians have failed to go on beyond their positional sanctification — their state of being “set apart” unto God by His own gracious act.. Multitudes have never shared in the progressive sancti fication which ¿lakes conformity to Christ a living reality in daily experi ence. Let us consider the practical phases of this process of sanctification. Through the radical reversal of his relation to the devil, the born-again Christian should be victorious instead of defeated, because the Holy Spirit is in him to accomplish this victory. In our relation to the world, all of us who are born-again Christians should be heavenly, instead of earthly. Christ brought us clear out of the world and brought us into a country that is a heavenly country. Remember, we are still here on earth, but we are just pilgrims, all packed up ready to be called above. At least, this is the way we ought to be. Is it that way with you ? I have to live in suitcases here on earth, traveling from place to place, so it is easy for me to make a spiritual interpretation of it. Is that your atti tude? Nothing but a pilgrim? Yes, you are one other thing—an ambassador to go to give the message of reconcilia tion that others may be chosen out of the world into Christ. Then in our relation to the flesh, the Holy Spirit is within us to make us spiritual instead of fleshly. The flesh is still there, but it need not* any longer have domination in our lives. If the Holy Spirit be in you and me, we are in Christ, to grow up into Christ, not in some things or in a few things but in all things. God does not force us, how
Then He is within us to strip us of everything that is not of Christ or that does not have its source in Christ. Are you ready for that? Again, He is within us to answer the prayer of our Lord in that high priestly prayer. Do you know the last three words of that prayer? “1 in them” (John 17:26). The Holy Spirit is in you and me to reincarnate the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring down that in visible One out of heaven, where the world does not see -Him, to the streets we walk that the world might see Him. This is what- God the Holy Spirit is in you and me to do, to give us an experi mental realization of those precious words that Paul spoke, "Christ liveth in me.” How is the Holy Spirit going to do this? 1. The Holy Spirit Is the Spirit of Truth. This is one of His names, and He is within us to enlighten us regarding what we possess in Christ and what Christ possesses in us. Ephesians 1 speaks of a double inheritance. What is our inheritance in Christ, and His in us? We are so insufferably small that we are always concerned with how we can get our inheritance in Him*» and when we get as much as we think we want, we say, “So far, and no fur ther.” We never give a thought as to whether the Lord wants His inheritance in us and how He will get it. It was a great day in my spiritual experience when He changed my thinking from how I could get my inheritance in Christ to thinking of how He could get His inheritance in me. In this passage of Ephesians, two of the petitions are concerned with how Christ is going to get His inheritance in us, and verse 11 speaks of our in heritance in Him. The first petition expresses the longing *“that . . ' . the Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom add revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling” (Eph. 1:17, 18). The second prayer deals with “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” H,ow fully has He realized this today in you and me—the riches o f the glory of His inheritance in us? Next comes the other aspect, our inheritance in Christ, that we may know “what is the exceed ing greatness of his power to us-ward whoi believe” (v. 19). Do we know what it is? It is possible for us to know, or God never would have put that petition in the Book. .This wonderful Spirit of truth that indwells us is given that we may know what is the hope of His calling in the Church and in the Christian; that we may know what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Church and in the Christian, and that we may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe in Him. It is a prayer for progressive revelation of what we possess in Him and what He possesses in us. Oh! that we might wish to have that full knowl edge of Him, a deeper, richer, fuller knowledge every single day of our lives through the study of His Word! Will you let Him do that work in you? He indwells you for- that purpose. II. The Holy Spirit Is the Spirit of Power.
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For what purpose? He is the Spirit of power to enable us to possess what we know. Now this is the difficulty with many of us: We kliow, but we do Fifth in a Series on "The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer"
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