73. Should all pursue entire sanctification?
Yes. It should be sought earnestly by every child of God.
—
Who would think of answering no to the questions: Do you want to be saved from sin to the uttermost? Do you want to love God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength and your neighbor as yourself? We will indeed pursue entire sanctification if we value all that God, through the Holy Spirit, desires to impart! We might be discouraged concerning the feasibility of this vision for the Christian life because we see people in a state of entire sanctification so rarely. But this is only the case because it is “sought earnestly” so rarely. This desire for holiness is perhaps the greatest casualty of the stunted view of salvation that has infected modern Christianity. But as many as have this desire, who seek entire sanctification earnestly, have the assurance that God himself desires nothing more than to bring this about in them.
Paul prayed constantly for his converts, and when he opens up our view to the content of those prayers, we often see that his chief concern for them was that they would be empowered, preserved, or otherwise made to stand “blameless” before God “on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (see, for example, 1 Cor. 1:8; Phil. 1:9–11; 1 Thess. 3:13; 5:23). It is difficult to imagine why this would so occupy Paul’s prayer life if he did not think it important, even essential, that God’s ongoing work of making them “holy through and through” continue (1 Thess. 5:23).
It is precisely for entire sanctification that we are praying when we sing Charles Wesley’s hymn “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” For him, entire sanctification meant arriving at the state of being “perfectly restored” as a “new creation” in Christ—and this would mean experiencing salvation itself:
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit,
let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty. . . .
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see Thy great salvation
perfectly restored in Thee.
—
You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. (Lev. 19:2)
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14 ESV)
Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13–16 NIV)
See also Ps. 86:11; 2 Peter 1:3–11; CoF XI
This is an excerpt from Christian Faith and Doctrine: An Annotated Catechism for the Global Methodist Church. Seedbed is pleased to partner with The Global Methodist Church to offer this companion resource to A Catechism of Christian Faith and Doctrine for the Global Methodist Church.
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