Love Enthroned

By Daniel Steele

Definitions

Much controversy on the subject of Christian Perfection has arisen from the use of terms having various meanings. It is our purpose to notify the reader whenever we pass from one signification of a term to another.

1. HOLY.

  1. Set apart to the service of God. Applied to persons and things.
  2. Morally pure, free from all stain of sin. Persons.
  3. In the New Testament the original Greek word is used technically to designate all justified believers, and is translated by the word "saints" or holy ones.

2. HOLINESS. The state of,

  1. Consecration to God.
  2. Moral purity.

3. SANCTIFY.

  1. To hallow, to consecrate to religious uses. "I sanctify myself." - Jesus.
  2. To make pure, to cleanse from moral defilement "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly." - St. Paul.
  3. Sanctified - In the New Testament used technically to designate the justified.

4. SANCTIFICATION. Holiness: the act of making holy.

5. THE MORAL LAW.

  1. Unwritten; the sense of moral obligation felt within.
  2. Written; the Decalogue, with its (1) Prohibitions; (2) Precepts. Also the two tables, prescribing (1) Duties to God; (2) Duties to man.

6. SIN

  1. Actual. A willful transgression of the known law of God. Sin of commission, disobedience to a prohibition. Sin of omission, neglect of a precept. "Sin is the transgression of the law." - St. John
  2. Original or inbred -- often without any adjective, and always in the singular number -- a state, not an act. Native corruption of the moral nature derived from Adam's apostasy. A lack of conformitv to the moral law. Under the remedial dispensation it involves no guilt till approved by the free agent and its remedy is rejected. It is intensified by acts of sin of which it is the source. "All unrighteousness is sin." - St. John

7. PERFECTION. As applied to man.

  1. Legal or Adamic. Entire conformity to the moral law. "I have seen an end of all perfection, (for) thy law is exceeding broad." - David.
  2. Celestial, The complete restoration of both soul and body in the glorified state after the resurrection. "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect" - St. Paul,
  3. Ideal or Absolute. The combination of all conceivable excellencies in the highest degree. Ascribed only to God, and not to beings capable of endless progress. "I am perfect" - God. "If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." - Job.
  4. Evangelical or Christian. The loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, with the complete exclusion of every feeling contrary to pure love. "Love is the fulfilling of the law." - St. Paul. "The bond of perfectness;" the sum total of the virtues. - St. Paul translated by Bengel. "There is a twofold perfection, the perfection of the work, and that of workman." - Bishop Hopkins. The former is legal, the latter is evangelical perfection, which is nothing but inward sincerity, and uprightness of heart toward God although there may be many imperfections and defects intermingled.