A Need

Entire sanctification is not a fancy, luxury experience that man seeks just to possess a highly sophisticated religion. Entire sanctification comes in response to a spiritual need. Dr. Samuel Young says that "before one is willing, and ready, to go the great length required to obtain the blessing of a holy heart it is usually necessary for him to sense his need of God in desperate terms. This conviction for holiness is most frequently a conviction of want or lack rather than of wrongdoing. Often it is accompanied by deep conflict. But in any case the response must be the response of obedient faith."

Entire sanctification is a need of the regenerated person. The believer's heart needs the experience of holiness if he would live a victorious Christian life. We see many persons who go to the altar seeking pardon for their sins. They testify with great joy that they have been saved. We see them walk for a period of time in the light of the gospel. They come to church every Sunday, read the Bible, pray. But too often we find them losing out spiritually.

Even after the person is saved from his sins, the root of sin still remains in his heart. Soon he finds out that the inbred sin is at work in his heart. Then he starts experiencing what Paul talks about in his Epistle to the Romans: "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" (Rom. 7:22-23). Of course this does not mean that all persons who do not seek sanctification will backslide and go back to sin. But we can say for sure that their lives will not be all that God wants them to be. They will live a mediocre, limited Christian life.

Many believers live at a level of constant spiritual struggle when they could be living an abundant and happy Christian life that would, in turn, be a blessing to others. They never have a clear testimony of a victorious experience. Instead they magnify their problems and difficulties -and this does not bless those around them. It is true that none of us will be completely free from burdens and obstacles, but if the Holy Spirit abides within the heart, there can be inner peace and victory. Within there is a fountain of joy, not a center of spiritual warfare. No wonder the unsanctified heart yearns for the experience of holiness, that satisfies and gives a life of real joy and blessing.

Entire sanctification is a need for the Christian home. The Christian home also needs the influence of persons who are living in the beauty of the experience of entire sanctification. The home is not always the easiest place to live the Christian life. This is where everybody knows us as we really are. How difficult it is to keep calm in spite of the wrong attitudes of unsaved members of the family! And for that matter, how difficult it is sometimes to keep a good spirit when problems and misunderstanding tend to break the peace of the home, even though all the members are Christians! The point of failure for many Christians is not in the church, nor at work, nor in public life, but at home! The presence of the Holy Spirit in a home can make it like heaven on earth; the lack of it can make it a hell. Holiness is the only thing that can guarantee us happy Christian homes.

Entire sanctification is a need for the church, The church, if it is going to be what God wants it to be, needs the influence of sanctified persons in its membership. The church is like a family. Unless the persons who are a part of it are living the sanctified life under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the common problems of a congregation can ruin the whole church, How many churches have been split because of carnality among the members! Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, points out some of the problems among them because of unsanctified attitudes: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (I Cor, 3: 1-3)

Most of the problems of a local church originate in the carnal hearts of its members. Dr. A. F. Harper says that "where there is perfect love, Christians may have many and great differences within a united church. But where the sanctifying Holy Spirit has not yet filled their hearts with love, congregations may quarrel and split over the color of paint to go on the church steeple or the kind of hymnbook racks to be put on the pews."

Holiness of heart is the only thing that can guarantee us a victorious Christian life, a happy Christian home, and a highly spiritual church. Entire sanctification is indeed a need.