As the Salvation Army we believe that we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself. So that means we believe in Jesus and are saved and we know it. Something inside of us tells us "You're saved!" Hallelujah!
Check out agent 832s blog as he testifies to receiving the blessing of entire sanctification! Its great stuff! But it raises some questions for me. (questions have been brewing since holiness intensive...)
Holiness teaching says we get entirely sanctified by faith in Jesus. A total surrender to Jesus. Its basically the same way as getting saved. So, as we get the inner witness, the assurance of Salvation do we get the assurance in the same way for full salvation? (entire sanctification)
You see, I was 'baptized' in the Holy Spirit very distinctly. I changed. I was filled with power and to a certain degree love. Since then I have deepened in both. BUT I am always unsure if I am entirely sanctified. I still have a couple of sinful habits, I still have a couple of things I do without much of a fight. Does this mean I am not entirely sanctified?
In the holiness intensive people were trying to pin point when they were entirely sanctified, for me I don't care. I want full salvation now, I want to live in it now.
How do we know we are entirely sanctified?
Can we have assurance?
If it is by faith we are saved and then we get assurance, does that mean we need faith for full salvation then get assurance meaning, I need more faith because I'm not receiving?
Is there something else in the way?
If what I always called my Baptism in the Holy Spirit is my point of full salvation, what does that say for our theology of baptism in the Holy Spirit?
Is baptism in the Holy Spirit for power the same as for holiness?
Can you have one without the other?
What do you guys think?
Can anyone help me out here?
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Assurance of Full Salvation?
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6 comments:
I can only speak from my own experience and there is no great theology behind this.
My experience was a conversion experience a real encounter with the spirit of God, and this then involved a long process of God revealing things in my life that needed to be changed and confessed this was not an istantaneous event it took possibly in total of two years.... then there was the baptism with the Holy Spirit which was an experience/event that changed me and helped me to overcome some of the things I had battled with it also gave me power to do things I had not been able to do before..
The holiness thing I believe is an on-going process therefore this is why we have teh Holiness Table in Salvation Army meetings so soldiers could / can (dont see it that often ) come and confess renew restore receive.
I dont know if any of this helps.
It is something we experience not something we read.
I remember going through a similar questioning about sanctification when I was your age.People used to speak as if it was just something that happened - bang - and that was the end of it. However, there came a time in my life when I did ask for the Holy Spirt to enter my life and what a change that made but it did not happen the way that people had portrayed it. I was in the Training College by that stage and had matured in my experience of salvation but still longed to be holy. Salvation comes through faith and sanctification comes through the same means of trust in the transforming power, grace and love that God offers us through the Spirit. You feel assured about your salvation and you can know the assurance of the blessing of sanctification in just the same way. Some people make it sound as if sanctification makes you perfect, but there is only One who is perfect and that is God. Sanctification means placing our all on the altar and allowing the Spirit to guide us day by day and surrendering to Him daily those things which would rob us of our peace with Him. You know the song "All that I am, All I can be...accept and use Lord, as you would choose Lord, right now, today" This is what sanctification is all about. All too often we complicate matters because of our human questioning when all God wants from us is our real trust in Him. We want intellectual answers where faith answers are what we need. Sanctification is not a state where there is no possibility of further advancement but one in which the obstacles to spiritual growth have been removed.
2 valuable comments.
When you know that God loves you, you will simply open your life in response to, and reflection of, that love.
Thanks guys,
My asking the question does not come out of an experience of 'when' I was sanctified, but rather, "Am I living the sanctified life?"
I believe that entire sanctification needs to happen at a moment in time because that is logical. If we are sanctified when we completely surrender to God then, we are not entirely sanctified when we are not completely surrendered.
Therefore we go from a time of not being fully surrendered to a time when we are.
My question is not one of justification, how God sees me, it is not a question of did it happen, or do I feel sanctified, but it is a question of am i living the sanctified life?
Since the post Ive been thinking. And I believe that I am entirely sanctified. I have the choice to sin. I am no longer controlled by the flesh or sinful nature. When I sin, it is normally a choice I have made, knowingly disobeying God.
I believe I am full of love. But I also believe as I grow my capacity to love more will grow, therefore as I grow God will fill me with even more love.
Thanks God for justifying and sanctifying me!
Thanks for the comments!!!
It had been said that Sanctifications doesn't meen I can't sin, but that I don't have to. Like you said, James, since you've been sanctified, when you have sinned it's been by deliberate choice, not because you couldn't resist.
Before you were sanctified, however, I'm sure you can remember countless times when you said 'Yes' to Jesus only to find yourself doing the opposite.
I guess when i think about it, the most important thing about Sanctification is not that you don't sin, but that you are completely submitted to God.
I like how Olivia Munn puts it; "Holiness is a blessing and a journey, but definitely Not a destination."
James I know you very well and I have no doubts at all that you are fully sanctified. Your very living spells it out. We don't always need a time to pinpoint when it happened. You seem to think that is logical but let me ask you 'what is logical?' in the Christian walk? The unexpected is more likely to happen in my experience and you can't explain that as logical. God is the Person of surprises - always was and always will be - even in our 'fully sanctified' experience. Keep on believing and doing His will. The assurance will come if it isn't there already but I'm sure that it really is.
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