Holiness Movement

The Holiness Movement claims there is a second blessing of sanctification of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is a false teaching. Naturally they gave into Pentecostalism in 1900. Sanctification is not consecration. Let me explain.

Not only are we justified by faith, we are also sanctified by faith. What this means is that in our being forgiven by God, we are justified, that is, legally right before God and free of guilt. At the same time we are also sanctified by Christ which means we are cleansed and made holy before God to be made presentable to Him. Both of these features are needed so we can come before God boldly. If we are justified we may not sense our holiness before God, and if we have our holiness before God, we may still not accept our legal right before God. By being cleansed even though we still have our sin nature, in God's eyes we are clean. Therefore, when we were born-again, we were both cleansed before God by being made holy as well as legally belonging to Christ our Lord. You may say justification is the negative removal and sanctification is the positive addition.

Sanctification by faith is not consecration either: set apart for God in bearing our crosses. Having died with Christ on the cross (identification of co-death) and received forgiveness (substitution unto justification) we also accept our sanctification of being made clean and holy before God in resurrection life. There are these 3 components of our new life.

Having died we may then be buried with water and the Holy Spirit. This is for service to come out of the world and begins our life of consecration (set apart for God) of taking up our cross to come out of the world and bearing our crosses in daily experiences having power over sin, self, environment, and supernatural.

Do you see how that all works? It is most glorious. I know many get all confused about these various words, but I just stay focused on the truth which gives me peace in real life experience.