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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 1:5-6, 8; 4:8; 5:19; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Thes. 3:13; 4:3-4, 7; 5:21-23, 26; 2 Thes. 1:10a
The first group of the Epistles is Romans through 2 Thessalonians, and the second group is 1 Timothy through Jude. All these Epistles reveal various aspects of the indwelling and life-imparting Spirit. First Thessalonians 1:5 and 6 say, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, even as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit.” These verses indicate that the preaching of the gospel must be in the Holy Spirit, and the receiving of the gospel must be also in the Holy Spirit.
Verse 8 of chapter 4 says, “Consequently, he who rejects, rejects not man but God, who also gives His Holy Spirit to you.” First, the gospel was preached to the Thessalonians in the Holy Spirit, and they received it by the Holy Spirit. Then God gave them the Holy Spirit. In 5:19 Paul says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” The Spirit causes our spirit to be burning (Rom. 12:11), and fanning into flame the gift of God is related to our spirit (2 Tim. 1:6-7). Hence, to quench the Spirit is related to the mingled spirit, the Holy Spirit mingled with our human spirit. Then in 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul says, “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved of the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” The foregoing are the verses in these two books that are related to the Spirit.
First Thessalonians 3:13 helps us to see the subject of these two Epistles. This verse says, “So that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.” Here Paul says “saints,” not merely “believers.” The words holy, holiness, sanctification, and saints all come from the same root in Greek. The saints are those people who are holy. Then 4:3 and 4 say, “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.” Verse 7 continues, “For God has not called us for uncleanness but in sanctification.” In chapter 5, verses 21 through 23 say, “Prove all things. Hold fast to what is good; abstain from every kind of evil. And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 26 continues, “Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.” Finally, 2 Thessalonians 1:10a says, “He comes to be glorified in His saints.” All of these verses show us that the Spirit in 1 and 2 Thessalonians is the sanctifying Spirit.
The Bible uses the different titles of the Holy Spirit in a very meaningful way. As we have seen, 1 Thessalonians 1 says that the gospel came to the Thessalonians not in word only but in the Holy Spirit; they received it in the Holy Spirit, and God gave them the Holy Spirit. The title Holy Spirit is not found in the Old Testament. In Psalm 51:11 David says, “Do not cast me from Your presence, / And do not take the Spirit of Your holiness away from me.” Similarly, Isaiah 63:10 and 11 say, “They rebelled and grieved / His Spirit of holiness; / Therefore He turned to become their enemy; / He fought against them. / Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people: / Where is He who brought them up out of the sea / With the shepherds of His flock? / Where is He who put in their midst / His Spirit of holiness?” In each of these verses, the Hebrew text uses the title Spirit of Your holiness, or His Spirit of holiness, not Holy Spirit as is translated in the King James Version.
The title Holy Spirit is first used in relation to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. Luke 1:35 says, “The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore also the holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.” This transpired at the time of the conception of the Lord Jesus in the womb of a human virgin. Similarly, Matthew 1:20 says, “While he pondered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” According to a principle in the Bible, the first mention of a name or item gives us the definition, meaning, and governing principle of that item. Accordingly, the title Holy Spirit is related to the incarnation.
The incarnation was greater than God’s work of creation. In creation God brought millions of items into existence, but in incarnation the Creator brought Himself, the Holy One, into His creation. This was accomplished by the Holy Spirit. The last phrase of Luke 1:35 says, “The holy thing which is born will be called the Son of God.” This may be translated literally from the Greek as, “The thing which is born will be called Holy, the Son of God.” The One brought forth from Mary’s womb was called Holy, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 and 4:8, the title Holy Spirit is used in a strong way. It can also be translated literally from the Greek as “the Spirit the Holy.” Just as we may say “the Eternal” or “the Divine,” referring to the Eternal One or the Divine One, “the Holy” refers to the Holy One. This construction is similar to that in 1 John 1:2, in which the eternal life may be translated as “the life the eternal,” indicating that the essence of eternity is the divine life. Just as without the divine life we can have nothing eternal, without the Spirit we cannot have holiness. This is the principle of the title Holy Spirit. The Spirit in whom the apostles brought the gospel and whom the Thessalonians received is the Holy One, the Holy Spirit.
The principle of incarnation is that God comes into man to mingle Himself with man. By incarnation the Holy Spirit, the Holy One, comes into man, the common one, to make man holy. In the whole universe only God Himself is holy (Rev. 15:4). Thus, before the incarnation none among the human race was holy. All the descendants of the race of Adam are not only sinful but also common. By coming into man to mingle Himself with man and be one with man, God makes man holy. Because of this, the Spirit of God became the Holy Spirit, the One who sanctifies man and makes him holy. In former centuries Christians considered holiness mainly to be sinlessness. However, in the last thirty years the Lord has shown us that holiness is God Himself, the Holy One, coming into common man to make man holy. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
When the divine Spirit inspired the writers of the Bible, He was very careful and meaningful in the use of words, including the divine titles. Acts 16:6-7 says, “They passed through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, yet the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” On the one hand, verse 6 speaks of the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the word. On the other hand, verse 7 speaks of the Spirit of Jesus, in whom is not only the divine element of God but the human element of Jesus for the apostles’ preaching ministry, a ministry accompanied by suffering, hardships, poverty, and persecution. To those who preach, the Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus for suffering in the work, but to those who receive our preaching, He is the Holy Spirit bringing the gospel to them and bringing God into them. Our preaching of the gospel is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring God into man. The gospel came to the Thessalonians in the Holy Spirit, they received it in the Holy Spirit, God gave them the Holy Spirit, and this Spirit, the Holy One, carried out the work of sanctification within them to make them holy. All this gives us the proper understanding of the title Holy Spirit. This very meaningful title indicates that He is the sanctifying Spirit, the One who brings God into us and works God into us to make us holy.
God was in eternity, and one day He was incarnated to be a man. In this incarnation the Spirit of God was the Holy Spirit to bring God into man to make man holy, that is, to sanctify man. Then He went to the cross, died, was buried, and resurrected. Now He is the life-giving Spirit to impart life into man in resurrection. In our experience, being made holy by incarnation and by life-imparting are two aspects of one thing. When a sinner receives the gospel, he receives Christ into him. This is a kind of incarnation. Originally, he did not have God; thus, he was common and had nothing holy within him. By receiving Christ, God was “incarnated” in him. To receive the gospel is to receive not only the life of God but God Himself. Through the redemption of Christ, God Himself comes into us to make us holy, that is, to sanctify us. Moreover, it is by the Holy Spirit that this gospel is brought to us, and it is by this Holy Spirit that we receive the gospel. Then when we receive the gospel, God gives us the Holy Spirit that He may do the work of sanctification in us to make us holy.
As we have seen, the Scriptures convey differing meanings by the different titles of the Spirit. In the two books of Thessalonians, the Spirit is mentioned mainly as the Holy Spirit, and His work within us is related mainly to sanctification, the work of making us holy as God is holy. To be holy should not be considered merely as being sinless. In the Bible to be holy, to be sanctified, is much more than this. According to a careful reading of the New Testament, to be sanctified includes at least five items. First, it is to be set free from sin. Romans 6:19 says, “Just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification.” In this verse sanctification is in contrast to lawlessness. Then verse 22 says, “Now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end, eternal life.” These two verses make it clear that the first aspect of sanctification is to be freed from sin.
Second, to be sanctified is to be separated from the world, that is, from all things other than God. Anything other than God is the world, the cosmos, the satanic system. John 17:15 through 17 say, “I do not ask that You would take them out of the world, but that You would keep them out of the hands of the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” According to these verses, to be sanctified is to be separated from the world. This does not mean that we are kept away from the world. We are still in the world, but we are not of the world, because we are separated, sanctified, from the world.
According to the history of the Lord’s work of recovery, the truth of sanctification was not yet recovered at the time of Martin Luther. At that time it was mainly justification that was recovered. The truth of sanctification began to be recovered at the time of John Wesley, in the eighteenth century. However, only the aspect of being freed from sin was recovered. About one century later, the Brethren in England recovered the second aspect of sanctification — separation from the world. The Brethren pointed out that in Matthew 23:17 and 19 the temple sanctifies the gold and the altar sanctifies the gift, and in 1 Timothy 4:5 our prayer sanctifies our food. The Brethren pointed out that because there is no sin in gold, gifts, or food, to be sanctified must mean something more than being set free from sin. Sanctification is also a separation. When gold is in the homes or market, it is common, but when it is placed in the temple, the temple makes it holy. The temple sanctifies the gold by separating it unto God from all the common gold. It is the same with the gift. When the gift is in our hands, it is common, but when it is placed on the altar, the altar sanctifies it. Similarly, food in the market is common, but when we as believers put it on our table and pray over it, our prayer sanctifies it by separating it unto God for His use. Therefore, to be sanctified is to be separated from anything common unto God to fulfill God’s purpose.
The Lord has opened our eyes to see that there is a third aspect of sanctification, which is to be saturated with God’s divine element and substance. We may illustrate this with a glass of water. First the water is cleansed from all impurities, and then it is set apart for a particular purpose. However, regardless of how clean and separated it is, it is still only plain water with a natural, clear appearance. As such, it is not yet a full picture of sanctification. We may now add a golden-colored juice into the water, signifying the addition of the divine element of God into us. Eventually, the water will be not only cleansed and separated but also saturated with the golden juice, signifying all that God is, the divine “ingredients” of God. To be sanctified is not only to be cleansed from sin and separated from common people. These aspects are only on the negative side. To be sanctified is also something positive. It is to be saturated with God’s divine element. In this way we are made holy by the One who alone is holy.
To be sanctified is not merely to have a positional change. It is mainly to have a dispositional change. Together these equal our full sanctification. We are made holy, not only outwardly and positionally but inwardly and dispositionally. Gold is sanctified by the temple only because its position has changed. However, the nature of the gold is not changed in this way. Likewise, food is sanctified by the prayer of the saints only because its position, not its nature, has changed. Our full sanctification is not in this principle. The Holy Spirit within us changes not only our position but also our disposition, our nature within.
Stanza 3 of Hymns, #509 says, “The river does the Spirit show, / Coming man’s spirit to supply, / That with God’s riches he be filled, / Holy to be thereby.” The enjoyment of God’s riches makes us holy. After we eat food, we assimilate it, and whatever we assimilate saturates us and changes us. Likewise, when we take God as food into us, we assimilate Him as our nourishment, and His substance and element become our “ingredients.” It is in this way that we are made holy, that is, sanctified by God and with God as holiness. The way to be sanctified is by taking the Lord as our nourishment. When we feed on Him and drink of Him, we assimilate Him and are sanctified.
To be sanctified is also to be transformed into the image of God (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). We may refer again to the illustration of the water and the golden-colored juice. Before the water was saturated with the juice, it had a plain appearance. However, after being saturated, it is transformed into the same likeness and appearance of the juice. Eventually, we cannot distinguish the water from the juice. In the same way, through sanctification we are being transformed into the likeness, the appearance, of God Himself, and we are being conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29). There is no doubt that John 17 speaks of our separation from the world, but Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:18 speak further of a change in our disposition, which is accomplished within us through saturation and permeation with the element of God. In this way, our soul will eventually be transformed, and even our body will be changed through glorification. Then we will be wholly sanctified in our spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23). This is the full meaning of sanctification.
To be sanctified is also to be glorified with the divine glory. One day our physical body will be brought into the glory of God (Rom. 8:23, 30; Phil. 3:21). At that time we will be fully, thoroughly, absolutely, and wholly sanctified (1 Thes. 5:23). We are now under the process of sanctification, but at that time our sanctification will be fully accomplished. Second Thessalonians 1:10 says that the Lord Jesus will come to be glorified in His saints. When we as the saints are thoroughly, fully, wholly sanctified, the Lord Jesus will be glorified in us. We will all be brought into the divine glory, and the Lord Jesus will be glorified in us in that glory. This is a great matter. In 1935 we began to see the third aspect of sanctification, and within ten more years we began to see the fourth aspect. However, it is only within the last few years that we have begun to see the last aspect. These five aspects are the full meaning of sanctification.
Romans 1:4 mentions the Spirit of holiness, and 2 Thessalonians 2:13 speaks of sanctification of the Spirit. There is a difference between holiness and sanctification. J. N. Darby helped us to see that holiness is the nature of God, and sanctification is the practical effect produced by holiness in action. On the one hand, we have the Holy Spirit within us, and on the other hand, we have His work of sanctification. The Spirit within us is the Holy Spirit, who is constantly doing the work of sanctification in us to make us holy. God’s salvation includes three steps: the regeneration of our spirit, the transformation of our soul, and the transfiguration of our body. It is through the sanctification of the Spirit that we realize God’s salvation. At present we are under the process of sanctification; that is, we are being transformed. Eventually, we will be glorified, which is to be brought into the glory of God even in our physical body. This will be the completion of God’s sanctification. In summary, sanctification includes being set free from sin, being separated from the world, being saturated with the divine element, being transformed into His divine image, and being glorified with the divine glory. This is the work of the sanctifying Spirit in the two books of Thessalonians.
First Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Because the Spirit mingles with our spirit, and from our spirit He is doing a work of sanctification, to quench the Spirit is to stop His sanctifying work. If we do not quench the Spirit but always go along with Him, we will not need to care about overcoming sins or being separated from the world. There is no need for us to do the work of sanctification ourselves; this is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, we must take care not to hinder His work. We must learn to give the Holy Spirit a free way to do His work with no quenching, hindrance, or restriction. As we cooperate with the sanctifying Spirit and do not quench Him, day by day and hour by hour we will spontaneously be freed from every kind of sin and be separated from the world and all things other than God. Spontaneously, we also will be saturated with the divine element and transformed into the divine image. In this way we will be prepared to be glorified at His coming back.
We do not need to try to overcome many things. We must care only for not quenching the Spirit. We should always be reminded not to quench the Spirit. Are you going shopping? Do not quench the Spirit. Are you about to talk to someone? Do not quench the Spirit. Are you about to lose your temper or do something wrong? Do not quench the Spirit. Someone may ask, “Why should I not go to the movies?” We can simply answer, “Do not quench the Spirit.” If we simply take care of not quenching the Spirit, the Spirit will care for our sanctification. The Spirit whom we must not quench is the sanctifying Spirit, the Holy Spirit who brought God into Mary’s womb to be incarnated there. This is the same Holy Spirit that today is bringing God into us again and again to accomplish His work of sanctification, that is, to saturate us with the divine element, transform us into His divine appearance, and prepare us for His coming back.
At the coming of the Lord, the work of sanctification will be fully and thoroughly completed, causing us to be the saints in whom He is glorified. Today we are the saints, but we are not manifested as saints, because the process of sanctification has not yet been completed in us. We are still under the process of being sanctified. At the coming of the Lord Jesus we will be thoroughly, fully, wholly, and absolutely sanctified. At that time we will be manifested as saints by the Lord Jesus’ being glorified in us. Our full sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the two books of Thessalonians. We not only have holiness within us, but we also have the work of holiness within us, which is sanctification. It is through this sanctification by the Holy Spirit that we are under the process of being fully saved day by day.
We do not find the word saturate in the Bible, related to sanctification. However, we do have the words transformed, conformed, and glorified, which imply saturation. Without being saturated with the divine element, we cannot be transformed, conformed, and glorified. The work of transformation, conformation, and glorification does not take place objectively, outside of us. Rather, it is very subjective, within us. Therefore, this work requires that we be saturated with the divine element of God. As the Lord saturates us, we are transformed in our soul, conformed to His image, and transfigured in our body, that is, glorified.
First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” By the Lord’s work of saturation, we will be transformed and glorified; that is, we will be sanctified in our whole spirit, soul, and body. Since the day the Lord came into us, He has been the saturating element within us. We may compare the Lord’s saturation to the spreading of ink. If we inject a drop of ink into the center of a ball of cotton, the ink will spread from the center until it saturates and permeates the whole ball. This is a picture of transformation and glorification. The Triune God as glory has been “injected” into us, and He is now waiting for the opportunity to spread, saturate, and permeate our being. First, He came into our spirit; then, He spreads from our spirit into our soul to transform it. Finally, He will spread from our soul even to our body. At the time of our glorification we will experience full redemption, the redemption not only of our spirit and our soul but also of our body (Rom. 8:23).
Ephesians 3:16-17a and 19b say, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” When our inner man, our spirit, is strengthened by the Spirit, we give more room to the Spirit, and Christ takes over and makes His home in all the parts of our heart. As a result, our whole being is filled unto all the fullness of God. This process is our saturation and permeation with God. It is in this way that we are transformed and glorified. The first step of sanctification is that we are kept from sin, and the second is that we are separated from the world. Then we are saturated and permeated within by the Holy Spirit. Gradually we are transformed in our soul, and eventually we will be transfigured in our body, that is, glorified. Glorification is the final, ultimate step of sanctification. At that time we will be wholly and thoroughly sanctified in our spirit, soul, and body. We will be one with the Lord in glory, and we will meet Him in glory at His return. This will be the result of our full sanctification. Today we are under the process of daily sanctification.
The two Epistles to the Thessalonians speak of Christ’s second coming (1 Thes. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thes. 1:10; 2:1). In the foregoing verses, the Greek word for coming is parousia, which also means “presence.” The way to be in the Lord’s presence at His coming is by being fully sanctified. We may feel that our condition is acceptable, but if we were to stand in the Lord’s presence today, we would lament that too much of our inward being is still not sanctified. Only when we are thoroughly saturated, permeated, and sanctified can we be peaceful in the Lord’s presence, because at that time nothing within us will cause us shame. We must be wholly sanctified from within to without, until every inward part is full of Christ and brought into the new creation. Then we will be bold and have the full peace to stand in His parousia, His presence. This is a matter not only of positional sanctification, a change in our position. It is even more a matter of dispositional sanctification, a change in our disposition. We need a change in our nature, our disposition, and our entire being must be transformed.
