ARTICLE X, of the Church Constitution-Manual of the Church of the Nazarene states: “We believe that Entire Sanctification is the act of God subsequent to regeneration….”
Salvation in its application to man is a two-fold cure for it deals with the dual nature of sin and its cure. The nature of the disease suggests the method of its treatment.
In the Mosaic Law we discover the dual nature of sin:
a) One commandment forbids theft; that is the act of sin.
b) Another commandment forbids covetousness; this represents a heart condition.
The former is a deliberate act while the latter is a diseased state.
The method of atonement in the Levitical Code suggests the double-cure for sin:
a) There was the confession of sins over the head of the scapegoat, which was then taken out of the camp of Israel into an uninhabitable wilderness and let go, never to be heard of again. (This is likened to Christ’s bearing our sins and bringing us deliverance from their guilt and condemnation.)
b) Secondly, the sin offering was to be slain and its blood taken into the inner sanctuary and sprinkled on the mercy seat while its body was to be burned without the camp. (This deals with our inner sin problem, bringing us the sanctifying grace of redemption.)
Space does not permit me to review this truth as is found throughout the New Testament. Such passages as: Ephesians 1:13, Ephesians 5:25-27, John 17, I Thessalonians 5: 23-24, and a myriad of others.
There is not only a vital difference between the Birth of the Spirit and the Baptism of the Spirit but there is also a verbal distinction.
If as some would assert that one is sanctified when regenerated, the following are some inextricable difficulties as pointed out by Dr. Peter Wiseman:
1) Every one who enjoys religion is entirely sanctified and should profess such a state.
2) The admonition to seek holiness, entire sanctification, or perfect love is given exclusively to sinners. We have no right to urge Christians to “go on unto perfection” or “to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
3) If after conversion one finds himself groaning after full salvation, it would infer that one has never been converted at all or is in a backslidden state.
All the other theories of how and when we receive entire sanctification, (Getting it at the moment of conversion, growing into it following conversion, experiencing it at the point of death, or following death in a purgatory setting), have never produced a witness but multitudes have entered into the experience following conversion and have testified to the same and lived a victorious life thereafter.
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