Reorganizing Article X

My Version of Article X

We believe that entire sanctification is that work of God, subsequent to initial justification and continuous regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin or total depravity, and brought into the state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.

It is preceded by the entire consecration of the heart to God in repentance by faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, providing forgiveness for sins and justification before God. At the time of this initial repentance and entire consecration, the Holy Spirit begins to indwell the heart that has been cleansed from sin in what is known as initial sanctification, in which the Holy Spirit lives or abides within the believer.

We believe that entire sanctification is a second work of grace in the life of the believer in which the Holy Spirit is given full reign over the heart, and by the grace of God replaces the reign of sin, empowering the believer for life and service.

We believe there to be a marked distinction between a perfect heart and a perfect character. Our hearts are instantaneously made perfect by this gracious work of God, and our character moves towards perfection over time by growth in His grace. If the believer has no desire to grow in this grace their witness may be impaired and the grace itself frustrated and ultimately lost. Entire sanctification is not the final state of the believer. The believer continues to grow in grace through his or her life, and after death will be fully united with Christ in glorification.

My Explanation

First of all, I chose to start out these statements of faith with the phrase “we believe.” This is to show that we are united in our faith and that these ideas are not simply something that I came up with on my own, even though that is kind of what I did for this test anyway. However, the words I used have been used by many others before me, so I am not really alone in this.

I decided to keep a number of lines from the 2009-2013 version of Article X of the Church of the Nazarene. I am not in disagreement with what is listed in this article of faith. However, I did not keep everything that was listed. I felt as though the article was a bit wordy. I especially felt this way after reading the church’s fist few versions of it. I believe that a simpler form of this article would be helpful, which is why I started with the original version of the article when I began formulating my own version. However, a number of the original word choices, and perhaps even some of the ideas in the original I did not think best to leave in my own version.

In my first paragraph I remained true for the most part to the 2009 version, which honestly was not extremely different from the original version. I decided to add a few words for clarification, though. I chose to use the original word of “justification” instead of “regeneration,” and I added the word “initial” before it to make clear that justification happens at the beginning of the believer’s life in Christ. I also kept the word “regeneration,” but I moved it to a slightly later spot in the statement. I also added the word “continuous” before the word “regeneration” to make clear that regeneration is something that is continuous in the life of the believer, and not static. I kept the word “depravity” in the statement, adding before it the word “total,” because we believe that because of the fall mankind is totally depraved, meaning that sin is more than something we choose for ourselves, it is something we are born into.

The second line is also very similar to the 2009 version of the article. However, I added a few extra terms and removed some of what I thought to be extraneous sentences in an attempt to provide a more chronological listing of the events of grace following salvation in the life of the believer. I thought setting up this article in a more chronological listing of the event would be less confusing to the reader. I affirmed the original idea of entire consecration occurring prior the event of entire sanctification, but I added the words “repentance by faith in the atoning blood of Jesus.” The previous statement only said that sanctification came by the blood of Jesus. I thought that the extra words I added were important enough within the concept to include. Along with entire consecration, I use the phrase “initial repentance.” This is to show the importance of the idea that repentance is not something that happens once before entire sanctification, but it is something that is necessary throughout the believer’s life, even after being entirely sanctified. I also made it clear that there is an initial sanctification at the beginning of the believer’s life, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within a pre-entirely sanctified heart. The Holy Spirit can dwell there because the heart has been cleansed in initial sanctification.

My third paragraph is one that I wrote on my own for the most part. However, I drew from ideas found throughout the various versions of the article. Within my statement, I refer to entire sanctification as a second work of grace. I tried to make this paragraph as simple as possible to avoid the confusion of the 2009 version which seemed to scramble these ideas in strange places throughout the article. I say that in entire sanctification, by the grace of God the believer allows the Holy Spirit to reign in them fully, and that this reign of the Holy Spirit replaces the reign of sin. I tried to emphasize the fact that while we posture our hearts to receive the Holy Spirit’s reign, this is all by the grace of God and not by our own works. I kept the original statement “empowering the believer for life and service.” I feel this to be a distinguishing mark of entire sanctification, being filled with power.

The final paragraph is pretty much the same as what the manual says. I agree that there is a difference between a pure heart and a mature character. The original version actually used the word perfect instead of pure as well as mature. I decided to use the word perfect again because I thought it was appropriate. The heart is made perfect, and the character moves towards perfection. I did not think there was anything wrong with using the words pure and mature though. I edited out a number of things at this point which I thought to be overly wordy and repetitive. However, I thought a couple of other ideas mentioned were important enough to include in my version. The first idea is that it is possible to neglect and eventually lose the grace that once entirely sanctified the believer. The Christian is to continue in growth and not believe that one experience that they had a long time ago is good enough. People were meant to grow. The entirely sanctified believer must not be lazy because being entirely sanctified later in life is not supposed to look exactly what it looked like initially. Along with this idea is the idea that entire sanctification is not the end result or the final step of salvation. Salvation is continuous. The believer continues to grow closer to God and will eventually be united with God after death in glorification. I believe these to be important statements so I included them in my version of Article X.