Entire Sanctification

The other day I asked a learned friend of mine, a professor at a bible college, to explain the concept of entire sanctification to me.  It's not a church doctrine that I have a lot of knowledge about or experience with, but he articulated it so clearly that I thought it might be helpful to others if I shared it here.

When humankind lived in Eden, before there was original sin, we were morally neutral.  Obviously we had the ability to sin, because we chose to eventually, but we also had the ability not to sin, and we chose that route for quite some time as well.  It helps to imagine a tree standing perpendicular to the ground here - straight and tall.  It does not lean to the left, towards Good, nor to the right, towards Evil.

After original sin entered humanity, during a crisis referred to as The Fall, our tree image looks quite different.  Our natural inclination means the tree lists to the right, towards Evil.  Original sin is the sin inherent in our genes now - a by-product of having made that first step away from God and living in a fallen world.  I do not need to teach my son to lie to me, or to act cruelly to ants or hit his cousin or sneak cookies when I'm not looking because it is in his nature to list towards Evil.  It's his original sin coming out.

Now comes the world we live in and the tree image grows even more complex.  It is not just listing to the right, indicating our original sin, but it is also being pulled even farther to the right by a rope held by Satan.  The rope is his hold on our lives through temptation and sin.  In addition to this is the weight of our own sins pressing down on us - picture a boulder holding down the tree, forcing it even further towards the right and Evil.

When you accept Christ into your life and become a Christian, the boulder is lifted.  Sin no longer weighs you down; you have been forgiven.  In addition, the rope of temptation tied around you by the devil is broken.  He can still tempt you, of course, and you can easily still sin, but the hold and power he had over your life is gone.  In this stage, though, your tree is still listing.  Original sin is still there, you still naturally incline towards Evil.  Some denominations call this time Initial Sanctification.

And that is pretty much where I thought it ended, to tell you the truth.  But some people believe that the bible talks of a 'second work of grace' that God can do in your life.  That He can bring you from the place of Initial Sanctification to Entire Sanctification, where He, in continuing our tree image, makes you straight again, as you were before original sin entered the human race.  My friend hastened to add that Entire Sanctification is not a cure-all.  You can, like anyone else, still sin.  You can even fall back to the stage you were before when you were under the burden of your inherent sin, but that the final stage of a holy life (sometimes called Christian Perfection) was a lifting of that burden.  You weren't perfect, per se, but you were not constantly struggling against your sin nature.  It wasn't always always an uphill battle.

And how, I asked, does one reach this stage of Entire Sanctification.  And he answered that you simply ask for it, and that it's clearly outlined in the scriptures and many denominations believe in it, although it seems to have different names.  I find it fascinating, and although I'm not certain that I believe in it, I think that God can take away that desire to sin and give you a completely clear heart if he wanted to.

If you're interested in learning more about it (and it's possible origins in the Catholic church) I read about it on Wikipedia and actually found the article sparked my interest to read more, not always the case with Wikipedia!  Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entire_sanctification