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 and 7 say, “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 apostle’s 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 beholy, to be sanctified, is much more than this. According toa 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, “But 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 ofthe world, but that You would keep them out of the hands of theevil 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 theworld. 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, thetruth of sanctification was not yet recovered at the time ofMartin Luther. At that time it was mainly justification thatwas 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.