The Galatians

Hudson Taylor came out of the Keswick movement, as did other fine missionaries. Taylor struggled with “process sanctification” for a long time, never feeling that he had arrived or even made progress. The more he followed that course the worse he felt about himself. The Lord finally set Hudson Taylor free by showing him that Christ was his holiness and that he could stop striving and rest in the finished work of Christ. He realised that he was sanctified by faith. In a letter Taylor stated:

"I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace…when my agonies of soul were at their height a sentence in a letter was used to remove the scales from my eyes and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus."

Paul said to the Galatians, “You began well, who hindered you?” (Gal 5:7). The Galatians began in faith, but then tried to perfect themselves by works. When we think that we begin by our own faith and not the faith that Jesus provides as a gift, then we suppose that we continue by our own efforts and not by the sanctification that Jesus provides as a gift.

Sanctification must be taken as a gift and walked out by faith, just as salvation is.

The whole problem in Galatia was that they tried to add to Christ. They did not deem the life and faith of Christ sufficient for sanctification. They thought that after receiving Christ by faith, they must go on and be sanctified by works. This is a common attitude. We are essentially confident in our own flesh (ability).

Christians sometimes hold to a three stage approach to salvation doctrine (soteriology), including new birth, followed by baptism in the Spirit, followed by process or progressive sanctification, until we reach a state of perfection, or at least come close to that state.

Such teaching is based on a concept of personal holiness, which we attribute to those who fulfil a level of devotional qualities that we deem to be necessary, but we ourselves never seem quite able to achieve. This is law and it takes away our joy, by putting us under a curse.

Then we condemn ourselves, thinking that any temptation or impurity of motive displays a bad heart. So to remedy this we add rules to try to “change our heart”. There is nothing that we can do to change our heart. Temptation is not sin, but it should not point us to further works, but point us to Jesus Christ, who is the source of our holiness and perseverance. When we feel our infirmity we go to Jesus by faith, not to works.

Sanctification is a part of salvation. Jesus comes to circumcise our heart and set us free. This is not achieved by our level of devotion, but by His power and life within us. Jesus said, “Whom the Son of man sets free is free indeed.” (John 8:36).