ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AND THE IMPUTATION THEORY

The wisdom of the father

ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION AND THE IMPUTATION THEORY

The Imputation Theory is held by a number of excellent people. They say that the heart is never made entirely clean in this life, but purity is imputed to it through Christ. One of these advocates was talking with a Bishop in the Methodist Church, and in the course of the conversation said: " My heart is dark and foul; I find corruption in it. But Jesus comes and throws His white robe of purity over my black heart, and no one can see the blackness. And when Christ appears for His own, He will come to me as I am thus covered up, and will take me off with His robe.''

The Bishop meditated a moment and said: " Yes; Christ is coming for His own one of these days; and when He arrives He will do this very thing. But the black and foul do not belong to Him, so He will take His robe and leave you.''

Imputed purity will not do. We want something deeper and more subjective. We know what imputed purity in a legal sense in the Bible means; but that same Bible teaches that we are brought into heaven not simply in a legal way, but are fitted for it as well. It is not only an imputed purity, but an IMPARTED purity.

The Word says: ''From all your filthiness will I cleanse you''-'' I will purge away thy dross and take away thy tin.'' This is what God promises and what the soul craves and must have to see God... Let men deny and argue as they will, the yearning for a pure heart is left in the regenerate soul, and it is a longing not for something imputed to it in a hazy kind of way, but something given and enjoyed as a blessed, blissful possession. However, the fact that this longing is in the regenerated heart shows that it is a grace as yet unpossessed, and so should inspire and urge the believer on unweariedly until he comes into the realization of the crowning blessing of the Christian life.

(from "The Sanctified Life" by B. Carradine)