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"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you and ye need not that
any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth and
is no lie . . . . ." (I John 2: 27).
The verb chrio and the noun chrisma occur only in those Scriptures written during the
Acts period and relate to the distributing of evidential gifts that are listed in I Cor. 12:
One of these gifts is spiritual knowledge (verse 8) and the reference in John's first epistle
makes it quite clear that this came directly from the Holy Spirit apart from human
mediation; "ye need not that any man teach you". "Ye know all things." When we
"rightly divide" the Word, we shall have no problem with the fact that this does not
obtain today. It is only as we `search the Scriptures' like the Berean of old meditate and
pray for `opened eyes' by the Holy Spirit, that divine illumination comes. If we are not
prepared to dig into the treasures of the Word of God, we shall miss much. There is little
in the way of enlightenment and understanding of the Scriptures for lazy Christians.
Sealing.
The seal speaks of the completed undertaking whether in the rational or spiritual
world. The sealing of the Holy Spirit belongs to those who are justified and perfected
for ever in Christ. In II Cor. 1: 22 we read ". . . . . God Who hath sealed us, and given
us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts". In Eph. 4: 30 we are exhorted to "grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption". In the first
chapter the Apostle Paul states:
". . . . . Christ: in Whom ye also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in Whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise" (Eph. 1: 13, R.V.).
The student should be careful to avoid the A.V. rendering "after that ye heard . . . . .
after that ye believed" which is completely misleading. There is no `after' in the original
Greek. The moment of `hearing' and `believing' was the same moment when the Holy
Spirit performed His work of sealing. There is no basis here for the second blessing or
filling of the Holy Spirit after salvation as taught by the Pentecostalists, and this should
be a warning to those who seek to base doctrine on translations alone.
Sanctification.
The basic meaning of sanctification is separation for a particular purpose. Its first
occurrence in the Bible gives us this sense in connection with the sabbath:
"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested
from all his work which God created and made" (Gen. 2: 3).
Here the purpose is stated; God had ceased working on the seventh day, not because
He was tired, but by reason of its typical value and the N.T. later is to tell us that this was
a picture of the "rest (sabbath) that remains to the people of God" (Heb. 4: 9 margin).
God's choice and separation of us as believers in Christ was in order that we should be
"holy and without blame" (Eph. 1: 4). This is absolutely basic to the purpose of the ages
in bringing all things back to spotlessness and perfection. No wonder then that we read