Deeper Life #29

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

—1 Thessalonians 5:23

YOUR ENTIRE SPIRIT, ENTIRE SOUL, and entire body are to be preserved blameless. Until when? “Unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Listen! “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (v. 24). Do what? “Sanctify you wholly.” And if He has not done it already, you are casting aside the completed work of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of Jesus Christ does not consist only in the forgiveness of sins, not by any means. The gospel does not end with the fact that God loved you with unmerited mercy and forgives you of your sins. That is only the beginning of it. But the full gospel of God is that He enables you to love others as He does. He permits you to live and walk and breathe and move in this natural body with the likeness of Jesus Christ. Oh, blessed be God!

If even a few people would enter into entire sanctification, who could measure the possibilities for the human race?

Prayer Thought: Holy Spirit of Christ, cleanse me completely and equip me to live in the likeness of my Lord, beginning today.

SUGGESTED READING: 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24