HI, Not sure if I am posting this is the right forum. I am looking for some more info on what are known as christian Higher Life / Holiness teachings on Sanctification. I have already done a bit of research, I want to ask about one or two christian writers to see what camp if any they fall into. As I understand it Higher Life teachings arose from Wesleyian teachings, but there are variations. One sort is called Keswick Higher Life, and it differs from traditional Wesleyian teaching in the following way. Wesleyian teaching that original sin can be eradicated in the believer, but Keswick leans more towards Calvinism and only speaks of the Holy Spirit counteracting original sin.
I am wondering were Oswald Chambers author of My Utmost for His Highest fits. I have read that while he was a Baptist, his theology is Wesleyian.
A few quotes of Chambers might help here. Like many Holiness teachers he speaks of a first and second work of grace.
I am wondering were Oswald Chambers author of My Utmost for His Highest fits. I have read that while he was a Baptist, his theology is Wesleyian.
A few quotes of Chambers might help here. Like many Holiness teachers he speaks of a first and second work of grace.
"The first sovereign work of grace is summed up in these words - "that they may receive remission of sins". When a man fails in personal Christian experience, it is nearly always because he has never received anything" Italics in original (My Utmost for his Highest - Jan 10)
"Salvation means we are brought to the place were we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, remission of sins. Then there follows the second mighty work of grace - "an inheritance amongst them which are sanctified." In sanctification the regenerated soul deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God's interest in other men." (Jan 10)
"When once I decide that my "old man" (ie. the heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything; my part is to walk in the light and obey all that he reveals. When i have made the moral decision about sin, it is easy to reckon actually that I am dead unto sin, because I find the life of Jesus there all the time." (April 11)
"The great marvel of Jesus Christ's salvation is that He alters heredity. He does not alter human nature; He alters its mainspring." (from July 24)
"If Jesus Christ is to regenerate me, what is the problem He is up against? I have a heredity I had no say in; I am not holy, nor likely to be; and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me I must be holy, His teaching plants despair. But if Jesus Christ is a Regenerator, One Who can put into me His own heredity of holiness, then I begin to see what he is driving at when he says that I have to be holy. Redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into any man the heredity disposition that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives are based on that disposition: His teaching is for the life He puts in. The moral transaction on my part is agreement with God's verdict on sin in the Cross of Jesus Christ." (Oct. 6)
"Just as the disposition of sin entered into the human race by one man, so the Holy Spirit entered into the human race by another Man, and redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and through Jesus Christ can receive an unsullied heredity, namely, the Holy Spirit." (Oct. 6)
From those quotes would you say Chambers is speaking of the eradication of original sin (ie. traditional Wesleyan Holiness) or some other sort of Holiness teaching?
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