Progressive Sanctification

In the book, The Christ Life for Your Life, F. B. Meyer addresses how God sanctifies us:

"People ask if I believe in progressive or instantaneous sanctification. I reply--first, I do not believe in sanctification, I believe in the Sanctifier; I do not believe in holiness, I believe in the Holy One. Not an it, but a person; not an attribute, but Christ in my heart. Instantaneous? Yes, in a way: that in a moment I can take up the true attitude toward Christ: but progressive, because stage after stage He will carry on His work within me, weaning me, saving me from the love and power of sin, deeper, deeper, deeper down into my heart. I take up the position suddenly, but I apply the position all along my life.

". . . When the Spirit of God descended upon Christ He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil--Spirit filled, devil-tempted.

"You ask, Why does God let us be tempted? I think it is to show where we are weak; that upon the temptation, as our stepping stone, we may reach out for some of God's help. I would not know how much I needed Christ unless the devil were constantly tempting me.

"God is working in you. The compunction you feel when you sin, the yearning you feel for a better life . . . all are proofs that God is working in you to deliver you . . . Understand that God is working in you; you are the workshop of God.

"Now, I come to my next point. When God works in, you must work out. 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is GOD that worketh in you.'

". . . How long does it take between confession and forgiveness? When I was a boy at school and talked to the boy next to me, they sent me down to the bottom of the class, and it took me a month to work up. When you do wrong and confess it, God does not put you down and leave you to work up for a whole month, but on the spot, immediately, He forgives you and restores your soul, and puts you back where you were before you fell.

"Only, dear soul, abide in Jesus. Let the Holy Ghost in you keep you abiding in Jesus, so that when Satan comes to knock at your door, Jesus will go and open it, and as soon as the devil sees the face of Christ looking through the door, he will turn tail like a whipped cur. Let Jesus live in your heart. Do you live in Jesus? When the devil comes, do not meet him yourself, but let Jesus meet him, and you stand behind Him. The Negro said: 'When the devil comes to me, I always introduce him to his betters.' Put Jesus between you and the devil. Live in Christ. God will work in you. He will make you hate sin. He will make you loathe what you loved. He will deliver you deeper, ever deeper in your life, from the power and the love of sin.

". . . Oh, Thou who art able to keep us from stumbling and to present us faultless before Thy glory with exceeding joy, to Thee, Emmanuel, Christ, Son of God, lover of my soul, I yield my life, my soul, my all!"