Baptistic Theologies, 2009

r daily life, even as deep as your thoughts and convictions. Unless you strive further in your salvation, it is a poor and altogether superficial attempt. If you do not expect and do not aspire to a deeper salvation on a broader scale, it is plain that your understanding is false. 43 Personal consecration is needed to move salvation to sanctification For Kargel, sanctification was not a verbal claim made during a prayer of faith nor something that one simply took ownership of. It was a full surrender and dedication of obedience to submit to the demands of God made on His children. It involved human effort but not the kind that tries to sanctify through human effort but that which constantly seeks to cooperate and abide with Christ. In 1925, Kargel clearly stated that sanctification was not the result of a peaceful rest in the Holy Spirit. ‘Sanctification does not happen at all without us, it can only take place in our own will and personal decision, if they are in the full authority with the will of God’. 44 ‘This truth (the full experience of a joyful and whole Christian life) will eventually be given to us upon absolute obedience to Him. Many Christians repeatedly say that they want to give themselves to Him [GN, Holy Spirit] but they do not do it.’ 45 Stating the human responsibility of personal consecration within the process of sanctification, Kargel writes that the word justification is only used in reference to a lost person 46 and never a request to a Christian. The word sanctification on the other hand, is only used when dealing with the rescued or justified person. 47 ‘The scriptures never induce the sinner to live 48 piously or to operate and walk in holiness, but only the righteous person’. The first step is for a sinner to be justified. Once that occurs, they are a believer and then are given the responsibility of sanctification. Full salvation is to be filled with the Holy Spirit For Kargel, full salvation was to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This idea was modelled by Jesus at His baptism. Even though Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit and lived a sinless life, ‘God wanted this wonderful fact to rush 43 44 45 46 47 48 Ibid., in Sin, the Evil of All Evils , p. 48. Ibid., in Christ our Sanctification , p. 58. Ibid., in What is your Relationship to the Holy Spirit , p. 146. Ibid., in Christ our Sanctification , p. 50. Ibid. Ibid. Ivan Kargel and the Fulfilment of Revival 33 to the eyes of His children. 49 ‘The triune God beforehand predetermined this event (to be filled with the Holy Spirit) as a necessary essential and truly carried it out’. 50 Before being filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ was a ‘perfect, faultless person, carrying the image of God in a human body, glorifying God’. 51 But, after filling Jesus Christ, ‘the Holy Spirit became the arms and creative force behind the new Person’. ~ Kargel uses the anecdote of an artist who creates a