Pollution of Sin

Opening the third major division of the series, 'The Salvation We Receive and Proclaim,' Pastor Martin demonstrates that the work of salvation is the central activity of God in Scripture and identifies its primary object: man. He treats man as created in the image of God (Genesis 1-2), man as fallen in Adam (Genesis 3; Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 15), and man as ruined in sin under four realities — guilt, pollution, bondage, and impotence. He closes with two searching questions: have you ever felt the weight of these facts, and do you maintain the remembrance of them in the presence of a vigorous faith in the Redeemer?

Pastor Martin opens a new section on sanctification by considering it in three lights. He first relates sanctification to the human problem of sin, using the illustration of a drunk driver who needs both a lawyer and a physician to show that sin creates both legal and personal problems — justification and adoption address the legal, sanctification the personal. He then traces sanctification as central to the divine plan of salvation in its initial design, actual procurement, powerful application, prolonged interval, and final consummation. He closes by pressing the personal necessity of holiness from Hebrews 12:14, warning against two fatal errors: a salvation that makes sanctification optional, and a sanctification sought apart from union with Christ.