CONSECRATION is simply the constant recognition of the fact that we are the Lord’s and not our own. He who learns that this is a fact and lives in the constant living presence and recognition of it as the great fact, —he is consecrated, and this is consecration.
Nor is this a hard thing to do in itself. People make it hard for themselves, by thinking it to be something that it is not, and trying to accomplish it in a way that is not the Lord’s way, and even then they miss it. And, in truth, going about it in another than the Lord’s way, they cannot possibly do anything else than miss it.
Is it a fact, then, that we are the Lord’s? —Of course it is; for it is written: “Ye are bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). And the price is, “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). For He “gave Himself for us” (Titus 2:14).
This “price” was paid for every soul that is on earth, and for every one who ever was or ever shall be on earth; for “He died for all.” Having died for all; having paid the wondrous price for all; having given Himself for all, it is certainly a fact that all are his. Therefore it is written: “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).
He not only gave Himself for us, but for all there is of us—yes, even for our sins. For again it is written that He “gave Himself for our sins” (Gal. 1:4). And He did it “that He might deliver us from this present evil world;” that He might “purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works;” that He might present us “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24); —in one word, “that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
He so loved us that He wants to save us. But He cannot save us in our sins. He will save us from our sins. And as our whole self is sin and sin only, in order to get us, in order to buy us, He had to buy our sins also. So in giving Himself for us, He gave Himself for our sins too. And as we are His, because He bought us with that great price, so also our sins are His, for He bought them with the same great price.
Then will you let Him have the sins which He has bought? or will you hold on to these yourself? Will you let Him have what is His own? Will you let Him do what He will with His own? And what will He do with these sins? O, He will forgive them! (1 John 1:9). He will make them as white as snow. (Isa. 1:18). He will put them away. (Heb. 9:26). He will cast them into the depths of the sea. (Micah 7:19). He will remove them from us as far as the east is from the west. (Ps. 103:12). He will cast them all behind His back. (Isa. 38:17). And when they are all cast behind His back, He and His own throne will stand between us and them, as the pledge that we are free from them; and the rainbow round about the throne will be the sign—the token—of the everlasting covenant that our sins and iniquities will be remembered no more. (Heb. 8:12).