I found the Wilber Dayton article difficult to understand, but our weekly course guide didn't give us a minimum length for this assignment so I'm just going to briefly do the best I can. Entire sanctification is the total absence of sin in the presence of perfect holiness. This doesn't mean that we will never sin again in our life or that we are suddenly a being of perfect holiness. It just means God, who is perfectly holy, takes all our sin away. All of us who have accepted Christ have been entirely sanctified. You become separate from sin and become a co-heir with the holy Christ. God makes us perfectly holy by justifying us and cleansing us of our sin. The word "entire" does not mean we have been made perfect, or entirely holy; it means the sanctification covers every inch, every atom of us.
The Bible never uses the term "entire sanctification." That is a theological concept penned by scholars. However, there are verses from which the concept came. In 2 Timothy, Paul explains sanctification with an illustration of tools, as we are all tools to be used for God's purpose. "In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work" (2 Timothy 2:20-21, NIV). The latter part of the verse describes us when we become entirely sanctified. God has made us holy and is ready to use us for his plans and purpose.
Other verses actually use the word "sanctified," such as Paul again, this time writing in 1 Corinthians. "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NIV). This verse describes what happens to us in the process of entire sanctification. God makes us new and clean, ready to inherit his eternal kingdom alongside Jesus Christ.
