Is There a Second Blessing? And If So, What Is It?

What is meant by the term "Second Blessing"?

In doing a search through my digital library (I have almost 6,000 resources in my favorite Bible-study program: Logos). I find a wide variety of uses for this phrase (I get 528 results in 244 resources). Many are related to the question of the day, some are not. I find that there are three primary ways this term is used, one is in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, another is in an elitist (super-Christian) sense, the other in a more generic sense. I'll deal with these three (preferring the latter) and then offer some personal conclusions

Weslyan Understanding of the Second Blessing

In Weslyan tradition, the "second blessing" refers to instant and entire sanctification. Here's a quote:

From Wesley, Pentecostals also inherited the idea of a crisis “second blessing” subsequent to salvation. This experience he variously called “entire sanctification,” “perfect love,” “Christian perfection,” or “heart purity.” Wesley’s colleague John Fletcher was the first to call this a “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” an experience that brought spiritual power to the recipient as well as inner cleansing. 

Vinson Synan, The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901–2001 (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2001), p.2

What exactly Wesley meant by this is subject to some debate (some argue that he still saw some growth in sanctification subsequent to this experience), but he did understand the concept of the "second blessing" as personal sanctification--primarily an inner working of the Spirit. That is to say, he understood this to mean that a person was not only justified before God, but through this experience was also entirely sanctified.

Much of the Pentecostal Holiness churches understand this concept in the same way. However, I'm not going to do a lot of historical and theological comparison here. I only want to acknowledge the presence of this use of this phrase ("second blessing") and what it means in these circles.

Such an understanding is quite foreign to the concept of sanctification articulated in the Reformed stream. Further, I find it to be quite removed from both experience (personally and with others) and the discussion of sanctification. If entire sanctification were available to the Corinthians, or the Galatians it would have made those books much, much shorter. Let's just leave it at that. (With apologies to those in the Holiness tradition that see how I have overly simplified their position. I hope I have not caricatured the concept of "the second blessing" though. If I have, please enlighten me.)

The Second Blessing as an Experience for the Elite

Okay, I tipped my hand on this one already. There are some (I won't name them because it's too vague to pin this one down to a particular person or movement), who have used the term "second blessing" to refer to an experience that is reserved only for a few, or that in some way creates a class of elite, super-Christians.

Sometimes those who teach this, teach it in the way the gnostics of the early centures of the New Testament Church taught things. It would sound a bit like this: "We have special knowledge, not everyone has. If you do X (set of behaviors) and don't do Y (set of behaviors), and believe Z (set of truths), you too can be super-Christians just like us."

Without going into more detail, let's just lay this one down as completely unBiblical and unChristian. Galatians 3:1-5 speaks directly to this foolishness.

A More Generic Use of the term "Second Blessing"

When I talk about a more generic use of this phrase, I mean something not necessarily technical. That is, it does not necessarily point to a specific set of experiences, nor require a certain set of truths. Let me give some examples.

If I say I was blessed with a son, and two years later had a second blessing of another son, I'm not using the phrase "second blessing" in some technical sense, but in a more generic, or conversational sense. That is, first there was this blessing and then a second one came, maybe a third one followed, etc.

I might also use the phrase "second blessing" to talk about milestones in my personal life. Receiving a college degree was a great blessing, but just as important was the second blessing of a seminary degree. Or I might say it this way, "Graduating from seminary I received the blessing of an M.Div, degree. Because of that degree, and the endorsement of the denomination, I was able to receive a second blessing of being ordained as a Minister of theWord in the CRC." In the second case, I'm claiming a subsequent blessing, that depends on a first.

Now, what about an infilling, or receiving of the Spirit, or an experience of the Spirit coming upon me (please see my previous post on that topic) that happens sometime after my conversion? What if these experiences happen more than once? Would this be a second blessing? A third?

Why not? I hope that we all understand that our Christian life is not a plateau we reach upon conversion. As we live the Christian life we grow and become more and more Christlike in word and deed, within and without. Anyone disagree with that? I hope not.

What is to prevent me from understanding this growth in terms of blessings? That is to say, suppose I understand my own spiritual growth in terms of  Divine gifts and blessings, not merely my own effort. If so, it seems perfectly natural for me to talk about progress in my spiritual life as blessings. If I would count them, I'd get far beyond the "second" blessing," wouldn't I?!

Now, let's suppose that from a completely subjective point of view I have an amazingly life-changing experience of God's power released in me that I see it as second only, in personal and spiritual results, to my own conversion. Would it be wrong to talk about such an experience as a second blessing? I don't think so. I think, it's just an acknowledgement of something secondary and subsequent to a previous blessing (in this case conversion). Does such a claim put me in an elite class of super-Christians? Not necessarily. Maybe, I see it as just coming up from sub-par to normal. Further, if I believe that the experience I had is available to any Believer who wants it, I'm not creating an elite class in the above sense, even if I am pointing toward an avenue of greater progress - which would be no different than pointing people to pray more, or read their Bibles more, or engage in private and corporate worship more.

Conclusions

When we use words and phrases, we should know what we mean by them. We should also understand that different people mean different things by using the same words. As we look at the phrase "second blessing" we should understand what is being said, and what they mean to communicate.

I believe we should also be open to profoundly life-changing experiences of God's presence and power in our life that happen both at, and subsequent to conversion. We can understand these experiences in many ways, but if they are a response to God's work in our lives, they are blessings.

I also believe that we should never interpret our own experiences to mean that through them we have somehow attained a level of spiritual maturity others, who have not had the same experience, do not have. That is the height of spiritual arrogance, and has no place in the life of a Believer, regardless of whether he/she considers him/herself Spirit-filled, or not (or whatever other self-designation you prefer).