THE GOD OF
HOLINESS
"You only are holy." Rev.15:4
No perfection of "our God," thus far considered, presents Him to our
view so like Himself as the perfection of holiness. We can form no proper idea
of God apart from this. Even the unrenewed mind is conscious that it has to
deal with God who cannot connive at sin. It is true, its conceptions must be
obscure, its views defective; for, what proper notion of Divine holiness can a
sinful being form? His views must necessarily be just what those of an
untutored peasant would be of the sun beheld through a misted and distorted
medium. There would be in that peasant's mind the conviction that there was a
sun, and that it was light; but the mental conception of the nature and
splendor of the orb would, from the necessity of the case, be obscure and
defective.
There is in the human conscience the conviction that God is a God of holiness-
for conscience, left to its natural bias, is ever in the interests of truth and
righteousness, and, as the vice-regent of the soul, faithfully whispers in the
ear what is right and what is wrong. But the highest and clearest views of the
Divine holiness cherished by the unrenewed mind, in consequence of the
sinfulness and darkness of the mind, fall infinitely short of what God is as
the God of holiness.
Such is the Divine perfection to which we now bend our devout contemplation. We
are profoundly sensible of the awesomeness and solemnity of our theme. The ground
upon which we stand is, indeed, most holy, and we have need to put off the
shoes from our feet, for "Who can stand before this holy Lord God?"
Only as we keep our eye upon atoning blood, can we for a moment gaze upon the
unsufferable brightness of the God of holiness. Only can we deal with the
Divine purity as we deal with the Divine Savior. The Great Atonement must come
between us and the Divine Sun of infinite purity, or the effulgence of its
beams would overpower and the holiness of its glory would consume us. Let us,
standing beneath the shadow of the cross of Jesus, meditate upon this lofty
theme; and thus, with our believing eye reposing upon the blood, which cleanses
from all sin, we may pass within the veil, and sinful though we are, hold sweet
fellowship with Him who "only is holy."
The passage upon which the present subject is based suggests the first thought
we offer– that is, the ESSENTIAL HOLINESS of God. God is essentially holy. This
must he the meaning of the remarkable words addressed to Him in the anthem of
the glorified saints, "You only are holy," not holy merely as others
are holy, but as positively and essentially holy, in comparison of whom none
are holy. "You ONLY are holy." "You only are divinely holy, You
only are holy, from the necessity of Your nature; You only are infinitely,
absolutely holy." Such is the key-note, and such the substance of the
triumphant song of Moses and the Lamb.
As there is none good but God, so there is none holy but God. His creatures are
derivatively holy; He is holy from Himself– absolutely, independently holy.
"No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no
Rock like our God." 1 Samuel 2:2. In comparison of God, none are holy, so
essentially pure and spotless is He. The heavens are not clean in His sight,
and He charges His angels with folly. These are remarkable words! Just as the
stars pale before the sun, creature holiness grows dim and is eclipsed by the
divine and essential holiness of God. In comparison of His holiness, the
holiest creatures and things are not clean in His sight.
It is said of God that, "He only has immortality." All created beings
are immortal, but God is absolutely so. He only has immortality as an essential
perfection of His nature. All others derive their immortality from Him; He from
Himself. What a great and glorious being, then, is God! He is "glorious in
holiness." He could possess no glory were He destitute of perfect
holiness. Divine in His nature, endowed with infinite perfections, and possessing
resources vast and boundless as His infinity, imagine what a being He would be-
how powerful for evil, how potent for destruction- were not every perfection of
His nature imbued with, and under the control of, infinite and perfect
holiness!
We measure the extent of a fallen creature's capacity for good or for evil by
the amount of his intellectual and moral resources. In proportion to his
ability to control the minds, shape the opinions and influence the actions of
others, we regard the extent of evil or of good he is capable of accomplishing.
Imagine, then, measured by this rule, what a being God would be were He
destitute of perfect holiness while yet armed with infinite power! It is the
fallen intellect of Satan that gives him the almost omnipotent power and
unlimited range which He possesses. All the perfections of God would arm Him
with tremendous forces for evil, bounded and restrained only by the universe He
had formed and the creatures He had made, were He not a being infinite in
holiness, spotless in purity. Compared with His, the intellect of Satan would
be a dwarf's, his wisdom idiotic, his strength an infant's. But we need not
attempt to imagine what God would be destitute of infinite purity; rather let
us think what a being He is "glorious in holiness."
Who that has seen anything of the beauty, and has felt anything of the power,
and has tasted anything of the happiness of holiness, would for a moment
cherish the wish that God were less holy than He is? Rather, is it not the
intense desire and fervent prayer and ardent struggle of the renewed soul to be
holy as God is holy? Sinful though we are, conscious of innumerable
infirmities, failures, and backslidings, is not our highest bliss to commune
with, and to be in some degree assimilated to, the spotless purity of God? When
are we so happy as when breathing after divine purity, overcoming sin,
"yielding our members servants to righteousness," "perfecting
holiness in the fear of God"? Not for thousands of worlds would we that He
were less holy.
The deeper our views of His holiness grow, the deeper grows our love. We love
the truth, because it is on the side of holiness; we love the saints, because
they are the reflection of holiness; we love the discipline of our heavenly
Father, because it makes us partakers of His holiness; how much more intense,
then, our affection for God, as the holiness of His being, the purity of His
character, unveils to our admiring eye!
A question, often asked, may possibly here arise in the mind of the reader. If
God is essentially holy, and could have prevented sin, why, then, did He permit
it? The entrance of sin into the world is one of those mysterious problems in
its marvelous history, the solution of which awaits us in the world to come.
The brief space at present at our command, will only allow us to meet this
question by a single and simple reply. Sin entered into the world, not by God's
approving, but by His permissive will. He was under no obligation either to
prevent its origin or to hinder its advent. Where an obligation exists, ceasing
to act when that action would prevent a crime were unquestionably to sin. An
individual receiving from another the confession that he was about to commit a
deadly crime, and yet, under the professed seal of secrecy, takes no steps to
prevent its commission, is but one remove from the actual guilt of the crime
itself; the concealer of the murder is well-near as criminal as the perpetrator
of the deed. He is under a moral obligation to disclose the intended crime and
denounce the criminal. He is bound by the tie of a common humanity, equally by
the law of a common charity, to avert the deed and save the victim.
But God stands in a totally different relation to His creatures. He was under
no such obligation to prevent the entrance of sin into the world. If He was, to
whom? and what was the nature of the obligation? Let the speculatist reply. To
him we must leave the solution of the problem of sin's introduction, satisfied
with the only rational conclusion at which the Bible warrants our arrival, that
God permitted it, and permitted it for His own glory. Let not your mind, my
reader, be perplexed with what must be regarded- without insinuating anything
of a skeptical character to those who raise these questions- but as speculative
discussions. "There are secret things that belong to the Lord our God, but
the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may
obey these words of the law."
Let us be satisfied with, and be profoundly grateful for, the clearness with
which God has revealed to us the way by which, as sinners, we may be saved.
That Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, and by the love He has displayed, and
the mission He has undertaken, and the work He has finished, and the invitation
He has issued, is pledged to cast out none who believe in Him, saving to the
uttermost, and without a work of their own, all who come unto God by Him.
Let this, too, be a matter of joy and thanksgiving to us, that the most
appalling event which the history of this universe records- the fall of man-
has, through infinite wisdom, goodness, and power, resulted in such a
manifestation of God's glory, and in such a great and endless blessing to man,
as could not possibly have been the case even had sin never entered into the world.
Assured of this, let us refer all that is obscure and mysterious and
speculative in the history of the world, and in the revelation and government
of God, to that day when we shall know even as we are known, when the mystery
of God shall be finished, and God be all in all.
God is also DECLARATIVELY HOLY- His word is a revelation of His holiness. He is
styled– "the Holy One;" "The Holy One of Israel, whose name is
Holy;" "You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look
upon iniquity;" "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;"
"The four living creatures rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty." God selects this perfection of His nature to
swear by– "Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto
David;" "The Lord will swear by His holiness." The saints are
called to praise His holiness– "Sing unto the Lord, O you saints of His,
and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness."
Need we multiply these Scripture declarations of God's holiness? We might increase
the proofs, but could scarcely strengthen the revealed fact that God is holy.
And yet, in these days of low views of Inspiration, of lax principles
Concerning the truth of the Bible, we should be jealous of every word of that
sacred volume, especially as it bears upon what is the crown of Jehovah– His
essential and perfect holiness.
Beware, my reader, of indulging in doubts concerning the divine veracity or the
correct rendering of any part of God's word. The most profound human judgment
is after all, but fallible, and human learning often contradictory. The safest
path is to accept the Bible as it is, and not to allow your confidence in its
Divine integrity to be disturbed by this rendering or by that, by one
manuscript or by another; but to hold fast the memorable and precious
declaration of the Savior- a declaration which may be fearlessly asserted in
the face of every doubt cast upon the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures-
"Your Word is Truth."
God is JUDICIALLY HOLY. His judgments are manifestations of His holiness- His
holiness in dreadful exercise. "The Lord is known by the judgments which
He executes. What was the flood which destroyed the Antediluvians- the fire
which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah- the armies which besieged Jerusalem, and leveled
her to the ground, but the dreadful exhibitions of the holiness of God, solemn
demonstrations of His hatred and punishment of sin? In this light we must ever
read and interpret the Divine judgments that befall an ungodly world, whether
in its natural, social, or individual character. And yet, blinded by sin and
ignorance, the men of this world see not this solemn fact.
Never rising above the second causes of the judiciary dealings of God- the
pestilence and the famine, the earthquake, the whirlwind and the fire, the
commercial panic, and the blighted harvest- they recognize not the fact that,
far above the immediate and proximate causes leading to these natural and
social convulsions, there is One of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity,
whether it be in an individual, a family, or a nation, and who, when His
patience has long waited, but in vain, and will wait no longer, unseals the
vials of His wrath, and writes His name holy in letters of tremendous and
impressive significance.
It is in this light we read the expressive declaration of the prophet,
"When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn
righteousness." Isaiah 26:9. That is, God's judgments are such
unmistakable and tremendous demonstrations of His holiness, that the ungodly
world shall recognize the fact, and from these terrible visitations of His
providence learn to loathe themselves in His sight, to repent of their sins,
and renounce their iniquities, and turn to the Lord.
My reader! is the Lord dealing with you individually in the way of judgment?
Has He "Uncovered his bow, and called for many arrows?" Do His arrows
fall thick and piercing? Is there the loss of health, or the destruction of
property, or the visitation of bereavement? Is your song of judgment as well as
of mercy? Oh! interpret these dispensations of God in the light of a holy and
righteous, yet loving discipline, designed to correct an evil, to arrest a
declension, and to bestow upon you the highest honor God could confer- the
making you a partaker of His holiness. "This," says the prophet,
"is all the fruit, to take away sin."
God is also MEDIATORIALLY HOLY. This illustration of our subject presents a
more solemn and impressive view of the Divine holiness than any we have yet
considered- the view exhibited in the cross of Jesus. Not hell itself, awful
and eternal as is its suffering- the undying worm, the unquenchable fire, the
smoke of the torment that goes up forever and ever- affords such a solemn and
impressive spectacle of the holiness and justice of God in the punishment of
sin, as is presented in the death of God's beloved Son.
An eminent Puritan writer thus strikingly puts it- "Not all the vials of
judgment that have or shall be poured out upon this wicked world, nor the
flaming furnace of a sinner's conscience, nor the irrevocable sentence
pronounced against the rebellious devils, nor the groans of the damned
creatures, give such a demonstration of God's hatred of sin, as the wrath of
God let loose upon His Son!"
Never did Divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our
Savior's countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans. This
Himself acknowledges in that penitential psalm (Ps. xxii. 12), when God turned
His smiling face from Him, and thrust His sharp knife into His heart, which
forced that terrible cry from Him, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken
Me? But, You are holy." Such an impressive view of God's holiness the
angels in heaven never before beheld, not even when they saw the non-elect
spirits hurled from the heights of glory down to the bottomless pit, to be
reserved in chains of darkness and woe forever.
But it will be asked, Wherein did lay the great proof that God was holy in the
soul-sorrow, bodily suffering, and ignominious death of Jesus? We answer– It is
found in the fact that He was the innocent One dying for the guilty, the holy
One dying for the sinful. Divine justice, in its mission of judgment, as it
swept by the cross, found the Son of God impaled upon its wood, beneath the sins
and the curse of His people. Upon Him its judgment fell, on His soul the wrath
was poured, in His heart the flaming sword was plunged; and thus, from Him,
justice exacted the full penalty of man's transgression- the last farthing of
the great debt.
Go to the cross, then, my reader, and learn the holiness of God.
Contemplate the dignity of Christ's person, the preciousness of the Son of God
to His Father's heart, the sinlessness of His nature; and then behold the
sorrow of His soul, the torture of His body, the tragedy of His death, the
abasement, the ignominy, the humiliation, into the fathomless depths of which
the whole transaction plunged our incarnate God; and let me ask, standing, as
you are, before this unparalleled spectacle, Can you cherish low views of God's
holiness, or light views of your own sinfulness?
But look at this mediatorial representation of the Divine holiness in two or
three particulars. The PARDON OF SIN exhibits the holiness of God. How is sin
pardoned? By the atoning blood of Jesus alone. "In whom we have redemption
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sin." There is no remission of
any sin but by the atoning blood of Christ; while, by that blood-shedding,
there is the remission of all sin in those that believe. That which cleanses us
from all sin, must itself be free from all sin. The slightest taint of sin in
Christ would have invalidated His whole sacrifice, and have rendered His
atoning blood totally inefficacious in the canceling of our guilt. But we are
"redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish
and without spot."
And herein God's holiness appears so conspicuous, in that He provided a
spotless victim, a sinless sacrifice, a holy Savior; thus, while securing the
rights of holiness on the one hand, on the other cleansing and effacing, fully
and forever, the deepest stain of man's transgression. And now, because God is
so holy, and because He has vindicated, to the utmost, the righteousness of His
moral government, behold Him "waiting to be gracious," "ready to
pardon" the vilest, the guiltiest, the very chief of sinners, casting
himself, in penitence and faith, at His feet. And in thus extending to that
penitent sinner a full and free forgiveness, He receives and magnifies His own
holiness in the eyes of angels and of men. Thus the apostle puts it; "For
God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger
against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his
blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when
he did not punish those who sinned in former times."
Hesitate not, then, to cast yourself upon God's pardoning mercy in Christ
Jesus, since, in the very act of conferring upon you the forgiveness of all
sin, His holiness will appear all the more illustrious. Oh, the marvelous love
of our God in providing such an expedient as can efface every, and the darkest
spot, and the foulest stain, and the deepest dishonor of sin, presenting the
sin-cleansed soul to Himself "whiter than snow," and yet the sinner's
sins appear all the more sinful, and His holiness all the more holy. "But
with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared."
JUSTIFICATION equally secures and illustrates the holiness of God. Our
justification- in other words, our acquittal from all blame and consequent
condemnation- could only be secured on the footing of the perfect holiness of
God's government. But the obedience of the Lord Jesus to the law on behalf of
the sinner was so complete, yes, so magnifying of the holiness of that law, and
so honorable to the character of the Lawgiver, that now it becomes proper, on
the part of God, to "justify the ungodly." He can do this without the
slightest compromise of His divine and essential purity.
The righteousness in which the believing sinner stands, is emphatically
denominated the "righteousness of God." Consequently, it must be a
holy righteousness, since not only is it a righteousness of God's appointing,
and of God's accepting, but it is the righteousness of Him who was God, and who
is God. In contrast with this, how impure appears our own obedience, how filthy
the rags of our own righteousness! And, if we accept this righteousness of God,
how entirely must we cast away from us the imperfect, sullied, worthless
garment of our own righteousness, and enfold ourselves within that divine robe
of the "righteousness of God, which is unto all and upon all those who
believe."
REGENERATION, or the spiritual renewal of the soul, is a not less, in some
respects, it is a more, striking illustration of the Divine holiness. It is so,
in point of fact, since it is the restoration of man to the image of God, and,
consequently, the manifestation of God's holiness in man. How clearly the
apostle states this: "And that you put on the new man, which, after God,
is created in righteousness and true holiness." "And have put on the
new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
him." The writer already quoted thus pointedly puts this; "As
election is the effect of God's sovereignty, our pardon the fruit of His mercy,
our knowledge a stream from His wisdom, our strength an impression of His
power, so our purity is a beam from His holiness."
The great, the grand end, the accomplishment of which is the design of God in
our spiritual regeneration, is our restoration to holiness. Thus, God designs
more than our happiness, since, in making us holy, He makes us happy; in
restoring us to holiness, He restores us to happiness– the one including the
other, as the effect involves its cause, the shadow its substance. God might
have assimilated us to His love, or to His mercy, or to His power, or to His
wisdom, and yet, leaving our nature to the uncontrolled power and dominion of
its innate depravity, we still would have been miserable. But, in assimilating
us to His holiness, He assimilates us, in a measure, to His happiness- the
highest happiness of heaven being its highest degree of holiness. The
perfection of glory is the perfection of grace, and the perfection of grace is
its perfect assimilation of the soul to the holy image of God.
It will, I think, be obvious to the mind of the spiritual and intelligent
reader, that in this view of the Divine holiness we include the Godhead in its
Triune personality– the holiness of the Father, the holiness of the Son, the
holiness of the Spirit- the Three Persons constituting the One Holy Lord God.
Christ was essentially holy concerning His Deity, and He was perfectly holy
concerning His humanity. How remarkable the words of the angel announcing
Christ's birth to Mary! "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power
of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and
he will be called the Son of God." Yes, Christ, who was "holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners," and because He was thus without sin,
and "knew no sin", His atoning, precious blood, "cleanses us
from all sin."
Equally holy is the Spirit. Therefore He is emphatically designated "The
HOLY Spirit," "the Spirit of holiness." The Spirit is the
Sanctifier of the church, the Divine Author, Sustainer, and Finisher of all
that is holy in the regenerate, to whom belongs the work of fitting their souls
for the inheritance of the saints in light. Hold fast with unswerving faith
this essential doctrine of salvation- the doctrine of the Trinity. Its belief
is essential to our being saved, its experimental acquaintance is indispensable
to our being holy. And may "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit," be with all those who
believe this doctrine simply, who live it holily, and who earnestly contend for
its truth as for the faith once delivered unto the saints!
But we must conclude this subject, thus briefly and imperfectly discussed, with
some deductions drawn therefrom.
It supplies us with THE REASON OF MAN'S NATURAL OPPOSITION TO GOD. The sinner
hates God because He is holy! "For the sinful nature is always hostile to
God. It never did obey God's laws, and it never will." Sin can never be
enamored with holiness, nor can holiness ever hold fellowship with sin. There
must therefore ever be– until divine and sovereign grace interpose– a wide and
impassable gulf between God and the sinner, God's holiness loathing the sinner,
because of his sin; man's sinfulness hating God, because of His holiness.
Can anything present a more just and melancholy view of the awful condition of
the natural man than this- hating God because He is holy! Unconverted man, this
is your state! Your carnal mind is hostile against God, and will continue its
hatred and rebellion, unless converting grace changes you; or until your spirit
stands before Him in judgment. And then you will wake up to the awful discovery
that all your life long you have been fighting against God; but that it proved
an unequal, as it was an unholy, contest; and that at last God proved stronger
than you, and has gotten the victory; consigning you to a righteous and an
endless condemnation.
In view of this statement what is your proper and immediate course? In one word
would I state it- throw down your weapons of rebellion, submit and be
reconciled to God. To hate this holy Lord God, whose name is love, is the
deepest crime! To fight against Him who is infinite in power and omnipotent in
strength, is the deepest madness. Think of the appalling consequences! Think of
Him who has power to cast both soul and body into hell. Think who it is you
hate and against whom you rebel– the God who made you, who preserves you, who
has fed and clothed you, who has lavished upon you every blessing, who has
poured in ceaseless flow, the tide of His mercy around your every path, who has
never wronged you, or injured you, or done you harm, but has always blessed you
with nothing but good!
And yet, instead of love, you return Him hate; instead of obedience, you meet
Him with rebellion; instead of submission, you offer Him defiance; instead of
His heaven, you prefer His hell! For in your present state you are utterly
unfitted for heaven! It is written with the pen of the Holy Spirit,
"Without holiness no man can see the Lord." Heaven, therefore, would
be too holy for your enjoyment. You would have no moral fitness for the place,
no sympathy with its enjoyments, no love for its inhabitants, and would long to
escape as from an atmosphere too pure in which to breathe, from employments in
which you would have no taste, and from the fellowship of beings with whom you
had nothing in sympathy.
Oh, fall down before God in penitence and prayer. Throw down your weapons at
His feet, submit to His scepter, and cast yourself upon His pardoning mercy in
and through Christ Jesus. Lo, He waits to be gracious to you. Listen to His
affecting language, "All day long have I stretched out my hands." And
in His infinite patience, in His unwillingness that any should perish, that
hand is stretched out still. "Why! will you die? " "Be
reconciled unto God."
But others of another class may scan these pages. The weeping penitent, through
his blinding tears, will search for one word of promise from which he may
extract assurance and hope that such a sinful, guilty soul may find
forgiveness, acceptance, and salvation with this holy Lord God. Yes, there is
forgiveness, there is acceptance, there is salvation, oh, humble, penitent
sinner, in Christ Jesus, the Savior of sinners, for you! His blood cleanses
from all sin, His righteousness justifies from all things; so that, in default
of any holiness and merit in yourself, Jesus supplies you with all that God
demands and that you require, and thus, in the strong language of the apostle,
"You are complete in Him."
One word of caution in this connection. Beware of putting sanctification in the
place of justification. Many are so doing, and the consequent effect is, they
are ever striving after that which they can never in this way attain– a clear
sense of their acceptance in Christ. It is not for a holiness wrought in us
that God accepts us, but for a righteousness wrought outside of us; not on the
ground of the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification, but on the ground of
Christ's work of justification. Thus, to look at our holiness for Divine
acceptance, instead of at Christ's work, is to substitute sanctification for
justification, the Spirit's regenerating work for the Savior's atoning work.
This will never give you peace and joy and hope, since all your own strivings
after holiness- on the ground of which you are in vain looking for salvation-
will prove but sad and repeated failures; while one believing sight of Christ,
as "made of God unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and
redemption," will bring a blissful tide of peace, joy, and assurance unto
your soul. Cease, then, your strivings after holiness in order to win the favor
of God; and set yourself upon the great yet simple, the mighty yet easy, work
of believing- believing in Jesus- and thus, "being justified by faith, you
will have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
And still, it must be our aim to be holy! But how is this to be attained? We
cannot be holy and be of the world. We cannot be holy- it were a contradiction
of terms- and live in any known sin. We cannot be holy and pamper the flesh,
and love the society of the ungodly, and so walk after the course of this
world. What does the apostle say? "Stop loving this evil world and all
that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have
the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical
pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These
are not from the Father. They are from this evil world."
How earnest and touching the language of the apostle, "And so, dear
Christian friends, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a
living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he
has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don't copy the behavior and customs
of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way
you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how
good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." And yet again how
precious his prayer for the Thessalonian saints, "Now may the God of peace
make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept
blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again."
And is this our desire, this our aim, and this, in some degree, our real
attainment? Are we hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Do we long and
pant after holiness, with a deepening conviction of the "exceeding
sinfulness of sin," and a growing spirit of self-loathing and
sin-renunciation? Oh, then, we have the truest, the strongest evidence, that we
are God's true saints, His holy ones; that we are regenerate, have passed from
death unto life, and are born again from above, our bodies the temples of God,
through the Spirit.
There exists not a stronger evidence- and without it, our religion is vain- of
our being partakers of the Divine nature than this one- our desire and aim
after sanctification of heart, leading, as it inevitably will, to holiness of
life. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
But in all our failures in our strivings after holiness- and failures many and
sad there will be- let us repair to the "Fountain open for sin and uncleanness,"
and wash, constantly, daily, ceaselessly wash, and be clean. It is only thus
that we shall be kept from a spirit of bondage, yes, from a spirit of despair.
A simple looking off ourselves- off both our successful and our unsuccessful
attempts after holiness- to Jesus, must be our constant habit, if we would walk
at peace and in fellowship with God. To His atoning blood let us bring all our
holy things, that they may be cleansed and purified.
Sin taints, impurity mars, imperfection traces, all we do for God. Thus, the
most holy service in which we engage, the most heavenly mind we cherish, the
most spiritual and useful day we spend, needs the atoning blood of Jesus to
cleanse, purify, and present it without fault, holy, and acceptable unto God, sweetly
incensed with the fragrance of His own most precious merits. How expressive is
the typical teaching of this truth- referring to the mitre on the head of Aaron
the priest- "Aaron will wear it on his forehead, thus bearing the guilt
connected with any errors regarding the sacred offerings of the people of
Israel. He must always wear it so the Lord will accept the people." Exodus
28:38. Thus Christ, our true Aaron, puts away the iniquity of our holy things
by the cleansing of His precious blood.
See that your holiness is evangelical. Not the holiness of human merit, not the
holiness of pious duties, not the holiness of ceremonial observance, not the
holiness of ritual, but the holiness of the Gospel, the holiness that flows
from faith in Christ alone, from love to God, and by the grace and power of the
Spirit in the soul. In a word, the holiness that springs in looking away from
self in every shape, from duties of every kind, believingly, simply, unto
Jesus, embodied and expressed in obedience to Christ, under the all-commanding
constraint of His love.
In the light of your personal holiness, interpret all the disciplinary dealings
of God. All your trials, afflictions, bereavements, adversities, are sent as
corrections of your heavenly Father but to promote your profit, that you might
be a partaker of His holiness. "For our earthly fathers disciplined us for
a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always right
and good for us because it means we will share in his holiness. No discipline
is enjoyable while it is happening—it is painful! But afterward there will be a
quiet harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way."
"Then, Lord," you are ready to exclaim, "if this is the great
end of Your discipline- if it be but to conform me to Your will, to expel sin
from my heart, to imbue it with Your Spirit, and to mold me to Your Divine
image, kindle the flame, fuel the furnace, use the flail, refine Your gold from
the dross, and winnow Your wheat from the chaff- and let Your will, and not
mine be done."
Anticipate the coming of the Lord, for "we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He really is." O
blissful thought, perfect and eternal freedom from sin!
"And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you,
through the power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to him. Jesus is the
great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood.
To him be glory forever and ever. Amen." Hebrews 13:20