God's Provision for Holiness.
'To those that are _made holy_ in Christ Jesus, called to be
_holy_.'--1 Cor. i. 2.
'To all the _holy ones_ in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi. Salute
every _holy one_ in Christ Jesus.'[1]--Phil. i. 1, iv. 21.
HOLY! IN CHRIST! In these two expressions we have perhaps the most
wonderful words of all the Bible.
HOLY! the word of unfathomable meaning, which the Seraphs utter with
veiled faces. HOLY! the word in which all God's perfections centre, and
of which His glory is but the streaming forth. HOLY! the word which
reveals the purpose with which God from eternity thought of man, and
tells what man's highest glory in the coming eternity is to be; to be
partaker of His Holiness!
IN CHRIST! the word in which all the wisdom and love of God are
unveiled! The Father giving His Son to be one with us! the Son dying on
the cross to make us one with Himself! the Holy Spirit of the Father
dwelling in us to establish and maintain that union! IN CHRIST! what a
summary of what redemption has done, and of the inconceivably blessed
life in which the child of God is permitted to dwell. IN CHRIST! the one
lesson we have to study on earth. God's one answer to all our needs and
prayers. IN CHRIST! the guarantee and the foretaste of eternal glory.
What wealth of meaning and blessing in the two words combined: HOLY IN
CHRIST! Here is God's provision for our holiness, God's response to our
question, How to be holy? Often and often as we hear the call, Be _ye_
holy, _even as I_ am holy, it is as if there is and ever must be a great
gulf between the holiness of God and man. IN CHRIST! is the bridge that
crosses the gulf; nay rather, His fulness has filled it up. IN CHRIST!
God and man meet; IN CHRIST! the Holiness of God has found us, and made
us its own; has become human, and can indeed become our very own. To the
anxious cries and the heart-yearnings of thousands of thirsty souls who
have believed in Jesus and yet know not how to be holy, here is God's
answer: YE ARE HOLY IN CHRIST JESUS. Would they but hearken, and
believe; would they but take these Divine words, and say them over, if
need be, a thousand times, how God's light would shine, and fill their
hearts with joy and love as they echo them back: Yes, now I see it. Holy
in Christ! Made holy in Christ Jesus!
As we set ourselves to study these wondrous words, let us remember that
it is only God Himself who can reveal to us what Holiness truly is. Let
us fear our own thoughts, and crucify our own wisdom. Let us give up
ourselves to receive, in the power of the life of God Himself, working
in us by the Holy Spirit, that which is deeper and truer than human
thought, Christ Himself as our Holiness. In this dependence upon the
teaching of the Spirit of Holiness, let us seek simply to accept what
Holy Scripture sets before us; as the revelation of the Holy One of old
was a very slow and gradual one, so let us be content patiently to
follow step by step the path of the shining light through the Word; it
will shine more and more unto the perfect day.
We shall first have to study the word Holy in the Old Testament. In
Israel as the holy people, the type of us who now are holy in Christ, we
shall see with what fulness of symbol God sought to work into the very
constitution of the people some apprehension of what He would have them
be. In the law we shall see how HOLY is the great keyword of the
redemption which it was meant to serve and prepare for. In the prophets
we shall hear how the Holiness of God is revealed as the source whence
the coming redemption should spring: it is not so much Holiness as the
Holy One they speak of, who would, in redeeming love and saving
righteousness, make Himself known as the God of His people.
And when the meaning of the word has been somewhat opened up, and the
deep need of the blessing made manifest in the Old Testament, we shall
come to the New to find how that need was fulfilled. In Christ, the Holy
One of God, Divine Holiness will be found in human life and human
nature; a truly human will being made perfect and growing up through
obedience into complete union with all the Holy Will of God. In the
sacrifice of Himself on the cross, that holy nature gave itself up to
the death, that, like the seed-corn, it might through death live again
and reproduce itself in us. In the gift from the throne of the Spirit of
God's Holiness, representing and revealing and communicating the unseen
Christ, the holy life of Christ descends and takes possession of His
people, and they become one with Him. As the Old Testament had no higher
word than that HOLY, the New has none deeper than this, IN CHRIST. The
being in Him, the abiding in Him, the being rooted in Him, the growing
up in Him and into Him in all things, are the Divine expressions in
which the wonderful and complete oneness between us and our Saviour are
brought as near us as human language can do.
And when Old and New Testament have each given their message, the one in
teaching us what _Holy_, the other what _in Christ_ means, we have in
the word of God, that unites the two, the most complete summary of the
Great Redemption that God's love has provided. The everlasting
certainty, the wonderful sufficiency, the infinite efficacy of the
Holiness that God has prepared for us in His Son, are all revealed in
this blessed, HOLY IN CHRIST.
'The Holy Ones in Christ Jesus!' Such is the name, beloved
fellow-believers, which we bear in Holy Scripture, in the language of
the Holy Spirit. It is no mere statement of doctrine, that we are holy
in Christ: it is no deep theological discussion to which we are invited;
but out of the depths of God's loving heart, there comes a voice thus
addressing His beloved children. It is the name by which the Father
calls His children. That name tells us of God's provision for our being
holy. It is the revelation of what God has given us, and what we already
are; of what God waits to work in us, and what can be ours in personal
practical possession. That name, gratefully accepted, joyfully
confessed, trustfully pleaded, will be the pledge and the power of our
attainment of the Holiness to which we have been called.
And so we shall find that as we go along, all our study and all God's
teaching will be comprised in three great lessons. The first a
revelation, '_I am holy_;' the second a command, '_Be ye holy_;' the
third a gift, the link between the two, '_Ye are holy in Christ_.'
First comes the revelation, 'I am holy.' Our study must be on bended
knee, in the spirit of worship and deep humility. God must reveal
Himself to us, if we are to know what Holy is. The deep unholiness of
our nature and all that is of nature must be shown us; with Moses and
Isaiah, when the Holy One revealed Himself to them, we must fear and
tremble, and confess how utterly unfit we are for the revelation or the
fellowship, without the cleansing of fire. In the consciousness of the
utter impotence of our own wisdom or understanding to know God, our
souls must in contrition, brokenness from ourselves and our power or
efforts, yield to God's Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, to reveal God as
the Holy One. And as we begin to know Him in His infinite righteousness,
in His fiery burning zeal against all that is sin, and His infinite
self-sacrificing love to free the sinner from his sin, and to bring him
to His own perfection, we shall learn to wonder at and worship this
glorious God, to feel and deplore our terrible unlikeness to Him, to
long and cry for some share in the Divine beauty and blessedness of this
Holiness.
And then will come with new meaning the command, 'Be holy, as I am
holy.' Oh, my brethren! ye who profess to obey the commands of your God,
do give this all-surpassing and all-including command that first place
in your heart and life which it claims. Do be holy with the likeness of
God's Holiness. Do be holy as He is holy. And if you find that the more
you meditate and study, the less you can grasp this infinite holiness;
that the more you at moments grasp of it, the more you despair of a
holiness so Divine; remember that such breaking down and such despair is
just what the command was meant to work. Learn to cease from your own
wisdom as well as your own goodness; draw near in poverty of spirit to
let the Holy One show you how utterly above human knowledge or human
power is the holiness He demands; to the soul that ceases from self, and
has no confidence in the flesh, He will show and give the holiness He
calls us to.
It is to such that the great gift of Holiness in Christ becomes
intelligible and acceptable. Christ brings the Holiness of God nigh by
showing it in human conduct and intercourse. He brings it nigh by
removing the barrier between it and us, between God and us. He brings it
nigh, because He makes us one with Himself. 'Holy in Christ:' our
holiness is a Divine bestowment, held for us, communicated to us,
working mightily in us because we are _in Him_. 'In Christ!' oh, that
wonderful _in_! our very life rooted in the life of Christ. That holy
Son and Servant of the Father, beautiful in His life of love and
obedience on earth, sanctifying Himself for us--that life of Christ, the
ground in which I am planted and rooted, the soil from which I draw as
my nourishment its every quality and its very nature. How that word
sheds its light both on the revelation, 'I am holy,' and on the command,
'Be ye holy, as I am,' and binds them in one! In Christ I see what God's
Holiness is, and what my holiness is. In Him both are one, and both are
mine. In Him I am holy; abiding and growing up in Him, I can be holy in
all manner of living, as God is holy.