Holiness and Redemption.
'_Sanctify_ unto _me_ all the first-born.'--Ex. xiii. 2.
'All the first-born _are mine_; for on the day I smote all the
first-born in the land of Egypt _I sanctified_ unto _me_ all the
first-born in Israel: _mine_ they shall be: I am the Lord.'--Num.
iii. 13, viii. 17.
'For I am the Lord your God that bringeth you up out of the land
of Egypt to be your God: ye shall therefore _be holy_, for I am
_holy_.'--Lev. xi. 45.
'I have redeemed thee; thou art mine.'--Isa. xliii. 1.
At Horeb we saw how the first mention of the word holy in the history of
fallen man was connected with the inauguration of a new period in the
revelation of God, that of Redemption. In the passover we have the first
manifestation of what Redemption is; and here the more frequent use of
the word holy begins. In the feast of unleavened bread we have the
symbol of the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new, to
which redemption through blood is to lead. Of the seven days we read:
'In the first day there shall be an _holy_ convocation, and in the
seventh day there shall be an _holy_ convocation;' the meeting of the
redeemed people to commemorate its deliverance is a holy gathering; they
meet under the covering of their Redeemer, the Holy One. As soon as the
people had been redeemed from Egypt, God's very first word to them was,
'Sanctify--make holy unto me all the first-born: it is mine.' (See Ex.
xiii. 2.) The word reveals how proprietorship is one of the central
thoughts both in redemption and in sanctification, the link that binds
them together. And though the word is here only used of the first-born,
they are regarded as the type of the whole people. We know how all
growth and organization commence from a centre, around which in
ever-widening circles the life of the organism spreads. If holiness in
the human race is to be true and real, free as that of God, it must be
the result of a self-appropriating development. And so the first-born
are sanctified, and afterwards the priests in their place, as the type
of what the whole people is to be as God's first-born among the nations,
His peculiar treasure, 'an holy nation.' This idea of proprietorship as
related to redemption and sanctification comes out with especial
clearness when God speaks of the exchange of the priests for the
first-born (Num. iii. 12, 13, viii. 16, 17): 'The Levites are _wholly
given unto me_; instead of the first-born have I _taken them unto me_;
for all the first-born _are mine_; in the day that I smote every
first-born in the land of Egypt _I sanctified them for myself_.'
Let us try and realize the relation existing between redemption and
holiness. In Paradise we saw what God's sanctifying the seventh day was:
He took possession of it, He blessed it, He rested in it and refreshed
Himself. Where God enters and rests, there is holiness: the more
perfectly the object is fitted for Him to enter and dwell, the more
perfect the holiness. The seventh day was sanctified as the period for
man's sanctification. At the very first step God took to lead him to His
Holiness--the command not to eat of the tree--man fell. God did not give
up His plan, but had now to pursue a different and slower path. After
twenty-five centuries' slow but needful preparation, He now reveals
Himself as the Redeemer. A people whom He had chosen and formed for
Himself He gives up to oppression and slavery, that their hearts may be
prepared to long for and welcome a Deliverer. In a series of mighty
wonders He proves Himself the Conqueror of their enemies, and then, in
the blood of the Paschal Lamb on their doors, teaches them what
redemption is, not only from an unjust oppressor here on earth, but from
the righteous judgment their sins had deserved. The Passover is to be to
them the transition from the seen and temporal to the unseen and
spiritual, revealing God not only as the Mighty but as the Holy One,
freeing them not only from the house of bondage but the Destroying
Angel.
And having thus redeemed them, He tells them that they are now His own.
During their stay at Sinai and in the wilderness, the thought is
continually pressed upon them that they are now the Lord's people, whom
He has made His own by the strength of His arm, that He may make them
holy for Himself, even as He is holy. The purpose of redemption is
Possession, and the purpose of Possession is likeness to Him who is
Redeemer and Owner, is Holiness.
In regard to this Holiness, and the way it is to be attained as the
result of redemption, there is more than one lesson the sanctifying of
the first-born will teach us.
First of all, we want to realize how inseparable redemption and holiness
are. Neither can exist without the other. _Only redemption leads to
holiness._ If I am seeking holiness, I must abide in the clear and full
experience of being a redeemed one, and as such of being owned and
possessed by God. Redemption is too often looked at from its negative
side as deliverance from: its real glory is the positive element of
being redeemed unto Himself. Full possession of a house means
occupation: if I own a house without occupying it, it may be the home of
all that is foul and evil. God has redeemed me and made me His own with
the view of getting complete possession of me. He says of my soul, 'It
is mine,' and seeks to have His right of ownership acknowledged and made
fully manifest. That will be perfect holiness, where God has entered in
and taken complete and entire possession.[2] It is redemption gives God
His right and power over me; it is redemption sets me free for God now
to possess and bless: it is redemption realized and filling my soul,
that will bring me the assurance and experience of all His power will
work in me. In God, redemption and sanctification are one: the more
redemption as a Divine reality possesses me, the closer am I linked to
the Redeemer-God, the Holy One.
And just so, _only holiness brings the assurance and enjoyment of
redemption_. If I am seeking to hold fast redemption on lower ground, I
may be deceived. If I have become unwatchful or careless, I should
tremble at the very idea of trusting in redemption apart from holiness
as its object. To Israel God spake, 'I brought you up out of the land of
Egypt: _therefore_ ye shall be holy, for I am holy.' It is God the
Redeemer who made us His own, who calls us too to be holy: let Holiness
be to us the most essential, the most precious part of redemption: the
yielding of ourselves to Him who has _taken_ us as His own, and has
undertaken to _make_ us His own entirely.
A second lesson suggested is the connection between God's and man's
working in sanctification. To Moses the Lord speaks, '_Sanctify_ unto me
all the first-born.' He afterwards says, '_I sanctified_ all the
first-born for myself.' What God does He does to be carried out and
appropriated through us. When He tells us that we are made holy in
Christ Jesus, that we are His holy ones, He speaks not only of His
purpose, but of what He has really done; we have been sanctified in the
one offering of Christ, and in our being created anew in Him. But this
work has a human side. To us comes the call to be holy, to follow after
holiness, to perfect holiness. God has made us His own, and allows us to
say that we are His: but He waits for us now to yield Him an enlarged
entrance into the secret places of our inner being, for Him to fill it
all with His fulness. Holiness is not something we bring to God or do
for Him. Holiness is what there is of God in us. God has made us His own
in redemption, that He might make Himself our own in sanctification. And
our work in becoming holy is the bringing our whole life, and every part
of it, into subjection to the rule of this holy God, putting every
member and every power upon His altar.
And this teaches us the answer to the question as to the connection
between the sudden and the gradual in sanctification: between its being
a thing once for all complete, and yet imperfect and needing to be
perfected. What God sanctifies is holy with a Divine and perfect
holiness as His gift: man has to sanctify by acknowledging and
maintaining and carrying out that holiness in relation to what God has
made holy. God sanctified the Sabbath day: man has to sanctify it, that
is, to keep it holy. God sanctified the first-born as His own: Israel
had to sanctify them, to treat them and give them up to God as holy. God
is holy: we are to sanctify Him in acknowledging and adoring and
honouring that holiness. God has sanctified His great name, His name is
Holy: we sanctify or hallow that name as we fear and trust and use it
as the revelation of His Holiness. God sanctified Christ: Christ
sanctified Himself, manifesting in His personal will and action perfect
conformity to the Holiness with which God had made Him holy. God has
sanctified us in Christ Jesus: we are to be holy by yielding ourselves
to the power of that holiness, by acting it out, and manifesting it in
all our life and walk. The objective Divine gift, bestowed once for all
and completely, must be appropriated as a subjective personal
possession; we must cleanse ourselves, perfecting holiness. Redeemed
unto holiness: as the two thoughts are linked in the mind and work of
God, they must be linked in our heart and life.
When Isaiah announced the second, the true redemption, it was given to
him, even more clearly and fully than to Moses, to reveal the name of
God as 'The Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.' The more we study this
name, and hallow it, and worship God by it, the more inseparably will
the words become connected, and we shall see how, as the Redeemer is the
Holy One, the redeemed are holy ones too. Isaiah says of 'the way of
holiness,' the 'redeemed shall walk therein.' The redemption that comes
out from the Holiness of God must lead up into it too. We shall
understand that to be redeemed in Christ is to be holy in Christ, and
the call of our redeeming God will acquire new meaning: 'I am _holy_:
_be ye holy_.'