Holiness and Separation.
'I am the Lord your God, which have _separated_ you from other
people. And ye shall be _holy_ unto me, for I the Lord am _holy_,
and have _separated_ you from other people that ye should be
_Mine_.'--Lev. xx. 24, 26.
'Until the days be fulfilled, in the which he _separateth_ himself
unto the Lord, he shall be _holy_.... All the days of his
_separation_ he is _holy_ unto the Lord.'--Num. vi. 5, 8.
'Wherefore Jesus also, that He might _sanctify_ the people through
His own blood, suffered _without the gate_. Let us therefore go
forth unto Him _without the camp_, bearing His reproach.'--Heb.
xiii. 12, 13.
Separation is not holiness, but is the way to it. Though there can be no
holiness without separation, there can be separation that does not lead
to holiness. It is of deep importance to understand both the difference
and the connection, that we may be kept from the right-hand error of
counting separation alone as holiness, as well as the left-hand error of
seeking holiness without separation.
The Hebrew word for holiness possibly comes from a root that means to
separate. But where we have in our translation 'separate' or 'sever' or
'set apart,' we have quite different words.[3] The word for holy is used
exclusively to express that special idea. And though the idea of holy
always includes that of separation, it is itself something infinitely
higher. It is of great importance to understand this well, because the
being set apart to God, the surrender to His claim, the devotion or
consecration to His service, is often spoken of as if this constituted
holiness. We cannot too earnestly press the thought that this is only
the beginning, the presupposition: holiness itself is infinitely more;
not what I am, or do, or give, is holiness, but what God is, and gives,
and does to me. It is God's taking possession of me that makes me holy;
it is the Presence and the glory of God that really makes holy. A
careful study of God's words to Israel will make this clear to us. Eight
times we find the expression in Leviticus, 'Ye shall be holy, for I am
holy.' Holiness is the highest attribute of God, expressive not only of
His relation to Israel, but of His very being and nature, His infinite
moral perfection. And though it is by very slow and gradual steps that
He can teach the carnal darkened mind of man what this means, yet from
the very commencement He tells His people that His purpose is that they
should be like Himself--holy because and as He is holy. To tell me that
God separates men for Himself to be His, even as He gives Himself to be
theirs, tells me of a relation that exists, but tells me nothing of the
real nature of this Holy Being, or of the essential worth of the
holiness He will communicate to me. Separation is only the setting apart
and taking possession of the vessel to be cleansed and used; it is the
filling of it with the precious contents we entrust to it that gives it
its real value. Holiness is the Divine filling without which the
separation leaves us empty. Separation is not holiness.
But separation is essential to holiness. 'I have separated you from
other people, and ye shall be holy.' Until I have chosen out and
separated a vessel from those around it, and, if need be, cleansed it, I
cannot fill or use it. I must have it in my hand, full and exclusive
command of it for the time being, or I will not pour into it the
precious milk or wine. And just so God separated His people when He
brought them up out of Egypt, separated them _unto Himself_ when He gave
them His covenant and His law, that He might have them under His control
and power, to work out His purpose of making them holy. This He could
not do until He had them apart, and had wakened in them the
consciousness that they were His peculiar people, wholly and only His,
until He had so taught them also to separate themselves to Him.
Separation is essential to holiness.
The institution of the Nazarite will confirm this, and will also bring
out very clearly what separation means. Israel was meant to be a holy
nation. Its holiness was specially typified in its priests. With regard
to the individual Israelite, we nowhere read in the books of Moses of
his being holy. But there were ordinances through which the Israelite,
who would fain prove his desire to be entirely holy, could do so. He
might separate himself from the ordinary life of the nation around him,
and live the life of a Nazarite, a separated one. This separation was
accepted, in those days of shadow and type, as holiness. 'All the days
of his separation he is holy unto the Lord.'
The separation consisted specially in three things--temperance, in
abstinence from the fruit of the vine; humiliation, in not cutting or
shaving his hair ('it is a shame for a man if he have long hair');
self-sacrifice, in not defiling himself for even father or mother, on
their death. What we must specially note is that the separation was not
from things unlawful, but things lawful. There was nothing sinful in
itself in Abraham living in his father's house, or in Israel dwelling in
Egypt. It is in giving up, not only what can be proved to be sin, but
all that may hinder the full intensity of our surrender into God's hands
to make us holy, that the spirit of separation is manifested.
Let us learn the lessons this truth suggests. We must know _the need_
for separation. It is no arbitrary demand of God, but has its ground in
the very nature of things. To separate a thing is to set it free for one
special use or purpose, that it may with undivided power fulfil the will
of him who chose it, and so realize its destiny. It is the principle
that lies at the root of all division of labour; complete separation to
one branch of study or labour is the way to success and perfection. I
have before me an oak forest with the trees all shooting up straight and
close to each other. On the outskirts there is one tree separated from
his fellows; its heavy trunk and wide-spreading branches prove how its
being separated, and having a large piece of ground separated to its own
use, over which roots and branches can spread, is the secret of growth
and greatness. Our human powers are limited; if God is to take full
possession, if we are fully to enjoy Him, separation to Him is nothing
but the simple, natural, indispensable requisite. God wants us all to
Himself, that He may give Himself all to us.
We must know the _purpose_ of separation. It is to be found in what God
has said, 'Ye shall be holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have
separated you from the people, that ye should be MINE.' God has
separated us _for Himself_ in the deepest sense of the word; that He
might enter into us, and show forth Himself in us. His holiness is the
sum and the centre of all His perfections; it is that He may make us
holy like Himself that He has separated us. Separation never has any
value in itself; it may become most wrong or hurtful; everything depends
upon the object proposed. It is as God gets and takes full possession of
us, as the eternal life in Christ has the mastery of our whole being, as
the Holy Spirit flows fully and freely through us, so that we dwell in
God, and God in us, that separation will be, not a thing of ordinances
and observances, but a spiritual reality. And it is as this purpose of
God is seen and accepted and followed after, that difficult questions as
to what we must be separated from, and how much sacrifice separation
demands, will find an easy answer. God separates from all that does not
lead us into His holiness and fellowship.
We need, above all, to know _the power_ of separation, the power that
leads us into it in the spirit of desire and of joy, of liberty and of
love. The great separating word in human language is the word _Mine_. In
this we have the great spring of effort and of happiness: in the child
with its toys, in labour with its gains and rewards, in the patriot who
dies for his country, it is this _Mine_ that lays its hand on what it
sets apart from all else. It is the great word that love uses. Be it the
child that says to its mother, My own mamma, and calls forth the
response, My own child; the bridegroom who draws the daughter from her
beloved home and parents to become his; or the Holy God who speaks: 'I
have separated you from the people, that ye should be _Mine_;' it is
always with that _Mine_ that love exerts its mighty power, and draws
from all else to itself. God Himself knows no mightier argument, can put
forth no more powerful attraction than this, 'that ye should be _Mine_.'
And the power of separation will come to us, and work in us, just as we
yield ourselves to study and realize that holy purpose, to listen to and
appropriate that wondrous _Mine_, to be apprehended and possessed of
that Almighty Love.
Let us study step by step the wondrous path in which Divine Love does it
separating work. In redemption it prepares the way. Israel is separated
from Egypt by the blood of the Lamb and the guiding pillar of fire. In
its command, 'Come out and be separate,' it wakens man to action; in its
promises, 'I will be your God,' it stirs desire and strengthens faith.
In all the holy saints and servants of God, and at last in Him who was
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, it points the way. In
the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Holiness, it seals the
separation by the Presence of the Indwelling God. This is indeed the
power of separation. _The separating power of the Presence of God_; this
it is we need to know. 'Wherein now shall it be known that I have found
grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people?' said Moses: 'is it not in _that
Thou goest with us_? _so_ shall we be _separated_, I and Thy people,
from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.' It is the
consciousness of God's Indwelling Presence, making and keeping us His
very own, that works the true separateness from the world and its
spirit, from ourselves and our own will. And it is as this separation is
accepted and prized and persevered in by us, that the holiness of God
will enter in and take possession. And we shall realize that to be the
Lord's property, a people of His own, is infinitely more than merely to
be accounted or acknowledged as His, that it means nothing less than
that God, in the power and indwelling of the Holy Ghost, fills our
being, our affections, and our will with His own life and holiness. He
separates us for Himself, and sanctifies us to be His dwelling. He comes
Himself to take personal possession by the indwelling of Christ in the
heart. And we are then truly separate, and kept separate, by the
presence of God within us.