The Thrice Holy One.
'I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. Above Him
stood the seraphim. And one cried to another, and said, _Holy,
holy, holy_ is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His
glory.'--Isa. vi. 1-3.
'And the four living creatures, they have no rest day and night,
saying, _Holy, holy, holy_ is the Lord God, the Almighty, which
was, and which is, and which is to come.'--Rev. iv. 8.
It is not only on earth, but in heaven too, that the Holiness of God is
His chief and most glorious attribute. It is not only on earth, but in
heaven too, that the highest inspiration of adoration and praise makes
mention of His Holiness. The brightest of living beings, they who are
ever before and around and above the throne, find their glory in adoring
and proclaiming the Holiness of God: surely there can be for us no
higher honour than to study and to know, to worship and adore, to
proclaim and show forth the glory of the Thrice Holy One.
After Moses, as we know, Isaiah was the chief messenger of the Holiness
of God. Each had a special preparation for his commission to make known
the Holy One. Moses saw the Holy One in the fire, and hid his face and
feared to look upon God, and so was prepared for being His messenger,
and for praising Him as 'glorious in holiness.' Isaiah, as he heard the
song of the seraphim, and saw the fire on the altar, and the house
filled with the smoke, cried out, 'Woe is me.' It was not till, in the
deep sense of the need of cleansing, he had received the touch of the
fire and the purging of his sin, that he might bear to Israel the Gospel
of the Holy One as its Redeemer. May it be in the spirit of fear and
lowly worship that we listen to the song of the seraphim, and seek to
know and worship the Thrice Holy One. And may ours too be the cleansing
with the fire, that we may be found fit to tell God's people that He is
the Holy One of Israel, their Redeemer.
The threefold repetition of the HOLY has at all times by the Church of
Christ been connected with the Holy Trinity. The song of the living
creatures around the throne (Rev. iv.) is evidence of the truth of this
thought. We there find it followed by the adoration of Him who was, and
is, and is to come, the Almighty: the Eternal Source, the present
manifestation in the Son, the future perfecting of the revelation of God
in the Spirit's work in His Church. The truth of the Holy Trinity is
often regarded as an abstract doctrine, with little direct bearing on
practical life. So far is this from being the case, that a living faith
must root in it: some spiritual insight into the relation and the
operation of each of the Three, and the reality of their living Oneness,
is an essential element of true growth in knowledge and spiritual
understanding.[6] Let us here regard the Trinity specially in its
relation to God's Holiness and as the source of ours. What does it mean
that we adore the Thrice Holy One? God is not only holy, but makes holy:
in the revelation of the Three Persons we have the revelation of the way
in which God makes holy.
The Trinity teaches us that God has revealed Himself in two ways. The
Son is _the Form of God_, His manifestation as He shows Himself to man,
the Image in which His unseen glory is embodied, and to which man is to
be conformed. The Spirit is _the Power of God_, working in man, and
leading him up to that Image. In Jesus, He who had been in the form of
God took the form of man; and the Divine Holiness was literally
manifested in the form of a human life and the members of a human body.
A new holy human nature was formed in Christ, to be communicated to us.
In His death His own personal holiness was perfected as human obedience,
and so the power of sin conquered and broken. Therefore in the
resurrection, through the Spirit of Holiness, He was declared to be the
Son of God with power to impart His life to us. There the Spirit of
Holiness was set free from the veil of the flesh, the trammels that
hindered it, and obtained power to enter and dwell in man. The Holy
Spirit was poured out as the fruit of Resurrection and Ascension. And
the Spirit is now the Power of God in us, working upwards towards
Christ, to reproduce His life and Holiness in us, to fit us for fully
receiving and showing forth Him in our lives. Christ from above comes to
us as the embodiment of the Unseen Holiness of God: the Spirit from
within lifts us up to meet Him, and fits us to receive and make our own
all that is in Him.
The Triune God whom we adore is the Thrice Holy One: the mystery of the
Trinity is the mystery of Holiness: the Glory and the Power of the
Trinity is the Glory and Power of God who makes us holy. There is God
dwelling in light inaccessible, a consuming fire of Holy Love,
destroying all that resists, glorifying into its own purity all that
yields. There is the Son, casting Himself into that consuming fire,
whether in its eternal blessedness in heaven, or its angry wrath on
earth, a willing sacrifice, to be its food and its satisfaction, as
well as the revelation of its power to destroy and to save. And there is
the Spirit of Holiness, the flames of that mighty fire spreading on
every side, convicting and judging as the Spirit of Burning, and then
transforming into its own brightness and holiness all that it can reach.
All the relations of the Three Persons to each other and to us have
their root and their meaning in the revelation of God as the Holy One.
As we know and partake of Him, we shall know and partake of Holiness.
And how shall we know Him? Let us learn to know the Holiness of God as
the seraphs do: in the worship of the Thrice Holy One. Let us with
veiled faces join in the ceaseless song of adoration: 'Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts.' Each time we meditate on the Word, each prayer to
the Holy God, each act of faith in Christ the Holy One, each exercise of
waiting dependence on the Holy Spirit, let it be in the spirit of
worship: Holy, holy, holy. Let us learn to know the Holiness of God as
Isaiah did. He was to be the chosen messenger to reveal and interpret to
the people the name, the Holy One of Israel. His preparation was the
vision that made him cry out, 'Woe is me! for mine eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts.' Let us bow in silence before the Holy One,
until our comeliness too be turned into corruption. And then let us
believe in the cleansing fire from the altar, the touch of the live
coals of the burning holiness, which not only consumes, but purges lips
and heart to say, 'Here am I, send me.' Yes, let us worship, whether
like the adoring seraphim, or like the trembling prophet, until we know
that our service too is accepted, to tell forth the praise of the Thrice
Holy One.
Holy, holy, holy: if we are indeed to be the messengers of the Holy One,
let us seek to enter fully into what this Thrice Holy means. HOLY, the
Father, _God above us_, High and Lifted up, whom no man hath seen or can
see, whose Holiness none dare approach, but who doth Himself in His
Holiness draw nigh to make holy. HOLY, the Son, _God with us_, revealing
Divine Holiness in human life, maintaining it amid the suffering of
death for us, and preparing a holy life and nature for His people. HOLY,
the Spirit, _God in us_, the Power of Holiness within us, reaching out
to and embracing Christ, and transforming our inner life into the union
and communion of Him in whom we are holy. Holy, holy, holy! it is all
holiness. It is only holiness--perfect holiness. This is Divine
holiness: holiness hidden and unapproachable; holiness manifested and
maintained in human nature; holiness communicated and made our very own.
The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the mystery of the Christian life,
the mystery of Holiness. The Three are One, and we need to enter ever
more deeply into the truth that neither of the Three ever works separate
or independent of the other. The Son reveals the Father, and the Father
reveals the Son. The Father gives not Himself, but the Spirit: the
Spirit speaks not of Himself, but cries Abba Father! The Son is our
Sanctification, our Life, our All: the fulness is in Him. And yet we
have ever to bow our knees to the Father for Him to reveal Christ in us,
for Him to establish us in Christ. And the Father does not this without
the Spirit: so that we have to ask to be strengthened mightily by the
Spirit, that Christ may dwell in us. Christ gives the Spirit to them
that believe and love and obey; the Spirit again gives Christ, formed
within and dwelling in the heart. And so in each act of worship, and
each step of growth, and each blessed experience of grace, all the Three
Persons are actively engaged: the One is ever Three, the Three are ever
One.
Would you apply this in the life of holiness, let faith in the Holy
Trinity be a living practical reality. In every prayer to _the Father_
to sanctify you, take up your position _in Christ_, and do it in the
power of _the Spirit within you_. In every exercise of faith _in Christ_
as your Sanctification, let your posture be that of prayer to _the
Father_ and trust in Him as He delights to honour the Son, and of quiet
expectancy of _the Spirit's_ working, through whom the Father glorifies
the Son. In every surrender of the soul to the sanctification of _the
Spirit_, to His leading as the Spirit of Holiness, look to _the Father_
who grants His mighty working, and who sanctifies through faith in _the
Son_, and expect the Spirit's power to manifest itself in showing the
will of God, and Jesus as your Sanctification. If for a time this
appears at variance with the simplicity of childlike faith and prayer,
be assured that as God has thus revealed Himself, He will teach you so
to worship and believe. And so the Holy, holy, holy will become the deep
undertone of all our worship and all our life.
Children of God! called to be holy as He is holy, oh, come let us bow
down and worship in His holy presence! Come and veil the face: withdraw
eye and mind from gazing on what passes knowledge, and let the soul be
gathered into that inner stillness, in which the worship of the heavenly
Sanctuary alone can be heard. Come and cover the feet: withdraw from the
rush of work and haste, be it worldly or religious, and learn to
worship. Come, and as you fall down in self-abasement, the glory of the
Holy One will shine upon you. And as you hear and take up and sing the
song, HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, you will find how in such knowledge and worship
of the Thrice Holy One is the power that makes you holy.