The Holy One of God.
'Therefore also that _holy_ thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.'--Luke i. 35.
'We have believed and know that Thou art _the Holy One of
God_.'--John vi. 69.
'The holy one of the Lord'--only once (Ps. cvi. 16) the expression is
found in the Old Testament. It is spoken of Aaron, in whom holiness, as
far as it could then be revealed, had found its most complete
embodiment. The title waited for its fulfilment in Him who alone, in His
own person, could perfectly show forth the holiness of God on
earth--Jesus the Son of the Father. In Him we see holiness, as Divine,
as human, as our very own.
1. In Him we see wherein that Incomparable Excellence of the Divine
Nature consists. 'Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity,
therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness
above Thy fellows.' God's infinite hatred of sin, and His maintenance of
the Right, might appear to have little moral worth, as being a
necessity of His nature. In the Son we see Divine Holiness tested. He is
tried and tempted. He suffers, being tempted. He proves that Holiness
has indeed a moral worth: it is ready to make any sacrifice, yea to give
up life and cease to be, rather than consent to sin. In giving Himself
to die, rather than yield to the temptation of sin; in giving Himself to
die, that the Father's righteous judgment may be honoured; Jesus proved
how Righteousness is an element of the Divine Holiness, and how the Holy
One is sanctified in Righteousness.
But this is only one side of Holiness. The fire that consumes also
purifies: it makes partakers of its own beautiful Light-nature all that
is capable of assimilation. So Divine Holiness not only maintains its
own purity; it communicates it too. Herein was Jesus indeed seen to be
the Holy One of God, that He never said, 'Stand by, for I am holier than
thou.' His holiness proved itself to be the very incarnation of Him who
had spoken, 'Thus saith the High and Lofty One, whose Name is Holy: I
dwell in the High and Holy place, and with him who is of a contrite
spirit.' In Him was seen the affinity holiness has for all that is lost
and helpless and sinful. He proved that holiness is not only the energy
which in holy anger separates itself from all that is impure, but which
in holy love separates to itself even what is most sinful, to save and
to bless. In Him we see how the Divine Holiness is the harmony of
Infinite Righteousness with Infinite Love.
2. Such is the Divine aspect of the character of Christ, as He shows in
human form what God's Holiness is. But there is another aspect, to us no
less interesting and important. We not only want to know how God is
holy, but how man must act to be holy as God is holy. Jesus came to
teach us that it is possible to be men, and yet to have the life of God
dwelling in us. We ordinarily think that the glory and the infinite
Perfection of Deity are the proper setting in which the beauty of
holiness is to be seen: Jesus proved the perfect adaptation and
suitability of human nature for showing forth that which is the
essential glory of Deity. He showed us how, in choosing and doing the
will of God, and making it his own will, man may truly be holy as God is
holy.
The value of this aspect of the Incarnation depends upon our realizing
intensely the true humanity of our Lord. The awful separating and
purifying process that is ever being carried on in the fiery furnace of
the Divine Holiness, ever consuming and ever assimilating, we expect to
see in Him in the struggles of a truly human will. Holiness, to be truly
human, must not only be a gift, but an acquirement. Coming from God, it
must be accepted and personally appropriated, in the voluntary surrender
of all that is not in accordance with it. In Jesus, as He distinctly
gave up His own will, and did and suffered the Father's will, we have
the revelation of what human holiness is, and how truly man, through
the unity of will, can be holy as God is holy.
3. But what avails that we have seen in Jesus that a man can be holy?
His example were indeed a mockery if He show us not the way, and give us
not the power, to become like Himself. To bring us this, was indeed the
supreme object of the Incarnation. The Divine nature of Christ did not
simply make _His_ humanity partaker of its holiness, leaving Him still
nothing more than an individual man. His Divinity gave the human
holiness He wrought out, the holy human nature which He perfected, an
infinite value and power of communication. With Him a new life, the
Eternal Life, was grafted into the stem of humanity. For all who believe
in Him, He sanctified Himself, that they themselves might also be
sanctified in truth. Because His death was the great triumph of His
obedience to the will of the Father, it broke for ever the dominion of
sin, it atoned for our guilt, and won for Him from the Father the power
to make His people partakers of His own life and holiness. In His
Resurrection and Ascension the power of the New Life, and its right to
universal dominion, were made manifest, and He is now in full truth the
Holy One of God, holding in Himself as Head the power of a Holiness, at
once Divine and human, to communicate to every member of His body.
THE HOLY ONE OF GOD! in a fulness of meaning that passeth knowledge, in
spirit and in truth, Jesus now bears this title. He is now the One Holy
One whom God sees, of such an infinite compass and power of holiness,
that He can be holiness to each of His brethren. And even as He is to
God the Holy One, in whom He delights, and for whose sake He delights in
all who are in Him, so Christ may now be to us too the One Holy One in
whom we delight, in whom the Holiness of God is become ours. 'We have
believed and know that Thou art _the Holy One of God_,'--blessed they
who can say this, and know themselves to be holy in Christ.
In speaking of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, we saw how Christ stands
midway between the Father and the Spirit, as the point of union in which
they meet. In the Son, 'the very image of His substance' (Heb. i. 3), we
have the objective revelation of Deity, the Divine Holiness embodied and
brought nigh. In the Holy Spirit we have the same revelation
subjectively, _the Divine Holiness entering our inmost being and
revealing itself there_. The work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal and
glorify Christ as the Holy One of God, as He takes of His Holiness and
makes it ours. He shows us how all is in Christ; how Christ is all for
us; how we are in Christ; and how, as a living Saviour, Christ through
His Spirit takes and keeps charge of us and our life of holiness. He
makes Christ indeed to be to us _the Holy One of God_.
My Brother! wouldst thou be holy, wouldst thou know God's way of
holiness--learn to know Christ as the Holy One of God. Thou art _in
Him_, 'holy in Christ.' Thou hast been placed, by an act of Divine
Power, in Christ, and that same Power keeps thee there, planted and
rooted in that Divine fulness of life and holiness which there is in
Him. His Holy Presence, and the power of His eternal life, surround
thee: let the Holy Spirit reveal this to thee. The Holy Spirit is within
thee as the power of Christ and His life. Secretly, silently, but
mightily, if thou wilt look to the Father for His working, will He
strengthen the faith that thou art in Christ, and that the Divine life,
which thus encircles thee on every side, will enter in and take
possession of thee. Study and pray to believe and realize that it is in
Christ as the Holy One of God, in Christ in whom the Holiness of God is
prepared for thee as a holy nature and holy living, that thou art, and
that thou mayest abide.
And then remember, also, that this Christ is thy Saviour, the most
patient and compassionate of teachers. Study holiness in the light of
His countenance, looking up into His face. _He came from heaven for the
very purpose of making thee holy._ His love and power are more than thy
slowness and sinfulness. Do learn to think of holiness as the
inheritance prepared for thee, as the power of a new life which Jesus
waits and lives to dispense. Just think of it as all in Him, and of its
possession as being dependent upon the possession of Himself. And as the
disciples, though they scarce understood what they confessed, or knew
whither the Lord was leading them, became His saints, His holy ones, in
virtue of their intense attachment to Him, so wilt thou find that to
love Jesus fervently, and obey Him simply, is the sure path to holiness
and the fulness of the Holy Spirit.