Most Holy Lord God! we do bless Thee that Thou didst raise Thy Son from
the dead and give Him glory, that our faith and hope might be in Thee.
Thou didst make His resurrection the power of eternal life in us, and
now, even as He was raised, so we may walk in newness of life. As the
Spirit of holiness dwelt and wrought in Him, it dwells and works in us,
and becomes in us the Spirit of life.
O God! we beseech Thee to perfect Thy work in Thy saints. Give them a
deeper sense of the holy calling with which Thou hast called them in
Christ, the Risen One. Give all to accept the Spirit of His life on
earth, delight in the will of God, as the spirit of their life. May
those who have never yet fully accepted this be brought to do it, and in
faith of the power of the new life to say, I accept the will of God as
my only law. May the Spirit of holiness be the spirit of their lives!
Father! we beseech Thee, let Christ thus, in ever increasing experience
of His resurrection power, be revealed in our hearts as the Son of God,
Lord and Ruler within us. Let His life within inspire all the outer
life, so that in the home and society, in thought and speech and action,
in religion and in business, His life may shine out from us in the
beauty of holiness. Amen.
1. Scripture regards the resurrection in two different aspects.
In one view, it is the title to the new life, the source of our
justification. (Rom. iv. 25, 1 Cor. xv. 17.) In another it is
our regeneration, the power of the new life working in us, the
source of our sanctification. (Rom. vi. 4; 1 Pet. i. 3.) Pardon
and holiness are inseparable; they have the same source, union
with the Risen Living Christ.
2. The blessedness to the disciples of having a Risen Christ
was this: He, whom they thought dead, came and _revealed
Himself_ to them. Christ lives to reveal Himself to thee and to
me; wait on Him, trust Him for this. He will reveal Himself to
thee as thy sanctification. See to it that thou hast Him in
living possession, and thou hast His Holiness.
3. The life of Christ is the holiness of Christ. The reason we
so often fail in the pursuit of holiness is that the old life,
the flesh, in its own strength seeks for holiness as a
beautiful garment to wear and enter heaven with. It is the
daily death to self out of which the life of Christ rises up.
4. To die thus, to live thus in Christ, to be holy--how can we
attain it? It all comes '_according to the Spirit of
holiness_.' Have the Holy Spirit within thee. Say daily, 'I
believe in the Holy Ghost.'
5. _Holy in Christ._ When Christ lives in us, and His mind, as
it found expression in His words and work on earth, enters and
fills our will and personal consciousness, then our union with
Him becomes what He meant it to be. It is the Spirit of His
holy conduct, the Spirit of His sanctity, must be in us.
[11] See Note F.
Twentieth Day.