“We will come unto him and make our abode with him” (John xiv. 23).
This idea of trying to get a holiness of your own, and then have Christ
reward you for it, is not His teaching. Oh, no; Christ is the holiness; He
will bring the holiness, and come and dwell in the heart forever.
When one of our millionaires purchases a lot, with an old shanty on it, he
does not fix up the old shanty, but he gets a second-hand man, if he will
have it, to tear it down, and he puts a mansion in its place. It is not
fixing up the house that you need, but to give Christ the vacant lot, and
He will excavate below our old life and build a house where He will live
forever.
Now that is what we mean when we say that Christ will be the preparation
for the blessing, and make way for His own approach. It is as when a great
Assyrian king used to set out on a march. He did not command the people to
make a road, but he sent on his own men, and they cut down the trees and
filled the broken places, and levelled the mountains. So He will, if we
will let Him, be the Coming King, the Author and Finisher of our faith.