Holy in Christ Part 9

3. We need the whole of what G.o.d teaches in His Word in regard to holiness in all its different aspects. We need still more to be ever returning to the living centre where G.o.d imparts holiness. Jesus is _the Holy One of G.o.d_: to have _Him_ truly, to love _Him_ fervently, to trust and obey _Him_, to be _in Him_--this makes us holy.

4. Your holiness is thus treasured up in this Divine, Almighty, and most gentle Saviour--surely there need to be no fear that He will not be ready or able to make you holy.

5. With such a Sanctifier, how comes it that so many seekers after holiness fail so sadly, and know so little of the joy of a holy life?

I am sure it is with very many this one thing: they seek to grasp and hold this Christ in their own strength, and know not how it is the Holy Spirit within them who must be waited for to reveal this Divine Being, the Holy One of G.o.d, in their hearts.

Fifteenth Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

The Holy Spirit.

'But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive: for _the Holy Spirit_ was not yet: because Jesus was not yet glorified.'--John vii. 39.

'The Comforter, even _the Holy Spirit_, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.'--John xiv. 26.

'G.o.d chose you to salvation _in sanctification of the Spirit_, and belief of the truth.'--2 Thess. ii. 13. (See 1 Pet. i. 2.)

It has sometimes been said, that while the Holiness of G.o.d stands out more prominently in the Old Testament, in the New it has to give way to the revelation of His love. The remark could hardly be made if it were fully realized that the Spirit is G.o.d, and that when He takes up the epithet Holy as His own proper name, it is to teach us that now the Holiness of G.o.d is to come nearer than ever, and to be specially revealed as the power that makes us holy. In the Holy Spirit, G.o.d the Holy One of Israel, and He who was the Holy One of G.o.d, come nigh for the fulfilment of the promise, 'I am the Lord that make you holy.' The unseen and unapproachable holiness of G.o.d had been revealed and brought near in the life of Christ Jesus; all that hindered our partic.i.p.ation in it had been removed by His death. The name of Holy Spirit teaches us that it is specially the Spirit's work to impart it to us and make it our own.

Try and realize the meaning of this; the epithet that through the whole Old Testament has belonged to the Holy G.o.d, is now appropriated to that Spirit which is within you. The Holiness of G.o.d in Christ becomes holiness _in you_, because this Spirit is in you. The words, and the Divine realities the words express, _Holy_ and _Spirit_, are now inseparably and eternally united. You can only have as much of the Spirit as you are willing to have of holiness. You can only have as much holiness as you have of the indwelling Spirit.

There are some who pray for the Spirit because they long to have His light and joy and strength. And yet their prayers bring little increase of blessing or power. It is because they do not rightly know or desire Him as the _Holy_ Spirit. His burning purity, His searching and convicting light, His making dead of the deeds of the body, of self with its will and its power, His leading into the fellowship of Jesus as He gave up His will and His life to the Father,--of all this they have not thought. The Spirit cannot work in power in them because they receive Him not as the _Holy_ Spirit, in _sanctification_ of the Spirit. At times, in seasons of revival, as among the Corinthians and Galatians, He may indeed come with His gifts and mighty workings, while His sanctifying power is but little manifest. (1 Cor. xiv. 4, xiii. 8, iii.

1-3; Gal. iii. 3, v. 15-26.) But unless that sanctifying power be acknowledged and accepted, His gifts will be lost. His gifts coming on us are but meant to prepare the way for the sanctifying power within us.

We must take the lesson to heart; we can have as much of the Spirit as we are willing to have of His Holiness. Be full of the Spirit, must mean to us, Be fully holy.

The converse is equally true. We can only have so much holiness as we have of the Spirit. Some souls do very earnestly seek to be holy, but it is very much in their own strength. They will read books and listen to addresses most earnestly; they will use every effort to lay hold of every thought, and act out every advice. And yet they must confess that they are still very much strangers to the true, deep rest and joy and power of abiding in Christ, and being holy in Him. They sought for holiness more than for the Spirit. They must learn how even all the holiness which is so near and clear in Christ, is beyond our reach, except as the Holy Spirit dwells within and imparts it. They must learn to pray for Him and His mighty strengthening (Eph. iii. 16), to believe for Him (John iv. 14, vii. 37), in faith to yield to Him as indwelling (1 Cor. iii. 14, vi. 19). They must learn to cease from self-effort in thinking and believing, in willing and in running; to hope in G.o.d, and wait patiently for Him. He will by His Holy Spirit make us holy. Be holy means, Be filled with the Spirit.

If we inquire more closely how it is that this Holy Spirit makes holy, the answer is,--He reveals and imparts the Holiness of Christ. Scripture tells us: Christ is made unto us sanctification. He sanctified Himself for us, that we ourselves might also be sanctified in truth. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We are sanctified in Christ Jesus. The whole living Christ is just a treasury of holiness for man. In His life on earth He exchanged the Divine Holiness He possessed into the current coin needed for this human earthly life, obedience to the Father, and humility, and love, and zeal. As G.o.d, He has a sufficiency of it for every moment of the life of every believer.

And yet, it is all beyond our reach, except as the Holy Spirit brings it to us and inwardly communicates it. But this is the very work for which He bears the Divine Name, the _Holy_ Spirit, to glorify Jesus, the Holy One of G.o.d, within us, and so make us partakers of His Holiness. He does it by revealing Christ, so that we begin to see what is in Him. He does it by discovering the deep unholiness of our nature (Rom. vii. 14-23).

He does it by mightily strengthening us to believe, to receive Jesus Himself as our life. He does it by leading us to utter despair of self, to absolute surrender of obedience to Jesus as Lord, to the a.s.sured confidence of faith in the power of an indwelling Christ. He does it by, in the secret silent depths of the heart and life, imparting the dispositions and graces of Christ, so that from the inner centre of our life, which has been renewed and sanctified in Christ, holiness should flow out and pervade all to the utmost circ.u.mference. Where the desire has once been awakened, and the delight in the law of G.o.d after the inward man been created, there, as the Spirit of this life in Christ Jesus, He makes free from the law of sin and death in the members, he leads into the glorious liberty of the sons of G.o.d. As G.o.d within us, He communicates what G.o.d in Christ has prepared.

And if we ask once more how the working of this Holy Spirit, who thus makes holy, is to be secured, the answer is very simple and clear. He is the Spirit of the Holy Father, and of Christ, the Holy One of G.o.d: from them He must be received. 'He showed me a river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of G.o.d and the Lamb.' Jesus speaks of 'the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name.' He taught us to ask the Father. Paul prays for the Ephesians: 'I bow my knees to the Father, that He may grant unto you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.' It is as we look to G.o.d in His Holiness, and all its revelation from Creation downward, and see how the Spirit now flows out from the throne of His Holiness as the water of life, that our hope will be awakened that G.o.d will give Him to work mightily in us. And as we then see Jesus revealing that holiness in human nature, rending the veil in His atoning death, that the Spirit from the Holiest of all may come forth and, as the Holy Spirit, be His representative, making Him present within us, we shall become confident that faith in Jesus will bring the fulness of the Spirit. As He told us to ask the Father, He told us to believe in Himself. 'He that believeth in me, rivers of living water shall flow out of him.' Let us bow to the Father in the name of Christ, His Son; let us believe very simply in the Son as Him in whom we are well-pleasing to the Father, and through whom the Father's love and blessing reach us, and we may be sure the Spirit, who is already within us, will, as the Holy Spirit, do His work in ever-increasing power. The mystery of holiness is the mystery of the Trinity: as we bow to the Father, believing in the Son, the Holy Spirit will work. And we shall see the true meaning of what G.o.d spake in Israel: '_I am holy_,' thus speaks the Father; '_Be holy_,' as my Son and in my Son; '_I make holy_,' through the Spirit of my Son dwelling in you. Let our souls worship and cry out, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord G.o.d of hosts.'

The Holy Spirit. All true knowledge of the Father in His adorable Holiness, and of the Son in His, which is meant to be ours, and all partic.i.p.ation of it, depend upon our life in the Spirit, upon our knowing and owning Him as abiding in us as our Life. Oh, what can it be that, with such a Thrice Holy G.o.d, His Holiness does not more cover His Church and children? The Holy Spirit is among us, is in us: it must be we grieve and resist Him. If _you_ would not do so, at once bow the knee to the Father, that He may grant you the Spirit's mighty workings in the inner man. Believe that the Holy Spirit, bearer to you of all the Holiness of G.o.d and of Jesus, is indeed in you. Let Him take the place of self, with its thoughts and efforts. Set your soul still before G.o.d in holy silence, for Him to give you wisdom; rest, in emptiness and poverty of spirit, in the faith that He will work in His own way. As Divine as is the holiness that Jesus brings, so Divine is the power in which the Holy Spirit communicates it. Yield yourself day by day in growing dependence and obedience, to wait on and be led of Him. Let the fear of the Holy One be on you: sanctify the Lord G.o.d in your heart: let Him be your fear and dread. Fear not only sin: fear above all self, as it thrusts itself in before G.o.d with its service. Let self die, in refusing and denying its work: let the Holy Spirit, in quietness, and dependence, in the surrender of obedience and trust, have the rule, the free disposal of every faculty. Wait for Him--He can, He will in power reveal and impart the Holiness of the Father and the Son.[7]

BE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord G.o.d of hosts! the whole earth is full of Thy glory! Let that glory fill the heart of Thy child, as he bows before Thee. I come now to drink of the river of the water of life that flows from under the throne of G.o.d and of the Lamb. Glory be to G.o.d and to the Lamb for the gift that hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive--the gift of the Holy indwelling Spirit.

O my Father! in the name of Jesus I ask Thee that I may be strengthened with might by Thy Spirit in the inner man. Teach me, I pray Thee, to believe that Thou hast given Him, to accept and expect Him to fill and rule my whole inner being. Teach me to give up to Him; not to will or to run, not to think or to work in my strength, but in quiet confidence to wait and to know that He works in me. Teach me what it is to have no confidence in the flesh, and to serve Thee in the Spirit. Teach me what it is in all things to be led by Thy Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Thy Holiness.

And grant, gracious Father, that through Him I may hear Thee speak and reveal Thyself to me in power: I AM HOLY. May He glorify to me and in me, Jesus, in whom Thy command 'BE HOLY' hath been so blessedly fulfilled on my behalf. And let the Holy Spirit give me the anointing and the sealing which bring the perfect a.s.surance that in Him Thy promise is being gloriously fulfilled, 'I MAKE YOU HOLY.' Amen.

1. It it universally admitted that the Holy Spirit has not, in the teaching of the Church or the faith of believers, that place of honour and power, which becomes Him as the Revealer of the Father and the Son. Seek a deep conviction that without the Holy Spirit the clearest teaching on holiness, the most fervent desires, the most blessed experiences even, will only be temporary, will produce no permanent result, will bring no abiding rest.

2. The Holy Spirit dwells within, and works within, in the hidden deep of your nature. Seek above everything the clear and habitual a.s.surance that He is within you, doing His work.

3. To this end, deny self and its work in serving G.o.d. Your own power to think and pray and believe and strive--lay it all down expressly and distinctly in G.o.d's presence; claim, accept, and believe in the hidden workings of the indwelling Spirit.

4. As the Son ever spake of the Father, so the Spirit ever points to Christ. The soul that yields itself to the Spirit will of Him learn to know how Christ is our holiness, how we can always abide in Christ our Sanctification. What a vain effort it has often been without the Spirit! '_As the anointing taught you_, ye abide in Him.'

5. In the temple of thine heart, beloved believer, there is a secret place, within the veil, where dwells, often all unknown, the Spirit of G.o.d. Do bow in deep reverence before the Father, and ask that He may work mightily. Expect the Spirit to do His work: He will make Thy inner man a fit home, Thy heart a throne, for Jesus, and reveal Him there.

[7] I cannot say how deeply I feel that one of the great wants of believers is that they do not _know_ the Holy Spirit, who is within them, and thereby lose the blessed life He would work in them. If it please G.o.d, I hope that the next volume of this series may be on _The Spirit of Christ_. May the Father give me a message that shall help His children to know what the Holy Spirit can be to them.

Sixteenth Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

Holiness and Truth.

'_Make them holy_ in _the Truth_: Thy word is _Truth_.'--John xvii. 17.

'G.o.d chose you unto salvation in _sanctification_ and belief of _the Truth_.'--2 Thess. ii. 12.

The chief means of sanctification that G.o.d uses is His word. And yet how much there is of reading and studying, of teaching and preaching the word, that has almost no effect in making men holy. It is not the word that sanctifies; it is G.o.d Himself who alone can sanctify. Nor is it simply through the word that G.o.d does it, but through the Truth which is in the word. As a means the word is of unspeakable value, as the vessel which contains the truth, if G.o.d use it; as a means it is of no value, if G.o.d does not use it. Let us strive to connect G.o.d's Holy Word with the Holy G.o.d Himself. G.o.d sanctifies in the Truth through His word.

Jesus had just said, 'The words which Thou gavest me, I have given them.' Let us try and realize what that means. Think of that great transaction in eternity: the Infinite Being, whom we call G.o.d, _giving His words_ to His Son; in His words opening up His heart, communicating His mind and will, revealing Himself and all His purpose and love. In a Divine power and reality pa.s.sing all conception, G.o.d gave Christ His words. In the same living power Christ gave them to His disciples, all full of a Divine life and energy to work in their hearts, as they were able to receive them. And just as in the words of a man on earth we expect to find all the wisdom or all the goodness there is in him, so the word of the Thrice Holy One is all alive with the Holiness of G.o.d.

All the holy fire, alike of His burning zeal and His burning love, dwells in His words.

And yet men can handle these words, and study them, and speak them, and be entire strangers to their holiness, or their power to make holy. It is G.o.d Himself, the Holy One, who must make holy through the word. Every seed, in which the life of a tree is contained, has around it a husk or sh.e.l.l, which protects and hides the inner life. Only where the seed finds a place in congenial soil, and the husk is burst and removed, can the seed germinate and grow up. And it is only where there is a heart in harmony with G.o.d's Holiness, longing for it, yielding itself to it, that the word will really make holy. It is the heart that is not content with the word, but seeks the Living, Holy One in the word, to which He will reveal the truth, and in it Himself. It is the word given to us by Christ as G.o.d gave it Him, and received by us as it was by Him, to rule and fill our life, which has power to make holy.

But we must notice very specially how our Saviour says, Sanctify them, not in the word, but in the truth. Just as in man there is body, soul, and spirit, so in truth too. There is first _word-truth_; a man may have the correct form of words while he does not really apprehend the truth they contain. Then there is _thought-truth_; there may be a clear intellectual apprehension of truth without the experience of its power.

The Bible speaks of truth as a living reality: this is the _life-truth_, in which the very Spirit of the truth we profess has entered and possessed our inner being. Christ calls Himself _the Truth_: He is said to be full of grace and truth. The Divine life and grace are in Him as an actually substantial existence and reality. He not only acts upon us by thoughts and motives, but communicates, as a _reality_, the eternal life He brought for us from the Father. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth; what He imparts is all real and actual, the very substance of unseen things; He guides into the Truth, not thought-truth or doctrine only, but life-truth, the personal possession of the Truth as it is in Jesus. As the Spirit of Truth He is the Spirit of Holiness; the life of G.o.d, which is His Holiness, He brings to us as an actual possession.

It is now of this living Truth, which dwells in the word, as the seed-life dwells in the husk, that Jesus says, 'Make them holy in the Truth: Thy word is Truth.' He would have us mark the intimate connection, as well as the wide difference, between the word and the truth. The connection is one willed by G.o.d and meant to be inseparable.

'Thy word is truth;' with G.o.d they are one. But not with man. Just as there were men in close contact and continual intercourse with Jesus, to whom He was only a man, and nothing more, so there are Christians who know and understand the word, and yet are strangers to its true spiritual power. They have the letter but not the spirit; the Truth comes to them in word but not in power. The word does not make them holy, because they hold it not in Spirit and in Truth. To others, on the contrary, who know what it is to receive the truth in the love of it, who yield themselves, in all their dealings with the word, to the Spirit of Truth who dwells in it and in them too, the word comes indeed as Truth, as a Divine reality, communicating and working what it speaks of.

And it is of such a use of the word that the Saviour says, 'Make them holy in the truth: Thy word is truth.' As the words, which G.o.d gave Him, were all in the power of the eternal Life and Love and Will of G.o.d, the revelation and communication of the Father's purpose, as G.o.d's word was Truth to Him and in Him, so it can be in us. And as we thus receive it, we are made holy in the Truth.

And what now are the lessons we have to learn here for the path of Holiness? The first is: Let us see to it that in all our intercourse with G.o.d's Blessed Word we rest content with nothing short of the experience of it, as truth of G.o.d, as spirit and as power. Jesus said, 'If ye abide in my word, ye shall know the truth.' No a.n.a.lysis can ever find or prove the life of a seed: plant it in its proper soil, and the growth will testify to the life. It is only as the word of G.o.d is received in the love of it, as it grows and works in us, that we can know its truth, can know that it is the Truth of G.o.d. It is as we live in the words of Jesus, in love and obedience, keeping and doing them, that the Truth from heaven, the Power of the Divine Life which there is in them, will unfold itself to us. Christ is the Truth; in Him the love and grace, the very life of G.o.d, has come to earth as a substantial existence, a Living, Mighty Power, something new that was never on earth before (John i. 17); let us yield ourselves to the Living Christ to possess us and to rule us as the Living Truth, then will G.o.d's word be Truth to us and in us.

The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Truth; that actual heavenly reality of Divine life and love in Christ, the Truth, has a Spirit, who comes to communicate and impart it. Let us beware of trying to study or understand or take possession of G.o.d's word without that Spirit through whom the word was spoken of old; we shall find only the husk, the truth or thought and sentiment, very beautiful perhaps, but with no power to make us holy. We must have _the Spirit_ of the Truth within us. He will lead us _into_ the Truth; when we are in the Truth, G.o.d makes us holy in it and by it. The Truth must be in us, and we in it. G.o.d desires truth in the inward parts: we must be of the people of whom Christ says, 'If ye were of the truth,' 'he that is of the truth knoweth me.' In the lower sphere of daily life and conduct, of thought and action, there must be an intense love of truth, and a willingness to sacrifice everything for it; in the spiritual life, a deep hungering to have all our religion every day, every moment, stand fully in the truth of G.o.d.