Sanctified in Christ
Sanctified in Christ Jesus.” — i Cor. i. 2. “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye IN IIiM.” — Col. ii. 6.
DEEPLY solemn is the theme which these
mottoverses suggest (and which we have
purposely reserved) in connection with the
Apostle’s monogram — “Sanctification in Christ.”
In one of our recent meditations on God’s eternal purpose in the salvation of the elect, the divine object and consummation, so to speak, of that election is thus set forth — “According as He hath chosen us IN Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. i. 4). Again and again, in the same epistle, is the truth of the believer’s consecration IN Christ reiterated. “Eor we are His workmanship, created IN Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. ii. i o; so also Eph. ii. 21; v. 25).
Need we wonder that the thought of ‘Holiness’ should be so intimately associated, by the Apostle, with the mystical union subsisting between Jesus and His people! It were only strange had it been otherwise. Sanctifi cation is, or ought to be, as natural to the Christian, as the flower is to the root or stalk. In the case of a healthy tree, the sap permeates through stem and branch and twig; and as little could a healthy and vigorous plant exhibit only withered and leafless branches, as a soul joined to the true Vine — “rooted in Him” — be found barren and unfruitful. Holiness is just the outer expression and manifestation of the new, inner life in Christ. As such, surely it ought, from its very nature, being the result and outcome of living union and communion with a living Lord, to be loftier and purer than the purest and most elevated virtues of Pagan moralist — “He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth muck fruit” (John XV. 5).
This resurrection-life to holiness occupies a prominent place in that * identified parallelism,’ which in previous pages we found to be a favourite theme of our Apostle’s. “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall. be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God IN (Gr. iv) Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. vi. 4, 5, 6, 11). Partakers of this new, Risen life of the Redeemer, it may be said of each of the living members, what the Apostle said of the living Head — “In that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He liveth. He liveth unto God” (Rom. vi. i o). “His death for us,” says one, now * without fault before the throne,’ “is comparatively easy to grasp. By it, I am saved. But I wish to live in His life, to realise Him with me, and to get my wants supplied, and my spirit sanctified, by a constant association as it were with a living Jesus.”
In a figurative shape, and retaining the Apostle’s monogram, the nature and obligation of this life of holiness are alike brought forcibly before us in the second of our motto-verses — “Walk ye IN Him.” It expresses, under the most familiar of emblems, the carrying about with us a realised consciousness of our oneness with the risen Saviour. Were that thouoht constantly and habitually cherished, what a preventative and preservative against temptation! How sensitive and shrinkinor would be the dread of marrinoand sullying the soul thus glorified with the presence, and identified with the honour, of its Great Lord! If Christ, in His own significant words, be the Way, we
* Mary B. M. Duncan’s Bible Hours.
may, to each one of His true followers, apply (by accommodation) the injunction of the ancient prophet — “And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying. This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (Isa. XXX. 2i). The way, observe, is “in Christ”: yet note, also, that the pilgrims in that way are represented as “turning to the right hand and turning to the left.” As a German commentator expounds and paraphrases it — ‘The wayfarers adapt themselves thus to their varied worldly callings, this one turning at times to the right, this other to the left, as life’s imperative duties demand. Still there dare be no deflection from the one only way itself.’ These callings and avocations are all in Him: and we may appropriately add with the Apostle — “As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. vi. 16).
Have we said that this sanctifi cation flows as a necessary sequence and corollary from the new life in Christ Jesus: — that no sooner is that mystical union formed, than the subject of it becomes a “sanctified” and “separated” one, according to the Apostle’s nexus in one of the passages previously quoted — “In whom,,. an holy temple in the Lord “?
Yes, truly; such is the lofty ideal, at least, of the Christian life and character. Alas! however, how difficult, how impossible the realisation! What poor transcripts of the divine original! How meagre the attainment of the saintliest, how much more inadequate those of the average believer! See how our Apostle feels and expresses his own wide severance from that ideal: how vivid as well as true his description of the dual nature, the two antagonist principles: — the ardent aspiration after holiness of heart and life, yet the dead weights which impeded him and his fellow-runners in the spiritual race — “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 0 wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 22-24). He knew Christ, as few had known Him: he had ’ won Christ,’ as few had won Him: yet he speaks as if all were yet unattained: — “That I may know Him;” “that I way win Him” (Phil. iii. 8, i o). Nevertheless, observe, the race, with him, was never abandoned. That unattained ideal is still pursued with unwavering and persistent effort — “But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God IN Christ Jesus” (Phil. iii. 12-14).
And be it remembered for our comfort, none more graciously owns and recognises the difficulty — none more tenderly sympathises with our poor, imperfect, halting efforts, than the All-perfect One Himself. In this, as in all other things, “He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust.” He makes infinite allowance for the difficulties of approaching that perfection to which in His case alone it was possible to attain. He speaks of His people, as “lilies among thorns “: as “lambs in the midst of wolves.” With a touching compassion for their weakness and shortcomings. He interjects, in the very midst of His Great Intercessory, the significant ejaculation — “These are in the world!” In the world, — struggling, falling, beaten down with a great fight of temptations. “The flesh is weak,” was the generous allowance made for those, faint in body, and faint in soul, who were found slumbering at the Garden Gate, unwakeful at the hour of all time, when sympathy and vigilance were most needed, and neglect least excusable!
As a second ground of comfort and heart-cheer, not only have we the assured sympathy of Jesus, but we have the promise of His supporting grace. In the midst of his own conscious weakness and shortcoming, we have in a former page found our Apostle saying, “I can do all things IN Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. iv. 13).
Of the “consolations in Christ,” referred to elsewhere by him, not one surely is more precious and sustaining than this — that He has made provision to deliver, not only from the guilt but from the dominion of sin. “He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. xii. 9). “His heart,” is the utterance of a saintly writer who knew from experience the reality of that upholding strength, “His heart is large enough to take me in; His hand is strong enough to bear me up.” Nor is the theme of our present meditation to be relegated to the place of the mystical. Nay rather, it may be taken as forming the most elevating and persuasive of incentives to pure deed and elevated action. In Christ. — That monogram is, it ought to be, a divine talisman to crush the guilty purpose, to stifle the vicious passion, to quench the kindling spark of revenge, to bear unretaliated the cruel taunt, to surrender the dubious vantage-ground, to accept without murmur the daily burden, and submit without fret to the exacted sacrifice. In a word, to be, and to do, and to suffer, because of Him. “Walking IN Him.” — Whenever in any difficulty or perplexity, hesitating as to the path of duty, trembling it may be on the verge of temptation, let the footstep be arrested by the question, ‘How would my Lord and Saviour have acted here? ’ “He that saith He abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (i John ii. 6).
How it becomes those “sanctified in Christ Jesus” to exercise a scrupulous carefulness and circumspection in thought, word, and deed: remembering that the world is keen enough, yes, and unjust enough, to see the Master reflected in the conduct of His unworthy and often hlameworthj disciples. How many, on the other hand, have these and such-like thoughts, happily compelled, by a holy jealousy, to retain footing on the Rock, when the waves might have otherwise swept into the seething abyss! How many have been raised above what was selfish, ungenerous, unworthy, by keeping habitually before them the simple words of our Apostle, “My ways which be” IN Christ “( i Cor. iv. 1 7). I know few sentences or sentiments more beautiful than the following: —” All I ask of you is, Be just. Lay that blame on me, and blame me as much as you will, but be just to Him, who cannot be answerable for the offences of His disciples; since if they obeyed His precepts and imitated His example, they never could thus offend. And at all events believe this, for it is the simple truth, that if the thought of HiM has not done all it ought, it has done something. I have suppressed many, as I think, most deserved sarcasms, which sprang into my mind in the ardour of composition, and have struck out many more which have flowed from my pen, and I have done both, mainly from the recollection of HiM.’’^
Meanwhile, let us cleave to the gracious promise, that if our union be true, real, sincere,” He who hath
* Conclusion of “Defence of the Eclipse of Faith.”
begun the good work will carry it on.” The word of the Lord is sure. “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto you... sanctification” (i Cor. i. 30). And if every day leads us more and more to mark and mourn the slowness of our progress — the devious and distant orbit we describe around the Great Central Sun of our bliss and being — let it be our comfort to know that the day is coming, when, bathed in the beams of the ‘True Light,’ with no darkening cloud or disturbing medium, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” “And every man that hath this hope IN Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”