The Holiness of God

Ir has often been said that the conception of sin and of the holiness of God has been lost in the Church. In the Inner Chamber we have the place where we may learn again how to give God’s holiness the position it should have in our faith and life. If you do not know how to spend half an hour in prayer, take up the subject of God’s holiness. Bow before Him. Give yourself time, and give God also time, that He and you may come into touch with one another., It is a great work, but one fraught with great blessing.

If you wish to strengthen yourself in the practice of this Holy Presence, take up the Holy Word. Take, for instance, the Book of Leviticus, and notice how God seven times gives the command: ‘‘Ye shall be holy, for I am holy’’ (11: 44, 45; 19: 2; 20: 7, 26; 21:°8; 22: 32). Still more frequent is the expression: ‘‘I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.”’ This great thought is taken over into the New Testament. Peter says (1 Peter 1: 15, 16): ‘‘Be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.’’ Paul writes in his first Epistle (1 Thess. 3: 13; 4: 7; 5: 24): ‘‘That He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness.... God hath called us unto holiness.... Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.’’

Nothing but the knowledge of God, as the Holy One, will make us holy. And how are we to obtain that knowledge of God, save in the Inner Chamber? It is a thing utterly impossible unless we take time, and allow the holiness of God to shine on us.: How can any man on earth obtain intimate knowledge of another man of remarkable wisdom, if he does not associate with him, and place himself under his influence? And how can God Himself sanctify us, if we do not take time to be brought under the power of the glory of His holiness? Nowhere can we get to know the holiness of God, and come under its influence and power, save in the Inner Chamber. It has been well said: ‘‘No man can expect to make progress in holiness who is not often and long alone with God.’’

And what now is this holiness of God? It is the ‘highest and most glorious and most all-embracing of all the attributes of God. Holiness is the most. profound word in the Bible. It is a word that is at home in heaven. Both the Old and New Testaments tell us this. Isaiah heard the Seraphs with veiled faces ery out: ‘‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts’? (6: 3). John heard the four living creatures say: ‘‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty”’ (Rev. 4:8). This is the highest expression of God’s glory in heaven, by beings who live in His immediate presence and bow low before Him. And dare we imagine that we, by thinking, and reading, and hearing, can understand or become partakers of the holliness of God? What folly! Oh, that we might begin to thank God that we have a place in the Inner Chamber, a place where we can be alone with Him, and take time for the prayer: ‘‘Let Thy holiness, O Lord, shine more and more into our hearts, that they may become holy.’’

And let our hearts be deeply ashamed of our — prayerlessness, through which we have made it impossible for God to impart His holiness to us. Let us beseech God fervently to forgive us this sin, and to allure us by His heavenly grace, and to strengthen us to have fellowship with Him the holy God.

T have said that the meaning of the words, ‘‘The holiness of God,’’ is- not easily expressed. But we may begin by saying that they imply the unspeakable aversion and hatred with which God regards sin. And if you wish to understand what that means, remember that He preferred to see His Son die, rather than that sin should reign. Think of the Son of God, who gave up His life rather than act in the least matter against the will of the Father. Still further, He had such a hatred of sin that He preferred to die rather than that men should be held in its power. That is something of the holiness of God, which is a pledge that He will do everything for us — for you and me — to deliver us from sin. Holiness is the fire of God that will consume sin in us and make us holy sacrifices, pure and acceptable before Him. It was for this reason that the Spirit came down as fire. He is the Spirit of God’s holiness, the Spirit of sanctification in us.

Oh, think over the holiness of God, and bow in lowliness before Him, till your heart is filled with the assurance of what the Holy One will do for you. Take a week, if necessary, to read and re-read the words of God on this great truth, till your heart is brought under the conviction: ‘‘This is the glory of the Inner Chamber, to converse with God the Holy One; to bow in deep humility and shame before Him, because we have so despised Him and His love through our prayerlessness.’’ There we shall receive the assurance that He will again take us into fellowship with Himself. No one can expect to understand and receive the holiness of God who is not often and long alone with God.

Some one has said that the holiness of God is the expression of the unspeakable distance by which He in His righteousness is separated from us, and yet also of the unspeakable nearness in which He in His love longs to hold fellowship with us, and dwell in us. Bow in humble reverence, as you think of the immeasurable distance between you and God. Bow in childlike confidence in the unspeakable desire of his love to be united with you in the deepest intimacy; and reckon most confidently on Him to reveal something of His holiness to the soul which thirsts after Him and waits upon Him, and is quiet before Him.

Notice how the two sides of the holiness of God are united in the Cross. So terrible was the aversion and anger of God against our sin that Christ was left in the thick darkness, because God, when sin was laid upon Him, had to hide His face from Him. And yet so deep was the love of God toward us, and He so desired to be united to us that He spared not His Son but gave Him over to unutterable sufferings, that so He might receive us, in union with Christ, into His holiness, and press us to His heart as His beloved children. It was of this suffering that our Lord Jesus said: ‘‘I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth’’ (John 17:19). Thus He is become of God our sanctification, and we are holy in Him.

I beseech you, think not little of the grace that you have a holy God who longs to make you holy. Think not little of the voice of God which calls you to give time to Him in the stillness of the Inner Chamber, so that He may cause His holiness to rest on you. Let it be your business every day, in the secrecy of the Inner Chamber, to meet the holy God. You will be repaid for the trouble it may cost you. The reward will be sure and rich. You will learn to hate sin, and to regard it as accursed and conquered. The new nature. will give you a horror of sin. The living Jesus, the holy God, will, as Conqueror, be your power and strength; and you will begin to believe the great promise contained in 1 Thess. 5: 23, 24: ‘‘The very God of peace sanctify you wholly.... Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.’’