Holiness

“Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for Iam holy.” — 1 PETERi. 15, 16,

Tus text is a somewhat startling one. Indeed, it is so startling that it has in very many cases ceased to startle. Men have read it, and have been surprised, and then, withdrawing from its call and claim, have treated it for ever afterwards as though it did not mean what it said. That is the kind of Bible crit- -icism of which I am afraid. The criticism of the spirit of accommodation which attempts to lower the Bible standard is most perilous.

I can well understand that a text like this should startle, even affright, the unregenerate man. To hear the word which declares that without holiness no man shall see God must

32 surely be to fill his heart with terror. He knows full well that however much he may admire the ideal of holiness, he is utterly unable to realise that ideal in his own life and experience.

But if this be true, let me hasten to add that to the child of God a call like this should certainly bring no terror. Searching of heart, yes; earnestness of endeavour to apprehend its meaning, certainly; consecrated abandonment toward the purpose indicated, absolutely; but fear, terror, certainly not!

And yet how many Christian people there are who are afraid of the very word “holy,” of the term “holiness.” I am not at all sure that it is altogether their fault. I am painfully conscious that some very unholy things have been done in the name of holiness. I know that some things which lack the reality of sanctity have gathered about them its odour. I am not at all surprised that some people are afraid of the term, even though they are children of God. Yet it is not quite fair to turn away from so palpable and evident a purpose of God for our life because the reality has been travestied.

My present desire is to deal with the way of holiness so as to be helpful to two classes of persons, First, to those who have experienced the new birth, and to God’s own children who are yet conscious of failure, conscious still of very much in their daily life that is unlike their Lord, who nevertheless earnestly desire to live the life which is holy. I also want to speak of the subject to many who are on the borderline of decision, who have been attracted toward Christ because of the beauty of His character, arid who are asking, ere they set their feet in the way of His commandments, whether it will be possible for them to live the life to which He calls them.

How many such there are. I say without reservation that no week passes in which I am not brought personally or by correspondence into contact with earnestly sincere souls who are outside the Kingdom, yet wishing to be inside; who tarry because they are afraid lest, having turned their faces toward the King, and yielded to Him, they should dishonour His name. I have a profound respect for such fear, but I do not think it is warranted. I think they need tarry no longer doubting and trembling outside, and yet my heart always goes out to the man who looks into my eyes and says, I would like to be a Christian, but I am afraid I should not be worthy of the name.

I wish to speak to you of this holy way, this holy life that follows, and never precedes the new birth, in order that you may be helped to decision, as you see not only what holiness is, but what the power for it is; and, moreover, what your responsibility concerning it will be when you become a child of God.

First of all, by way of definition, what is holiness? It is an interesting fact that this word, with which we are all so familiar, which lies so constantly upon the pages of our Bibles in the Old and New Testaments, occurring in differing forms hundreds of times in both sections of the Divine Library, has no exact equivalent in the original language in either the Old or New Testament. I do not mean to say that the idea it suggests is any different from that suggested by the Bible terms. I think the word is right wherever you find it. Yet it is interesting in attempting to understand what Scripture means by the terms it makes use of, to get beneath the words we use to the primitive meaning of the words of which they area translation. In the Old Testament the word “holiness,” and all cognate words, are almost invariably derived from a Hebrew word which suggests, sanctity — that is, the separation or setting apart of the thing described as sacred to the purposes of God alone. All the vessels of the ancient sanctuary were holy, but the thought of the word is that they were set apart to the Divine use and the Divine purpose. That is the first use of this word, or rather of the word we have translated “holy” in the Scriptures of truth. So that a word meaning separated, set apart, is used to indicate the necessary condition of cleanness in the thing so set apart.

In a moment the mind sees the reasonableness of the word. Said one of the prophets, understanding that fact, “Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.” The men who were to handle the holy separated vessels were themselves to be holy, separated, and their holiness and separation were to have as a quality, cleanness of life.

When I turn to the New Testament I find another word behind the word “holiness” and “sanctification”; a word which, from the standpoint of etymology, is not the same as the Hebrew word, although in use it means exactly the same thing. The word of the New Testament is one which signifies something that is awful, full of awe. The holy thing is one which produces a feeling of awe in the soul of the man who comes into contact with it. Holiness is a condition awe-inspiring. To leave the statement there would be utterly to misinterpret the use of the word in the New Testament. Why are things awful which are holy? Why are things which have the quality we have translated holiness, awe-inspiring? They are awful things because separated to God, belonging peculiarly and only to Him, That is the thought of the word wherever you find it in the New Testament. All that belonged to God inspired awe in the soul simply because it was His, separated to His use, set apart exclusively to Him. So the word used to indicate the condition of life which fitted men for separation to God was a word which indicated the awe inspired in the heart by the fact of separation.

For a moment let us tarry there. Separation to God is after all what holiness means. The difference between the regenerate man and the unregenerate man is the difference between the man who belongs to God and the man who is at the disposal of any and every master who pays his price. I do not think this thing can be put more forcefully than by a simple illustration. The difference essentially between the regenerate man and the unregenerate man is the difference between Buckingham Palace and the Hotel Cecil. The Hotel Cecil, or any other hotel, is at the disposal of any man who can pay enough to hire it, but no one can hire Buckingham Palace. That is the dwelling-place of the king. Lust can hire the hotel, benevolence can hire the hotel for its annual dinner, anyone can hire the hotel who pays the price; but you cannot hire Buckingham Palace. No millionaire can hire it. Thank God there is something they cannot do! I have tried to make the illustration simple, that the truth in all its sublimity may break upon our consciousness. Here are two men. One of them is an unregenerate man. The other is born anew. The unregenerate man can be bought. I do not mean that any other man can buy him, but he will hire himself out to whatever pays the price he demands. Lust, avarice, drunkenness, debauchery, beneficence, philanthropy, anything that will give him his price, to it he will hand over his life. The regenerate man, if he understand the meaning of his regeneration, nothing can buy. He is the sanctuary, the temple, the dwelling-place of God. New Testament writers describe him as awe-inspiring, for such is a man who inspires other men with reverence and wonder as they recognise in him the peculiar, personal property of God.

Holiness, then, is that which inspires awe, because it indicates the separation of a soul to God. Such is the meaning of the word, and although from the standpoint of etymology our word “holiness” has no relation to either of the two thoughts expressed, yet there is in the use of it a strange and wonderful fitness. Long ago, all unconsciously, perhaps, the Christian Church fastened upon the word “holy” in order to express the condition of the man separated to God, and inspiring awe by that separation.

What, then, does our word “holiness” mean? It may be traced to a simple Anglo-Saxon root, halig, which means whole — complete. From that root two words have come into common use, namely, health and holiness. In our differentiation in the use of words which have originally the same meaning, we have applied the word health to things physical, and the word holiness to things spiritual. We talk of a man as having a healthy body, or as being of a holy spirit, and we express exactly the same thing in differing spheres by the distinguishing adjectives which we use. I should do no violence to the intention if I spoke of a man with a holy body and a healthy spirit. In other words, what health is to the body, holiness is to the spirit; and taken in its simplicity, holiness means health, wholeness, perfection in the spiritual sphere.

It follows, then, that there can be no holiness apart from life, for the very use of the word health implies a pre-existing life principle. Given the life, then, holiness is simply that life maintained in health before God. This definition saves our word from abuse, for through it we see that holiness is not perfection of consummation, but only perfection of condition. An illustration will perhaps throw light upon my meaning. In winter time we look upon a tree which is stripped of all its leaves. One spring morning we discover a bud full of promise, and we exclaim at its perfection. But what is the perfection of the bud? Is it the perfection of consummation? You would be very sorry if that were so, if it remained a bud through all the months; and yet it has a perfection, the perfection of condition. It is healthy and sound, perfect in potentiality. Let the weeks pass on, and let us visit the tree once again. A blossom has taken the place of the bud; and we again marvel at the perfection of its beauty. A little later, and the bud has found its final perfection in the rich, ripe, luscious fruit upon the tree. It is now perfect, not only as to condition, but as to consummation; not only in potentiality, but in realisation. But the health, the wholeness is no more perfect in the fruit than it was in the bud or the blossom.

There is the same quality of holiness in every stage.

To illustrate again on a higher plane. Come with me into some home, and look at that baby in its mother’s arms. Is it perfect? Ask the mother! Is that the perfection of consummation? That mother’s heart would break if the child remained at that stage as the years passed on, and there were no advance and no development; but it is perfect in condition, in health. The years pass on, and I bring you again to that home. The babe is no longer a babe, but a boy of sixteen or seventeen years of age. I show you the boy with the light of health upon his brow, the aspiration of young manhood beginning to burn in his eye. Is that perfection? Yes, in condition, in possibilities, but not in development. The perfection of consummation will only come with the years, and the burden, and passion, and testing fire; and yet there is a perfection all the way through.

I turn to Philippians, and in Paul’s great autobiographical chapter I read: “Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect’; and within a very few sentences he says: “Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect.” What does he mean? In one sentence he says that he is not perfect, and in another he says, in effect, that he is perfect. It is the difference between the perfection of consummation and the perfection of condition. I am not yet perfected. I have not yet obtained, not yet apprehended, not yet reached the goal. The final crown is not yet upon my brow. The last glory has not yet dawned upon my soul. And yet I am perfect in my attitude, in my running in the heavenward trend of my affections and will. “One thing I do — I press toward the goal.” So when I go back to the garden, and look at the bud, it says to me, I have not yet attained, but one thing I do — I press on. I come to the blossom, and it says to me, I have not yet apprehended that which I signify, and toward which I live. One thing I do, forgetting the limited perfection of the bud, I press in throbbing life toward the ultimate fruitage. In that one thing with all its underlying meaning, is the health of the bud and blossom.

And so we cannot have the perfection of consummation. We cannot yet apprehend all that is ours in Jesus Christ, but we can be holy. We can in our own spiritual life be all that is possible to us at the moment. Growth there must be, development there will be, and it may be a long, rough journey before we reach the mountain height, and know what perfection means. We shall never know the perfection of consummation until the second advent. Then, and not till then, will He “fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.” That is the perfection of consummation, but, here and now, you and I can have the perfection of condition, of spiritual health, of holiness.

If this be true, what is the power for holiness? How can I be holy, healthy, in my spiritual life? The answer is that holiness consists, as to dynamic, in the life which I receive in my new birth. If I will answer that life, and will let that life have its way, it will maintain itself in health. Real life never needs the administration of anything from without save proper food, and proper air, and proper exercise. Anything that quickens life unnaturally, leaves it more lifeless presently. The man who takes into the fibre of his physical life, alcohol, pure oxygen, or anything else to artificially quicken, kills while he does it. So with the spiritual life. If you have been born again, you have received life with all the potentialities of holy living. Answer its call. Let us state that principle in another way. There is a great word in that same Philippian epistle, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” What an endless pity it is that we so often quote that text, and leave it there. That is the ethic without the dynamic. This is what the apostle wrote: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.” What is that life that came to you when you yielded yourself to Christ? The life of God. You were made partaker of the Divine nature. In that moment, by processes that we cannot finally explain, when you obeyed the call of the Spirit by yielding yourself to Christ, the Spirit communicated to you the life of God. Answer it, let it dominate; do not check it, curtail it, stifle it. God is working in you, and, mark the words, He works in you “to will and to work,” to create desire, and to supply energy which turns desire into realisation and achievement. “It is God which worketh in you.” I wish I could put this truth as I feel it. Holiness does not depend upon your effort at all. Holiness simply depends upon your abandoning yourself to the indwelling Spirit of God, that He may maintain in health the life which He has Himself communicated. The power for holiness is not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. The way in which man can live the Christ-life in health and strength, and ever-increasing strength, is simply that of answering the call of the life within him.

It is true there are responsibilities. What are they? Briefly stated they include — First, a renunciation of all things 6f which the life of God disapproves; second, an abandonment of the whole being to God, that He may possess the territory, and realise it according to His will, and for His glory; third, the maintaining of simple quiet trust in Him, which expresses itself in obedience and patient waiting for His guidance.

First, the renunciation of all things which the life of God in the soul condemns. What are these things? I cannot answer that question for another man. It is quite possible for the Christian teacher to indicate the principles by which we may know these things, but the things themselves ought never to be named by one man to another. The things which hinder the life of God in me may not hinder it in you; and the things which hinder the life of God in you may not hinder it in me.

I cannot better declare the principles than by reminding you of the very clear definitions of sin which the New Testament gives. ‘Sin is lawlessness,” or, taking a section of the great meaning as it is in the Authorised Version, “Sin is transgression of the law.” Then if a man would answer the life of God within himself, he must resolutely put out of his life the things he knows to be wrong. I cannot live the holy life, I cannot be healthy spiritually, if I am giving shelter in my life, in its habits, in its thinking, in the chamber of the imagination, in the palace of affection, to things I know to be wrong. I must put such things outside.

The second definition of sin is that of James. “To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” That is a littler subtler than the other, a little more searching. The first declares that to do wrong, the second, that to neglect to do right, is sin. I venture to give an illustration of this principle — James’s own illustration — and I take it because I am perfectly sure it is not at alla popular one to-day. “Ye say, To-day, or to-morrow we will go into this city and spend a year there and trade, and get gain... ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that... to him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” According to James, the Christian man ought not only to say in his heart, “If the Lord will’ with regard to his plans, but also with his lips. I know this is an age when such an expression as “God willing’ sounds like cant. James says, Wear the label of your loyalty. Use the speech of your surrender. Say, “if the Lord will,’ as well as mean it. If you know you ought to do this, and neglect it, that is sin. I cannot live the holy life if I am neglecting at any point something that in my inner heart I know I ought to be doing. Once again, take Paul’s definition, which is more searching still. It gets a little deeper, yet is more comforting and helpful than the others.

“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” “He that’ doubteth is condemned.’ Then the man of faith must do nothing upon the basis of doubt. So long as I am doing anything, either that which seems to be right, or that which seems to be wrong, wondering whether I ought to do so, I am sinning. I know that cuts two ways, and it is wonderfully helpful if we can only get hold of it. I am constantly being asked, Do you think I ought to go to the theatre? I will give the answer here which I would give in private: Ask your Master, do not ask me. Propound your question in the presence of Calvary. Look into the very face of the One you call Lord and King, and say, Jesus, may I go to the theatre? Remember, however, that the fact that you are in doubt shows that you ought not to go. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” You may take that principle and apply it in another way. For instance, a young man comes to me, and says, I am not at all sure, but I have a sort of idea I ought to enter the Christian ministry. What shall I say to him? I say, For God’s sake, and the sake of humanity, keep out! No man who only thinks, and is not sure, should enter the Christian ministry. As long as you are in doubt, stay where you are. This is a principle that works all through. If the life of God is to be maintained in the soul in strength, there must be renunciation, the wrong thing must be put out of the life at all costs. The neglect of right must be remedied. I must do the thing I know I ought to do, even though it means tramping a thorny path with blood tracks all the way. The doubtful thing that I have played with, and wondered about, must be cut off, however wrong, or however right it may seem. I must live upon the principle of simple faith in my Lord and Master, with immediate and ready answer to every demand of His gracious will.

I believe these to be the only conditions of holiness, Let me fulfil them, and let me by such fulfilment honestly hand over my life to His control, and by such fulfilment demonstrate my perfect confidence in Him, and He will perfect that which concerneth me. He will maintain this weak soul of mine in spiritual health, in holiness, in perfection of condition. That is not the last thing. It is the first thing. Holiness is not finality. It is the first condition for development toward finality. Everything is yet to come of growth, advancement, realisation. We pause here. “Be ye holy” is God’s call. Say no longer that you cannot be holy. Say, rather, that in the power of His life you can. May God help us to such an attitude,