Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is HolyMurray, Andrew
Religion
Holy in Christ: Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy
Murray, Andrew
Holiness
In this faith, that it is possible to know and do the will of God in all
things, take over from Him, in whom alone you are holy, as your
life-principle; 'I come to do Thy will, O God.' It is the principle of
the resurrection life: without it Jesus had never been raised again. It
is the principle of the new life in you. Accept it; study it; realize
it; act it out. Many a believer has found that some simple words of
dedication, expressive of the purpose in everything to do God's will,
have been an entrance into the joy and power of the resurrection life
previously unknown. The will of God is the complete expression of His
moral perfection, His Divine Holiness. To take one's place in the centre
of that will, to live it out, to be borne and sustained by it, was the
power of that life of Jesus that could not be held of death, that could
not but burst out in resurrection glory. What it was to Jesus it will be
to us.
Holiness is Life: this is the simplest expression of the truth our text
teaches. There can be no holiness until there be a new life implanted.
The new life cannot grow and break forth in resurrection power, cannot
bring forth fruit, but as it grows in holiness. As long as the believer
is living the mixed life, part in the flesh and part in the spirit, with
some of self and some of Christ, he seeks in vain for holiness. It is
the New Life that is the holy life: the full apprehension of it in
faith, the full surrender to it in conduct, will be the highway of
holiness. Jesus lived and died and rose again to prepare for us a new
nature, to be received day by day in the obedience of faith: we 'have
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness.' Let the inner life, hid with Christ in God, hid also
deep in the recesses of our inmost being, be acknowledged, be waited on,
be yielded to, it will work itself out in all the beauties of holiness.
There is more. This life is not like the life of nature, a blind,
non-conscious principle, involuntarily working out its ideal in
unresisting obedience to the law of its being. There is the Spirit of
the life in Christ Jesus--the Spirit of holiness--the Holy Spirit
dwelling in us as a Divine Person, entering into fellowship with us, and
leading us into the fellowship of the Living Christ. It is this fills
our life with hope and joy. The Risen Saviour breathed the Holy Spirit
on His disciples: the Spirit brings the Risen One into the field, into
our hearts, as a personal friend, as a Living Guide and Strengthener.
The Spirit of holiness is the Spirit, the Presence, and the Power of the
Living Christ. Jesus said of the Spirit, 'Ye know Him.' Is not our great
need to know this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, of His Holiness and
of ours? How can we 'walk after the Spirit' and follow His leading, if
we know not Him and His voice and His way?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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