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
There are two Greek words, signifying nearly the same, used frequently
along with the word holy, and following it, to express what the result and
effect of holiness will be as manifested in the visible life. The one is
translated without blemish, spotless, and is that also used of our Lord
and His sacrifice, the Lamb without blemish (Heb. ix. 14; 1 Pet. i. 19).
It is then used of God's children with holy--holy and without blemish
(Eph. i. 4, 5, 27; Col. i. 22; Phil. ii. 15; Jude 24; 2 Pet. iii. 14). The
other is without blame, faultless (as in Luke i. 6; Phil ii. 15, iii. 6),
and is also found in conjunction with holy (1 Thess. ii. 10, iii. 13, v.
23). In answer to the question as to whether this blamelessness has
reference to God's estimate of the saints or men's, Scripture clearly
connects it with both. In some passages (Eph. i. 4, v. 27; Col. i. 22;
1 Thess. iii. 15; 2 Pet. iii. 14) the words 'before Him,' 'to Himself,'
'before our God and Father,' indicate that the first thought is of the
spotlessness and faultlessness in the presence of a Holy God, which is
held out to us as His purpose and our privilege. In others (such as Phil.
ii. 15; 1 Thess. ii. 10), the blamelessness in the sight of men stands in
the foreground. In each case the word may be considered to include both
aspects: without blemish and without blame must stand the double test of
the judgment of God and man too.
And what is now the special lesson which this linking together of these
two words in Scripture, and the exposition of holy by the addition of
blameless, is meant to teach us? A lesson of deep importance. In the
pursuit of holiness, the believer, the more clearly he realizes what a
deep spiritual blessing it is, to be found only in separation from the
world, and direct fellowship with God, to be possessed fully only
through a real Divine indwelling, may be in danger of looking too
exclusively to the Divine side of the blessing, in its heavenly and
supernatural aspect. He may forget how repentance and obedience, as the
path leading up to holiness, must cover every, even the minutest detail
of daily life. He may not understand how faithfulness to the leadings
of the Spirit, in such measure as we have Him already, faithfulness to
His faintest whisper in reference to ordinary conduct, is essential to
all fuller experience of His power and work as the Spirit of holiness.
He may, above all, not have learnt how, not only obedience to what he
knows to be God's will, but a very tender and willing teachableness to
receive all that the Spirit has to show him of his imperfections and the
Father's perfect will concerning him, is the only condition on which the
Holiness of God can be more fully revealed to us and in us. And so,
while most intent on trying to discover the secret of true and full
holiness from the Divine side, he may be tolerating faults which all
around him can notice, or remaining,--and that not without sin, because
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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