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
The threefold repetition of the HOLY has at all times by the Church of
Christ been connected with the Holy Trinity. The song of the living
creatures around the throne (Rev. iv.) is evidence of the truth of this
thought. We there find it followed by the adoration of Him who was, and
is, and is to come, the Almighty: the Eternal Source, the present
manifestation in the Son, the future perfecting of the revelation of God
in the Spirit's work in His Church. The truth of the Holy Trinity is
often regarded as an abstract doctrine, with little direct bearing on
practical life. So far is this from being the case, that a living faith
must root in it: some spiritual insight into the relation and the
operation of each of the Three, and the reality of their living Oneness,
is an essential element of true growth in knowledge and spiritual
understanding.[6] Let us here regard the Trinity specially in its
relation to God's Holiness and as the source of ours. What does it mean
that we adore the Thrice Holy One? God is not only holy, but makes holy:
in the revelation of the Three Persons we have the revelation of the way
in which God makes holy.
The Trinity teaches us that God has revealed Himself in two ways. The
Son is _the Form of God_, His manifestation as He shows Himself to man,
the Image in which His unseen glory is embodied, and to which man is to
be conformed. The Spirit is _the Power of God_, working in man, and
leading him up to that Image. In Jesus, He who had been in the form of
God took the form of man; and the Divine Holiness was literally
manifested in the form of a human life and the members of a human body.
A new holy human nature was formed in Christ, to be communicated to us.
In His death His own personal holiness was perfected as human obedience,
and so the power of sin conquered and broken. Therefore in the
resurrection, through the Spirit of Holiness, He was declared to be the
Son of God with power to impart His life to us. There the Spirit of
Holiness was set free from the veil of the flesh, the trammels that
hindered it, and obtained power to enter and dwell in man. The Holy
Spirit was poured out as the fruit of Resurrection and Ascension. And
the Spirit is now the Power of God in us, working upwards towards
Christ, to reproduce His life and Holiness in us, to fit us for fully
receiving and showing forth Him in our lives. Christ from above comes to
us as the embodiment of the Unseen Holiness of God: the Spirit from
within lifts us up to meet Him, and fits us to receive and make our own
all that is in Him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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