We may well ask whether the subject of scriptural holiness occupies its due place in the minds of many of us, for we often are satisfied with too low a standard of walk and conduct. Having received the forgiveness of sins, we rest in the assurance that we are safe from God’s judgment. Consequently, we are governed, more or less, by worldly principles; we think little of daily failures and aim at little more than maintaining outward consistency and a good report among fellow-Christians. The possibility of unclouded communion with God and daily victory over sin does not have its right place in our souls. Yet it is evident from many scriptures that no lower standard than this ought ever to be accepted. Paul, for example, says to the Corinthians, “Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). Peter says, “As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16). John says, “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:66And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. (John 2:6)). Thus Paul, Peter and John unite in their testimony that God has called us to holiness and to growing in a holy walk during our sojourn in the wilderness.
Sinlessness and Holiness
What then is scriptural holiness? It is not merely to be kept from falling into sin. There may not have been the committing of any known sin, but we cannot judge our own state and condition. When we read that the thought of foolishness is sin, it would be a bold man indeed who would venture to affirm that he had passed (say) a week without sinning. But we go further and say that absolute sinlessness, if such a state were possible, is not holiness as presented in the Scriptures.
What then is it? God’s standard of holiness is Christ — Christ as He is now glorified at God’s right hand. From Ephesians 1 we learn that God chose believers in Christ before the foundation of the world that they should be holy and without blame before Him in love (vs. 4). From Romans 8, we learn that He has predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son. The first scripture goes on in its full import to our glorified condition, while the second shows that this condition is one of entire conformity to Christ glorified, and that He, therefore, is the revelation of God’s thoughts of holiness. The Lord Himself says in John 17, “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (vs. 19). This means that the Lord was about to set Himself apart at God’s right hand and that, as glorified there, He would be the model to whom His disciples should be conformed by the truth of what He was in that new condition. Clearly Christ, as He now is, is the standard of the believer’s purification.
Practical Sanctification
There should constantly be with the believer growing conformity to Christ — increasing practical sanctification, or holiness, every day. We must carefully consider the term “practical sanctification,” because there is a sanctification which belongs to every believer, and in virtue of which we all, without distinction, are called saints. Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians, “Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11), and to the Thessalonians, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thess. 2:13). This sanctification refers to the setting apart for God of everyone in whom the Spirit has wrought in the new birth. Everyone who is born of God is thus sanctified. This belongs to the Christian position and is in no way connected with holiness of walk, although the latter should flow out of the former.
Attaining Practical Holiness
Having called attention to this distinction, we may consider the means of attaining such practical holiness. There are two aspects of the question —overcoming temptation, and positive growth in likeness to Christ. Let us first consider victory over sin. In Romans 6 we read, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin [sin in its totality] might be destroyed [or annulled as to its claims], that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed [justified] from sin” (vss. 67). Most precious truth lies in this short statement. God has dealt with what we are as children of Adam at the cross; the flesh, the nature that produced the sins, came up there before the eye of God and passed forever out of His sight under judgment. Now God sees His people as having died with Christ (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20); Col. 3:33For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)). Faith now receives God’s thoughts, and the believer sees himself as dead —dead in Christ’s death. Sin (indwelling sin) cannot have any claims upon a dead man.
Overcoming Temptation
The walk now is, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; the things of the Spirit occupy the new mind; the state is no longer characterized by the flesh but by the Spirit, for the Spirit of God dwells in the delivered soul. If, moreover, Christ is in the believer, the body is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness; also there is the assurance that even his mortal body will be quickened, because he has dwelling in him the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead. The delivered soul will at once enter upon a path of liberty and power. The character of his liberty will be liberty from self and liberty before God, and this known in ever-increasing measure as he learns more of the fullness of the grace which has been displayed in redemption. The power will flow from the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit, a power sufficient to resist and overcome all the incitements of the flesh. Thus the Apostle can say, “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:1313For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)).
Conformity to Christ
Having now dwelt upon the means of victory over sin, we may consider, second, how we may grow in conformity to Christ and make advances in practical holiness. There are two scriptures which will explain this. One is John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19), and the other is 2 Corinthians 3:18. The former has already been mentioned and explains how that, when the Lord spoke of sanctifying Himself, He referred to His being glorified as man at God’s right hand, and that He presents Himself there as the model to whom we are to be conformed. When He speaks of our being sanctified by the truth, He teaches that we shall be brought into moral likeness to Him by the application to our souls of the truth of what He is as glorified; that is, that the revelation to us of what He is, in all His perfections as glorified, will have the effect of producing in us by degrees moral correspondence with Himself. It is, in fact, only another aspect of what is found in the second passage.
The face of our blessed Lord is, in His glorified condition, unveiled. The glory displayed in His face proclaims that His work on the cross has been accomplished to the eternal satisfaction of God. The Lord’s glory is thus the witness to God’s own estimate of His finished work. This explains how the believer can “behold” the Lord’s glory, unveiled as it is, without fear. He sees in every ray of Christ’s glory the declaration that God reposes with infinite satisfaction in the One who glorified Him on the earth and finished the work which He had given Him to do. More than this, Christ as glorified at the right hand of God is the expression of the purpose of God for His people. Every believer is to be conformed to the image of His Son. Adam and his race have been forever set aside, and Christ who is the beginning, as the man of God’s counsels, is in His glorified state the divine pattern after which God is now working. “As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:48-49).
Growth in Likeness to Christ
This brings us to our last point in this connection, which is, that our growth in likeness to Christ, while down here, our increase in practical holiness, is the fruit of being constantly occupied with and meditating on our blessed Lord’s glory. This statement is borne out by the language of our scripture. It says, “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Three things are here given. First, that it is by beholding that we are changed; second, that the change is gradually effected; and third, that the Spirit is the power by which the transformation is accomplished.
Here then is the means of all attainment in holiness. But one may ask, “How, or where, can we behold the glory of the Lord?” Let it then be plainly stated that His glory, which He now possesses as the glorified Man, is revealed to us in the written Word. As we read of it there, trace it out and contemplate it, the Holy Spirit silently but actively works within us and fashions us morally after His likeness. All the perfections of Christ (for these constitute His glory)—His grace, His love, His holiness, His truth, His tenderness — and everything that belongs to His glorified condition are displayed before our eyes in the sacred record, and as we meditate upon Him we are changed into the same image, but gradually, for it says, “From glory to glory.”
Through the Heart
Another thing should be added. It is everywhere taught in the Word that it is to the heart (and conscience) the Lord communicates Himself. It is through the heart we apprehend by the Spirit divine things. He who loves most will therefore learn most, and in the pursuit after holiness, the spiritual affections must be cultivated. There is nothing that so nourishes the hearts of God’s people as the consideration of our blessed Lord in His pathway through this world. To behold Him in all His meekness and lowliness, coupled with His entire devotedness to the glory of God, cannot but touch the renewed heart and call forth emotions of gratitude and love to Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. With these emotions in our souls, our gaze is drawn upward to Him where He is, and beholding His present glory we rejoice, and we adore as we remind ourselves that the One who is now glorified is the same Jesus who down here learned obedience by the things which He suffered. In this way that condition of soul is produced in which the Spirit of God can most effectually work for our transformation. We will be found judging ourselves and everything around us by the light of what He is. We will thus grow in holiness unceasingly, and the measure of our attainment will be the measure of our conformity to His likeness.
E. Dennett, adapted