Mary, at the grave on that notable morning of the resurrection, and John, in his epistle to the saints, had such a conscious closeness of the Lord's presence that they did not even name Him, Christ of God. It was He alone, as if there were nobody else to speak of. "When He shall appear, we shall be like Him.”
In John 17:19, how precious to find, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified [set apart for God] through the truth." What a wonderful thought! How our souls should pause and in solemn, silent meditation in His presence ask ourselves how much we each one individually understand and realize this wondrous fact.
In James 4:8 it was needful to warn the saints, for the spiritual condition of the saints had become so corrupted: "Purify your hearts, ye double-minded." It is the moral power of purifying our souls in His presence for His glory. God's standard of holiness is the state and measure in which Christ is, in all His perfect purity in glory. He never knew anything else but companionship with God, except when sin was imputed to Him on the cross. It was His voluntary act to bring guilty man's case into God's presence and settle it by laying down His own life's blood. But in the believer's walk, God sets forth a glorified Christ as His standard of purity and we are to purify ourselves even as He is pure.
What a wonderful thought—a man on earth and a man in glory—Christ Jesus, and to know ourselves united with Him! Knowing ourselves united with Him is effective in producing practical holiness.