Holy in Christ

Part 1

Produced by Free Elf, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

HOLY IN CHRIST:

Thoughts on the Calling of God's Children to be Holy as He is Holy.

BY REV. ANDREW MURRAY,

AUTHOR OF 'ABIDE IN CHRIST,' 'LIKE CHRIST,' ETC.

'I am holy: ye shall be holy.'

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY, CHICAGO, NEW YORK, TORONTO, Publishers of Evangelical Literature.

PREFACE.

There is not in Scripture a word more distinctly Divine in its origin and meaning than the word holy. There is not a word that leads us higher into the mystery of Deity, nor deeper into the privilege and the blessedness of God's children. And yet it is a word that many a Christian has never studied or understood.

There are not a few who can praise God that during the past twenty years the watchword BE HOLY has been taken up in many a church and Christian circle with greater earnestness than before. In books and magazines, in conventions and conferences, in the testimonies and the lives of believers, we have abundant tokens that what is called the Holiness-movement is a reality.

And yet how much is still wanting! What multitudes of believing Christians there are who have none but the very vaguest thoughts of what holiness is! And of those who are seeking after it how many who have hardly learnt what it is to come to God's Word and to God Himself for the teaching that can alone reveal this part of the mystery of Christ and of God! To many, holiness has simply been a general expression for the Christian life in its more earnest form, without much thought of what the term really means.

In writing this little book, my object has been to discover in what sense God uses the word, that so it may mean to us what it means to Him. I have sought to trace the word through some of the most important passages of Holy Scripture where it occurs, there to learn what God's holiness is, what ours is to be, and what the way by which we attain it. I have been specially anxious to point out how many and various the elements are that go to make up true holiness as the Divine expression of the Christian life in all its fulness and perfection. I have at the same time striven continually to keep in mind the wonderful unity and simplicity there is in it, as centred in the person of Jesus. As I proceeded in my work, I felt ever more deeply how high the task was I had undertaken in offering to guide others even into the outer courts of the Holy Place of the Most High. And yet the very difficulty of the task convinced me of how needful it was.

I fear there are some to whom the book may be a disappointment. They have heard that the entrance to the life of holiness is often but a step. They have heard of or seen believers who could tell of the blessed change that has come over their lives since they found the wonderful secret of holiness by faith. And now they are seeking for this secret. They cannot understand that the secret comes to those who seek it not, but only seek Jesus. They might fain have a book in which all they need to know of Holiness and the way to it is gathered into a few simple lessons, easy to learn, to remember, and to practise. This they will not find. There is such a thing as a Pentecost still to the disciples of Jesus; but it comes to him who has forsaken all to follow Jesus only, and in following fully has allowed the Master to reprove and instruct him. There are often very blessed revelations of Christ, as a Saviour from sin, both in the secret chamber and in the meetings of the saints; but these are given to those for whom they have been prepared, and who have been prepared to receive. Let all learn to trust in Jesus, and rejoice in Him, even though their experience be not what they would wish. He will make us holy. But whether we have entered the blessed life of faith in Jesus as our sanctification, or are still longing for it from afar, we all need one thing, the simple, believing, and obedient acceptance of each word that our God has spoken. It has been my earnest desire that I might be a helper of the faith of my brethren in seeking to trace with them the wondrous revelation of God's Holiness through the ages as recorded in His blessed Word. It has been my continual prayer that God might use what is written to increase in His children the conviction that we must be holy, the knowledge of how we are to be holy, the joy that we may be holy, the faith that we can be holy. And may He stir us all to cry day and night to Him for a visitation of the Spirit and the Power of Holiness upon all His people, that the name of Christian and of saint may be synonymous, and every believer be a vessel made holy and meet for the Master's use.

A. M.

Wellington, 16th November 1887.

CONTENTS.

DAY PAGE 1. God's Call to Holiness--1 Pet. i. 15, 16, 11

2. God's Provision for Holiness--1 Cor. i. 2, 19

3. Holiness and Creation--Gen. ii. 3, 28

4. Holiness and Revelation--Ex. iii. 4-6, 36

5. Holiness and Redemption--Ex. xiii. 2, 46

6. Holiness and Glory--Ex. xv. 11-17, 55

7. Holiness and Obedience--Ex. xix. 5, 6, 64

8. Holiness and Indwelling--Ex. xxv. 8, 73

9. Holiness and Meditation--Ex. xxviii. 36-38, 81

10. Holiness and Separation--Lev. xx. 24, 26, 89

11. The Holy One of Israel--Lev. xi. 45, 98

12. The Thrice Holy One--Isa. vi. 1-3, 107

Part 2

13. Holiness and Humility--Isa. lvii. 15, 117

14. The Holy One of God--John vi. 69, 125

15. The Holy Spirit--John vii. 39, 133

16. Holiness and Truth--John xvii. 17, 142

17. Holiness and Crucifixion--John xvii. 19, 150

18. Holiness and Faith--Acts xxvi. 18, 158

19. Holiness and Resurrection--Rom. i. 4, 167

20. Holiness and Liberty--Rom. vi. 18-22, 175

21. Holiness and Happiness--Rom. xiv. 17, 184

22. In Christ our Sanctification--1 Cor. i. 30, 31, 192

23. Holiness and the Body--1 Cor. iii. 16, 201

24. Holiness and Cleansing--2 Cor. vii. 1, 210

25. Holiness and Blamelessness--1 Thess. iii. 12, 13, 219

26. Holiness and the Will of God--1 Thess. iv. 3, 227

27. Holiness and Service--2 Tim. ii. 21, 235

28. The Way into the Holiest--Heb. x. 19, 243

29. Holiness and Chastisement--Heb. xii. 10, 14, 253

30. The Unction from the Holy One--1 John ii. 20, 27, 262

31. Holiness and Heaven--2 Pet. iii. 11, 271

Notes, 281

First Day.

HOLY IN CHRIST.

God's Call to Holiness.

'Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.'--1 Pet. i. 15, 16.

The call of God is the manifestation in time of the purpose of eternity: 'Whom He predestinated, them He also called.' Believers are 'the called according to His purpose.' In His call He reveals to us what His thoughts and His will concerning us are, and what the life to which He invites us. In His call He makes clear to us what the hope of our calling is; as we spiritually apprehend and enter into this, our life on earth will be the reflection of His purpose in eternity.

Holy Scripture uses more than one word to indicate the object or aim of our calling, but none more frequently than what Peter speaks of here--God has called us to be holy as He is holy. Paul addresses believers twice as 'called to be holy' (Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2). 'God called us', he says, 'not for uncleanness, but in sanctification' (1 Thess. iv. 7). When he writes, 'The God of peace sanctify you wholly,' he adds, 'Faithful is He which calleth you, who also will do it' (1 Thess. v. 24). The calling itself is spoken of as 'a holy calling.' The eternal purpose of which the calling is the outcome, is continually also connected with holiness as its aim. 'He hath chosen us in Him, that we should be holy and without blame' (Eph. i. 4). 'Whom God chose from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification' (2 Thess. ii. 12). 'Elect according to the foreknowledge of the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit' (1 Pet. i. 2). The call is the unveiling of the purpose that the Father from eternity had set His heart upon: that we should be holy.

It needs no proof that it is of infinite importance to know aright what God has called us to. A misunderstanding here may have fatal results. You may have heard that God calls you to salvation or to happiness, to receive pardon or to obtain heaven, and never noticed that all these were subordinate. It was to 'salvation in sanctification,' it was to Holiness in the first place, as the element in which salvation and heaven are to be found. The complaints of many Christians as to lack of joy and strength, as to failure and want of growth, are simply owing to this--the place God gave Holiness in His call they have not given it in their response. God and they have never yet come to an agreement on this.

Continue reading Holy in Christ free in the Wunder reader →