“Laid on Thine Altar, 0 my Lord Divine,
Accept this gift today, for Jesus’ sake.
I have no jewels to adorn Thy shrine,
Nor any world-famed sacrifice to make;
But here I bring, within my trembling hand,
This will of mine – a thing that seemeth small;
And Thou alone, 0 Lord, canst understand
How, when I yield Thee this, I yield mine all.”

A high accomplishment of religious life and experience is to become intensely aware of the holiness of God. This great fact – God’s absolute holiness – is the essence of all revealed truth, in that it takes us behind all that God does in order to show us what He is. Behind the whole structure of the Divine Plan of Redemption is the character of God who framed it. If His redemptive plan manifests unfathomable love, it is because that love existed before the plan was made. If we talk of Bethlehem, Calvary, Olivet – the miraculous birth of a babe, the death of a man, the resurrection of the Son of God making salvation possible for all – then back of all that preparation we must see the yearning heart of one who, for a time, had lost possession of his earthly sons. If, looking down the years, we see a righteous world where no ill deed is done, and man is free from sin, then behind the whole design we must allow for the one who hated sin before that sin began.

Behind all precious doctrine and redemptive work, behind each type and shadow, behind the whole Gospel story, stands the identity of one who is greater than His works. From His own great heart the love-stream flowed; from His white-hot soul the sin-hatred sprang; and from His unfaltering will, the drive and power of accomplishment came forth. Effects spring only from adequate causes. Redemption and restoration must have a redeemer and restorer, and though others may be chosen to help reach those effects, He only is the First Great Cause.

Behind all truth, behind all development of this or that to serve His ends, stands God Most High: a God of love and pity, compassionate, merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, yet not overlooking sin. If love of man is found in men, it is because it first was found in Him. If love of truth is found in man, again it first was found in Him. From His unsullied fullness sprang all that He has done. He does because of what He is. Because He is today all that He ever was, His purposes remain unchanged. Because eternal years to come will find Him still as He now is, the utmost bounds of time will find no variation in His ways.

Today, as yesterday, and throughout everlasting years, His integrity remains the same because His native holiness knows no change. His glorious plans, made sure by promise, arid precious blood, and “Oath” upon His own great name, assure both heaven and earth that He will uproot sin, and uplift man, till naught of Adamic or Satanic taint remain: till man, and angel too, shall savor of that holy state so like His own.

No student of God’s word can feel surprise that He who dwelt with the eternal God before the round of time began should here on earth, in time, teach mortal man as the first burden of his prayer to say “Our Father … hallowed be Thy name.” Through ages too profound to calculate, the worthy Son, as Logos of His worthy Sire, held in reverent esteem that holy name, and times unnumbered he led the undefiled in heaven to sing its worthy praise, and echo forth “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord” – a song which some day will rise from every tongue.

Come down to this sad earth, the sweetest hours which blessed his lonely life were those in which memory sped back to those far days before the world was made, when, dwelling in the presence of the eternal God, he was always God’s delight. The memory of that holiness in his hour of need, when he walked mid sin and death, kept him, as a needle to the pole, at rest and peace, and faithful unto death. When humble earthly fishermen, desiring to know God, requested to be taught, the theme that rose from his own soul was given as pattern for their prayers. “Our Father … hallowed be Thy name.”

In his touching farewell prayer, though heavy sorrow filled his soul, the same great theme engrossed his mind. When placing his little band for their safe-keeping within his Father’s care, he prayed “Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me” (John 17:11). No thought of nearing death could banish from his mind the “Holy Father” and the “Holy Name.” By precept and example then, before his chosen few, the Son of Man who came from heaven held up on earth that Holy Name as worthy of all praise and adoration, because it was the name of Him who in Himself was holy beyond compare.

How extremely poor are illustrations and words to show to us mere men the incalculable heights of worthiness and excellence which natively reside in God. High as the highest heaven above the spheres of earth, so stands God’s moral worth above the worth of worthiest man. No single thought, word, or act, from the far depths of everlasting years ever can know taint or flaw. No tongue of man or angel will ever need to utter accusation against the holy name, when once He deigns to show Himself such as He truly is. No truce with sin, nor irresolution to root it out will ever be charged against the holy one of Israel.

The sacred writer said “God is Light.” How wonderful, and yet how inadequate is light to illustrate that greater “light.” Far back along the stream of time when chaos and unending darkness reigned, and light was not, the “eternal light” dwelt in His abode, sent forth His brooding power, and drew the beams of light out of the womb of black eternal night. Greater far that “holy light” than summer’s noon-day hour!

The Scriptures say He is “of purer eyes” than to behold approvingly the sins of men. But how insufficient are those mere words to tell of that undefinable purity which neither friend nor foe can taint. If whiteness be the token of inward purity then God’s native holiness shall out-white the winter’s virgin snow. If the white-hot glow is needed to consume the dross in order that the pure red gold may be set free, then God’s fiery jealousy against sin is a flame intenser by far. Brighter than equatorial sun, purer than polar virgin snow, hotter than the any flame, is divine jealousy for the right, good, and true, and its zeal against sin, wrong, and evil in every form.

There it must be left. Our world contains no parallel to the exceeding intensity of the holiness of God. Our language has no words – not Shakespeare’s facile pen nor Milton’s glowing tongue – to paint the holy fire which dwells eternal in the heart of God. And here our quandary begins.

All students of the holy book admit the holiness of God. But none admit the holiness of man. How then can we be as He? If God is holy beyond compare, how can we attain to holiness like Him? What do these words of Peter mean, “Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16)? Back somewhere in an earlier day the inspired pen-man recorded these few words, and Peter takes them up to sharpen his appeal to win brethren to a purer life.

But can disciples live a holy life? Is it not presumptuous to speak of holiness and saintliness while here on earth? Are we not of sinful stock, and tainted by the fall? Do we not oft do things we ought not, and leave undone those we should do? Can we claim, even in our best moments, to be free from sin? Nay indeed!

But before the query arises the answer comes! Scripture describes brethren as holy (Romans 12:1, Hebrews 3:1) and often calls them saints (Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:1, etc.)! In what way then can sin and holiness accord?, for “there is none righteous” (Romans 3:10). Are holiness and righteousness the same quality of heart? Holiness is generally understood to mean freedom from sin, “an absolute purity of heart.” But so is righteousness; that is, when speaking other than of righteousness by faith. Wherein comes the difference then?

Righteousness is a forensic term. It indicates a state or condition in harmonious conformity with a law. It is a “law” term, and as such applies to the equitable action, the righteous balance or the just measure, in men’s inter-dealings with each other. A transaction is accounted righteous or unrighteous according to its conformity or non-conformity to a code of laws. These standards vary in different communities, hence an action may be lawful (legally correct) among one people, but unlawful in another. An action may be considered right (righteous) in one community but condemned in all the rest. Herein lies much of the basic cause for the world’s present distress.

Connected with the things of God and God’s dealings with men, the divine code of laws determines what is right and what is wrong. Here the standard of righteousness is absolute, the same for every land and every man. It applies to angels too, it embraces heaven and earth. Not even God is exempt from its claims (John 17:25). Righteousness (in the absolute) is a state in which full compliance with divine law exists. Such compliance denotes a state of legal sinlessness. Sin is equivalent to unrighteousness – “missing of the mark” – non-compliance with law’s demands. Sin and unrighteousness are thus synonymous. Righteousness is the legal opposite condition to both sin and unrighteousness.

Holiness applies to the moral aspect of an act. It describes the moral quality of a man whose action is determined as righteous. Lack of holiness, before an act, predisposes one to perform an unrighteous act. Holiness is thus the moral opposite of sin. Lack of holiness implies taint in the man, just as unrighteousness implies taint in the act. Holiness implies that man is wholesome in himself, exactly as righteousness implies that the action is wholesome in itself. Holiness is thus the basic moral quality within the man. Righteousness is the outworking of that inner quality in conduct to the accepted standard of law.

Our Holy Creator cares for our eternal blessing.

Holiness applies to what one is (“the holy one of Israel”) – righteousness to what one does (“Thy righteous acts are made manifest,” Revelation 15:4).

In God we have Holiness in what He is – but we also see it applied to an end, to rid the world of sin. The holiness of God’s inner self desires the holiness of His whole environment. In God’s divine plan His intrinsic holiness expresses itself by reproducing a similar intrinsic holiness (the same in kind though in less degree) in a race of men who had been once defiled by sin. God sets Himself before men as the pattern for them to imitate. He desires to produce in them the same high qualities of heart which dwell so richly in Himself – to see men love their fellows, and dwell at peace, each with his kin, and all to be at one with God.

God longs for man to reach an untainted state within in order that he may perform untainted works without. Thus, to renew righteousness in the earth God will act upon the human heart, enabling man to create a new environment. From the inner to the outer; from the centre to the circumference, from the heart to the hand; such is God’s order in the uplift out of sin. To make man’s life sound without, God will first make it sound within.

TODAY

So where do we stand today? In this world of sin and sorrow how can we become like Him? It is not nature’s gift to any man to be a saint, it is the work of Grace. We need to learn, patient and slow, how best to copy God, and then, to stand the strain. God must give Grace to help, and eyes to see, and meanwhile hold us in His hand; then by slow degrees the lesson will be learned, and we shall come to see God more lovely than all the sons of men.

The dark forbidding cloud that hides Him from men’s view will open up its folds and we shall pass within the veil of mysteries and see things there which human eye has never seen, nor mortal ear has heard, nor heart of man conceived. In there, like Moses on the mountain’s crest, God’s glory falling upon our hearts will change them day by day, until the holy supersedes the vile, and we become like Him.

– Bible Students Committee, Assoc. Bible Students, England, 1940

 

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