Chapter 112—To Make Us Holy
Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
Leviticus 19:2
.
Holiness is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is
living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the
will of our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as
in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God with
unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them.... Education, culture, the
exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here they
are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behaviour, but
they cannot change the heart; they cannot purify the springs of life. There
must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men
can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone
can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.
No man receives holiness as a birthright, or as a gift from any other
human being. Holiness is the gift of God through Christ. Those who receive
the Saviour become sons of God. They are His spiritual children, born again,
renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Their minds are changed. With
clearer vision they behold eternal realities. They are adopted into God’s
family, and they become conformed to His likeness, changed by His Spirit
from glory to glory. From cherishing supreme love for self, they come
to cherish supreme love for God and for Christ.... Accepting Christ as a
personal Saviour, and following His example of self-denial—this is the secret
of holiness.
Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press forward in the
heavenward way. Let us neglect no opportunity that, if improved, will
make us more useful in God’s service. Then like threads of gold, holiness
will run through our lives, and the angels, beholding our consecration, will
repeat the promise, “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even
a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (
Isaiah 13:12
). All heaven rejoices
when weak, faulty human beings give themselves to Jesus, to live His life.
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