Holiness in not sinlessness, it is to the spiritual nature what health is to the physical life. In other words, G.o.d desires that we should be spiritually healthy, and this we cannot be with secret sins in our lives.
Second: It is his desire that we should be sanctified. 1 Thessalonians 4:3, "For this is the will of G.o.d, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication."
Sanctification is not sinlessness, it is separation. It is absolutely useless to think of pleasing G.o.d if we are in touch with the world in any way, for since the days of the crucifixion it has been against him.
Third: It is his desire that we should present ourselves unto him in the sense above suggested--namely, that we should take our hands off from ourselves and allow him to direct and to control his own possession. Romans 12:1-2, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of G.o.d, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto G.o.d, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of G.o.d." Romans 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto G.o.d, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto G.o.d." In these expressions the tense of the verb indicates that the action is to be definite and that it is to be once and for all. He has certain desires for us also expressed in the seventeenth chapter of John.
First: He desires that we should have joy. Joy is better than happiness; happiness depends upon our surroundings and circ.u.mstances, joy has nothing to do with these but rather is the result of centering our affections upon him.
Second: He desires that we should be one with him. By this I am sure he means that we should be one in our thought of sin, one in our desire for holiness, one in our efforts to reach the unsaved, and one in our longing in all things to be pure and true and good.
Third: He desires to make us the object of his love. In this seventeenth chapter of John he tells us that the same love which he had for his son he has for those of us who are in his Son. Thank G.o.d for this. If he must open the windows of heaven to speak forth his love for that Son and then has the same for us, oh, what joy it is to be a Christian!