3. Let every worker take time to hear G.o.d"s double call. If you would work, be very holy. If you would be holy, give yourself to G.o.d to use in His work.
4. Note the connection between "sanctified" and "meet for _the Master"s use_." True holiness is being possessed of G.o.d; true service being used of G.o.d. How much service there is in which we are the chief agents, and ask G.o.d to help and to bless us.
True service is being yielded up to the Master _for Him to use_. Then the Holy Ghost is the Agent, and we are the Instruments of His will. Such service is Holiness.
5. "I sanctify _Myself_, that _they also_:" a reference to others is the root principle of all true holiness.
Twenty-eighth Day.
HOLY IN CHRIST.
The Way into the Holiest.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into _the Holiest_ by _the blood_ of Jesus, by _the way_ which He dedicated, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh: and having a _great Priest_ over the house of G.o.d; let us draw near with a true heart, in fulness of faith."--Heb. x. 19-22.
When the High Priest once a year entered into the second tabernacle within the veil, it was, we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "the Holy Ghost signifying that the way into _the Holiest of all_ was not yet made manifest." When Christ died, the veil was rent; all who were serving in the holy place had free access at once into the Most Holy; the way into the Holiest of all was opened up. When the Epistle pa.s.ses over to its practical application (x. 19), all its teaching is summed up in the words: "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into _the Holiest_, let us draw near." Christ"s redemption has opened the way to the Holiest of all: our acceptance of it must lead to nothing less than our drawing near and entering in. The words of our text suggest to us four very precious thoughts in regard to the place of access, the right of access, the way of access, the power of access.
_The place of access._ Whither are we invited to draw nigh? "Having boldness to enter into _the Holiest_." The priests in Israel might enter the holy place, but were always kept excluded from the Holiest, G.o.d"s immediate presence. The rent veil proclaimed liberty of access into that Presence. It is there that believers as a royal priesthood are now to live and walk. Within the veil, in the very Holiest of all, in the same place, the heavenlies, in which G.o.d dwells, in G.o.d"s very Presence, is to be our abode--our home. Some speak as if the, "Let us draw near,"
meant prayer, and that in our special approach to G.o.d in acts of worship we enter the Holiest. No; great as this privilege is, G.o.d has meant something for us infinitely greater. We are to draw near, and dwell always, to live our life and do our work within the sphere, the atmosphere, of the inner sanctuary. It is G.o.d"s Presence makes holy ground; G.o.d"s immediate Presence in Christ makes any place the Holiest of all: and this is it into which we are to draw nigh, and in which we are to abide. There is not a single moment of the day, there is not a circ.u.mstance or surrounding, in which the believer may not be kept dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. As by faith he enters into the completeness of his reconciliation with G.o.d, and the reality of his oneness with Christ, as he thus, abiding in Christ, yields to the Holy Spirit to reveal within the Presence of the Holy One, the Holiest of all is around him, he is indeed in it. With an uninterrupted access he draws near.[13]
_The right of access._ The thought comes up, and the question is asked: Is this not simply an ideal? can it be a reality, an experience in daily life to those who know how sinful their nature is? Blessed be G.o.d! it is meant to be. It is possible, because our right of access rests not in what we are, but in the blood of Jesus. "Having _boldness_ to enter into the Holiest _by the blood_ of Jesus, let us draw near." In the Pa.s.sover we saw how redemption, and the holiness it aimed at, were dependent on the blood. In the sanctuary, G.o.d"s dwelling, we know how in each part, the court, the holy place, the Most Holy, the sprinkling of blood was what alone secured access to G.o.d. And now that the blood of Jesus has been shed--oh! in what Divine power, what intense reality, what everlasting efficacy, we now have access into the Holiest of all, the Most Holy of G.o.d"s heart and His love! We are indeed brought nigh by the blood. We have boldness to enter by the blood. "The worshippers, being once cleansed, have no more conscience of sins." Walking in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses in the power of an endless life, with a cleansing that never ceases. No consciousness of unworthiness or remaining sinfulness need hinder the boldness of access: the liberty to draw near rests in the never-failing, ever-acting, ever-living efficacy of the Precious Blood. It is possible for a believer to dwell in the Holiest of all.
_The way of access._ It is often thought that what is said of _the new and living way_, dedicated for us by Jesus, means nothing different from the boldness through His blood. This is not the case. The words mean a great deal more. "Having boldness _by the blood_ of Jesus, let us draw near _by the way_ which He dedicated for us." That is, He opened for us a way to walk in, as He walked in it, "a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh." The way in which Christ walked when He gave His blood, is the very same in which we must walk too. That way is the way of the Cross. There must not only be faith in Christ"s sacrifice, but fellowship with Him in it. That way led to the rending of the veil of the flesh, and so through the rent veil of the flesh, in to G.o.d. And was the veil of Christ"s holy flesh rent that the veil of our sinful flesh might be spared? Verily, no. He meant us to walk in the very same way in which He did, following closely after Himself. He dedicated for us a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh. As we go in through the rent veil of _His flesh_, we find in it at once the need and the power for our flesh being rent too: following Jesus ever means conformity to Jesus. It is Jesus with the rent flesh, in whom we are, in whom we walk.[14] There is no way to G.o.d but through the rending of the flesh. In acceptance of Christ"s life and death by faith as the power that works in us, in the power of the Spirit which makes us truly one with Christ, we all follow Christ as He pa.s.ses on through the rent veil, that is, His flesh, and become partakers with Him of His crucifixion and death. The way of the cross, "by which I have been crucified," is the way through the rent veil. Man"s destiny, fellowship with G.o.d in the power of the Holy Spirit, is only reached through the sacrifice of the flesh.
And here we find now the solution of a great mystery--why so many Christians remain standing afar off, and never enter this Holiest of all; why the holiness of G.o.d"s Presence is so little seen on them. They thought that it was only in Christ that the flesh needed to be rent, not in themselves. They thought that the liberty they had in the blood was the new and living way. They knew not that the way into true and full holiness, into the Holiest of all, that the full entrance into the fellowship of the holiness of the Great High Priest, was only to be reached through the rent veil of the flesh, through conformity to the death of Jesus. This is in very deed the way He dedicated for us. He is Himself the way; into His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, His crucifixion, He takes up all who long to be holy with His Holiness, holy as He is holy.
_The power of access._ Does any one shrink back from entering the very Holiest for fear of this rending of the flesh, because he doubts whether he could bear it, whether he could indeed walk in such a path? Let him listen once more. Hear what follows: "And _having a Great Priest_ over the House of G.o.d, let us draw near." We have not only the Holiest of all inviting us, and the blood giving us boldness, and the way through the rent veil consecrated for us, but the Great Priest over the House of G.o.d, the Blessed Living Saviour, to draw, to help, and to welcome us. He is our Aaron. On His heart we see our name, because He only lives to think of us, and pray for us. On His forehead we see G.o.d"s name, "Holy to the Lord," because in His Holiness the sins of our holy things are covered. _In Him_ we are accepted and sanctified; G.o.d receives us as holy ones. In the power of His love and His Spirit, in the power of Him the Holy One, in the joy of drawing nearer to Him and being drawn by Him, we gladly accept the way He has dedicated, and walk in His holy footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice. We see how the flesh is the thick veil that separates from the Holy One who is a Spirit, and it becomes an unceasing and most fervent prayer, that the crucifixion of the flesh may, in the power of the Holy Spirit, be in us a blessed reality. With the glory of the Holiest of all shining out on us through the opened veil, and the Precious Blood speaking so loudly of boldness of access, and the Great Priest beckoning us with His loving Presence to draw near and be blessed,--with all this, we dare no longer fear, but choose the way of the rent veil as the path we love to tread, and give ourselves to enter in and dwell within the veil, in the very Holiest of all.
And so our life here will be the earnest of the glory that is to come, as it is written--note how we have the four great thoughts of our text over again--"These are they which came out of great tribulation," that is, by the way of the rent flesh; "and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," their boldness through the blood; "therefore are they before the throne of G.o.d," their dwelling in the Holiest of all; "the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall be their Shepherd," the Great Priest still the Shepherd, Jesus Himself their all in all.
Brother! do you see what holiness is, and how it is to be found? It is not something wrought in yourself. It is not something put on you from without. Holiness is the Presence of G.o.d resting on you. Holiness comes as you consciously abide in that Presence, doing all your work, and living all your life as a sacrifice to Him, acceptable through Jesus Christ, sanctified by the Holy Ghost. Oh, be no longer fearful, as if this life were not for you! Look to Jesus; having a Great Priest over the House of G.o.d, let us draw near. Be occupied with Jesus. Our Brother has charge of the Temple; He has liberty to show us all, to lead us into the secret of the Father"s presence. The entire management of the Temple has been given into His hands with this very purpose, that all the feeble and doubting ones might come with confidence. Only trust yourself to Jesus, to His leading and keeping. Only trust Jesus, G.o.d"s Holy One, your Holy One; it is His delight to reveal to you what He has purchased with His blood. Trust Him to teach you the ordinances of the sanctuary.
"That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the House of G.o.d," He has been given. _Having a Great Priest_, let us enter in, let us dwell in the Holiest of all. In the power of the blood, in the power of the new and living way, in the power of the Living Jesus, let the Holiest of all, the Presence of G.o.d, be the home of our soul. You are "Holy in Christ;" in Christ you are in G.o.d"s Holy Presence and Love; just stay there.
BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.
Most Holy G.o.d! how shall I praise Thee for the liberty to enter into the Holiest of all, and dwell there? And for the precious Blood, that brings us nigh? And for the new and living way, through the rent veil of that flesh which had separated us from Thee, in which my flesh now too has been crucified? And for the Great Priest over the House of G.o.d, our Living Lord Jesus, with Whom and in Whom we appear before Thee? Glory be to Thy Holy Name for this wonderful and most complete redemption.
I beseech Thee, O my G.o.d! give me, and all Thy children, some right sense of how really and surely we may live each day, may spend our whole life, within the veil, in Thine own Immediate Presence. Give us the spirit of revelation, I pray Thee, that we may see how, through the rent veil, the glory of Thy Presence streameth forth from the Most Holy into the holy place; how, in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven came to earth, and all who yield themselves to that Spirit may know that in Christ they are indeed so near, so very near to Thee.
O Blessed Father! let Thy Spirit teach us that this indeed is the holy life: a life in Christ the Holy One, always in the Light and the Presence of Thy Holy Majesty.
Most Holy G.o.d! I draw nigh. In the power of the Holy Spirit I enter in.
I am now in the Holiest of all. And here I would abide in Jesus, my Great Priest--here, in the Holiest of all. Amen.
1. To abide in Christ is to dwell in the Holiest of all. Christ is not only the Sacrifice, and the Way, and the Great Priest, but also Himself the Temple. "The Lamb is the Temple." As the Holy Spirit reveals my union to Christ more clearly, and heart and will lose themselves in Him, I dwell in the Holy Presence, which is the Holiest of all. You are "holy in Christ"--draw near, enter in with boldness, and take possession--have no home but in the Holiest of all.
2. "Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify it." _He gave Himself!_ Have you caught the force of that word? Because He would have no one else do it, because none could do it; to sanctify His Church, _He gave Himself_ to do it. And so it is His own special beloved work to sanctify the Church He loved. Just accept Himself to do it. He can and will make you holy, that He may present you to _Himself_ glorious, without spot or wrinkle. Let that word _Himself_ live in you. The whole life and walk in the House of G.o.d is in His charge. _Having_ a Great Priest, let us draw near.
3. This entrance into the Holiest of all--an ever fresh and ever deeper entrance--is, at the same time, an ever blessed resting in the Father"s Presence. Faith in the blood, following in the way of the rent flesh, and fellowship with the Living Jesus, are the three chief steps.
4. Enter into the Holiest of all, and dwell there. It will enter into thee, and transform thee, and dwell in thee. And thy heart will be the Holiest of all, in which He dwells.
5. Have we not at times been lifted, by an effort of thought and will, or in the fellowship of the saints, into what seemed the Holiest of all, and speedily felt that the flesh had entered there too? It was because we entered not by the new way of life--the way through death to life--the way of the rent veil of the flesh. O our crucified Lord! teach us what this means; give it us; be it Thyself to us.
6. Let me remember that my access into the Holiest is as a Priest.
Let me dwell before the Lord all the day as an Intercessor, offering, unceasingly, pleadings which are acceptable in Christ. May G.o.d"s Church be like her of whom it is written, "She departed not from the temple, but served G.o.d with fastings and prayers night and day." It is for this we have access to the Holiest of all.
[13] So near, so very near to G.o.d, I cannot nearer be; For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.
[14] "Christ suffered, that He might bring us to G.o.d, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the Spirit." "Forasmuch then as Christ suffered in the flesh, arm ye yourselves also with the same mind." The flesh and the Spirit are antagonistic: as the flesh dies, the Spirit lives.
Twenty-ninth Day.
HOLY IN CHRIST.
Holiness and Chastis.e.m.e.nt.
"He chasteneth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of _His holiness_. Follow after _sanctification_, without which no man shall see the Lord."--Heb. xii. 10, 14.
There is perhaps no part of G.o.d"s word which sheds such Divine light upon suffering as the Epistle to the Hebrews. It does this because it teaches us what suffering was to the Son of G.o.d. It perfected His humanity. It so fitted Him for His work as the Compa.s.sionate High Priest. It proved that He, who had fulfilled G.o.d"s will in suffering obedience, was indeed worthy to be its executor in glory, and to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. "It became G.o.d, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation _perfect_ through _sufferings_." "Though He was a Son, yet _learned_ He _obedience_ by the things which He _suffered_, and having been made _perfect_, became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him." As He said Himself of His suffering, "I sanctify myself," so we see here that His sufferings were indeed to Him the pathway to perfection and holiness.
What Christ was and won was all for us. The power which suffering was proved to have in Him to work out perfection, the power which He imparted to it in sanctifying Himself through suffering, is the power of the new life that comes from Him to us. In the light of His example we can see, in the faith of His power we too can prove, that suffering is to G.o.d"s child the token of the Father"s love, and the channel of His richest blessing. To such faith the apparent mystery of suffering is seen to be nothing but a Divine need--the light affliction that works out--yea, _works out_ and actually effects the exceeding weight of glory. We agree not only to what is written, "It _became_ Him to make the Author of salvation perfect through suffering," but understand somewhat how Divinely becoming and meet it is that we too should be sanctified by suffering.
"He chasteneth us for our profit, that we should be made partakers of His holiness." Of all the precious words Holy Scripture has for the sorrowful, there is hardly one that leads us more directly and more deeply into the fulness of blessing that suffering is meant to bring. It is _His Holiness_, G.o.d"s own Holiness, we are to be made partakers of.
The Epistle had spoken very clearly of our sanctification from its Divine side, as wrought out for us, and to be wrought in us, by Jesus Himself. "He which sanctifieth and they which are sanctified are all of one." "We have been sanctified by the one offering of Christ." In our text we have the other side, the progressive work by which we are personally to accept and voluntarily to appropriate this Divine Holiness. In view of all there is in us that is at variance with G.o.d"s will, and that must be discovered and broken down, before we understand what it is to give up our will and delight in G.o.d"s; in view of the personal fellowship of suffering which alone can lead to the full appreciation of what Jesus bore and did for us; in view, too, of the full personal entrance into and satisfaction with the love of G.o.d as our sufficient portion; chastis.e.m.e.nt and suffering are indispensable elements in G.o.d"s work of making holy. In these three aspects we shall see how what the Son needed is what we need, how what was of such unspeakable value to the Son will to us be no less rich in blessing.
_Chastis.e.m.e.nt leads to the acceptance of G.o.d"s will._ We have seen how G.o.d"s will is our sanctification; how it is in the will of G.o.d Christ has sanctified us; yea more, how He found the power to sanctify us in sanctifying Himself by the entire surrender of His will to G.o.d. His "I delight to do Thy will" derived its worth from His continual "Not my will." And wherever G.o.d comes with chastis.e.m.e.nt or suffering, the very first object He has in view is, to ask and to work in us union with His own blessed will, that through it we may have union with Himself and His love. He comes in some one single point in which His will crosses our most cherished affection or desire, and asks the surrender of what we will to what He wills. When this is done willingly and lovingly, He leads the soul on to see how the claim for the sacrifice in the individual matter is the a.s.sertion of a principle--that in everything His will is to be our one desire. Happy the soul to whom affliction is not a series of single acts of conflict and submission to single acts of His will, but an entrance into the school where we prove and approve all the good and perfect and acceptable will of G.o.d.
It has sometimes appeared, even to G.o.d"s children, as if affliction were not a blessing: it so rouses the evil nature, and calls forth all the opposition of the heart against G.o.d"s will, that it has brought the loss of the peace and the piety that once appeared to reign. Even in such cases it is working out G.o.d"s purpose. "That He might humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart," is still His object in leading into the wilderness. To an extent we are not aware of, our religion is often selfish and superficial: when we accept the teaching of chastis.e.m.e.nt in discovering the self-will and love of the world which still prevails, we have learnt one of its first and most needful lessons.
This lesson has special difficulty when the trial does not come direct from G.o.d, but through men or circ.u.mstances. In looking at second causes, and in seeking for their removal, in the feeling of indignation or of grief, we often entirely forget to see G.o.d"s will in everything His Providence allows. As long as we do so, the chastis.e.m.e.nt is fruitless; and perhaps only hardens the more. If, in our study of the pathway of Holiness, there has been awakened in us the desire to accept and adore, and stand complete in, _all the will_ of G.o.d, let us in the very first place seek to recognise that will in everything that comes on us. The sin of him who vexes us is not G.o.d"s will. But it is G.o.d"s will that we should be in that position of difficulty to be tried and tested.
Let our first thought be: this position of difficulty is my Father"s will for me: I accept that will as my place now where He sees it fit to try me. Such acceptance of the trial is the way to turn it into blessing. It will lead on to an ever clearer abiding in all the will of G.o.d all the day.
_Chastis.e.m.e.nt leads to the fellowship of G.o.d"s Son._ The will of G.o.d out of Christ is a law we cannot fulfil. The will of G.o.d in Christ is a life that fills us. He came in the name of our fallen humanity, and accepted all G.o.d"s will as it rested on us, both in the demands of the law, and in the consequences which sin had brought upon man. He gave Himself entirely to G.o.d"s will, whatever it cost Him. And so He paved for us a way through suffering, not only through it in the sense of past it and out of it, but by means and in virtue of it, into the love and glory of the Father. And it is in the power which Christ gives in fellowship with Himself that we too can love the way of the Cross, as the best and most blessed way to the Crown. Scripture says that the will of G.o.d is our sanctification, and also that Christ is our Sanctification. It is only in Christ that we have the power to love and rejoice in the will of G.o.d. In Him we have the power. He became our Sanctification once for all by delighting to do that will; He becomes our Sanctification in personal experience, by teaching us to delight to do it. He learned to do it; He could not become perfect in doing it otherwise than by suffering. In suffering He draws nigh; He makes our suffering the fellowship of His suffering; and in it makes Himself, who was perfected through suffering, our Sanctification.
O ye suffering ones! all ye whom the Father is chastening! come and see Jesus suffering, giving up His will, being made perfect, sanctifying Himself. _His suffering is the secret of His Holiness, of His Glory, of His Life._ Will you not thank G.o.d for anything that can admit you into the nearer fellowship of your blessed Lord? Shall we not accept every trial, great or small, as the call of His love to be one with Himself in living only for G.o.d"s will. This is Holiness, to be one with Jesus as He does the will of G.o.d, to abide in Jesus who was made perfect through suffering.