Communicable Holiness

Inherent in the self-revelation of a holy God there is the glorious fact that His holiness is communicable. The idea of holiness combines the two conditions of separateness and communion. While it is true that God is the Alone Holy and that His holiness is the ground of His separateness from the universe, constituting Him a light that is in-approachable, yet His holiness must not be conceived of as mere exclusiveness. The creatures nearest to God cry: "Holy, Holy, Holy", both in adoring contemplation and in blessed participation. The Thrice Holy One, in virtue of His very nature is a Holy Fellowship, or a Fellowship of Holiness. A Tri-personal God in His essential life is a God in relationship, a God in self-revelation and self-communication. While this must be essentially and eternally true of interrelations within the Blessed Trinity, it has pleased God in His personal relations with His creatures to communicate His holiness. "I am holy" is the Divine self-assertion, lifting Him immeasurably above His creation; "be ye also holy" is the Divine self-communication that brings His creatures into His communion to become - to use the Biblical expression - "partakers of His holiness" (Hebrews xii. 10). It is this imparting of His holiness alone that makes His creatures holy. The character of holiness never rests on a natural quality. Nothing created is itself holy. The holiness of the creature goes back to an act of the Divine will, the Divine election, and the Divine calling. It is a state in which the creature is bound to God by the appointment of God Himself.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
Read more
  Severance from Christ is death   to the Church. A Christless Church is a headless trunk. We may retain the doctrine and ethic of the New Testament, but, nevertheless, amputation of the Head means death. Even a partial severance of connection involves paraylsis - loss of spiritual power and loss of spiritual feeling. II.  INTERNALLY, THE CHURCH IS THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. It is filled with Christ. He is not only the Head above it; he is the life within it. He does not only teach, bless, command, and lead from without; he inspires his people and lives in his Church. Christ fills " all  in all;"  i.e.  the Spirit that was in Jesus of Nazareth is in the whole universe, inspiring all creation and all providence with wisdom and goodness, purity and grace. The same Spirit is in the Church. As yet, unhappily, the Church is not filled with Christ. Though Christ is received into the heart of Christians, every door within is not yet flung open to the gracious Guest. But in the perfect
Read more

Church discipline

Once from the pulpit, at an ordination of elders, the late Rev. M. M'Cheyne made the following declaration. "When I first entered upon the work of the ministry among you, I was exceedingly ignorant of the vast importance of church discipline. I thought that my great, and almost only, work was to pray and preach. I saw your souls to be so precious, and the time so short, that I devoted all my time and care and strength to labour in word and doctrine. When cases of discipline were brought before me and the elders, I regarded them with something like abhorrence. It was a duty I shrank from; and I may truly say it nearly drove me from the work of the ministry among you altogether. But it pleased God, who teaches His servants in another way than man teaches, to bless some of the cases of discipline to the manifest and undeniable conversion of the souls of those under our care; and from that hour a new light broke in upon my mind, and I saw that if preaching be an ordinance of Chri
Read more