Holiness
It is to a new life that God is calling us; not to some new steps in life, some new habits or ways or motives or
prospects, but to a new life .
For the production of this new life the eternal Son of God took flesh, died, was buried, and rose again. It was not life
producing life, a lower life rising into a higher, but life rooting itself in its opposite, life wrought out of death, by the death
of “the Prince of life.” Of the new creation, as of the old, He is the author.
For the working out of this the Holy Spirit came down in power, entering men's souls and dwelling there, that out of
the old He might bring forth the new.
That which God calls new must be so indeed. For the Bible means what it says, as being, of all books, not only the
most true in thought, but the most accurate in speech. Great then and authentic must be that “new thing in the earth”
which God “creates,” to which He calls us, and which He brings about by such stupendous means and at such a cost. Most
hateful also must that old life of ours be to Him, when, in order to abolish it, He delivers up His Son; and most dear must
we be in His sight when, in order to rescue us from the old life, and make us partakers of the new, He brings forth all the
divine resources of love and power and wisdom, to meet the exigencies of a case which would otherwise have been
wholly desperate.
The man from whom the old life has gone out, and into whom the new life has come, is still the same individual. The
same being that was once “under law” is now “under grace.” His features and limbs are still the same; his intellect,
imagination, capacities, and responsibilities are still the same. But yet old things have passed away; all things have
become new. The old man is slain; the new man lives. It is not merely the old life retouched and made more comely,
defects struck out, roughnesses smoothed down, graces stuck on here and there. It is not a broken column repaired, a
soiled picture cleaned, a defaced inscription filled up, an unswept temple whitewashed. It is more than all this, else God
would not call it a new creation, nor would the Lord have affirmed with such awful explicitness, as He does in His
conference with Nicodemus, the divine law of exclusion from and entrance into the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Yet how
few in our day believe that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John
3:6).
Hear how God speaks! He calls us “newborn babes” (1 Pet 2:2), “new creatures” (Gal 6:15), a “new lump” (1 Cor
5:9), a “new man” (Eph 2:15), doers of a “a new commandment” (1 John 2:8), heirs of “a new name” and a new city (Rev
2:17; 3:12), expectants of “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13). This new being, having begun in a new birth,
unfolds itself in “newness of spirit” (Rom 7:6), according to a “new covenant” (Heb 8:8), walks along a “new and living
way” (Heb 10:20), and ends in the “new song” and the “new Jerusalem” (Rev 5:9; 21:2).
It is no outer thing, made up of showy moralities and benevolences, or picturesque rites and graceful routine of
devotion, or sentimentalisms bright or somber, or religious utterances on fit occasions, as to the grandeur of antiquity, or
sacramental grace, or the greatness of creaturehood, or the nobleness of humanity, or the universal fatherhood of God. It is
something deeper, and truer, and more genial, than that which is called deep, and true, and genial in modern religious
philosophy. Its affinities are with the things above; its sympathies are divine; it sides with God in everything; it has
nothing, beyond a few expressions, in common with the superficialities and falsehoods which, under the name of religion,
are current among multitudes who call Christ “Lord” and “Master.”
A Christian is one who has been “crucified with Christ,” who has died with Him, been buried with Him, risen with
Him, ascended with Him, and is seated “in heavenly places” with Him (Rom 6:3-8; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:5,6; Col 3:1-3). As
such he reckons himself dead unto sin, but alive unto God (Rom 6:11). H. Bonar
prospects, but to a new life .
For the production of this new life the eternal Son of God took flesh, died, was buried, and rose again. It was not life
producing life, a lower life rising into a higher, but life rooting itself in its opposite, life wrought out of death, by the death
of “the Prince of life.” Of the new creation, as of the old, He is the author.
For the working out of this the Holy Spirit came down in power, entering men's souls and dwelling there, that out of
the old He might bring forth the new.
That which God calls new must be so indeed. For the Bible means what it says, as being, of all books, not only the
most true in thought, but the most accurate in speech. Great then and authentic must be that “new thing in the earth”
which God “creates,” to which He calls us, and which He brings about by such stupendous means and at such a cost. Most
hateful also must that old life of ours be to Him, when, in order to abolish it, He delivers up His Son; and most dear must
we be in His sight when, in order to rescue us from the old life, and make us partakers of the new, He brings forth all the
divine resources of love and power and wisdom, to meet the exigencies of a case which would otherwise have been
wholly desperate.
The man from whom the old life has gone out, and into whom the new life has come, is still the same individual. The
same being that was once “under law” is now “under grace.” His features and limbs are still the same; his intellect,
imagination, capacities, and responsibilities are still the same. But yet old things have passed away; all things have
become new. The old man is slain; the new man lives. It is not merely the old life retouched and made more comely,
defects struck out, roughnesses smoothed down, graces stuck on here and there. It is not a broken column repaired, a
soiled picture cleaned, a defaced inscription filled up, an unswept temple whitewashed. It is more than all this, else God
would not call it a new creation, nor would the Lord have affirmed with such awful explicitness, as He does in His
conference with Nicodemus, the divine law of exclusion from and entrance into the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Yet how
few in our day believe that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John
3:6).
Hear how God speaks! He calls us “newborn babes” (1 Pet 2:2), “new creatures” (Gal 6:15), a “new lump” (1 Cor
5:9), a “new man” (Eph 2:15), doers of a “a new commandment” (1 John 2:8), heirs of “a new name” and a new city (Rev
2:17; 3:12), expectants of “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Pet 3:13). This new being, having begun in a new birth,
unfolds itself in “newness of spirit” (Rom 7:6), according to a “new covenant” (Heb 8:8), walks along a “new and living
way” (Heb 10:20), and ends in the “new song” and the “new Jerusalem” (Rev 5:9; 21:2).
It is no outer thing, made up of showy moralities and benevolences, or picturesque rites and graceful routine of
devotion, or sentimentalisms bright or somber, or religious utterances on fit occasions, as to the grandeur of antiquity, or
sacramental grace, or the greatness of creaturehood, or the nobleness of humanity, or the universal fatherhood of God. It is
something deeper, and truer, and more genial, than that which is called deep, and true, and genial in modern religious
philosophy. Its affinities are with the things above; its sympathies are divine; it sides with God in everything; it has
nothing, beyond a few expressions, in common with the superficialities and falsehoods which, under the name of religion,
are current among multitudes who call Christ “Lord” and “Master.”
A Christian is one who has been “crucified with Christ,” who has died with Him, been buried with Him, risen with
Him, ascended with Him, and is seated “in heavenly places” with Him (Rom 6:3-8; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:5,6; Col 3:1-3). As
such he reckons himself dead unto sin, but alive unto God (Rom 6:11). H. Bonar
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