HOLINESS DEFINED

We have always to advance to things we do not know in terms of the things we do know. For that reason spiritual truths have usually to be illustrated by natural things. This was the approach Jesus made when He called the change wrought by the Holy Spirit in making a saint of a sinner being "born again," and the approach He made by the use of parables.

What is holiness? Well, holiness is that state of heart which results from being sanctified wholly by the power of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is the crisis; holiness is the result following the crisis. Such a state is that of moral purity. The will is completely adjusted to the will of God and the affections are purified, alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love for God. It is not a negative state, implied simply by freedom from sin; it is also a positive condition in which the heart is filled with the perfect love of God, which enables one to love God with all his heart and his neighbor as himself.

Holiness and health come from the same root word in the Anglo-Saxon. That is, holiness is soul health. Holiness is to the soul what health is to the body. Health is that state of the body in which there is freedom from disease and in which there is general and complete soundness of organs and tissues. It is not easy to describe the symptoms of health. Perhaps it is best to think of it as the state in which one is enabled to live from day to day without pain or tormenting weariness and with a minimum of thought and care concerning himself. And holiness is like that to the soul. Sin is abnormal, like disease in the body. It is likened to a thorn in the side or to a broken foot. It brings uneasiness and strain and burden. Holiness removes the thorn, cures the broken foot, and makes the Christian life a joy.

Holiness is the standard of God's Word for all, regardless of what one may profess in the way of personal grace or attainment. So the profession of holiness does not make a new standard; it just enables one to live up to the standard he has always tried as a Christian to reach. It differs from the life of a justified Christian in that it possesses inner power to walk before God in holiness and righteousness. It does not increase the burdens of the Christian life, but does increase the power of the Christian experience. This is why Dr. Rinehart, pressed for a statement as to what sanctification is, replied, "It is regeneration made easy."

Holiness is not an abnormal attainment. It is the normal state in which man was originally created. Sin is inherent in man since the fall of Adam, but holiness was the image man originally wore, and it is the state in which man reaches his real end. That picture that shows a holy man as wearing long hair, enduring some sort of voluntary punishment, holding himself entirely apart from others, straining to reach a goal of character that is always beyond him, following a course at variance to his inner impulses and desires, and purchasing merit by his denial of the things he desires, is a false picture--a caricature of the holy, happy, victorious Christian which God designs to be the pattern saint. With the desire for sin entirely eradicated, the sanctified Christian has come to the place where he can do what he desires and yet do what God requires, for his will and affections are adjusted and purified and his inner life and outer life are balanced and he is happy in the will of God.

In giving personal testimony it is always best to use forms that exalt Christ and not ourselves. The vast majority of intelligent people are offended if anyone says, "I am sanctified," or, "I am holy." This sounds like holiness is an accomplishment bringing merit to the possessor. The proper form is, "God has graciously sanctified me," or, "The abiding Holy Spirit keeps my heart clean from sin." Here the emphasis is on the divine grace, where it actually belongs. Sin differs greatly in its manifestation. So there are Pharisees and publicans in the same community. But where the manifestation is in a form of pride or in self-abandonment to evil, the fact remains that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," and that whatever there is that is good in any, it is all of grace and not of us. John Fletcher used to say, "I nothing have and nothing am; my glory's in the bleeding Lamb, both now and evermore."

Pride is a fruit of sin; holiness brings humility. Those who think we must have some sin in us to keep us humble are entirely mistaken in their judgment of the nature of sin. The quintessence of sin is selfishness and pride. This pride may show itself in a brazen abandon that looks like the opposite of itself, but the fact still remains that it is the heart that lifts itself up in opposition to God that dares to choose a course in any way contrary to that chosen by the Lord in His infinite goodness and wisdom. Everyone who refuses to take God's way in the fullest degree must base his choice upon doubt of either the goodness or the wisdom of God.

Surely no one can answer the following question in any but the affirmative: Is God able to save us from all outward and inner sin? Then there is one more question that is not so simply answered, "Why does God not save me from all outward and inner sin and make me free and holy just now?" But the answer to this is, after all, not so far to seek. God is able and willing to save from all sin. If therefore He does not so save me it is only because I do not this moment submit myself to the divine processes according to the conditions laid down in the Bible. The responsibility for any sin that may yet remain in me is my own responsibility. Christ is able and willing today.