Today God has been teaching me about the holiness and redemption of God, in a way that I have never understood before.
In
redemption we see God sending Jesus to save us “from” our sin, but we
must remember he saved us “unto” Himself. Meaning, it wasn’t just a
“get out of hell” free card, but more of a “hiring” into the pursuit of
holiness that God is, has, and desires for us to be completed in.
It’s
important to understand that as Jesus saved us from hell, he redeemed
us back towards heaven. So, in this we accept grace, unmerited favor
and choice, that God so loved us that He chose us, FOR the purpose of
being made perfect and whole before him on that day when Jesus returns.
Here
we have truth: that God in his sovereign will and love, chose and
redeemed us. The key is our response and engagement in this truth. If
we don’t recognize, acknowledge, and respond to this truth, the truth
has no power in our lives. Now, that doesn’t make the truth less
powerful, it just personally has no affect on the person.
Andrew Murray says it this way in his book “The Path to Holiness” page 44 “God
has made us His own, and allows us to say that we are His, but He waits
for us to yield to him and enlarged entrance into the secret place of
our inner being so that He can fill us with His fullness. Holiness is
not something we bring to God or do for Him. Holiness is what there is
of God in us. God made us His own in redemption that He might make
himself our own in sanctification. Our work in becoming holy is the
bringing our whole life, every part of it, into subjection to the rule
of our holy God, putting every member and every power upon His alter.”
He later goes into talking about truth and recognizing it subjectively. “What
God sanctifies is holy with a divine and perfect holiness as His gift.
Man has to sanctify himself by acknowledging this and then maintaining
and carrying out that holiness in relation to all his life before God
and man. God sanctified the Sabbath day. Man has to sanctify it by
keeping it holy. God sanctified the firstborn of His own; Israel had
sanctify them by giving them over to God. God is holy. We are to
sanctify Him by acknowledging and adorning and honoring that holiness.
God has sanctified His great name; His name is Holy. We sanctify or
hallow that name as we fear and trust and use it as the revelation of
His Holiness”
So, here we read words of man’s response to God’s holiness: “Yield
to him”, “the secret places of our inner being”, “bringing our whole
life, every part of it, INTO SUBJECTION to the rule of our holy God;
putting every member upon his alter”, “acknowledging this”,
“maintaining”, “carrying out that holiness IN RELATION to all his life
before God and man.” "Man has to sanctify it by keeping it holy." and so
on...
It is only with the help from the
Holy Spirit that we can “respond” and fully live into holiness. As much
as it is our own pursuits and responsibilities, the Holy Spirit gives
us the wisdom, knowledge, discipline and will to surrender our lives
before the holiness of God. Recognizing and adoring Gods full holiness
is key to responding.
If we really don’t believe in faith God in His full truth and holiness, nothing else really holds power in our lives.
Let
us pray that we will pursue with joy, obedience and discipline the Holy
Spirit as it teaches us the pure and true Holiness of God. In this,
let us respond to our redemption in Jesus, with a subjective right view
of God and his desire to acknowledge him as Holy One. In our
responsibility and putting off of all areas of our lives to His control,
we become sanctified before Him, which is what our whole redemption
story is all about, and what God meant for His people in the redemption
of them to Himself through His son Jesus!
May our prayers be of “humble
adoration….hungry for wisdom and truth, praying for complete surrender
of all areas of our life. To desire to be refined in our inner souls,
made whole and prepared as the bride awaits the groom. A mere desire to
be righteous and holy, redeemed and new. Amen.”
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