Goodness, innocence, purity, freedom from sin, is not holiness; even before the fall human nature was not holy. Goodness is an attribute of Nature, as God creates it: holiness is something infinitely higher. Holiness is a moral attribute; in short, it is what a free will chooses and determines for itself. The human nature which God created and gave is only naturally good, but what man wills to have of God and of his will, and really appropriates, that has moral worth and leads to holiness.

We speak of the Holiness of God as his infinite moral perfection; man's moral perfection can only come in the use of his will, consenting fully and abiding in the will of God. Thus alone can he become holy. To be holy is to be Godlike; to have a disposition, a will, a character, like God. Holiness is not something we do or achieve: it is the communication of the Divine life. Where God is, there is holiness. It is the presence of God which makes holy.

Note how it was that the nearer the Presence, the greater the degree of holiness. Because God dwelt among Israel, the camp was holy; all uncleanness was to be removed from it. But the holiness of the Court of the Tabernacle was greater: uncleanness which did not exclude from the camp would not be tolerated there. Then the Holy Place was still holier, because still nearer to God, and the inner Sanctuary where the Presence dwelt on the Mercy-Seat, was the holiest of all, was most holy. And the same principle still holds good: holiness is measured by nearness to God.

There are Christians who dwell in the camp, but know little of drawing nigh to the Holy One. Then you have outer court Christians: they long for pardon and peace, and they come ever again to the altar of atonement; but they know little of true nearness of holiness, of their privilege as priests to enter the Holy Place. Others there are who have learned that this is their calling, and long to enter in, and yet hardly understand the boldness they have to enter into the holiest of all, and to dwell there. Blessed are those to whom this secret of the Lord has been revealed. They know what the rent veil means and the access into the immediate Presence. The veil has been taken away from their hearts, and they have found the secret of true holiness in the indwelling of the Holy One, the God Who is holy and makes holy.

Separation is not holiness but is the way to it. Though there can be no holiness without separation, there can be separation that does not lead to holiness. The Hebrew Word for holiness possibly comes from a root that means to separate. But where we have in our translation "separate" or "sever" or "set apart" they are translations of quite different Hebrew words. The Hebrew word translated "holy" is used exclusively to express that special idea.

Separation is only the setting apart and taking possession of the vessel to be cleansed and used: it is the filling of it with the precious contents we entrust to it that gives it its real value. Holiness is the Divine filling, without which the separation leaves us empty. Separation itself is not holiness. The Nazarite was a type of separation: the separation consisted specially in three things - temperance (in abstinence from the fruit of the vine); humiliation (in not cutting or shaving the hair-"it is a shame for a man if he have long hair"); self-sacrifice (in not defiling himself for even father or mother or their death). What we must specially note is that the separation was not from things unlawful, but from things lawful. . .it is in giving up, not what can be proved to be sin, but all that may hinder the full intensity of our surrender into God's hands to make us holy, that the spirit of separation is manifested. Our holiness will consist not in a human separation in which we attempt to imitate God's; no, but in entering into his separateness; belonging entirely to him; set apart by him and for himself.

We must know the need for separation. It is no arbitrary demand of God, but has its ground in the very nature of things. To separate a thing is to set it free for one special use or purpose. that it may, with undivided power, fulfil the will of him who chose it, and so realize its destiny. It is the principle that lies at the root of all division of labour; complete separation to one branch of study or labour is the way to success and perfection. God wants us all to himself, that He may give all of himself to us. God separates us from all that does not lead us into his holiness and fellowship. The separating power of the Presence of God, this is what we need to know. "Wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in thy sight, I and thy people" said Moses, "is it not in that thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth". It is the consciousness of God's Presence, making and keeping us his very own, that works the true separateness from the world and its spirit, from ourselves and our own will. And it is as this separation is accepted and prized and persevered with by us, that the holiness of God will enter in and take possession. He separates us for himself and sanctifies us to be his dwelling. He comes himself to take personal possession by the indwelling of Christ in the heart. Not what I am, or do, or give, is holiness, but what God is, and gives, and does to me.

Holiness is not something we bring to God or do for him. Holiness is what there is of God in us... our power to become holy is to be found in the call of God; the Holy One calls us to himself that He may make us holy in possessing himself. "1 am the Lord who makes holy".

If we gather up the lessons we have found in the Word from Paradise downward, we see that the elements of holiness in us correspond to some special aspect of God's holiness, namely, deep restfulness, humble reverence, entire surrender, joyful adoration, simple obedience. They all prepare for the Divine indwelling, and this again we have through the abiding Jesus with the Crown of Holiness on his head. In the holiness of Jesus we see what ours must be; righteousness that hates sin and gives everything to have it destroyed; love that seeks the sinner and gives everything to have him saved. "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother".

It is a solemn thought that we may be studying earnestly to know what holiness is and yet have little of it because we have little of Jesus. It is a blessed thought that a man may be directly little occupied with the thought of holiness, and yet have much of it because he is full of Jesus. There is first what we might call "word truth" in which a man may have the correct form of words while he does not really apprehend the truth they contain. Then there is "thought truth": that is a clear intellectual apprehension of a truth without the experience of its power. The Bible speaks of truth as a living reality—this is the "life truth" in which the very spirit of the truth we profess has entered and possessed our inner being.

The chief means of sanctification that God uses is his Word, but it is not the Word that sanctifies; it is God alone who can sanctify. Nor is it simply through the Word that God does it, but through the truth that is in the Word. As a means the Word is of no value if God does not use it. Let us strive to connect God's holy Word with the Holy God himself. God sanctifies in the truth through his Word.

Many Christians have no conception of the danger and deceitfulness of a "thought" religion, with sweet and precious thoughts coming to us in books and preaching, and with little power. The teaching of the Holy Spirit is in the heart first; man's teaching in the mind. Let all our thinking ever lead us to cease from thought, and to open the heart and will to the Spirit.

We are called to be prepared for a heavenly life. If we are to live throughout Eternity with him who is holy, we too must be holy, for without being holy we cannot share his life of holiness. We are on our way to see God. We have been invited to meet the Holy One face to face, and all our schooling here in the life of holiness is simply the preparation for that meeting, and that vision.

"He hath chosen us in him, that we should be holy" (Eph. 1.4). . . a calling before and above everything, to Holiness. "Be ye holy, for I am holy". It is as if God said, holiness is My blessedness and My Glory: without this you cannot, in the very nature of things, see Me or enjoy Me. Holiness is My blessedness and My glory. I invite you to share it with Me. Does it not move and draw you mightily, the hope of being with Me, partakers of My holiness? I have nothing better to offer—I offer you myself: "Be ye holy, for I am holy". The separating word in human language is mine. . . . It is the great word love uses.... God himself knows no mightier argument, can put forth no more powerful attraction than this, "that ye should be mine".

That holiness is more than cleansing, and must be preceded by it, is taught us in more than one passage of the New Testament. "Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word". The cleansing is a negative side—the being separate and not touching the unclean thing; the sanctifying, is the positive union and fellowship with God.

As soon as the people had been redeemed from Egypt, God's very first word to them was "Sanctify, make holy unto me all the first-born. it is mine" (Exod. 13.2). The word reveals how proprietorship is one of the central thoughts both in redemption and in sanctification, the link that binds them together.

Andrew Murray 19^th Century