Before we can reach a proper conclusion concerning the holiness of believing saints while here on earth there is one other aspect of the question which we must consider. It centres round the English word "wholly". We may speak of it as "wholeheartedness" or all-outed-ness. It implies the diligent, full-out application of all one's powers for all one's time, till all the full purpose of one's life has been achieved.

We see this aspect markedly manifest in God. Our gracious God is Holy, not only because of what He is; Holy, not only because of what He does, but Holy because of, "HOW" He acts. God is so utterly devoted to His great Plan that it "wholly" absorbs His vast resources. He has set Himself apart without stint or reservation to carry it through. Through all the years since time began He has kept on His way, pursuing His great objective. Though men have failed Him (as when Israel fell) He has not failed nor halted. He ceased not to work on, with such as served Him well, until He led them up from the temporary, literal, carnal things to the higher, better, eternal, spiritual things; and as each stage was reached, no whit of all His mighty Power, nor of His infinite Wisdom, nor of His regard for righteousness, nor of His inexhaustible, unfathomable Love has been withheld, until He has accomplished all His great design. He placed the whole of His illimitable resources at its call. Not merely for a day, or century, or age, but for all time, until the task is done, He pledged Himself—all that He is—all that He has—to see it through. Our God and Father has consecrated Himself to fulfil His Pledge—His oath-bound Promise—and from that He will not change. God is "Hal"-Holy, "wholesome", without taint, loving, benevolent, kind, in all He undertakes to do: and God is "Halig"—He is "wholly", completely, and forever pledged to His great eternal purpose to root out all sin and make the whole earth sweet and clean.

Do we wonder then that God should ask us to lay down our "all"—our ALL, for ALL our time? If He has consecrated His vast resources to that one great end, could He require less from us? Will He accept the bits and scraps, the odds and ends of human life given when the mood suits us, to co-labour in His Plan? What if God had done the same? What if He attended us by fits and starts? What if we had to wait upon His moods? Thank God He is "all out", in all He does, for all the time! Now let us trace this through and place the facts together. All of whom God takes to be His own were born children of wrath, even as others in the world. None was righteous; none was good. All had turned out of the way. Of His own Will He formed His plan to redeem and bless, in order to demonstrate to man His own great Love. When by His grace and leading we learned of this great Love, through the Saviour whom He freely gave to die, our hearts became lost in wonder, love and praise. As the truth broke out more clearly, we saw that He is calling a people for His Name, through whom to teach and bless "the residue of men" (Acts 15.14-17). All whose hearts are right in the sight of God, and who, while they love their fellowmen, have found that all schemes of human uplift must fail, rejoice with great joy to know that God purposes to help the human race to throw off its burden of sin and selfishness. When they learn that God invites them to become co-workers with Him in this great task, it gives them joy untold. Though aware of their own sin, they ask "How can I be a co-worker with God—He is holy, just and good—and I am of the earth, weak, frail and tainted by my sin?" The diligent student of God's word who progresses in his studies until he has learned something of the "deep things of God" finds God's way of enabling him to co-operate set out in types and shadows of Israel's wilderness days, as well as in more direct New Testament statements. In both Old and New Testaments he learns that all who walk and work with God must be made holy. But how can that be? What part can light have with darkness; or how can God consort with...sinners?

There is but one way. The scheme—the plan—must swallow up its advocates, both great and small, and then the excellences and virtues of that design will diffuse themselves to all who participate in its outworking. God has put Himself into it, and pledged Himself to Abraham and his posterity to carry it through. It is now open to such as would share in this task as Abraham's Seed to do likewise. God, as author of the scheme, has full knowledge of the conditions and requirements incident to its performance, hence it is imperatively necessary that His mind should be the directing mind of the project, and that all other participants should subordinate their minds to Him. God only has the energy to carry it through, hence all who would share in its activities must be prepared in such manner that they become suitable conduits through which the Divine energy can flow. A million volt conductor requires much more careful preparation than a ten volt conductor.

Since God has put Himself and all His illimitable resources into this scheme, and the believer (even though now reconciled and justified and made free as Abraham's Seed), is putting nothing but his very inefficient little self into it, it should be very obvious to all who understand that the very junior membership of this co-partnership must be under the absolute direction of its competent and omnipotent Sponsor. Hence consecration and full surrender is so very necessary.

However, no matter how poor and inefficient the invited participant really is (when accepting the gracious invitation) the intrinsic excellence of this purpose applies to him as it applies to all. He shares the credit of the co-partnership though in himself of little worth. Thus it matters not how little he brings into the scheme, he shares with all his partners its good-standing—whether of low or high degree. The all sufficient sacrifice of Jesus, as a Ransom for all (as part of this Plan) met the exacting claims which Justice preferred against the sinner—then, that embargo to life being removed, grace and mercy will reach down to the lowest depths of sin, and lift up the released sinner to life, to happiness and peace.

This Plan is one of kindness, benevolence, and tender love—it designs to set men free from sin, and enable them both to love and do the righteous thing—and do it from a sincere heart. Hence, the scheme is more than righteous in its aims, for righteous act is but the outflow of holiness within. It is wholesome within itself, and seeks to make men wholesome too. It is a holy thing, holy in itself, the absolute and certain foe of sin and self, and when completed will make the world of men holy too. It is a holy means leading to a holy end, a holy instrument devised for a holy task.

Each participant in this plan, today, has a special place allotted him. He is accorded a first-born's place. While all the Seed of Abraham will have a primary place in the plan, they who can show Abraham's faith are made a special Seed—a Spiritual Seed—and given a special place. This was foreshadowed and foreshown on two occasions when Israel was being separated from the nations.

In that dread night when the destroying angel carried the sword of death through Egypt, and slew its first-borns of man and beast, God claimed Israel's first-borns for Himself. He spared them from the angel's sword by the substitutionary death of a lamb, and by the sprinkling of its blood upon the door. From that night thenceforward God claimed them for His own, to serve His own deep purposes. All first-borns, both of man and beast, belonged to Him. God hallowed them to Himself; that is, He made them holy for Himself. Since Christ became the Lamb of God—"our Passover slain for us"—all who are God's first-born class, who have received the first-fruits of His Spirit, were claimed by God, to serve His greater purposes. They are hallowed unto Him. He makes them holy to serve His Plan.

When God had taken the whole tribe of Levi to replace the whole company of first-borns (Num.3.12, etc.) God chose Aaron and his sons from among their brethren and hallowed them again, to serve as priests in a very special sense. He caused them to be anointed with a very special oil, which no one else could make or use. Ear, thumb, great toe—representing hearing, serving and walking—were all touched with the sanctifying chrism (Lev.8). That anointing oil was emblematic of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of anointing which we have received from Him constitutes all its recipients holy. It sets them apart specially to do the Lord's Will; to be prepared as instruments for His great scheme.

It needs a strong faith to believe that faulty, tainted men can be of use to God, and that men with ingrained sin can be counted holy men—yet, so it is! Aaron was but an ordinary man till God chose him and clothed him in white robes and chrismed him with oil. It was not for what he had already done that God's choice fell on him, but for what God could cause Him to do. No more is it for what we have done that God's Spirit comes upon us, but for what God will fit us to do. Consequently, as in Israel the priests were not made holy by service, but for service, so the priestly members of the Royal Priesthood are not accounted holy by what they have done, but by the blood of sprinkling and by their reception of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet.1.2).

In spite then of their vacillations and weaknesses, and their daily round of trespasses and sins, their holy standing is not lost. Based upon the precious blood of Jesus as the appointed Lamb of God, supplemented by their own absolute surrender to the Will of God, their hallowed standing remains secure. The Altar sanctified all that touched it, no matter whence it came. (Exo.29.37; Exo.30.29; Matt.23.19). So the Church's Altar, hallowed by Jesus' own precious sacrifice, makes holy all that comes thereon no matter whence it comes. Our little sacrifice, so small and poor, so marred by nature, and defaced by sin, is savoured by holiness what time the Holy Priest of our profession takes it into His holy hands to place it on the altar-privilege. Apart from Him, it is of little worth; in His dear hands it is a holy thing. In all this elementary stage of our partnership with God He blesses us with an objective holiness, holiness received by us from an external source, holiness bestowed upon us with an "end" in view. It is "wholeness" attributed to attainted men.

There is another side however to this design. Another phase of holiness begins when God has claimed us for His own. He starts to take the taint away and make the inward man hale and sound. By grace, God helps His child 'mid stress and strain, and by means of life's afflictions (counted light) God creates the likeness of His Son within. God shows His children what He is—a God of tender love and infinite compassion—and by this vision beautiful inspires a deep yearning in their hearts to be also made compassionate like Him. Their native leaning towards sin is slowly checked, its taint removed and its power broken. By slow degrees the sin-biased heart becomes more sweet and wholesome and actual holiness, increasing in degree, begins to take the place of sin and self. Thus new desires of heart and mind, created and nurtured by the hand of God are brought slowly into line with God's great plan. We too, become inspired by the same desire to see men blessed, and set free from sin and death. Thus the Holy Spirit's work within brings us actually more into line with the spirit of the Plan, and of the holiness of its Author and Master-Workman.

To Israel and her priesthood God said, "Consecrate yourselves and I will consecrate you." That is the spirit and principle of the whole Plan. First as we surrender our "little all" we are sanctified for the plan's sake; afterwards we are made holy for our own. First it is a holiness developed from within. We become possessed of holiness which deepens every day—a real subjective holiness which increases in degree. Whosoever therefore desires God's favour today must devote himself "wholly" to the same plan and purpose to which God has devoted Himself. It requires a full and complete surrender to the Architect's Wisdom, to the Potter's hands, to the Sovereign Will. There must be no reservations, no half-hearted surrender, but a full and entire submission to the Purpose; as full and complete with our "little all" as that of the great Divine Father with His illimitable "all".

Thus wholly surrendered, He accepts the poor, lean offering, and makes it His very own. Linked with Himself it becomes indeed a holy thing. Men see it not in its true light, but God sees and knows, and He it is who sees its holiness; He it is who calls such a child a saint. No man while on earth is entirely free from sin, flawless, but sure as the heaven is above, there are those on earth, who, accepted and owned by Almighty God, are holy in His sight—Holy, because both He and they have "wholly" set themselves apart to accomplish His great ends and purposes; holy because His spirit fills their hearts. Their standing is not "holier-than-thou" towards their fellowmen; nor is it due to some peculiarity of dress, nor does it come because of ecclesiastical preferment, but simply and solely because God dwells within—making them thus a Holy Temple for the Lord.

Some men are holy in the sight of heaven. Let others say what they may, already they are saints. A holy standing has been accorded them by God Himself. Unknown by men they work in lowly spheres—in kitchen, workshop, office, farm or train. No titles grace their names; no silk or lawn adorn their limbs; no great accomplishments are theirs,...but...He who estimates all things for what they are, has called them saints and holy men—and they are so.

It brings no profanation to the Holy Name to say that God is working out a Plan. God could not bide eternally the rivalry of Sin. His very "Self" requires its overthrow. An end of its domination there must be, that God's habitation may be clean. That very purpose springs out of what He is. With reverence then, and deep esteem each loyal-hearted child will thank the Lord that He is working out the great Design, and in this work has asked His child to share with Him, the privilege of eradicating sin.

TH