The Demands of Holiness
Our God is a demanding God, an exigent God. His very nature demands of Him that He demand of us more than we can ever supply. The requirement of His righteousness is a righteousness equal to His own. He could never accept human righteousness as a compromising payment. Perfection demands perfection; that is why salvation must be by grace, and why works are not sufficient.
The glory of grace is that our God is not only a demanding God, He is a supplying God. Never has He required anything of us that He has not furnished us as a gift of His sovereign grace. His demand of righteousness has been fully met by that which was manifested for us in Christ.
In a devotional book the Canon of Winchester says, "The demands of holiness are so great that the resources to meet them are simply not to be found within the competence of our human nature." Who is sufficient, then, to meet the daily demands of God? Once more it must be seen that what God requires, He provides.
The Christian life comes on the installment buying plan. There is a down payment of righteousness and a daily installment of holiness, one required for the entrance into eternal life and the other for enjoying its fellowship and blessings. God will not accept human righteousness for salvation any more than an automobile salesman will accept counterfeit money as down payment on a new model car. Nor can He accept the average goodness of average Christians as the basis for showering us with the special, abundant blessings which He must reserve for those who bring Him that which His nature requires. Just as God has provided Christ as the down payment, so He has provided Christ as the continuing payment of holiness. The second must be appropriated by faith even as the first. "He is made unto us . . . righteousness, sanctification . ." (1 Cor. 1:30). The Holy Spirit brings righteousness when He bears new life in us at the new birth, and He applies righteousness to us every hour of our life. The provision is fully made, and thus are the demands of holiness met.
Thus true likeness to Christ is no more dependent upon surrounding circumstances than the growth of a water lily is dependent upon the scene of beauty. That flower will often be found springing from the mud in quite ugly places. So it is with the likeness of Christ in the hearts of those who are yielded to Him.
One of the most holy men of the nineteenth century was Robert Murray M'Cheyne. His diary reveals that he maintained this holiness in the midst of a city where there was much godlessness, and at a time when there was ecclesiastical bickering. The true church was fighting for its very life, and many ministers were cold, if not dead; those who were channels of divine power were criticized for believing in the Lord's coming, for being young men, and for being fanatical. Furthermore, this personal holiness was maintained in the midst of great weakness which finally drew the spirit from the frail body at an age of only twenty-nine years.
Holiness is offered to every believer. If we are not living in Christ we should examine ourselves to see if we actually believe in the faith. The soul that lives in constant carnality has reason to pause to ask whether the planting has been the wheat of the Lord or the tares of Satan. God is so ready to maintain us in holiness!
1. In Romans 1-3 Paul addresses this topic, how then do Christians today use the Law?
2. What was the original purpose of the Law according to Paul?
