The Holiness of God by Arthur Pink

The Holiness Of God
By Arthur W. Pink

"Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy..." (Rev. 15:4). God only is independently, infinitely, unchangeably holy. In Scripture He is frequently styled "The Holy One." He is so because the sum of all moral excellency is found in Him. He is absolute purity, untarnished even by the shadow of sin. "...God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5). Holiness is the very excellency of the divine nature: the great God is "glorious in holiness" (Ex. 15:11). Therefore do we read, "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity..." (Hab. 1:13).

As God’s power is the opposite of the native weakness of the creature, as His wisdom is in complete contrast from the least defect of understanding or folly, so His holiness is the very opposite of all moral blemish or defilement. Of old God appointed singers in Israel that they "should praise the beauty of holiness" (2 Chron. 20:21).

"Power is God’s hand or arm, omniscience His eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration, but holiness is His beauty" (S. Charnock, a Puritan author). It is this, supremely, which renders Him lovely to those who are delivered from sin’s dominion.

A chief emphasis is placed upon this perfection of God: "God is oftener styled Holy than Almighty, and set forth by this part of His dignity more than by any other. ‘Holy’ is more often attached to His name as appropriate to express its quality, than any other word. You never find it expressed ‘His mighty name’ or ‘His wise name,’ but His great name, and most of all, His holy name. This is the greatest title of honour; in ‘holy’ the majesty and worthiness of His name appear" (S. Charnock).

This perfection, as none other, is solemnly celebrated before the Throne of Heaven, the seraphim crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:3). God Himself singles out this perfection: "Once have I sworn by My holiness" (Psa. 89:35). God swears by His holiness because that is a fuller expression of Himself than anything else. Therefore we are exhorted, "Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness" (Psa. 30:4). "This may be said to be a transcendental attribute that, as it were, runs through the rest, and casts luster upon them. It is an attribute of attributes" (J. Howe, 1670).

Thus we read of "the beauty of the Lord" (Psa. 27:4), which is none other than "the beauty of holiness" (Psa. 29:2).

"As it seems to challenge an excellency above all His other perfections, so it is the glory of all the rest: as it is the glory of the Godhead, so it is the glory of every perfection in the Godhead; as His power is the strength of them, so His holiness is the beauty of them; as all would be weak without almightiness to back them, so all would be unlovely without holiness to adorn them. Should this be sullied, all the rest would lose their honour; as at the same instant the sun should lose its light, it would lose its heat, its strength, its generative and quickening virtue. As sincerity is the luster of every grace in a Christian, so is purity the splendour of every attribute in the Godhead. His justice is a holy justice, His wisdom a holy wisdom, His power a ‘holy arm’ (Psa. 98:1). His truth or promise a ‘holy promise’ (Psa. 105:42). His name, which signifies all His attributes in conjunction, is ‘holy’ (Psa. 103:1)" (S. Charnock).

God’s Holiness Is Manifested in His Works

"The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psa. 145:17). Nothing but that which is excellent can proceed from Him. Holiness is the rule of all His actions. At the beginning He pronounced all that He made "very good" (Gen. 1:31), which He could not have done had there been anything imperfect or unholy in them. Man was made "upright" (Ecc. 7:29), in the image and likeness of his Creator. The angels that fell were created holy, for we are told that they "kept not their first estate [habitation]" (Jude 6). Of Satan it is written, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee" (Ezek. 28:15).

God’s Holiness Is Manifested in His Law

That law forbids sin in all of its modifications: in its most refined as well as its grossest forms, the intent of the mind as well as the pollution of the body, the secret desire as well as the overt act. Therefore do we read, "The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good" (Rom. 7:12). Yes, "the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether" (Psa. 19:8-9).

God’s Holiness Is Manifest at the Cross

Wondrously and yet most solemnly does the Atonement display God’s infinite holiness and abhorrence of sin. How hateful sin must be to God for Him to punish it to its utmost deserts when it was imputed to His Son!

"Not all the vials of judgment that have or shall be poured out upon the wicked world, nor the flaming furnace of a sinner’s conscience, nor the irreversible sentence pronounced against the rebellious demons, nor the groans of the damned creatures, give such a demonstration of God’s hatred of sin, as the wrath of God let loose upon His Son. Never did divine holiness appear more beautiful and lovely than at the time our Saviour’s countenance was most marred in the midst of His dying groans. This He Himself acknowledges in Psalm 22. When God had turned His smiling face from Him, and thrust His sharp knife into His heart, which forced that terrible cry from Him, ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ He adores this perfection ”“ ‘Thou art holy’ (v.3)" (S. Charnock).

Because God is holy, He hates all sin. He loves everything which is in conformity to His laws, and loathes everything which is contrary to it. His Word plainly declares, "The froward [perverse] is abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 3:32). And again, "The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord" (Prov. 15:26). It follows, therefore, that He must necessarily punish sin. Sin can no more exist without demanding His punishment than without requiring His hatred of it. God has often forgiven sinners…and the sinner is only forgiven on the ground of Another having borne his punishment: for "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 9:22).

Therefore we are told, "The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies" (Nah. 1:2). For one sin God banished our first parents from Eden. For one sin Moses was excluded from Canaan, Elisha’s servant smitten with leprosy, Ananias and Sapphira cut off out of the land of the living.

Herein we find proof for the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether…as thyself" (Psa. 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a "god" patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin.

The character attributed to the "gods" of the ancients and of modern heathendom is the very reverse of that immaculate purity which pertains to the true God. An awesome, sacred, holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. The depraved heart’s own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls crime. Anything short of that, man puts in less serious terms, like defects, mistakes, infirmities, etc. And even where sin is owned at all, excuses are made for it.

The "god" which the vast majority of professing Christians "love" is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the "indiscretions" [unwise acts] of youth. But the Word says, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity" (Psa. 5:5). And again, "God is angry with the wicked every day" (Psa. 7:11). But men refuse to believe in this God, and gnash their teeth when His hatred of sin is faithfully pressed upon their attention. Sinful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the place of everlasting punishment (Matt. 25:46).

Because God is holy, acceptance with Him on the ground of creature doings is utterly impossible. A fallen creature could more easily create a world than produce that which would meet the approval of infinite Purity. Can darkness dwell with Light? Can the Immaculate One take pleasure in "filthy rags"? (Isa. 64:6). The best that sinful man brings forth is defiled. A corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit. God would deny Himself, and disgrace His perfections, were He to account as righteous and holy that which is not so in itself; and nothing is so which has the least stain upon it contrary to the nature of God.

But blessed be His name that which His holiness demanded, His grace has provided in Christ Jesus our Lord! Every poor sinner who has fled to Him for refuge stands "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). Hallelujah!

Utmost Reverence for God

Because God is holy, the utmost reverence is most suitable to our approaches unto Him. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him" (Psa. 89:7). Then "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy" (Psa. 99:5). Yes, "at His footstool," in the lowest posture of humility, prostrate before Him. When Moses would approach the burning bush, God said, "…put off thy shoes from off thy feet" (Ex. 3:5). He is to be served "with fear" (Psa. 2:11). Of Israel His demand was, "I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified" (Lev. 10:3). The more our hearts are awed by His inexpressible holiness, the more acceptable will be our approaches to Him.

Conformed to God

Because God is holy we should desire to be conformed to Him. His commandment is "Be ye holy, for I am holy" (1 Pet. 1:16). We are not bidden to be omnipotent or omniscient as God is, but we are to be holy, and that "in all manner of conversation [behavior]" (1 Pet. 1:15). "This is the prime way of honouring God. We do not so glorify God by elevated admirations, or eloquent expressions, or pompous services for Him as when we aspire to a conversing with Him with unstained spirits, and live to Him in living like Him" (S. Charnock).

Then as God alone is the source and fount of holiness, let us earnestly seek holiness from Him; let our daily prayer be that He may "sanctify [us] wholly" and our "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thes. 5:23).

Edited from a tract published by Chapel Library,
Pensacola FL.
In Christ
Frannie

Lovely post Frannie,

I am always amazed at the writings of these men of God of a few centuries ago. Their intimate knowledge of the teachings of the whole bible just blows my mind!

This part stood out to me today:
"Herein we find proof for the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether…as thyself" (Psa. 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a "god" patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin."

This encourages me to present to unbelievers the true representation of God as found in the whole of scripture, not just the soft and "fluffy" side.

In His Love,

StiritUp,

"This encourages me to present to unbelievers the true representation of God as found in the whole of scripture, not just the soft and "fluffy" side."

How true it is that we need to do as you say above.

Pink does an excellent job in all that he has written. And all to the Glory of God.

His classic work on the true representation of God as found in the whole of scripture,may be read in his book The Sovereignty of God, which is available to be read online at the following link;

http://www.chapellibrary.org/index.php/literature/title-catalog/?fldCode=sogo

I do hope you'll be even more encouraged as you read this classic work by Pink.

Thanks Savannah,

I will certainly read it and, I'm sure, find much that edifies.

In His Love,

Yes Frannie,I agree with William and others,...good word,

A holy life is a resurrected Life.
There cannot be a resurrection,except there be a death.

The kingdom of God,that we have been called into,that dwells within us,
...that came in by way of The Holy Spirit,..is Holy,..and has come to create us into His image.

The kingdom of God,is the ressurrected Lord in us.

In Him,
-------------
elizabeth

Amen tuc,

The spirit of Christ the incorruptible Seed of the Father by the Son birthed in us, and our new full time Holy Spirit in us forever, sealing us into Christ and He in us.

Jesus Christ is now my propitiation and power of new life unto God the Father, a new creation life in Jesus Christ a new creation, our new life in Him. In my former life ruled by the prince of the Power of the Air. Satan has been forced to flee because of the New Birth of Jesus Christ in me, Satan being my old husband of whom I was in bondage and have been set free by my death on the Cross and Satan has no Hold on me and now am free to honor, worship, love Him, for the live I live I now live by the faith of the Son of God who now is my spirit, my life, my wisdom, my righteousness, my sanctification and redemption to new life, my all in Him.

Free indeed in Christ: Phillip

Yes,We know that the Life of God within,is producing a visable Life
without,( in our very everyday walk) with God....the root ( God), being Holy,
produces good fruit,...that glorifies God, ..HE, who is doing this work ln us,..the work that God,The Father did in His Son,Jesus.

Jesus said,'It is My Father,that does the work. Jesus allowed God,to do the work in Him.It was a death to His life,all of time that He was on earth, in order,that The 'Life' of The Father was glorified in Him. Life flowed through
Him....The Holy Life,..The Resurrected Life from the dead.And He said,
'Follow Me'

And Yes,as one has said here," the axe must be laid at the root of the tree".
...If the root is Holy,so are the branches.

Paul said, 'I die daily'-----and so must we..that The Life of God might be lived out in us,....The resurrected Life,..Under The Life of The King, (The
Kingdom of God),... Holy Life.

In one of the articals on holiness,that our Sister Frannie posted,it said,"Holiness teaching contradicted by unholy living is the bane of this hour."

And,.. "A holy minister is an awful powerful weapon in the hands of God."
(By,Robert Murray McCheyne.")

I love those quotes !

May God bless us to receive this Life,and that more abundantly.

In Him,
------------------
elizabeth

Hi tuc,

I know what you mean but I would like to say this a little differently:

OLD CREATION:
============

(1) Man is indwelt by "self”, that is, the "I” in Gal. 2:20.

(2) "I”, being of Adam’s corrupted seed, has a "carnal mind” that is "enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. 8:7, KJV)

(3) "I” is in the world and of the world.

(4) The world is the source of "I”’s life and values and desires and identity. "I” is conformed to the world. (John 2:16)

(5) The world is ruled by Satan. Therefore "I” becomes ruled by Satan.

(6) "I” is made a living reality and sustained by self-works and self-power.

NEW CREATION IN CHRIST:
======================

(1) "I” has been crucified with Christ and is no longer in me. (Gal. 2:20) The "carnal mind” that is enmity against God and opposed to the law of God has been done away and I am freed from the law of sin and death.

(2) Christ is now in me (Gal. 2:20; John 14:20; John 17:20-26)

(3) The world has been crucified to me and I to the world (Gal. 6:14). I am no longer conformed to the world. Now I am in the world but not of the world.

(4) All rulers and authorities have been disarmed (Col. 2:15) and Satan no longer has any power over me.

(5) I am now in Christ and of Christ. Christ is now the only source of my life and values and desires and identity. In fact, Christ HIMSELF is now my life and my identity and all His values and desires are also mine. I am now conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29).

(6) The Holy Spirit now indwells me and reveals the life of Christ as a living reality in me. By the Holy Spirit, it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me (Gal. 6:14). Now we live not by our own might or power but by the Holy Spirit (Zech. 4:6). Now the Holy Spirit enables us to live a life of complete victory in Christ by the surpassing greatness of God’s power (Eph. 1:19-21).

(7) It is all by God’s grace, not our own works.

(8) According to our faith this is given to us.

Just my own thoughts.

I most definitely agree with you that it is simple! Holiness is a PERSON ”“ Jesus Christ ”“ Indwelling us.

'Of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption; that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.' -- 1 Cor. i.30, 31.

These words lead us on now to the very centre of God's revelation of the way of holiness. We know the steps of the road leading hither. He is holy, and holiness is His. He makes holy by coming near. His presence is holiness. In Christ's life, the holiness that had only been revealed in symbol, and as a promise of good things to come, had really taken possession of a human will, and been made one with true human nature. In His death every obstacle had been removed that could prevent the transmission of that holy nature to us: Christ had truly become our sanctification. In the Holy Spirit the actual communication of that holiness took place. And now we want to understand what the work is the Holy Spirit does, and how He communicates this holy nature to us: what our relation is to Christ as our sanctification, and what the position we have to take up toward Him, that in its fulness and its power it may do its work for us.

The Divine answer to this question is, 'Of God are ye in Christ.' The one thing we need to apprehend is, what this our position and life in Christ is, and how that position and life may on our part be accepted and maintained. Of this we may be sure, that it is not something that is high and beyond our reach. There need be no exhausting effort or hopeless sighing, 'Who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above?' It is a life that is meant for the sinful and the weary, for the unworthy and the impotent. It is a life that is the gift of the Father's love, and that He Himself will reveal in each one who comes in childlike trust to Him. It is a life that is meant for our every-day life, that in every varying circumstance and situation will make and keep us holy.

'Of God are ye in Christ.' Ere our Blessed Lord left the world, He spake: Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. And it is written of Him: 'He that descended is the same that ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.' 'The Church is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.' In the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus is with His people here on earth. Though unseen, and not in the flesh, His Personal Presence is as real on earth as when He walked with His disciples. In regeneration the believer is taken out of his old place 'in the flesh;' he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit (Rom. viii.9); he is really and actually in Christ. The living Christ is around him by His holy Presence. Wherever and whatever he be, however ignorant of his position or however unfaithful to it, there he is in Christ. By an act of Divine and omnipotent grace, he has been planted into Christ, encircled on every side by the Power and the Love of Him who filleth all things, whose fulness specially dwells in His body here below, the Church.

And how can one who is longing to know Christ fully as his sanctification, come to live out what God means and has provided in this -- 'in Christ'? The first thing that must be remembered is that it is a thing of faith and not of feeling. The promise of the indwelling and the quickening of the Holy One is to the humble and contrite. Just when I feel most deeply that I am not holy, and can do nothing to make myself holy, when I feel ashamed of myself, just then is the time to turn from self and very quietly to say: I am in Christ. Here He is all around me. Like the air that surrounds me, like the light that shines on me, here is my Lord Jesus with me in His hidden but Divine and most real presence. My faith must in quiet rest and trust bow before the Father, of whom and by whose Mighty Grace I am in Christ: He will reveal it to me with ever-growing clearness and power. He does it as I believe, and in believing open my whole soul to receive what is implied in it: the sense of sinfulness and unholiness must become the strength of my trust and dependence. In such faith I abide in Christ.

But because it is of faith, therefore it is of the Holy Spirit. Of God are ye in Christ. It is not as if God placed and planted us in Christ, and left it to us now to maintain the union. No, God is the Eternal One, the God of the everlasting life, who works every moment in a power that does not for one moment cease. What God gives, He continues with a never-ceasing giving. It is He who by the Holy Spirit makes this life in Christ a blessed reality in our consciousness. 'We have received the Spirit of God that we might know the things that are freely given us of God.' Faith is not only dependent on God for the gift it is to accept, but for the power to accept. Faith not only needs the Son as its filling and its food; it needs the Spirit as its power to receive and hold. And so the blessed possession of all that it means to be in Christ our sanctification comes as we learn to bow before God in believing prayer for the mighty workings of the Spirit, and in the deep childlike trust that He will reveal and glorify in us this Christ our sanctification in whom we are.
And how will the Spirit reveal this Christ in whom we are?

It will specially be as the Living One, the Personal Friend and Master. Christ is not only our Example and our Ideal. His life is not only an atmosphere and an inspiration, as we speak of a man who mightily influences us by his writings. Christ is not only a treasury and a fulness of grace and power, into which the Spirit is to lead us. But Christ is the Living Saviour, with a heart that beats with a love that is most tenderly human, and yet Divine. It is in this love He comes near, and into this love He receives us, when the Father plants us into Him. In the power of a personal love He wishes to exercise influence, and to attach us to Himself. In that love of His we have the guarantee that His Holiness will enter us; in that love the great power by which it enters. As the Spirit reveals to us where we are dwelling, in Christ and His love, and that this Christ is a living Lord and Saviour, there wakens within us the enthusiasm of a personal attachment, and the devotion of a loving allegiance, that make us wholly His. And it becomes possible for us to believe that we can be holy: we feel sure that in the path of holiness we can go from strength to strength.

Such believing insight into our relation to Christ as being in Him, and such personal attachment to Him who has received us into His love and keeps us abiding there, becomes the spring of a new obedience. The will of God comes to us in the light of Christ's life and His love -- each command first fulfilled by Him, and then passed on to us as the sure and most blessed help to more perfect fellowship with the Father and His Holiness. Christ becomes Lord and King in the soul, in the power of the Holy Spirit, guiding the will into all the perfect will of God, and proving Himself to be its sanctification, as He crowns its obedience with ever larger inflow of the Presence and the Holiness of God.

Is there any dear child of God at all disposed to lose heart as he thinks of what manner of man he ought to be in all holy living, let me call him to take courage. Could God have devised anything more wonderful or beautiful for such sinful, impotent creatures? Just think, Christ, God's own Son, made to be sanctification to you. The Mighty, Loving, Holy Christ, sanctified through suffering that He might have sympathy with you, given to make you holy. What more could you desire? Yes, there is more: 'Of God you are in Him.' Whether you understand it or not, however feebly you realize it, there it is, a thing most Divinely true and real. You are in Christ, by an act of God's own Mighty Power. And there, in Christ, God Himself longs to establish and confirm you to the end. And you have, greatest wonder of all, the Holy Spirit within you to teach you to know, and believe, and receive, all that there is in Christ for you. And if you will but confess that there is in you no wisdom or power for holiness, none at all, and allow Christ, 'the Wisdom of God and the Power of God,' by the Holy Spirit within you, to lead you on, and prove how completely, how faithfully, how mightily, He can be your sanctification, He will do it most gloriously.

O my brother! come and consent more fully to God's way of holiness. Let Christ be your sanctification. Not a distant Christ to whom you look, but a Christ very near, all around you, in whom you are. Not a Christ after the flesh, a Christ of the past, but a present Christ in the power of the Holy Ghost. Not a Christ whom you can know by your wisdom, but the Christ of God, who is a Spirit, and whom the Spirit within you, as you die to the flesh and self, will reveal in power. Not a Christ such as your little thoughts can frame a conception of, but a Christ according to the greatness of the heart and the love of God. Oh, come and accept this Christ, and rejoice in Him! Be content now to leave all your feebleness, and foolishness, and faithlessness to Him, in the quiet confidence that He will do for you more than you can think. And so let it henceforth be, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

BE YE HOLY, AS I AM HOLY.

Most Blessed Father! I bow in speechless adoration before the holy mystery of Thy Divine Love....

Oh, forgive me, that I have known and believed it so little as it is worthy of being known and believed.

Accept my praise for what I have seen and tasted of its Divine blessedness. Accept, Lord God! of the praise of a glad and loving heart that only knows that it never can praise Thee aright.

And hear my prayer, O my Father! that in the power of Thy Holy Spirit, who dwells in me, I may each day accept and live out fully what Thou hast given me in Christ my sanctification. May the unsearchable riches there are in Him be the daily supply for my every need. May His Holiness, His delight in Thy will, indeed become mine. Teach me, above all, how this can most surely be, because I am, through the work of Thine Almighty Quickening Power, in Him, kept there by Thyself. My Father! my faith cries out: I can be holy, blessed be my Lord Jesus!

In this faith I yield myself to Thee, Lord Jesus, my King and Master, to do Thy will alone. In everything I do, great or small, I would act as one sanctified in Jesus, united to God's will in Him. It is Thou alone canst teach me to do this, canst give me strength to perform it. But I trust in Thee -- art Thou not Christ my sanctification? Blessed Lord! I do trust Thee. Amen.

1. Christ, as He lived and died on earth, is our sanctification. His life, the Spirit of His life, is what constitutes our holiness. To be in perfect harmony with Christ, to have His mind, is to be holy.

2. Christ's Holiness had two sides. God sanctified Him by His Spirit: Christ sanctified Himself by following the leading of the Spirit, by giving up His will to God in everything. So God has made us holy in Christ; and so we follow after and perfect holiness by yielding ourselves to God's Spirit, by giving up our will and living in the will of God.

3. It is well that we take in every aspect of what God has revealed of holiness in His word. But let us never weary ourselves by seeking to grasp all completely. Let us even return to the simplicity that is in Jesus. To bow at His feet, to believe that He knows all we need, and has it all, and loves to give it all, is rest. And holiness is resting in Jesus the rest of God. Let all our thoughts be gathered up into this one: Jesus, Blessed Jesus.

4. This holy life in Christ is for to-day, when you read this. For to-day He is made of God unto you sanctification: to-day He will indeed be your holiness. Believe in Him for it; trust Him, praise Him. And remember: you are in Him.

(Extracted from Andrew Murray’s book "Holy In Christ”)

Good post, tuc! Agree.

Brothers and Sisters,
I agree with all the posts.. I love the old writers they really walked their talk and had a walk of holiness due to their fear of GOD not fear of man..

May the LORD rise us up and help us walk a walk of holiness for without it we will not see GOD.

Hebrews 12:14King James Version (KJV)

14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

And Yes,as one has said here," the axe must be laid at the root of the tree".
...If the root is Holy,so are the branches.

And every branch that is not fruitful He will prune
John 15.. Prune us LORD daily
John 15King James Version (KJV)

15 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

Paul said, 'I die daily'-----and so must we..that The Life of God might be lived out in us,....The resurrected Life,..Under The Life of The King, (The
Kingdom of God),... Holy Life. Amen..

In one of the articals on holiness,that our Sister Frannie posted,it said,"Holiness teaching contradicted by unholy living is the bane of this hour."

And,.. "A holy minister is an awful powerful weapon in the hands of God."
(By,Robert Murray McCheyne.")
Prune us daily LORD so we can be more fruitful for without you we can do nothing..
in Christ
Sister Frannie/eagleisflying