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"Of
God are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom from God, both
righteousness and SANCTIFICATION, and redemption."
(I COR.1:30)
"Paul unto the
Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints" ;-thus the chapter opens in which we
are taught that Christ is our sanctification. In the Old Testament,
believers were called the righteous; in the New Testament they are called
saints, the holy ones, sanctified in Christ Jesus. Holy is higher than
righteous. I Holy in God has reference to His inmost being; righteous, to
His dealings with His creatures. In man, righteousness is but a
stepping-stone to holiness. It is in this he can approach most near to the
perfection of' God (comp. Matt.5:48; I Pet.1:16). In the Old Testament
righteousness was found, while holiness was only typified; in Jesus Christ,
the Holy One, and in His people, His saints or holy ones, it is first
realized.
As in Scripture, and in our text, so in
personal experience righteousness precedes holiness. When first the believer
finds Christ as his righteousness, he has such joy in the new-made discovery
that the study of holiness hardly has a place. But as he grows, the desire
for holiness makes itself felt, and he seeks to know what provision his God
has made for supplying that need. A superficial acquaintance with God's plan
leads to the view that while justification is God's work, by faith in
Christ, sanctification is our work, to be performed under the influence of
the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced, and by the
aid of the Holy Spirit. But the earnest Christian soon finds how little
gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks that more prayer will bring
it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the
believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of
the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our
sanctification, to be appropriated by faith alone.
Christ is made of God
unto us sanctification. Holiness is the very nature of God, and that alone
is holy which God takes possession of and fills with Himself. God's answer
to the question, How could sinful man become holy? is, "Christ,
the Holy One of God." In Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent
into the world, God's holiness was revealed incarnate, and brought within
reach of man. "I sanctify myself for them, that
they also may be sanctified in truth." There is no other way of
our becoming holy, but by becoming partakers of the holiness of Christ. And
there is no other way of this taking place than by our personal spiritual
union with Him, so that through His Holy Spirit His holy life flows into us.
"Of God are ye in Christ, who is made unto us
sanctification." Abiding by faith in Christ our sanctification is
the simple secret of a holy life. The measure of sanctification will depend
on the measure of abiding in Him; as the soul learns wholly to abide in
Christ, the promise is increasingly fulfilled: "The
very God of peace sanctify you wholly."
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