CALLED UNTO HOLINESS (b)

"But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all -manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." -- I Peter 1:15, 16.

     From his childhood Peter had followed the occupation of a fisherman. His nets brought up "both good and bad," and he had become accustomed to sorting out and rejecting the bad and carefully preserving the good. After all, it is an enviable accomplishment to be able to draw the fine shades of demarcation between the good and the near-good. Many an otherwise good workman has failed because of a weakness here. The failures are they who build on a good foundation but erect their superstructure of wood, hay and stubble. These the fires of trial will destroy. On the other hand, the successes are they who build of gold, silver and precious stones, materials which the tests only cause to shine more brilliantly. No genuine gold need fear the test that reveals its character.

     How a fisherman delights in calling attention to the fine qualities of his catch! In casting his nets into the deep seas of God's Word and of personal spiritual revelation Peter had brought up many peculiar treasures, but none greater than those mentioned in the verses under consideration: God is holy; & holy God has called; since God is holy, we can be holy; since God is holy, we must be holy; and, this holiness should manifest itself in each word, thought and action of our lives.

     God is holy. Benjamin Whichcote says, "If a man has wrong suppositions in his mind concerning God, be will be wrong through all the parts of his religion." Holiness is the antithesis of sin. Because of His holiness God is inexorably and eternally opposed to sin. No man can be approved of God while he willfully harbors evil in his heart or life. If men will get it into their minds that God is holy, and will obtain a proper realization of what holiness is and how it is opposed to sin, they must inevitably see the impossibility of serving God and the devil.

     The awful holiness of God so places Him in opposition to sin that He will eventually sweep the universe with the bosom of His wrath, make everything outside of hell immaculately clean, and confine sin forever within the adamant walls of perdition. Some people say that any place outside of heaven will be hell. How strange that they cannot see that this would be surrendering all but the definite place called heaven to the devil! No, the fact is that everything outside of hell will be heaven or will be so cleansed from pollution, or the possibility of pollution, that nothing will remain to hurt or destroy.

     The holy God has called. Although God is holy, and, as a consequence, is unalterably opposed to sin, yet in His infinite wisdom and grace He found a way to save unholy men. Forth from the realms of light, down into this dark, sinful world, He sent His only begotten Son to carry the glad news of an open fountain into which sinners might plunge and be clean. At the heart's doors of rebellious men this heavenly Messenger stands knocking, calling, pleading. Though oft rejected and insulted He does not leave, but calls all the more tenderly.

     O my soul, know thy worth and thy day of salvation. Behold thy Redeemer, thy Friend; forsake thy earth-born pleasures and flee to this Friend of sinners, recline upon His bosom and drink in of the sweetness and fragrance of His gracious Spirit. Samuel Rutherford says, "Think ye it a small honor to stand before the throne of God and the Lamb, and to be clothed in white, and to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and to be led to the Fountain of living waters, and to come to the Well-head, even God Himself, and to get your fill of the clear, cold, sweet, refreshing Water of life, the King's own well, and to put up your own sinful hand to the Tree of Life, and take down and eat the sweetest apple in all God's heavenly paradise, Jesus Christ, your Life and your Lord? Up your heart! shout for joy! your King is coming to fetch you to His Father's house."

     Since God is holy, we can be holy. God is not a tyrant to command His creatures to perform impossibilities. He is not a weakling, lacking power to assist the struggling honest soul. Neither is He miserly, withholding grace and strength that men so much need. He is able to deliver and to preserve the godly. He does not give His Spirit by measure, but abundantly, and when He gives His Spirit, He gives of His own nature which is holy. There is no need in the human family, no matter how great, that God will not supply. Every possibility in the atonement of Christ is at the disposal of him who will turn from sin and join the ranks of the willing and obedient.

     How much more we would prosper if we would stop measuring God's ability by our own weakness, and acknowledge that in Jesus Christ all fullness of grace and deliverance dwells, and that this fullness is manifested for our temporal and eternal felicity.

     Since God is holy we must be holy. How any man who reads the Bible, and claims to believe what he reads, can escape this conclusion is a standing mystery. God commands nothing that is unessential to our salvation; and when He says, "Be ye holy, for I am holy," He knows that holiness is an absolute essential to our well-being.

     Of course any of us can refuse to be made holy, but when spiritual well-being is at stake holiness is a necessity. When Jesus said to Nicodemus, Ye must be born again," He did not mean to teach that Nicodemus was forced to be converted, but that if he desired to enter the kingdom of heaven, he must be born again. The new birth was an essential qualification to his eternal happiness. And just as truly is holiness of heart and life an essential qualification that we may enter heaven.

     This holiness should manifest itself in each word, thought and action of our lives. God begins His work of purification in the heart, and when the heart is made right the words, thoughts and actions will be right, for do men gather thorn-apples from grapevines or thistles from fig trees? Or does a sweet fountain send forth bitter water?

     What a glorious privilege is here! The mighty God, the infinitely happy Deity imparting, along with His purity, His own joy to His needy creatures! Jesus said, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." Surely this is "fullness of joy."