1 John 1:7-8

HOLINESS AND THE ATONEMENT

‘But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’

1 John 1:7

There is a widespread desire after holiness amongst those who love the Lord. It is well, therefore, that our attention should be carefully directed to this great subject.

I. What do we mean by holiness?—It is a very sacred thing, and one better known by experience than definition; but some things seem clear as respecting it.

(a) It is a work in the heart, and strikes its roots down deep into the inmost affairs of the soul. No amount of religious action can take its place. Men may be active in good works, strict in religious services, and liberal in religious gifts; but all these count for nothing if the heart is not right with God.

(b) It is holiness before God. It is something far higher and far deeper than respectability, morality, honour, virtue, uprightness, or religious activity.

(c) It may be defined as consisting of three things: (i) nearness to God; (ii) likeness to God; (iii) separation to God. In the Communion Service we say, ‘Here we offer and present unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee.’ It is not a heart consecration only, but a yielding up to God of all we have and all we are. We are like the man of whom we read, that he shall ‘sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord’; and we produce what are described in Exodus 28:38 as our ‘holy gifts,’ to be presented by the great High Priest before our God.

II. The connection of this sacred work with the great atonement through the blood of Christ.—There are two great truths to be well established in all our minds.

(a) It is atonement which renders holiness possible. How can there be nearness to God without reconciliation, and how can there be reconciliation without satisfaction for sin? If a guilty sinner is lying under the curse of the law, how can he be living in nearness to God? How can there be fellowship so long as there is the yawning gulf of unforgiven sin?

(b) It is atonement which supplies the motive. I do not deny that there are other motives. There is gratitude, sense of goodness, and the power of the moral sense. But they are all feeble and inferior. They will not force a man to kneel down with a full heart, and say, ‘Lord, I am Thine.’ It is when a man discovers that he was lost but is saved, and saved because of the marvellous mercy shown in the fact that the Father sent the Son to be the propitiation for his sins; it is that which moves, which opens, which softens the heart; that which draws forth all the tenderest affection of the soul; leads to the thankful surrender of every power to His service. It was when St. Paul was convinced of the vicarious death of the Lord Jesus that he was drawn, moved, or constrained by love, for he said, 2 Corinthians 5:14, ‘For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead.’

III. What, then, is our practical conclusion?—Surely this, that in all our pursuit of holiness we keep the great propitiation continually in view as the great foundation of all peace and holiness. From whatever point of view we look at it, we may depend upon it that full, perfect, complete, and finished propitiation is the great subject of the day. I can imagine few things more fatal to a man than to imagine himself so far advanced as to be beyond the necessity of perpetually falling back on atonement. He may be walking in the light, even as God is in the light. He may enjoy fellowship with the brethren, and even fellowship with the Father, and with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But the light of that fellowship does not throw atonement into the shade, for it is the crowning privilege of that walk in the light that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ Not ‘did cleanse’ us, either when we were first converted or baptized, or when we entered into it; but ‘cleanseth’ us, or ‘is cleansing us habitually,’ now; so that we may safely conclude that the brighter the light, and the more intimate the fellowship, the keener will be our experimental appreciation of the hatefulness of sin and the cleansing power of the great propitiation.

Rev. Canon Edward Hoare.

Illustration

‘Nearness leads to likeness. Intimacy leads to assimilation. We see this continually in common life. Not only do people catch from each other the habits, ways, expressions, and tone of voice of those they love, but in some cases the very features begin to grow alike. Thus when there is this habitual nearness to God, and when we are habitually holding intercourse with Him, there is a gradual assimilation of character by the power of the Holy Ghost. People are transformed into His likeness. We begin to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. Thus when there is godliness there is holy conversation and an abhorrence of sin. It is not a forced obedience, but a oneness of heart according to which His character becomes our standard, as in 1 Peter 1:15, “As He Which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” ’