38 - Heb_12:14-18
CHAPTER X X X V I I I.
PEACE AND HOLINESS.
Hebrews 12:14-18. THE two exhortations,* to follow peace with all men, and that holiness without which none can see the Lord, comprise the whole Christian life. They refer to our relation to God and to our neighbour. They embrace both tables of the law. Love to God is the first and supreme commandment. But, as Jesus so beautifully expressed it, the second is like unto it: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (*The preceding exhortation, "Lift up the hands," etc.; "Making straight paths for your feet," etc., alludes toIsaiah 35:3, andProverbs 4:26. As Delitzsch remarks, the total apostasy of weak and hesitating members was to be prevented by the whole congregation rousing itself to decision and faithfulness. This would exert a salutary and helpful influence, as a smooth and even path encourages weak and lame feet to the effort of walking.) The intimate connection between these two exhortations is always pointed out in Scripture. In loving our brother we abide in God. If there is a cloud between me and my brother, there is also a cloud between me and the Lord. Our growth in grace is according to God’s will and Christ’s institution within the Church, and in and by the communion of saints. Hence we are exhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; for there is one body and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope.
Christ has indeed promised to each individual, "If a man love Me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." And we can scarcely lay too much stress on the necessity of secret prayer, of solitary meditation, of each one working out his own salvation with fear and trembling. But neither can we lay too much stress on the institution of the congregation, on the communion of saints, on the special blessing, on the special presence promised to the meeting of believers in Jesus name, on the necessity of continuing stedfast in doctrine - that is, in the apostolic teaching as continued by God-given teachers and pastors - in fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in united prayer. The individual spiritual life is to be nourished in the Church, and is again to nourish and enrich the congregation; and as no general and comprehensive philanthropy can be genuine without love to parents and children, neighbours and friends, or can be a substitute for the affection, claimed first by divine and natural law, so as a rule no Christian is in his right place, or in a healthy condition, who does not live and work in a congregation, and give his energies, beginning with his prayer and intercession, to a community of believers, united together for worship and work in one special place. When the Hebrews became cold in love and wavering in the faith, they began neglecting to assemble themselves together, and cultivate Christian fellowship. Edification in Scripture always refers to the building up of believers as a community. Fellowship and co-operation are inseparably connected with the development of many aspects of Christian life.
Now the characteristic feature of the Church ought to be the spirit of peace. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" "The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." And this concord proceeds from that peace with God, which the individual Christian possesses, even as the absence of concord must be traced to the absence of peace in the heart with the Lord. The peace the world cannot give, which passeth all understanding, comes from the God of peace, the Father who loved us. It comes through Jesus Christ, by His death on the cross; it enters the heart by the Holy Ghost, who assures us of our acceptance. But this is only the first experience of peace. Our peace is the very peace of Jesus. "My peace I give unto you." How then can they who have Christ’s peace, as well as the peace purchased by Christ, be without love to the brethren, without patience and meekness? How can clamour and bitterness and malice, uncharitableness and envy, enter into the heart which rejoices in God, and which is one with that Saviour who washed the disciples feet; who prayed for Peter, while he denied his Master; who shed His blood, inter ceding for His enemies, and loving His own to the end?
"Follow peace with all men." "Blessed are the peace-makers; for they shall be called the sons of God." Why has this beatitude the highest reward attached to it? Because the only begotten Son of God is the Peace-maker. He came to make peace, true peace in righteousness and holiness. He made peace by His life and death; He sends the message of peace to all, far and near; He brings peace to the greatest enemies, and despisers of His gospel. By the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, He gives believers to be partakers of His own peace.
Christians are therefore at peace, and the makers of peace. They are faithful to God, and to His truth; their testimony is against sin and unbelief in the world, against hypocrisy and unfaithfulness in the Church; but as love is their life-element, so peace is their characteristic. "Into whatever house ye go, salute it;" and this is the salutation, "Peace be with you." "And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you." As if Christ said, You possess peace as your own, in alienable and most precious, deep-seated in the very heart of hearts. You go forth to wish, to declare, to bring peace. They who receive you shall through your peace be brought to peace, as flame kindles flame. They who reject you shall not disturb your peace, or even diminish it, or embitter you, or discourage you for your further work.
We are to follow peace - cultivate it earnestly. We must have peace within first, if we are to be the sons of peace, the peacemakers. Let us therefore look constantly to Jesus.
There are dark thoughts in the heart; a discontent with things around us, and a dissatisfaction with our spiritual state and attainments: a discontent which is barren of useful or helpful thoughts and actions. There are fears and misgivings which paralyze and fetter; a downward bent, the soul cleaving to the dust; the mind running to and fro in fruitless retrospect, calculating and planning future amendment. But it need not be so. The child of God ought to walk in the light of His countenance. Saved by grace, his life is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved him, and gave Himself for him.
Again, there are Christians who, although they know the grace of the Lord, seem always to be in search of something to give them a fuller peace. They run eagerly after every new doctrine and movement, as if it might bring them the unknown treasure. Oh, dear soul, remember thy baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! Look unto Jesus, who died for thee, and who now liveth to pray for thee, and by His Spirit to conform thee to His image. If Jesus dwells in the heart by faith, it is peace. We rest in the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, and from which nothing shall be able to separate us. Christ’s peace, beginning in the conscience, pervades the heart with its affections, and the mind with its thought and purpose. It passes all understanding; it manifests itself in humility and quietness. There is sometimes among Christians a restlessness and feverish energy, running to and fro in order to draw water, which shows that there is a want of the true peace within. Christ has given to us to have within us a well of water springing up into eternal life.
If God’s peace is within us, we love the brethren and all men. We are able to deal with them tenderly and calmly. Humility, affection, and hope fullness characterize the son of peace; for he is always praising the boundless grace of God in which he stands.
Thus, in our relation with our fellow-men we are in communion with God; therefore the apostle adds: "Holiness, without which none shall see the Lord." How beautiful and solemn are these words. They seem to descend from the very throne of God, out of the brightness of that light which no man can approach unto. And yet every heart must assent, and every conscience set to its seal. "Holiness, without which none shall see the Lord." Who can hear the words without bowing in reverence, and saying, Amen? .And such is the divine simplicity and power of these words, that once heard they can never be forgotten. They live forever in the memory. But do these words fill me with fear or with love? do they repel and chill? or do they attract and animate? Do they disturb or deepen my peace, and the sweet assurance, I am the Lord’s, and He is mine?
Some of us may remember the time when this word and similar declarations of Scripture brought to us fear and the spirit of bondage. Some here may still be in this state. Is it not strange that we should think this a hard saying, and that we should avoid looking it earnestly in the face? and yet we pass so lightly over a word like this, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And what is this declaration, "Holiness, without which none shall see the Lord," but another form of the same most solemn truth: The flesh cannot please God, and sinners cannot stand in His presence. Only the renewed, who by faith in Jesus have received power to become the sons of God; only the spiritual, born of the Spirit, have fellowship with the Father and the Son. But when you hear, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," you think of a doctrine and of a past experience. While when you hear, "Holiness, without which none shall see the Lord," you think of God and yourself, living now, and this indeed is full of awe and solemnity.
God is holy, separate from all darkness and sin; but not in isolated majesty banishing the imperfect and sinful from His presence: for God is light; God is love. It is the nature of light to communicate itself. Remaining pure and bright, undiminished and unsullied, it overcomes darkness, and kindles light. The holiness of God is likewise mentioned in Scripture, mostly in connection with love, communicating itself, and drawing into itself. "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts The angelic creation is also holy; for it is God’s. "Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory;" for in Christ both heaven and earth are to be filled with the divine light and love. "The Holy One of Israel, and your Redeemer." "I am holy" - but God does not remain alone, separate - "be ye also holy." "He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is His name."*
I behold then in the holiness of the Lord His most pure, righteous, solemn, and yet most tender and compassionate, love condescending to me; not willing to leave me in my sin, opaque darkness, flesh, Adam, but to bring me unto Himself; nay, to make me a partaker of His holiness. I see the holiness of God manifested in Jesus. I see Jesus, the Holy One, God and Man, Creator and Creature, Lord and Servant, Adored and Adoring; I see the Babe, that Holy Thing which was born of the Virgin Mary, holy, and yet flesh; I see Him on earth, the Tabernacle of God; I see Him on the cross, the Holy Temple broken, nay, the Holy Temple accounted sinful, and deserted by God; I see Him risen, the Holy Temple built again; I see Him ascended, the great High Priest. "Holiness unto the Lord" is written on His fore head; and I know that in Him I also am holy to Jehovah. By the blood of Jesus we are brought nigh to God. In the great High Priest we arc priests, holy, set apart to worship and serve God. We who were formerly darkness, are now light; we who were enemies, are now in the love of God. In Jesus we are sanctified. As Luther frequently said, "My holiness is in heaven." (*Compare also Psalm 99;Hosea 11:9. The Spirit, who in condescending love comes most directly into contact with us, is emphatically called "holy.")
Hence the exhortation of the apostle, when he says, Follow holiness, is the same which he urges in all his epistles: "Remember, that by the death of Christ you have been delivered, and separated from sin and this evil world; reckon yourselves to have died with Christ, to have been buried, and to have been raised to seek the things which are above." "As you have received Christ, so abide and walk in Him." "Follow" (as the one constant and earnest object of life) "that holiness, without which none shall see the Lord."
There are two errors against which we must guard. Justification and sanctification proceed from one source. When we first believed in Jesus, we received not merely pardon, but the renewal of heart and will. Then we were separated from sin unto God. Then faith saw the old man condemned and crucified. Then we began the new life of faith, in which there is conflict between the Spirit and the flesh. Now, we must always remember and hold fast this beginning. There is no second starting-point for sanctification; there is only one starting-point and beginning of the new life. It is not by some subsequent resolution, in which we concentrate our energy, and by an act of our will that we determine henceforth to live a godly life, but by faith constantly grasping what it grasped at conversion, the grace of God in Christ, that we are disciplined and conformed to the will of God. The apostle never exhorts Christians to make a new beginning, to resolve, to consecrate themselves, to seek a fresh baptism; but to reckon themselves to have died, to have been transplanted, to remember that they had received the Spirit, and that they were set apart unto God. God is holy; Christ is my holiness; I am holy in Him, who died for me, and for me is now in heaven. Humbled and comforted by this assurance, let me abide in Christ; let me put away, in His strength, all sin and worldliness, from which His death separates me; let me live by faith in Jesus.
Again, it is not a matter of degree. The flesh is condemned; sin is judged; the world is crucified. My aim is not to be a little less sinful, carnal, and worldly to-day than I was yesterday. My aim is to mortify the old man, with all its affections and lusts; not to love the world, and any of the things that are in the world; to follow that holiness according to which I have been brought into the position of a child of God, a member of Christ, and a temple of the Holy Ghost. It is not said to me, Become perfect, but be perfect; I am to be a partaker of God’s holiness. This is the peculiarity of the divine method. All human religions are ignorant of this mystery. Ask a Jew, a Mohammedan, a Rationalist, anyone but a Christian, "What do you mean by your righteousness, or your holiness?" His reply is, "I mean my integrity, my kindliness, my purity, my benevolence, my good thoughts, feelings, and works." It is always "my." Ask a Christian, "What is your righteousness?" His answer is, "Jehovah - Christ is my righteousness." "What is your holiness?" "My holiness is in heaven - Christ." "What is your life?" "My life is hid with Christ in God, and Christ liveth in me."
Christ then is made unto us sanctification. If only holiness can admit us to the blessed vision of God, it must be Christ; for imperfect holiness is as great a contradiction as unclean purity. But what is meant by following (striving after) holiness?
If you are one with Christ, you must know that there are within you two, which war against each other with a most determined hostility. The aim of the flesh is nothing less than to kill the Spirit. Its object is total extermination. It is not that you should pray less, but that you should not pray at all. It is not that you should love Christ with less fervour, but that you should forget Him. The aim of the Spirit is to kill the flesh, even sin. This warfare is painful; for sin is still in us. It is not like a garment that we wear. It has entrenched itself in our flesh; that is, the old Adam-nature of body, soul, and spirit. Hence cleaving to Christ and our holiness in Him is crucifixion of the flesh, and that is painful. To overcome the temptations of the world, with its allurements, fascinating errors, or alarming frowns, involves conflict and sacrifice; implies painful watching and constant self-denial. To follow a human standard of holiness, to perform the self-imposed task, to deny oneself the self-chosen number and kind of enjoyments, may involve a certain amount of hardship and pain; and the world has an admiring eye for this kind of saintliness. But what is it to the fight of faith? What to the task of presenting our bodies - our whole self, and that always - a living sacrifice unto God? What to the conflict, in which there is no intermission, to the aim of glorifying God which enters into the minutest detail of our life, whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do? What to the desire to walk in love, even as Christ loved us, to be imitators of God as dear children, to have the same mind in us which was in Christ? Let us study the epistles of the apostle Paul, and learn the solemn and awful character of the Christian life, warfare, and race; the constant need of watch fullness and concentration of energy; of diligence, self-restraint, and self-denial. But let us learn from them that it is a blessed and joyous thing to follow "the Holiness;" to abide in the light and love of God; to dwell in Him who is Light, and in whom is no darkness at all; who is Love, and who hath shed abroad His love in our hearts.
While we thus know the fountain of holiness, let us use with diligence and reverent humility the channels of divine blessing. God has given His word, that the man of God may be furnished thoroughly unto every good work. We are sanctified through the truth. The commandments of God, and the precepts of the Lord Jesus Christ, are to be our constant study, our inward delight, and our daily path. If we keep Christ’s commandments, we abide in His love. The child of God regards all the commandments of God as channels of blessing, and of communion with the Father and the Son; as safeguards against the inroads of the enemy; as expressions of the divine love seeking our love. "Be ye holy, for I am holy," is the language of infinite love, which has chosen us to be His portion for evermore.
He who seeks the holiness, without which none shall see the Lord, must remember that our whole man - body, soul, and spirit - is to be presented unblamable, that in all things we are to glorify God. Let us therefore have regard to all the commandments and warnings of the Word. Two dangers are here pointed out by the apostle, worldly lusts and profanity, or ungodliness.* Believers still need such exhortations. The apostle writes to Timothy, faithful and spiritual as he was, "Flee youthful lusts." The epistles contain many direct and pointed warnings against different sins. No humble Christian will pass over these injunctions as unnecessary. (*InHebrews 12:15, the apostle exhorts the congregation to remember their corporate responsibility for each member. They are to look diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. An outward professor may be brought, through the loving care and zeal of the brethren, to true faith. But if this object is not attained, church- discipline is an important ordinance and duty, "designed by Christ Himself to prevent these contagious evils in churches." (Owen.) The reference is toDeuteronomy 29:18. Out of such, as a root, spring bitter results - a burden of guilt which oppresses and denies the whole congregation. Even when the bad example does not infect the rest, the guilt resting upon the Church, neglecting discipline, acts as defilement. The character and history of Esau is a beacon. We know fromGenesis 24:37; Genesis 27:46; Genesis 28:1-6, that Esau had no appreciation of the divine blessing and promise. He was "profane;" that is, earthly-minded or ungodly. We are here told that Esau was also sunk in carnal ways. (This statement rests probably on tradition.) Yet the time came when he regretted that for a paltry gratification he forfeited his right. Afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected. For though he sought carefully with tears to change his father’s mind (