Our God is holy – holiness is one of the main attributes of God, and we partake of His holiness and we are sanctified by Him in our whole being – spirit, soul, and body.
In the book of Deuteronomy we see the government of God, which is the governmental administration of the righteous, holy, and faithful God.
Our God is righteous, He is holy, He is faithful, and He is loving; we have a righteous, holy, faithful, and loving God. Our God has two systems or ways of dealing with people – the system of government and the system of grace.
In the system of government God rules over all things and He judges all things that are not according to His holy nature; according to this sytem, He disciplines His people for the purpose of perfecting them and making them the same as He is.
In the system of grace, God gives Himself to His people to be their life, supply, and everything; He freely dispenses Himself into those who are open to Him and are willing to receive Him.
However, these two systems balance one another; God is not merely freely giving Himself to those who want to receive Him, but He also rules and reigns over those who receive Him, and He deals with anything that doesn’t match His holy and righteous nature.
In His love He dispenses all the riches of His being freely, and whoever calls on the name of the Lord is saved and is continually saved in a rich way in his daily life.
In His government He arranges all things around us so that He may deal with us and discipline us so that we may match Him. God’s desire is lavish Himself upon His people and be all what they need for their daily life and living with Him and before Him.
But at the same time He is a righteous and holy God, so He needs to judge His people and discipline those whom He loves for the purpose of removing all the dross and impurities, so that they may match Him.
We praise the Lord for both His love and His holiness, both His grace and His righteousness, and both His rich dispensing and His sovereign arrangement, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
According to God’s righteousness, we have been redeemed, saved, and we are being daily transformed based on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, based on the righteousness of Christ which becomes our righteousness.
In Christ we have died to sin so that we may live to righteousness; today we live a life not in sin or unto sin, but unto righteousness.
In His death we have been separated from sins, and in His resurrection we have been enlivened so that in our Christian life we might live spontaneously to righteousness under the government of God.
Our God is Holy; to Partake of God’s Holiness is to Partake of His Holy Nature
![…He [disciplines] for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness. Heb. 12:10](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/He-disciplines-for-what-is-profitable-that-we-might-partake-683x1024.jpg?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "…He [disciplines] for what is profitable that we might partake of His holiness. Heb. 12:10")
Our God is holy – holiness is one of the main attributes of God (see 1 Pet. 1:15-16). The One who called us is the Holy One; therefore, we also should be holy in all our manner of life, because it is written, You shall be holy because I am holy.
The Triune God – the choosing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Spirit (1 Pet. 1:1-2) – is the Holy One; He has called us, and He sanctifies us.
We are the holy people of a holy God; we become holy through the sanctification of the Spirit, based on regeneration, which brings us the holy nature of God and issues in a holy life.
For us to partake of God’s holiness is to partake of His holy nature.
How can we, sinners, partake of God’s holy nature? It is by being regenerated with the divine life, which brings the divine nature into us; all believers in Christ have the holy divine nature in their being, and they are being sanctified.
Our Father God has regenerated us with His divine life and nature so that He may produce a holy family – He is our holy Father and we are His holy children.
On one hand God the Father has regenerated us with His life inwardly so that we may have His holy nature, and on the other hand, He disciplines us outwardly so that we may partake of His holiness (Heb. 12:9-10).
Based upon His righteousness, God as the sanctifying One desires that we would be holy as He is. According to this Holy One we ourselves will be made holy in all our manner of life, for even as He is holy so we should be holy.
Only God is holy; in the whole universe, only He is set apart, uncommon, and holy; He is the separating One, the sanctifying One, the One who not only separates us unto Himself but also saturates us with Himself and makes us holy in all our manner of life.
God as the sanctifying One has come into us to make us as holy as He is; God is sanctified, so we also must be sanctified.
We need to match Him; He gives Himself to us for our enjoyment and inheritance, and for us to enjoy all that He is we need to be as holy as He is. If we don’t match God, He may not be with us in our living.
In Rev. 4:8 the four living creatures have no rest day and night saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is coming.
The emphasis here is that the Triune God is holy and even triply holy, referring to the quality of God’s nature; God’s being, what He is, is holy (Isa. 6:3).
God refers to Himself as being holy, holy, holy; the Triune God in His being is holy. For us to partake of God’s holiness is for us to partake of the quality of His nature, of what He is (Heb. 12:10).
Our fathers disciplined us for a few days as it seemed fit, but our God disciplines us for what is profitable, so that we may partake of His holiness.
When God gets into us, we are holy; when we get into God, we are more holy; when we are mingled with God, we are most holy.
We are holy by having God in us, we are more holy by being in God, and we are most holy when we’re mingled with Him, saturated with Him, permeated with Him, and living under His government.
Thank You Father for regenerating us with Your holy divine nature to make us the holy children of our holy Father! Hallelujah, we have been regenerated with the divine life and we have the divine nature, and now we can partake of God’s holiness. Lord, You are holy, holy, holy, and You want to make us as holy as You are! May we daily partake of Your holy nature, of what You are, so that we may become the same as You are, the holy people of our holy God and Father! Fill us, saturate us, and permeate us with Your holy nature, and cause us to live according to Your nature in our spirit!
Our Holy God Sanctifies us Wholly so that we may Match Him in His Holiness
Our holy God has called us to partake of the quality of His nature, of what He is; He called us to partake of His holy nature. Also, our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29).
The fact that our God is holy implies that we as His people are being made holy; our holy God sanctifies us wholly so that we may match Him in His holiness.
For us to match Him, He needs to deal with any dross and impurities; for this, He is a consuming fire. God is a consuming fire in His holiness and severity (Deut. 9:3; Rom. 11:22).
On one hand, He deals with us in kindness if we continue in His kindness, but on the other, He is severe with us if we don’t; He has both a system of government and a system of grace.
Whatever in us that doesn’t correspond to His holy nature, He, as the consuming fire, will consume; thus, our holy God is severe, expressing His holiness in severity.
In His love, He loves us and wants to gain us and lavish all that He is and has upon us for our enjoyment and satisfaction. In His government, He as a consuming fire will consume all things in us that don’t match His holy nature.
Just as as surgeon has to sometime do extensive surgery, God in His system of government has to sometimes be severe and discipline us; it all depends on us, on our cooperation with Him.
In His love He reaches us wherever we are; in His government He will overcome all the barriers, and there’s nothing so resistant and rebellious in us that He can’t deal with.
Our God is both holy and faithful; in His holiness He is disciplining us and taking us through trials, and in His faithfulness He provides a way for us to go on with Him and to be sanctified wholly.
1 Thes. 5:23-24 says that the God of peace Himself will sanctify us wholly, so that our spirit and soul and body would be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, faithful is He who calls us, who also will do it!
To be sanctified is to be made holy, to be set apart to God; we as saints are the separated ones, the ones set apart to God.
Holiness is the nature and quality of being holy; sanctification to God is the practical effect, the character in activity, and the consummate state produced by being sanctified.
On one hand our holy God sanctifies us positionally by bringing us out of the world and into the church, into a position for God; on the other hand, He dispositionally sanctifies us by inwardly transforming us in our nature by the life-giving Spirit.
Our holy God sanctifies us wholly by being the life-giving Spirit saturating all our inward parts with God’s nature of holiness (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).
May we cooperate with God’s inner operation to transform us and sanctify us, and may we submit to God’s government operating outwardly to discipline us and make us holy even as He is holy.
Hallelujah, the God of peace Himself sanctifies us wholly, and our spirit, soul, and body are preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen, Lord, we believe that You who called us will also do it, for You are our faithful and holy God! Sanctify us more today, Lord. We give ourselves to You for You to add Your holy element into our inner being and sanctify us dispositionally to make us the same as You are in Your holy nature! Amen, Lord Jesus, overcome any barriers in us, remove all rebelliousness, and deal with any dross and impurities in our being until we are fully sanctified!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 85-96 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Deuteronomy, week 2, The Governmental Administration of the Righteous, Holy, Faithful, and Loving God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Church of God, beloved and chosen, / Church of Christ for whom He died, / Claim thy gifts and praise the Giver, / Ye are washed and sanctified. / Sanctified by God the Father, / And by Jesus Christ His Son, / And by God the Holy Spirit, / Holy, Holy, Three in One. (Hymns #825)
– And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, / And may your spirit and soul and body / Be preserved complete, without blame, / At the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Scripture song)
– Oh, sanctify us, Lord; now add Thyself to us, / In our experience, Thy Person spread in us, / That in reality the church be glorious, / O Lord, do add Thyself, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
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