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#2.
Root and Fruit (hagiasmos).
pp. 76 - 78
Everything pertaining to the new nature is unalterably ours in Christ. Yet practically
every blessing thus already our own is placed ahead of us for our own personal
realization. These two statements are true of holiness. It is impossible to "perfect" that
which does not exist--fruit can only be expected after the root has become grounded and
settled.
The figure of fruit is a true picture of the idea of perfection. The cycle of vegetable
life reaches its climax in fruit. The man in the street thinks of fruit as such things as
apples and pears; the botanist knows that fruit is the goal of the lovely rose, the meadow
buttercup or the stalwart oak. The cycle is then finished or perfected. The root from
which all practical sanctity must spring is that holiness which is ours in Christ once and
for all:--
"But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who is made to us wisdom from God, besides
righteousness and holiness and redemption" (I Cor. 1: 30).
The apostle was writing to Corinthians among whom wisdom was highly esteemed.
Had he been writing to a company who trusted in their own righteousness, he could have
placed the word righteousness where wisdom stands. Or those to whom he wrote may
have needed the teaching that sanctification is as much ours in Christ as is justification,
holiness as much as righteousness. Yet knowing this would we say that the man to whom
Christ has been made wisdom manifests this fact best by always acting like a fool? Is
justification by faith safeguarded most when those thus justified remain destitute of
practical righteousness? Can holiness in Christ be best manifested by uncleanness of
person? Are the holy fakirs of India nearer the truth than the apostle Paul? The use of
the word hagiasmos, "sanctification", makes the will of the Lord very clear:--
"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification . . . . . for God has not called us
unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (I Thess. 4: 3-7).
What the uncleanness is that is set over against sanctification and how intensely
practical this sanctification is, the passage before us declares. It is largely a matter of
"going beyond", of overstepping bounds fixed by God, of defrauding a brother. Holiness
in Scripture is a healthy thing. It does not drive men and women into monasteries and
nunneries, it declares marriage to be honourable and undefiled. Mere abstinence or
negation is not holiness; holiness in its practical aspect is the outcome of righteousness in
action, not of emasculation. For this we may turn to Rom. 6: 19:--
"As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto
iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness."