holiness. God is holy. He needs no self-denial, no buffeting, no mortification. Holiness,

rather, is the very self-expression of God.

The Church of the Mystery was chosen before there was any mention of sin, that

it should be holy (Eph. 1: 4). Before the age-times it had received a holy calling

(II Tim. 1: 9). True, it can never be presented "holy and unblameable and unreproveable"

in the sight of God apart from the offering of the body of Christ (Col. 1: 22): true, the

church must be cleansed by the washing of the water by the Word, and by that offering of

the Son of God Who loved the church and gave Himself for it, before it can be presented

"holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5: 26, 27). Sin and holiness are so opposed, that death

and burial must take place before the latter is secured. Yet, holiness does not consist in

death, crucifixion, burial, neglect, mortification; these have to do with the flesh and with

sin that would prevent holiness.

We return, therefore, to the question as to what is holiness? In the earlier articles of

this series we considered something of the underlying meaning of the Hebrew word

qadesh ("sanctify"), and upon this and kindred teaching much of our doctrine on the

subject is built. At the moment, however, we find the point of argument in the English

word "holy". It is equivalent to the Middle English, hool, "whole", with the suffix "y",

and therefore closely allied to whole. "Health" also and "to heal" are closely allied with

holiness, the Anglo-Saxon hal being a common ancestor of "heal", "whole" and "holy".

The very last thing that holiness implies is neglect, loss, austerity. While certainly it is

better to enter into life maimed, than to be cast into Gehenna with all one's limbs,

nevertheless, holiness cannot be expressed by any set of terms that indicate a maiming or

crippling, such being contrary to the root idea.

Now this is equally true of the teaching of Scripture. Holiness indicates the normal,

not the abnormal. Holiness is fully attained when the believer stands in the resurrection

likeness of his Lord. Holiness goes with completeness and perfection. Holiness is the

full expression in perfect balance and harmony of the whole being; anything less fails of

the "wholeness" that is resident in "holiness".

There are quite a number of terms used to describe salvation and its issues that contain

this feature. We will draw attention to one particular before closing, and that is the

association of the words: "Holy and without blemish":--