God the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, and God sanctifies us daily by saturating us with His holy element.
Our God is holy, and He wants us, His people, to be holy. He predestinated us to be sons of God, and He chose us to be holy and without blemish before Him in love. He loved us and He chose us to be the same as He is.
How does God make us holy, and what does it mean for us to be as holy as God is holy?
This word, holiness, has been very much spoiled and misinterpreted by Christians today, and many times it is equated with sinlessness or perfection.
Yes, the result of being holy as God is holy is that we will be perfected by Him and we will not sin, but being holy is actually being separated unto God and saturated with God, for only God is holy, and only when we are saturated with God’s holy element we also become holy.
For us to be holy in all our manner of life (1 Pet. 1:15-16) and for us to be the holy people of a holy God, we need to become the same as God is in His nature of holiness.
And this is what is happening daily as we open to the Lord, pray, read the Bible and pray over God’s word, listen to spiritual speaking, and meet with the saints to enjoy the Lord and listen to His word.
The Lord’s word sanctifies us, and His spoken, living, personal word adds the element of God to our being as we open to the Lord in our listening. The way we are produced as the church as the bride, the wife of Christ, is by being washed by the water in the word of God.
The more we read and pray over God’s word, the more we are in the meetings and listen to God’s word, and the more we speak God’s word, the more we are being sanctified.
God sanctifies us daily not only by setting us apart from anything that is common unto Himself, but also by saturating us with His element until we become as holy as He is.
We were chosen in eternity past to be exactly the same as God is in life and nature, but not in His Godhead. In time the Lord as the Spirit comes to sanctify us positionally by seeking us out, shining His word in us, and bringing us back to Himself.
Then, in His sanctification the Spirit regenerates us in our spirit with God’s life to make us children of God, those born of God with His life and nature. After we are regenerated, the Spirit continues to sanctify us dispositionally until our whole being is filled with the divine element and we become His holy people having a holy living.
And eventually, the Lord as the Spirit will sanctify us by transfiguring our mortal body with Himself until our whole being is filled and saturated with God as holiness. The result is that we will become the holy city, New Jerusalem, filled with God’s glory.
God Sanctifies us by Saturating us with His Holy Element until We’re Holy and Without Blemish
God the Father chose us, all those who believe into the Lord Jesus Christ, to be holy and without blemish before Him in love (Eph. 1:3-4).
First, He separated us unto Himself; then, He came in to saturate us with His element, and eventually, we become one with God and even the same as He is in life and holy nature.
God chose us to be holy, that is, to be saturated with God, and today we are in the process of sanctification, in which God sanctifies us by slowly saturating us with His holy element until we become as holy as He is.
One day, we will be like Him, as holy as He is, and this will mark the completion of our sanctification; this will be the redemption of our body to be as holy as God is holy.
God chose us in Christ to be without blemish. To have a blemish is like a foreign particle in a precious gem. Right now we have many foreign particles such as our fallen human element, the self, the flesh, and many worldly things.
As God sanctifies us and we cooperate with Him, all the blemishes are being removed, and we become without blemish, with no mixture, having no other element than God’s holy nature.
We need to be daily in the washing of the water in the word (Eph. 5:26-27) so that we may be sanctified and have God’s element added to us.
If we look at ourselves today, we have many foreign particles which are a blemish, such as the flesh, the self, the natural life, and many worldly things and habits, all of which are in our being.
But praise the Lord, God sanctifies us by the washing of the water in the word, and we are being gradually transformed until we will be pure and without blemish, without any foreign particles, having only the divine element.
We will be holy and without blemish before Him, before God Himself. It is one thing to think that we are holy before men, but it is another thing to be holy and without blemish before God.
This means that, as God sanctifies us, we will be holy and without blemish not according to our standard or in our eyes but according to God’s standard and in His eyes.
And this sanctification takes place in love (Eph. 1:4). He doesn’t sanctify us by forcing us to do things we don’t want to do or by outwardly adjusting and correcting us, but by first loving us and constraining us with His love.
God sanctifies us in love, and this love is the love with which God loved His chosen ones and the love with which we love Him. When we see God’s love, when we are touched by His love towards us, we simply love Him back, for His love inspires us to love Him in return.
In such an atmosphere and condition of love, we are saturated with God to be holy and without blemish as He is. In such a condition of love God sanctifies us by saturating us with His holy element, and we are being transformed into His image and inwardly filled with His element.
Thank You Father for choosing us to be holy and without blemish before You in love. Thank You for loving us and inspiring us to love You back. Amen, Lord, we love You, and we want to be saturated with Your holy element. Remove any blemish from us, Lord, by the washing of the water in the word, and transform us into Your image. Make us Your beautiful bride, Your spotless and perfect wife, by the washing of the water in the word. Amen, Lord, saturate us continually until we become the same as You are.
We’re being Separated unto God and Saturated with God until we become the Holy City, New Jerusalem
May the Lord have mercy on us that we come back to the pure revelation in God’s word concerning being holy.
Holiness in the Bible is absolutely different from what we can see today in the teachings in Christianity, in such things as self-correction, sinless perfection, or improvement of behavior.
As we see in God’s word, to be holy means first that we are separated unto God, and then we are continually saturated with God until all mixture and blemish is swallowed up and removed by the divine nature.
When this takes place in full, we will be wholly sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, thus being holy.
Outward correction means very little, even nothing; improvement of behavior may work for a short period of time, but this is not what God is after. What God wants is to saturate us and soak us with Himself until we are by nature holy, and our living will be holy and without blemish before Him in love.
God sanctifies us by first separating us unto Himself, and then, He comes in to take over us, possess us, saturate us, and make us the same as He is.
The issue of this process of being possessed by God, saturated with God, and taken over by God is the New Jerusalem, the holy city. The New Jerusalem is a city that not only belongs to God and is for God, but it is a city possessed by God, saturated with God, and one with God.
We are not “going to the New Jerusalem” but we are becoming the New Jerusalem as we remain in the process of being sanctified by God.
We are becoming the bride of Christ for 1000 years, and for eternity we will live a marriage life with our beloved Husband, for we will match Him in every possible way, being as holy as He is.
This is what we inwardly desire and yearn for, because God put eternity in our heart, and what we want to do is the work of eternity, live the life of eternity, and see the vision of eternity.
As we are being daily sanctified, we become a little New Jerusalem, and the church life of the sanctified saints is a miniature of the New Jerusalem. As God sanctifies us and we cooperate with Him, we have the river of water of life, the tree of life, the throne of God, the divine nature, and many precious experiences of the Spirit, and in the church life Christ is manifested in a living way.
May we daily choose to move out of ourselves and into the Triune God by being sanctified by God through His living word.
May we seek to have God’s direct, personal, and intimate speaking in His word, and may we place ourselves in the middle of the church life to be under His speaking in the church, so that we may be beautified by His word and become His bride, His wife, the New Jerusalem!
Amen, Lord, sanctify us more today! Cause us to be separated unto God, taken over by God, possessed by God, and saturated with God and one with God, until we become holy as God is holy. Saturate us more today. Make us one with You. Save us form trying to improve ourselves or outwardly adjust our behavior. May we treasure and focus more on the divine dispensing, the mingling of God and man, so that we may be fully sanctified. Amen, Lord, we believe that You are able to sanctify us wholly and completely, both in our spirit, and soul, and body!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 3 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 7, Chosen to Be Holy with a Holy Living to Express the Holy God and Become the Holy City.
- Hymns on this topic:
# I love my Lord, but with no love of mine, / For I have none to give; / I love Thee, Lord, but all the love is Thine, / For by Thy love I live. / I am as nothing, and rejoice to be / Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in Thee. (Hymns #546)
# Christ in love Himself has given / That the Church be sanctified, / Without blemish, spot, or wrinkle, / To become His glorious bride. (Hymns #823)
# He will sanctify thee wholly; / Body, spirit, soul shall be / Blameless till thy Savior’s coming / In His glorious majesty! / He hath perfected forever / Those whom He hath sanctified; / Spotless, glorious, and holy, / Is the Church, His chosen Bride. (Hymns #825)
About aGodMan
