expectation of the disciple. There need be no
fear that it is not possible to know the will of the Father in
everything. 'If any man will do, he shall know.' The Father will not
keep the willing child in ignorance of His will. As the surrender to the
Spirit of holiness, to Jesus and the dominion of His holy life, becomes
more simple, sin and self-will will be discovered, the spiritual
understanding will be opened up, and the law written in the inward parts
become legible and intelligible. There need be no fear that it is not
possible to do the will of the Father when it is known. When once the
grief of failure and sin has driven the believer into the experience of
Rom. vii., and the 'delight in the law of God after the inward man' has
proved its earnestness in the cry, 'O wretched man that I am,'
deliverance will come through Jesus Christ. The Spirit works not only to
will but to do; where the believer could only complain, 'To perform that
which is good, I find not,' He gives the strength and song, 'The law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin
and death.'
In this faith, that it is possible to know and do the will of God in all
things, take over from Him, in whom alone you are holy, as your
life-principle; 'I come to do Thy will, O God.' It is the principle of
the resurrection life: without it Jesus had never been raised again. It
is the principle of the new life in you. Accept it; study it; realize
it; act it out. Many a believer has found that some simple words of
dedication, expressive of the purpose in everything to do God's will,
have been an entrance into the joy and power of the resurrection life
previously unknown. The will of God is the complete expression of His
moral perfection, His Divine Holiness. To take one's place in the centre
of that will, to live it out, to be borne and sustained by it, was the
power of that life of Jesus that could not be held of death, that could
not but burst out in resurrection glory. What it was to Jesus it will be
to us.
Holiness is Life: this is the simplest expression of the truth our text
teaches. There can be no holiness until there be a new life implanted.
The new life cannot grow and break forth in resurrection power, cannot
bring forth fruit, but as it grows in holiness. As long as the believer
is living the mixed life, part in the flesh and part in the spirit, with
some of self and some of Christ, he seeks in vain for holiness. I
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