Called Unto Holiness By Ruth Paxson
Ruth Paxson spoke during the Keswick Convention
in 1936. The addresses are printed as delivered at the three meetings for
ladies only and at the closing fellowship gathering.
God’s call
to holiness is unmistakable: every believer must be holy, even as He is holy.
His instructions are clear and plain. Christ demands a separated life-one set
apart for Him alone. The Lord’s last conversation with His disciples reveals
God’s threefold standard for the Christian life. There must be oneness with
Christ through positional sanctification, likeness to Christ through
progressive sanctification, and fullness of Christ through personal
sanctification.
“The twin word
for holiness in Scripture is that precious word sanctification…
‘For this
is the will of God, even your sanctification’ 1 Thess. 4:3
‘For God
hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness’ 1 Thess. 4:7
Christ
prayed for our sanctification in John 17:17, 19.
God has
made this a gift of the Holy Spirit as our Sanctifier in 2 Thess. 2:13, before
there was ever a world or anyone in it. Read Eph. 1:4.
"What is the
scriptural meaning of the word? The primary meaning is, someone or something
wholly set apart unto God… There is the secondary meaning: that which belongs
to God must be like God. We must be holy for He is holy. God, the Holy Father;
God, the Holy Son; and God, the Holy Spirit indwell the Christian. Is not that
reason enough why we should be sanctified? Wholly set apart unto God? Made holy
even as God Himself is holy?”
When
writing about our oneness with Christ through positional sanctification, Miss
Paxson chose as her text John 15:5. “That little word ‘in’ is the biggest little
word in all the Bible. Usually our first concern in our Christian experience is
what we are. But where we are is of paramount importance, because where we are
determines what we are. ‘Ye in me’ precedes ‘I in you.’ The branch must be in
the vine before it can bear fruit. Then, where are you today, my friend?”
“The Bible
shows us just two positions in which any human being can be-one is the position
of the sinner, the other is that of the saint. To become a Christian we have to
pass out of one position into the other. These two positions are radically
different… You are in one or the other for there is no other place to be. There
is no middle ground between these two positions. You are either in the trinity
of which Satan is the head, of which the world is the embodiment, and the flesh
is the expression; or you are in the trinity of which Christ is the Head, of
which the church is the manifestation, and the Holy Spirit is the power. Where
are you this moment? It is the most important question any human person ever
faces in all his life… One thing, and only one thing, determines where you are.
It is your relation to the crucified, risen, ascended, exalted Saviour and
Lord. The salvation and the sanctification of the believing sinner required two
outpourings-the outpouring of the blood of the Saviour on Calvary and the
outpouring of the Spirit of the Lord at Pentecost…
The blood
of the Saviour is that which both saves and sanctifies. (Rev. 1:5 & Heb.
13:12) It is the blood alone that saves… There is but one thing that saves and
that is the blood of Jesus outpoured on Calvary’s Cross.
It is the
blood that sanctifies. It separated us from the kingdom of Satan. It crucified
us unto the world and the world unto us. And it delivered us out of the sphere of
the flesh.
The
crucifixion of Jesus Christ put an end to the old creation and separated us
completely from everything that pertains to it. It put aside everything but
Christ. It placed Christ as Saviour at the very center of the Christian’s life,
making him Christ-centered.
Following
Calvary came Pentecost. The believers in that upper room were baptized with the
Holy Spirit, and the church, the body of Christ, was formed… From that day on
down through the centuries every person who has put faith in the blood of the
Saviour has been baptized by the Holy Spirit into that one body. He has been
made one with Christ and the fullness of Christ’s life has been made his
potentially…
The Cross
of Christ is the Great Divide. It makes a clean-cut cleavage between the sphere
of darkness and death and the sphere of light and life. It is the boundary line
between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. It calls subjects out of
the one kingdom into the other and compels the sinner to make a choice.
Have you
responded to that call? Have you crossed that Great Divide? Have you put faith
in the blood of your Saviour? The answer to this question determines not only
with which trinity you choose to company in time, but with which you will spend
eternity… As a Christian are you wholly set apart unto Christ? Are you wholly
in His possession, under His control and for His use? Will you frankly face
this question today?
‘Neither
give place to the devil’ (Eph. 4:27)
‘Be not
conformed to this world’ (Rom. 12:2)
Is your
life at any point or in any phase conformed to this world? If you find any such
conformity will you acknowledge it and come right out in complete separation at
any cost?
‘Put off
the old man-Put on the new man’ (Eph 4:22, 24)
Is Christ the
source of everything in your life as far as you know? Is everything from
Him? Is He the center of your life? Is everything in Him? Is He the goal
of your life? Is everything for Him? Christ is something to you, but is
He everything?”
“The essential thing for
holiness of life is to have a standard, and then to live without deviation by
that standard. The Lord Jesus Christ has set that standard for us…
Where we
are determines what we are… What are you now that you are in Christ?..
John 15…
Oneness in Christ demands likeness to Christ; the branch that is in the vine
must bear fruit. The branch that bears no fruit is worthless and is taken away.
John 15:2 What a solemn thought that is for every one of us who is a branch.
The second
thought is that no branch can bear fruit of itself. There is absolutely nothing
in the branch itself that is productive of fruit, nothing that the branch is,
nothing that the branch can do, can make it produce fruit; only the sap of the
vine produces fruit. So the branch has nothing to do but to abide in the vine.
John 15:4
Third,
fruit-bearing is progressive…. John 15:2, 8
There is
nothing static in spiritual experience; every real Christian is a growing
Christian. The purpose of fruit-bearing is to glorify Christ. The branch does
not bear fruit to glorify itself, it bears fruit to glorify the vine…
Now what is
fruit? It is Christ in His outward manifestation. John 15:4… The whole of
Christian living is in these three words, ‘I in you.’ ‘I in you’-you nothing
but a house of which the Lord Jesus Christ has taken possession, control and
use.
Christ
Himself is our Sanctification. 1 Cor. 1:30
Christ
Himself is our life Col. 3:4
The
Christian life is not merely a converted life, it is not merely a consecrated
life, it is not a Christian life at all unless it is a Christ-life…
A Christian
has only one value in this world-to reveal Jesus Christ, to manifest Jesus
Christ in this dark, sinful world where men do not know Him and do not read the
Bible to find Him there. A Christian is an absolutely worthless Christian
unless he is revealing Jesus Christ. What enables him to reveal Christ?
Anything in himself? Nothing but the One that lives within him, the Lord Jesus
Christ-‘I in you.’ It is all that He asks of you and me, to let Him do the
living and revealing…
Christ now
has the right to possess us fully, to control us completely and to use us
exclusively. In order that He may do so, He must become Lord. But sin, that stubborn
old ruler, will contest His claim every step of the way. But did God make
provision for the dethronement of that old master sin? See Rom. 6:6… You and I
are called to make a choice…the choice between the continued sovereignty of
that old master, Sin, and that of our new master, Christ. Rom. 6:12…Have you
made this choice? Has it been a deliberate, final choice of Christ as the sole
Sovereign over your life?..
Having
chosen Christ as our Master, then He commands us to yield to Him as Lord. Rom.
6:13 ‘Yield yourselves,’ spirit, soul and body. Yield your whole human
personality in total to Christ. Have you done it? Or have you parceled
out a little bit and told Him what He could have, and what you intended to
reserve for yourself?
‘Yield your
members.’ In order that there may be no loophole, He goes on to say we are to
yield every member of the body-the eyes, the ears, the feet, the hands, the
lips, the tongue. Have you done it?.. Then we must yield everything that has
any relationship whatsoever to our life, all our habits, all our practices, all
our appetites, our pleasures, our companionship's, our home, our possessions,
our children, our money…Here is our Lord’s command, have we obeyed it?.. Will
you yield yourself, your members, all that you are and have, to the Lord now?
This work
of sanctification can be carried on only through the Holy Spirit, the
Sanctifier, that second great gift bestowed at the time of conversion. The
moment you were brought into union with Christ, the wonderful Holy Spirit came
to indwell you, and He is there for one purpose, to glorify Christ in you…
The Spirit
of truth gives us a progressive revelation of Christ and of our riches in Him
so, that once having seen Him we will want Him and Him only. Eph. 1:17-19…
The Spirit
of power works for a progressive realization of Christ within us as our Life
and our Lord. Eph. 3:16, 17, 19…
The Spirit
of holiness works progressively to separate us from earthly things and from the
love of the world and to strip us of everything of which Christ is not the
source, the center and the goal. 2 Cor. 6:14, 17; James 4:4…
The Spirit
of life works progressively to counteract the flesh by taking control and by
crowning Christ Lord of all in life and work. Rom. 8:2; Gal. 5:17…
As the
Spirit of glory He conforms us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Cor.
3:18…
We become
the Christian who bears the much fruit. Gal. 5:22, 23 A wonderful cluster of fruit that cannot be
broken.
What
memories do I leave behind me? Have we drawn attention to ourselves, or have we
fixed the thought of others upon our glorified Lord?”
“The church, which is his body, the
fullness of him that filleth all in all.” Eph. 1:22, 23
“Think of it! ‘The church, the fullness of Christ’! The
Christian, the fullness of Christ! Is that your conception of what it is
for you to be a Christian. You, living in your home; you, walking up and down
the streets of your town or city, the fullness of Christ! That is what the Word
says. ‘The fullness of him who filleth all in all.’ Here we are told how it is
possible. He fills us with His own fullness. John 14:16, 17; Acts 2:4
Has such fullness been provided for me? Oneness in Christ made it ours.
Col. 2:9, 10 ‘And ye are made full in him.’ Our position in Christ makes us
potential partakers of the fullness of Christ. We ‘are made full’ it says, not
we will be. The moment we become a part of the body of Christ, the fountain of
fullness in Him is opened to us. The fullness has been provided for every
Christian.
Is such fullness possible for me? Can the fullness provided be made
personal? John 4:14 ‘Water’ in Scripture is the type of the Spirit as Christ
Himself interprets it in John 7:38, 39. Christ is never called the water of
life, but He gives this water to those who thirst and drink. Christ gives the
Holy Spirit to the Christian. He is promising here the gift of the Holy Spirit.
‘In him a well’-is the Holy Spirit indwelling which Christ promised the
disciples.
‘A well of water springing up’-leaping up in an exhaust-less,
irrepressible way; springing up and overflowing. Is not this fullness?
‘Whosoever’-Did you get that word?..
‘Shall never thirst.’ Do you believe it?.. Perfect inward heart
satisfaction. Do you have it?..
‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst’ but shall have perfect inward satisfaction and sufficiency. No matter
what the circumstances or the environment or the spiritual and temporal need,
Christ is enough and equal to it all. Christ only satisfies; Christ only
suffices because the indwelling Holy Spirit fills the life and makes Christ a
living reality within. Is He doing that for you?..
‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of
living water’ John 7:37, 38
‘Rivers of living water-not a rivulet, or stream, or even a river, but
‘rivers,’ the Amazon, the Mississippi, the Yangtze, the Thames, all put
together into one.
‘Shall flow’-not a Dead Sea that received and retains the blessings of
Keswick, but the river Jordan that refreshes and renews every life it touches…
‘From within him’-an inflow demands an outflow and an overflow. Christ
is enough and to spare…
‘He that believeth on me’-not only for some great preacher or Bible
teacher, not even alone for some one employed in Christian service, but for him
who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe?..
Is such fullness optional? May I choose whether I will be filled with
the Holy Spirit or not? ‘Be ye filled with the Spirit’ Eph. 5:18. It is a
command…
Why do I not have the fullness of the Spirit? There are two objective
causes in the realm of truth. One is ignorance. In Christ we possess the
fullness of the Godhead, and in the Spirit we have the One who makes this
fullness our personal possession. But, because of ignorance of the Word of God,
we lack this knowledge. Consequently we lack the experience of fullness. The
other cause is unbelief. We know the truth but only intellectually and
doctrinally. It has not become heart experience. Or we know it but we are
afraid to act up our knowledge and to appropriate this blessing by faith. Heb.
3:19
Then there are two subjective causes in the realm of experience. One is
unconfused sin. The Holy spirit is holy and the place He indwells must be made
and kept holy. This infilling demands cleansing from all known sin. It is
impossible to be filled with the Holy spirit while knowingly, deliberately,
retaining sin in the life… 2 Chron. 29:5, 16, 17… 1 Cor. 3:16, 17;
2 Cor 7:11; 1 John 1:9; Prov. 28:13 It
is utterly foolish and futile for any one of us to pray for the fullness of the
Holy Spirit if we hold even so much as a tiny spark of known resentment, or
hurt, or unlove, or any un-Christ-like feeling toward another… Are you willing
to have all uncleanness, both of the flesh and of the spirit, carried out of
your life?
The cleansing is not the infilling but it rids us of what prevents the
fullness and makes us ready for it.
The second subjective cause for the lack of fullness is an unyielded
life, which means an uncrucified and uncontrolled self. Infilling demands the
yielding of ourselves in total to the Lordship of Christ. It permits of no reservations; it allows no
locked doors. We must part with everything of which Christ is not the source
and we must place everything under Christ’s control. There must be the utter
dethronement of self and the voluntary enthronement of Christ… 2 Chron. 29:31…
After the filthiness was carried out the offerings were brought in… Rom.
12:1; 2 Cor. 5:15 Yielding to Christ means opening every part of the life to
Christ, that He may fill it with Himself…
Yielding is not infilling, but it prepares for it. Emptying makes ready
for infilling. Only the yielded life can be filled with the Holy Spirit…
How may the fullness be obtained?.. John 4:14, 7:37
‘Any man’-there are no favorites with God.
‘Thirst’-an intense desire for holiness for Christ’s sake that must be
satisfied. It is an insatiable longing for God Himself. Ps. 42:1, 2…
‘Come’-‘Come unto Me’-the only One who can bestow this gift: the Giver
of this living water in all its fullness.
‘Drink’-this is an act. Thirst is desire-I want water. To drink is an
act-I take water. Just here is where many earnest, seeking souls fall short of
this glorious experience. They thirst but they do not drink…
‘Be not drunk with wine
But be filled with the Spirit.’
How does one get drunk? By drinking. How does he stay drunk? By
continuing to drink. How is one filled with the Holy Spirit? Our Lord says by
drinking of that living water. How does one stay filled? By continuing to drink
day by day. Is that not simple for each one of us..?
May we bow in silence to face a few questions in the presence of the
Lord, and answer by a definite ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’
- Have you ever
been filled with the Holy Spirit?
- Are you filled
with the Spirit now?
-
Will you be
filled today?
-
Do you purpose
to live the Spirit-filled life from now on?
If you thirst
and will drink just now, will you offer to God this simple prayer: ‘Lord, I
thirst; Lord, I come and drink; Lord, I take the gift Thou offerest, the
fullness of the Holy Spirit, and thank Thee for it.'"
