A LIFE THAT IS A LIFE by D. F. Newton

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1868

A LIFE THAT IS A LIFE.

By D. F. Newton

THE HOLY LIFE, THE HIGHER LIFE—THE HIGHER LIFE, THE HOLY LIFE.

“It gives my ravish’d soul a taste, And makes me for some moments feast With Jesus’ priests and kings.”

“Be ye holy, for I am holy.”

What is it to be holy? Holiness is godliness, or being like God. It is love—“God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment; for as he is, so are we in this world.” It is loving God with all the heart, soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves. It is purity of thought, word, and action. The holiness we advocate, or contend for, is not absolute or infinite.

“It is not the holiness that pertains to God, nor to angels, nor that possessed by Adam, before the fall, in degree. It is not absolute perfection; as that only belongs to God. It is not sinless perfection; nor even every kind of relative perfection; nor yet again, the perfection we attain to in the resurrection. It is not natural, but moral perfection; a perfection of our Christianity; a perfection not incompatible with many human infirmities; such as a dull apprehension, unsound judgment, weak intellect, fertile imagination, treacherous memory, and the like; and, of consequence, mistakes in judgment and practice. It is not a perfection that places us beyond temptation, or the possibility of falling into sin; or that does not allow of progression in holiness.”

The holiness of all created intelligences is a borrowed holiness. The moon has no light in herself. The light she receives, is from the sun, the glorious king of day. The light we receive, is from the FOUNTAIN of all light. The holiness we profess, is Christian holiness, a holiness that removes all pride, covetousness, ill-temper, the fear of man, all desire of receiving or seeking honor one of another. It destroys all love of the world, extirpates all selfishness, removes all unbelief, dethrones every idol, crucifies everything that is opposed or hostile to the will of God. It is being crucified with Christ. The individual in possession of the blessing of holiness, or perfect love, can adopt the language of the apostle, “Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Rom. vi, 6, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. ii, 20. It is Bible holiness, a holiness that takes God’s word for everything, for time and eternity; a state of holiness in which the heart that loves sin is taken away; a state in which we neither voluntarily sin, nor have a desire to sin; a condition in which we trust in Jesus to be kept from sin; and, being cleansed “from all filthiness,” we are prepared to obey the command, “Perfecting holiness in the fear of God;” as the more perfect the development of life, the more certain and rapid is its growth.

Glance at the blessed effects of this holiness, or perfect love. God enables the happy possessor of it, through grace, to triumph over the world, the flesh, and the Devil, to fight the good fight of faith, to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in every good word and work. D. F. NEWTON.