Holy in Christ

It is Andrew Murray's month of daily meditations on holiness — not as a height the believer must climb to, but as a gift already theirs in Christ, 'holy in Him.' In thirty-one readings he traces the holiness of God through Scripture, from creation and redemption onward, showing that the believer is made holy in Christ and calling them to live out what they already are in him.

A South African pastor and one of the most beloved devotional writers of the deeper Christian life, author of many short books on prayer, humility, and abiding in Christ. Holy in Christ, published in 1887, is his sustained meditation on holiness, arranged as a month of daily readings in his characteristic warm and searching style.

That holiness is first a gift before it is a task — that the believer is already 'holy in Christ,' set apart and made holy by union with him, and is called to live out that reality rather than to manufacture holiness by effort. Murray turns the reader from anxious striving toward resting in and drawing on the holiness that is already theirs in Christ.

Because Murray means the truth of holiness to sink in by repetition and prayer, not to be grasped in a single sitting. The thirty-one short chapters, one for each day of a month, lead the reader step by step through Scripture's teaching on holiness, so that dwelling on it daily forms not just an idea but a settled way of seeing oneself in Christ.

No — Murray holds gift and calling together. Because the believer is already holy in Christ, they are summoned to live a holy life; the indicative grounds the imperative. Murray's point is not to excuse effort but to give it the right source and rest: holiness is pursued out of what one already is in Christ, and by drawing on his life, not by straining to become acceptable.

He follows the theme of God's holiness through the Bible's story — creation, redemption, the tabernacle and law, the prophets, and its fulfilment in Christ and the believer — showing how the holy God makes his people holy in his Son. Each reading takes up a facet of this, building a rich, scriptural picture of what it means to be holy in Christ.

For any Christian who longs for holiness but finds it a wearying, elusive pursuit, and for anyone drawn to Murray's Christ-centred devotion. It especially helps the believer discouraged by striving, by locating holiness first in Christ, and it has fed generations seeking a deeper and more restful pursuit of a holy life.

With the first day's reading, and then one each day for a month, unhurried. Like Murray's other daily books, it is meant for slow, prayerful use rather than straight-through reading, so that the truth of being holy in Christ is dwelt on day by day until it becomes the reader's settled confidence and call.