Holy in Christ

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 PETER 1:15–16

Holy in Christ is the longest of Murray’s books in the Ochorus library, and one of the least read. It is a sequence of thirty-one meditations, one for each day of a month, that trace the idea of holiness through Scripture from creation to the new Jerusalem. It is slower going than Humility or Absolute Surrender, and it repays the patience. Its subtitle speaks of the calling of God’s children to be holy as He is holy, and its argument can be put in a sentence: God calls us to be holy as He is holy, and He makes us holy by giving us Christ, who is our holiness.

Called to be holy

Murray begins with the call. God has called believers to many things, but Scripture names none more often than this. They are called to be saints — that is, holy ones. They were chosen in Christ that they should be holy and without blame. God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. EPHESIANS 1:4

Murray thought many Christians had misunderstood their calling. They had heard that God called them to salvation, pardon, happiness or heaven, and had not noticed that all these were subordinate to holiness. And he traced a great deal of spiritual weakness to exactly this. The complaints of so many believers about lack of joy, lack of strength and lack of growth, he wrote, come down to this: the place God gave holiness in His call, they have not given it in their response.

What holiness is

What does holy mean? Murray spent several chapters tracing the word through the Old Testament: the holy day in creation, the holy ground at the burning bush, the holy nation at Sinai, the holy place in the tabernacle. Holiness, he observed, is first of all what God is, and only then what He makes His people. It is His separateness, His majesty, His burning purity, His life.

Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. ISAIAH 6:3

And so our holiness cannot be something we manufacture. In one of the most important sentences in the book, Murray writes: “Holiness is not something we do or attain: it is the communication of the Divine life, the inbreathing of the Divine nature, the power of the Divine Presence resting on us.”

This is the same pattern we have met everywhere in his teaching. Humility is the creature receiving; abiding is the branch receiving; and holiness is the believer receiving the life of the Holy One. It is not first a code of conduct, though it will certainly show itself in conduct. It is a presence.

Christ our sanctification

That presence has a name. Murray took his title from Paul’s words to the Corinthians, that Christ is made unto us sanctification. Holiness is not a thing Christ gives us to hold on our own. It is Christ Himself, living in us.

But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:30

“In Christ I see what God’s Holiness is, and what my holiness is,” Murray writes. The holiness of God, which in the Old Testament was a consuming fire, has in Christ come near in a human life of perfect love, obedience and humility. And that life is ours. We are holy in Christ — set apart in Him, accepted in Him, and progressively made like Him by His Spirit.

Redeemed by blood

Murray would not let anyone think of holiness apart from the cross. Throughout the book he returns to the blood of Christ. At the Passover the blood of the lamb stood at the very threshold of Israel’s path to becoming a holy nation. In the tabernacle there was no entrance into the holiest except through blood. And the New Testament makes the same connection.

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. HEBREWS 13:12

His counsel is simple and deeply evangelical: “Always think of holiness, or pray for it, as one redeemed by blood.” The believer who seeks holiness is not climbing towards God to earn a place beside Him. He is a sinner who has been brought near by the blood of Christ, and who lives, in another phrase of Murray’s, under the covering of the blood in its daily cleansing power.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 1 JOHN 1:7

Murray later gave this theme a book of its own, The Power of the Blood of Jesus. But the heart of it is here. Holiness grows only in forgiven people.

The way of holiness

How then does a believer become holy in practice? Murray’s answer, spread across the book, is not a technique but a set of dispositions: faith, which receives Christ as sanctification; obedience, which does what He says; humility, which gives God the glory; separation, which turns from what is unholy; and meditation, which lingers in God’s presence until His holiness begins to shine through. Each of these has a chapter.

Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. HEBREWS 12:14

A caution about perfection

Murray belonged to the broad holiness movement of the late nineteenth century, and he sometimes wrote in a way that raised expectations of a very high degree of victory over sin in this life. He was more careful than many of his contemporaries, and he never taught that the believer becomes sinless. But readers should keep in mind that Scripture places the completion of our holiness at the appearing of Christ, not before. We are holy in Christ now, truly and really; we are being made holy day by day; and we shall be wholly holy when we see Him. All three are true at once.

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 JOHN 3:2

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask whether you have given holiness the place God gave it in His call, or whether you have treated it as optional.

2. Meditate on 1 Corinthians 1:30. Thank Christ that He is your sanctification, not merely your helper toward it.

3. When you pray for holiness this week, begin by thanking God for the blood of Christ that has brought you near.

4. Choose one of the dispositions Murray names — faith, obedience, humility, separation, meditation — and practise it deliberately for a week.

5. Read one meditation from Holy in Christ in the Ochorus library each day for a week.

A PRAYER

Holy Father, You have called me to be holy as You are holy, and I confess I have often wanted Your blessings more than Your likeness.

Thank You that Christ is made unto me sanctification, and that His blood has brought me near.

Breathe Your life into me. Let the presence of the Holy One rest on me and shine through my ordinary days.

Make me more like Your Son now, and complete the work when I see Him as He is. Amen.