“The
holiest man in the world, once he sees God's infinite holiness, knows himself
as he really is and is humbled. Isaiah's vision revealed God sitting on His
throne surrounded by heavenly ministers covering their faces and crying,
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." But the heavenly scene also
opened up to the prophet his own vileness; when he heard the seraphim crying
"holy" before God, he cried out "unclean" regarding his own
spirituality Isaiah 6:3-5.
Job was another man who realized the impurity of
his soul when he glimpsed God's holiness. Job 42:5-6. I had heard of You [only] by
the hearing of the ear, but now my [spiritual] eye sees You. 6 Therefore I loathe [my words] and abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes.
In a darkened room we seem clean
enough; but if we could surround ourselves with beams of God's glorious majesty
and holiness, the sun's rays could not discover more specks of dust in the air
than God's holiness would convict us of our sin. But the policy of pride is not
to appear where it can be outshined; it prefers to go where it will be adored
in the muted light of self-exaltation.
If you are a believer you have a principle of holiness planted in you.
But what about the nature you had before Adam sinned? The Israelites who saw
the second temple, but could not remember the first one, thought it was a
splendid structure. Yet those who had also seen the walls of the first one,
Solomon's Temple, had tears mixed with their rejoicing as they recalled its
destruction. "Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers,
who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of
this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice" Ezra 3:12.
Let this remind us, then, of what man in all his glory fell into by Satan's
design. In heaven you will realize the same pleasures Adam enjoyed in paradise,
but many weary steps through obstacles of lust, temptation, and sin lie between
you and the top of that hill.”
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete
Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617
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