The beauty of holiness.
To every devout Israelite Jerusalem was "the perfection of beauty," "the joy of the whole earth" (Psalms 48:2; Psalms 50:2); because the temple of the Lord was there. Its gorgeous ritual, white-robed priests and Levites, choral psalms, clangour of trumpets, harps, cymbals, all seemed the highest ideal of worship, the very visible "beauty of holiness." To all this we may well see an allusion in these words. Hence the Revisers put in the margin, "holy array;" and some even render, "holy vestments." But the Hebrew word is not "vestments," but "splendour" or "majestic adornment." And it is not to priests and Levites these words are spoken, but to angels (Psalms 29:1; Psalms 89:6); and in Psalms 96:9 to the "kindreds of the people" (Revised Version), q.d. all the families of mankind. Therefore we recognize a higher, more spiritual meaning, of which all the glory of temple-worship was a faint shadow. To perceive "the beauty of holiness," we must first know what holiness really means.
I. WHAT IS HOLINESS? The Bible gives a triple answer—three steps, from the lowest to the loftiest views, from ritual to spiritual, from spiritual to Divine. Holiness is
1. Consecration—dedication, or devotion to God. In this sense, things, places, times, ceremonies, as well as persons, are continually spoken of in the Old Testament as "holy to the Lord." The ground round the burning bush was holy (Exodus 3:5), as long as God's presence was manifested there. So was the place where, for the time, the tabernacle was pitched. When the bush ceased to burn; when the cloud rose from the tabernacle, and Israel marched to a new resting-place,—the wild creatures roamed over those spots as common ground. The notion of indelible sanctity communicated by ceremonies is foreign to the Bible; things, places, etc; were holy because actually employed in God's service. No pains were spared to impress the idea that nothing is too pure or good to give to God. The victims must be without blemish; vessels, of precious material and perfect workmanship; bread, unleavened; altar, built of whole stones; priests, free from all bodily defect; the very clothes of worshippers washed clean. Yet upon the tabernacle, the vessels, the priests, the people, must be sprinkled the blood of atonement. The lesson was that even our holiness is stained with sin in God's all-searching eyes (Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 9:23; Hebrews 10:19; 1 John 1:7-9).
2. Likeness to God is the higher, deeper view of holiness, to which all these forms of outward holiness were designed to lead. Before a single rite was enacted, or Aaron consecrated, the people were told to be "a kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). Again and again, like a trumpet-peal or a minster bell, sounds out the great command, "Be ye holy; for I am holy." The teaching of the New Testament cannot go beyond this (1 Peter 1:16). There are those who tell us that the Old Testament ideas of holiness were not moral or spiritual, but ritual and external. This text confutes them. Could any Israelite be so dull as not to see that all this outward ceremonial was meant to inspire deep reverence, profound worship, in thinking and speaking of God, and drawing men to him; but that God's holiness which he was bidden to imitate, must be personal purity, righteousness, goodness; and that to be truly holy, we must be like God (comp. Isaiah 6:1-6)?
3. Therefore our highest idea of holiness is this—It is God's own character. Thought cannot soar above this. Uninspired human thought has never risen so high. The Bible idea of Divine holiness—perfect moral and spiritual excellence—as much excels all heathen religious teaching as noontide, twilight. It is summed up in 1 John 1:5; 1 John 3:8.
II. THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS MUST, LIKE TRUE HOLINESS ITSELF, BE SPIRITUAL, INWARD. Yet also manifest; for beauty is something we can behold, if not with the eyes, with the mind. Not a beauty we confer, by clothing, adorning, materializing the spiritual; but a beauty it confers on us, by purifying and exalting. If the heart be consecrated, the life that flows from it will be beautiful. All the outward beauty of God's works is a parable of loveliness of character and soul. Sunbeams are not so bright as loving smiles; the rose and the lily are less lair than modesty and innocence; the gorgeous sunset less grandly beautiful than the calm evening of a holy life.
REMARKS.
1. The perfect "beauty of holiness" is seen in the Lord Jesus; at once the Revelation and the Reflection of God's character in human nature—"Immanuel."
2. This beauty can be truly seen only by those whose eyes are opened (John 1:14 contrasted with Isaiah 53:1-12:27).
3. The life of every Christian ought to be beautiful. (Matthew 5:16.)