From J. C. Philpot's Daily Portions
November 21 "That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out
of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and
righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Luke 1:74-75 Holiness consists mainly of two points– 1. being made a partaker of the spirit of holiness
whereby, as born of God, we are made fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light; set our affections on things above, where Christ
sits on the right hand of God; have our conversation in heaven; put on the
new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him which created
him; live a life of faith in the Son of God, and beholding, as in a mirror,
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord. To be thus spiritually-minded, to be thus brought near
unto God through his dear Son, to walk before him in the light of his
countenance, and to know something of spiritual communion with the Lord of
life and glory as sitting on his mercy-seat in the fullness of his risen
power, and in the heights, depths, lengths, and breadths of his dying
love--thus to taste, to handle, to experience, and to enjoy is to be made a
partaker of true holiness, and to be sanctified by the Spirit of God as an
indwelling Teacher, Guide, Advocate, and Comforter. And if we know nothing
of these things, at least in some small measure, or are not looking after
and longing for them to be brought into our heart by a divine power, we give
but little evidence that the grace of God has reached our heart and renewed
us in the spirit of our mind. 2. The second branch of holiness is a life, conduct, and
conversation agreeable to the precepts of the gospel; and the one springs
out of the other. "Make the tree good," said our blessed Lord, "and his
fruit good, for the tree is known by his fruit." Gospel fruit must grow upon
a gospel tree, and thus the fruits of a holy and godly life must spring out
of those divine operations of the Holy Spirit upon the heart of which we
have just spoken. Thus to speak, live, and act is to be "holy in all manner
of conversation," that is in our daily walk; and is a fulfilling of the
precept which God gave of old to his typical people Israel, and quoted in
the New Testament to show that it is spiritually fulfilled in that peculiar
people whom he calls by his distinguishing grace under the gospel.