The Holiest of All By Andrew Murray

Ibolieet of 2UI 307
LXX.
THE POWER OF THE BLOOD TO FIT FOR THE SERVICE OF
THE LIVING GOD.
IX. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ cleanse your con
science from dead works to serve the living God P
WE must not regard the cleansing in the blood of Christ as the
end, the final aim, of redemption. It is
only the beginning, the
means to a higher end the fitness for the service of the living
God. It is the restoration to the fellowship of Him who has
life and gives
life. The blood gives cleansing from dead works,
the works of the law and of self, with its own efforts ;
it
brings
into a living relation to the living God. God and His fellow
ship, a life in His love and service, the living God and the
enjoyment of His presence, this is the aim of redemption.
The living God ! This name was used in the Old Testa
ment as a contrast to the dead idols of the heathen. In the
New Testament it
points us to the danger of our forming an
image of God, not in wood or stone, but in our mind and
imagination athought-image, in which there is neither life nor
truth. What we need first of all in religion is that we believe
that God is,
that our faith realise Him as the living One, who is
all that He is, in the power of an infinite life and energy.
He is
the living God! He speaks and hears. He feels and acts.
He has the power to make us know that He is near to us, and
that He receives us when we come near to Him. The know-