Rosebuds and roses

At different times of the year there are different walks and cycle rides I like to do, depending on what I am hoping to see or find – the first primrose of Spring, perhaps, or the place where blackberries are not only ripe but easy to reach.  In June, it is the wild roses in the hedgerows.  Yesterday the weather was just right, so out came the bike and off I pottered.  Nor was I disappointed; hundreds – no, thousands – of roses, varying in colour from white through pale pink to almost crimson.  That part of my ride was punctuated by frequent stops to enjoy the delicate fragrance of the roses, especially lovely with a hint of honeysuckle or meadowsweet or the faint overtones of distant new-mown hay.  Many of them were in full bloom, others half-open, still others buds beginning to unfurl or with calyxes just splitting to reveal the petals within.  Some had finished flowering and were forming fruit.  Roses in all stages of development, in fact.

It made me think about our progress in holiness; the ‘now and not yet’ of our sanctification.  At conversion, ‘having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5:1).  Lilias Trotter, in ‘Parables of the Cross’, writes: ‘But blessed as it is, this passage into a life of peace with Him, woe to the soul that stops there, thinking that the goal is reached, and dwindles, so to speak, into a stunted bud.  Holiness, not safety, is the end of our calling.’

As the Holy Spirit works in us, and as we co-operate with Him, so we grow in likeness to our Lord Jesus.  And, says the Puritan Thomas Watson, ‘a good Christian is like the crocodile; he has never done growing!’

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy; for I am holy.”  1 Peter 1:13-16

So let our lips and lives express

The holy gospel we profess;

So let our works and virtues shine,

To prove the doctrine all divine.

 

Thus shall we best proclaim abroad

The honours of our Saviour God,

When His salvation reigns within,

And grace subdues the power of sin.

 

Our flesh and sense must be denied,

Passion and envy, lust and pride,

While justice, temperance, truth and love,

Our inward godliness approve.

 

Religion bears our spirits up,

While we expect that blessèd hope,

The bright appearance of the Lord:

And faith stands leaning on His Word.

                                                Isaac Watts