Christ is our righteousness, not that we should escape punishment, still less escape being righteous, but as the live potent creator of righteousness in us, so that we, with our wills receiving His spirit, shall like Him resist unto blood, striving against sin. A man is in bondage to whatever he cannot part with that is less than himself. Nothing is inexorable but love. Love which will yield to prayer is imperfect and poor. For love loves unto purity.
Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds.
Therefore all that is not beautiful in the beloved, all that comes between and is not of love's kind, must be destroyed. And our God is a consuming fire. It is the nature of God, so terribly pure that it destroys all that is not pure as fire, which demands like purity in our worship. He will have purity. Such as they were, they did well to be afraid .