Nothing is said, but the decision is made not to put oneself out, but rather to take all one can for oneself. This is the hour of holiness or sanctification, the day when God puts the facts before us and calls for a decision (John 17:17-19). Holiness or sanctification, both translations of the same word, do not only, or even primarily, mean purity. Our Lord needed sanctification (John 10:36; John 17:19), but He never needed purity, for He was always perfectly pure. Holiness, or sanctification, carry the meaning of consecration or setting apart for service, like the bells on the horses, or the pots in Jerusalem. (Zechariah 14:20, 21). They were set apart for God's purposes, and should only be used for that! Holiness as a Christian term means the devotion of a lover to those he loves. It is a denial of personal aims or ambitions, and absorption in ministering to others.

So our Lord came down to earth, not like the Angels of Genesis 6 because He wanted something for Himself, but wholly for our sakes and to do His Father's will. It was equally for our sakes that He went back to Heaven (John 16:7) to send the Holy Spirit to take His place, and to act as our High Priest, and not at all to escape from a dangerous battlefield!

This exact crisis entered into the hearts of the Trinity, when the Father proposed "The Plan of the Ages" (Ephesians 3:11 Greek). Here Father, Son and Spirit had before them a project which, if proceeded with, would revolutionise their lives, bringing hard work, eternal responsibility, sorrow upon sorrow, hatred, suffering and betrayal, even death into their experience, which had hitherto known nothing but the joy of each other's company. The Father was proposing that all three should lay themselves upon the altar of self-sacrifice, and that too for thousands of years, simply in order that countless numbers of beings, who were not even in