HOLINESS

HEBREWS 12:14 “PURSUE PEACE WITH ALL PEOPLE, AND HOLINESS, WITHOUT WHICH NO ONE WILL SEE THE LORD.” (KJV, NKJV, NET, NASB, ESV)
     “…and the sanctification without which no one will ever see the Lord.” (AMP)
     “…Try to live a holy life, because no one will see the Lord without it.” (GNT)
     “Work at getting along with each other and with God. Otherwise you’ll never get so much as a glimpse of God.” (MSG)

     1 Peter 1:15 “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.’”
     2 Corinthians 7:1 “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body (all filthiness of the flesh) and the spirit, and thus accomplish (perfecting) holiness out of reverence for God.” (NET/NKJV)
     Romans 12:1 “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…”
     1 Corinthians 6:19 “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own.”

     This is a different approach to this chapter. I listed several versions of this verse and then several other parallel verses about the topic at the start instead of at the end of the chapter. Maybe a little bit more like a Bible Study with cross references. That’s right…I waited until nearly the last chapter to try to change something. Just like Dave!

     The reason I did this is because I want the reader to consider other verses in the Bible that also deal with this doctrinal topic. The topic is HOLINESS. It is a topic we rarely consider in our daily walk with the Lord…but we probably should.

     Holiness is not a popular topic to study or discuss…probably because it involves a part of discipleship that most of us do not want to consider. We tend to think holiness means giving things up and no one likes doing that. I admit, giving up joys, pleasures, habits, distractions that might actually draw us away from the Lord is not something most of us want to devote our lives to.

     I deeply love the very first and central doctrine of our faith: salvation is by faith…God’s gift of grace available for every one of us. I would never preach or teach against this doctrine because as Christians, we definitely want to reach out to every person we can in hopes of seeing them saved. But, it is very possible for us to stress the one doctrine of salvation so much that we might tend to disregard some deeper doctrines in the Christian walk that must follow the wondrous testimony of being saved. Sanctification is one of those doctrines.

     Those who know me well know that Cheryl and I attended, served, preached and taught in a Nazarene church for many years in our early adult lives. You will never find me promoting one denomination over another…I think it is wrong for us to criticize others who read and interpret Christian doctrines from different perspectives.

     In all those years we served in the Nazarene church, I learned about what might seem to be a distinct doctrine of Sanctification. Still central to their teaching, salvation is always primary and emphasized as through Jesus Christ alone. However, in the process of growing in the faith, this group also teaches that we need to continue to grow in that faith and emphasizes holiness as one of those growing traits that the Lord expects in us.

     The central issue of holiness is that it often means turning our back on things that we needed to be saved from. Face it. Giving up many of the works of the flesh that don’t please the Lord is…well…hard work. And, we tend to avoid hard work in a lot of areas of our lives.

     Another issue with this doctrine can be the tendency to think that our salvation depends on it. I loved the Christian brother who confessed that having given in to smoking again after being saved, he thought he had to come back and be saved again every week at church. Of course, another brother figured that since Jesus saved him and He was always willing to forgive his sins and failures, it wasn’t really that important to give up anything. You reckon the true doctrine of holiness lies somewhere in between those two extremes?

     I loved my Nazarene brothers and sisters. Many of them truly believe that we could eliminate that “Adamic nature” in this lifetime if we just worked hard enough at it…to be finally free from sin! That’s where many who aren’t adherents of the doctrine of holiness want to criticize them. But, as I said many times, “at least these brothers and sisters are TRYING to live holy lives!” Why? Because, the Bible tells us to do so!

     The sad truth is that as much as some might testify about how close to holiness they come, rarely did I see anyone who actually achieved it. God bless them, however, for believing those parts of the Bible that told them they needed to try!

     Now, let’s be true to the Word. The Bible does tell us to BE HOLY, because God is holy. It also clearly states the without holiness, no man will see the Lord.

     Now, I know that the only holiness God is ever going to accept from us (or see in us) is the holiness that comes from the covering of our sins by Jesus’ blood. It is Jesus’ holiness I want God to see in me. My holiness/righteousness is, as the Bible tells us, nothing better than “filthy rags.” (See Isaiah 64:6) But our lack of righteousness in the Lord’s eyes does not negate the commands for us to be holy and to exercise holiness “in all our conduct.”

     Paul told us that when we are born again, we become new creatures. That kind of means we shouldn’t still want to live the way we lived before. Jesus doesn’t save us to keep on living sinful lives. He makes us new…so now, we have the Holy Spirit in us to start teaching us how to live apart from those sins that had us marching straight toward Hell.

     If you got saved and nothing changed, I would encourage you to seek out a fellow Christian brother or sister who can be honest with you about what might need to change in your life.

     My grandpa, Jack Hunter, was a World War II veteran who served as a medical corpsman in the Pacific. To his dying day, he testified that when he got saved, he threw away a pack of cigarettes that he had been habitually smoking every day and never smoked again. What a testimony!

     A pastor friend of mine tells his congregants that “smoking won’t send you to Hell, but it might send you to heaven quicker.” (Due to the ensuing cancer.) He is saying that our salvation is by faith in Jesus alone and we recognize that some of those things we brought along with us, the Lord may take a long time to give us victory over. But both this pastor and my Grandpa Jack would testify that Jesus wants His best life for you…and that probably means getting rid of some of those things that He actually saved you from.

     Look at those study Scriptures I listed above. Peter tells us we need to be holy in our conduct. Most of us need to stop acting like we did before we were saved. I know that is going to take a lot of work…but Jesus wants that for you.

     Paul said, let’s cleanse ourselves from anything that would defile the body. Sounds like more hard work to me! And by the way, nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that everything would be easy after we got saved…so why would we expect it to?

     Cleansing means literally washing ourselves. As Christians, we need to see that daily, washing off the dirt and nastiness of the world that we used to enjoy wallowing in needs to be a regular, consistent act.

     Certainly, the biggest problem with this approach to Christian discipleship is the fact that we still tend to like/enjoy a lot of stuff in our lives that the Lord wants us to get rid of. As already mentioned, tobacco is a highly addictive substance that enslaves its user. Someone who has been smoking a pack of cigarettes every day is going to have a difficult time giving that up that the rest of us will never understand.

     I sympathize with smokers. Many I love are still battling to overcome this addiction. They know it is unhealthy for them and they know it doesn’t please the Lord. But it is a tremendous hurdle for so many. We need to pray for them and encourage them to overcome it.

     Alcohol addiction can be very similar. But every Christian, no matter how hard the battle is, would admit that the Lord wants us to cleanse it from our lives.

     We shouldn’t even begin to discuss sexual sins…but that area is probably more common than any other we might address. Sexual temptation is so prolific in our culture that many are tempted to treat it as unconquerable. Unbridled lust, fornication and adultery are rampant in our culture. The Lord wants us free from these things.

     We readily state that God is against abortion, but we just as quickly recognize that Jesus can forgive that sin of our past and make us whole again. He wants us, in all areas of our lives, to go beyond simple forgiveness for our sins to receiving victory over them, living lives that fully reflect His glory inside of us.

     To so many that Jesus encountered during His short ministry here, He commanded “go and sin no more.” We must be born again! We definitely need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to give us power to overcome temptation and sin. Somehow, however, we need to follow that command and eventually get to the point where we also “go and sin no more.” “Practicing Christian Sinners” is most definitely an oxymoron.

     Paul talked about that. In Romans 12:1-2 he gave us clear instruction about how to get there: We need to “present our bodies as living sacrifices.” That sounds mystical but it is actually very practical.

     Christian, you are now saved. Praise the Lord. Now, learn how to see sin for what it was and make your determination to have it gone from your life. I know that is probably going to be a process that takes the rest of your life…but you have to start putting those Scriptures into practice.

     We need to see our bodies for what they are. They may be saved, but they are not yet glorified. If you think you will never be tempted again (especially in areas Satan could easily see so easily overcame you before you were saved), you aren’t paying attention. The devil doesn’t give up on you when you are saved. He wants you to fall and works hard to make that happen, especially in areas he already knows to be your “weaknesses.”

     “Presenting our bodies” means spiritually seeing that we are still vulnerable, knowing that we will still be tempted, recognizing without the power of the Holy Spirit we will fail and running to the altar to ask the Lord for help. When we recognize we are still weak, if we can “take the flesh of our bodies” and “present them” to Jesus, He promises to help.

     The Israelites presented sacrifices at the altar every year as payment for their sins. We need to symbolically present our weak, prone-to-return-to-sin bodies as “living sacrifices” to the Lord.

     I said it in previous chapters…we honestly need to “kill that thing!” Only when we recognize that “in us dwells no good thing”…that we are still prone to give in to temptations of the devil without the power of the Holy Spirit, can we ever have the possibility of overcoming those temptations. Only by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, reckoning them dead to sin, and turning away from those things will we ever have victory. That kind of work always precedes holiness.

     Look quickly at Rom 12:2. We need to NOT be conformed to the world. That’s right. Not being conformed means things ought to look different now that we are saved than they did before. The only way to not be conformed is then to be TRANSFORMED…how? By the renewing of your mind!

     As I said before, that sure seems like a lot of work. It is! It is DAILY work. I need to crucify the flesh every day. I need to not conform, but be transformed every day. I need to renew my mind to the things of the Spirit by putting to death the things of the flesh…every day. That is the path to holiness…without which no man will see the Lord. I want that! How about you?

     Questions to consider: Is holiness possible? If it was not, why would the Lord tell us to be holy? Will we ever get to the point where we never sin again? Is it possible in any temptation that the Lord allows, to overcome that temptation at that moment? Why doesn’t the Lord just take away our proclivity to sin when we are born again? What is progressive sanctification? Is holiness something we grow in as we live our Christian lives?

     Other Scriptures to study: Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Romans 6:6 “…knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with…” Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousness are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Exodus 28:36 “You shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet: HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.” 1 Cor 6:20 “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”