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From the Fall 2016 issue of Knowing & Doing: | |||
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Seek after Holiness, Without Which No One Will See the Lord
by Thomas A. Tarrants, III, D.Min. |
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hat do the words holy, holiness, or holy life bring to mind? I suspect many envision someone old-fashioned, dreary, unpleasant, rigid, legalistic, and judgmental. A far different picture is presented in the Bible, where a holy life is grace filled, joyful, attractive, deeply satisfying—and God’s chief goal for His children. Holiness is definitely out of fashion. How has something so central to authentic Christian life become so neglected? John Stott suggests that holiness “has been replaced by an emphasis on experience. Now experience is good, but holiness is better. For holiness is Christlikeness, and Christlikeness is God’s eternal purpose for his children.”1 What is holiness? Why is it important? How do we attain it? These are some of the questions we will explore here. God’s Holiness To better understand what personal holiness is, we must begin with God’s holiness. The word holiness when referring to God means “to separate”; it stresses His separateness and transcendence over His creation, His sovereign power within it, and His moral perfection in relating to it. Nothing in the universe is remotely like God; He is unique and wholly Other. Nothing can resist His will, and all creation is dependent on Him for its moment-by-moment existence. There is no evil or moral flaw in God’s character; such qualities are completely antithetical to His nature. Holiness is the most fundamental and dominant characteristic of God.
God’s holiness evokes awe, fear, and conviction of sin in human beings. The prophet Isaiah describes his encounter with God:
The apostle John’s encounter with the ascended Christ in His blazing holiness had a similar effect:
Our Holiness
The apostle Peter emphasizes holiness as well:
Holiness is a very high priority with Peter. He includes the church as a whole when he says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). The Goal of Holiness We may wonder why God places such a strong emphasis on His children pursuing holiness. The answer is simple. God’s ultimate intention is to restore His image in the lives of His children and conform them to the likeness of His Son, who is the firstborn of many brothers (Rom. 8:29). The restoration of God’s image in the lives of the Ephesians is highlighted when Paul says to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22–24).4 As we pursue holiness we become more Christlike. This brings glory to God in this present world and also prepares us to live with Him in the world to come. It is our calling and destiny, and God will settle for nothing less. Is Holiness Essential or Optional? From these few sample passages (and there are many others) we can draw some obvious conclusions: First, holiness focuses on our separation from sin and consecration to a holy God. Second, holiness is of crucial importance and is not optional. Lest there be any doubt about that, we are told to “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Many believers seem to be unaware of the necessity of personal holiness. I say necessity not in the sense of doing works that earn salvation, but in the sense of living to please and glorify the God we love. Paul, the great Apostle of Grace, emphasizes the necessity of holiness when he reproves some in the church in Corinth, the most immoral city in the Roman Empire:
Before their conversion, the Corinthians had been enslaved to various sins, many of them sexual. But they had been set free “by the Spirit of our God.” Some, however, were still committing sexual sin. To them, Paul says clearly that if they continue to practice sexual immorality, adultery, and homosexuality, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. (This would apply to any of the other sins mentioned as well.)5
These passages teach us that those who continue to deliberately practice sin will not go to heaven. They also reflect the fact that the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s day was a moral cesspool. This is true of the Western world today. We live in a sex-obsessed culture, and it is corrupting the lives of many in the church, as it did in Paul’s day. Research in 2011, for example, showed that 80 percent of evangelicals aged eighteen to twenty-nine have been sexually active outside of marriage.6 In one survey of professing Christians, 35 percent admitted committing adultery.7 Pornography is so pervasive that it needs no statistical documentation. Sexual sin is widespread in the church. A Caution It would be misleading to assume from the preceding comments that holiness is mostly about sexual behavior. It isn’t. Because sex is such a powerful human drive, sexual sins have always been a major problem. However, as we see from the other sins included in the list set forth in 1 Corinthians 6:9–11, holiness addresses every area of life. It would also be misleading—and dangerously so—to assume that the pursuit of holiness contributes in any way to God’s gift of salvation in our lives. God does not foresee that we will accept Christ and then save us because of that, nor does He save us because of any good works we have done or will do. He does not save us because we pursue holiness. Rather,
So the pursuit of holiness is the fruit (and evidence) of God’s saving grace in us, not its cause, “for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). Indifference to holiness raises the question of whether a person has truly received the grace of God and been born again. The Motivation for Seeking Holiness
What is the motivation for holiness? Fear? Guilt? Duty? These are powerful motivators of behavior, to be sure, and they drive some believers. But they are not God’s way and eventually produce bitter fruit. The proper motivation for pursuing a holy life is gratitude to God for His amazing goodness, grace, and love toward us. We naturally seek to please the One we love, and it is grateful love for God that should move our hearts to please Him in all we think and say and do.
The Motivation for Seeking Holiness
What is the source of holiness? Discipline? Willpower? These are surely important and have a vital role in our becoming holy, but they are not the source. The ultimate source of holiness, which alone can make our discipline and willpower effective, is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. “There is no greater secret of holiness than the infilling of him whose name is Holy,” says John Stott.9 Pursuing Holiness
John Stott once said, “No one ever drifted into holiness.” Again and again in the Scriptures we are exhorted to respond to God’s free grace by earnestly pursuing holiness. Such vigorous effort is the fruit of God’s grace in us, not an attempt to earn it (which is legalism). We must begin by heeding Paul’s instruction: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1). Until we do this, we will not yield ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit and will not experience His enabling power to overcome sin. But once we have surrendered wholeheartedly to God, we can go forward in holiness. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2), and “Cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1); or as Paul said to the Philippians, to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13).
A good immediate step to take toward holiness is to pray as did Robert Murray McCheyne, “Lord, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be made,” then ask God to convict you of any sin in your life, anything that is hindering your growth in holiness. Follow King David’s example and pray:
Whenever we are convicted of sin, we must repent, confess, and forsake it and accept God’s forgiveness. This restores our fellowship with God and our joy, for “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Then we must ask the Holy Spirit to fill us afresh as we continue yielding ourselves to Him in obedience. This is the path of true holiness and joy in the Holy Spirit!
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Tom Tarrants has lived in the Washington, DC area since 1978 and served as President of the C.S. Lewis Institute from 1998 to April 2010. He is currently Vice President for Ministry & Director, Washington Area Fellows Program. Prior to coming to the Institute, he served as co-pastor of Christ Our Shepherd Church and Director of The School for Urban Mission, both based in Washington, DC, Tom holds a Master of Divinity Degree, as well as a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Christian Spirituality. He is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Church Alliance. |
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What does it mean to be holy? Why should we care? And how can we change? The hole in our holiness is that we don’t care much about holiness. Or, at the very least, we don’t understand it. This is a book for those of us who are ready to take holiness seriously, ready to be more like Jesus, ready to live in light of the grace that produces godliness. This is a book about God’s power to help us grow in personal holiness and to enjoy the process of transformation. |
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Knowing & Doing is published by C.S. Lewis Institute; 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 301; Springfield, VA 22151. Portions of the publication may be reproduced for noncommercial, local church or ministry use without prior permission. Electronic copies of the PDF files may be duplicated and transmitted via e-mail for personal and church use. Articles may not be modified without prior written permission of the Institute. For questions, contact the Institute: 703.914.5602 or email us. | |||
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