Rediscovering Holiness
“Be holy like I am holy” - God
If you are like most folks, you may be scratching your head. This is a pretty heavy comment that requires our careful consideration. Please don’t toss this God-quote out due to the perceived impossibility of the command. Take a quick journey with me and discover that God, by the power of his holiness and grace, can make the impossible possible in you.
The elephant in the room needs pointed out. Over our lifetime we have heard countless preachers take this passage places it was never meant to go. Here are a few errant ideas that you may have heard.
- The holy life means you can’t sin.
- The holy life means you don’t need to repent anymore.
- The holy life means you have “arrived” and don’t need to grow spiritually anymore.
- The holy life means you won’t be tempted with sin.
- The holy life means you won’t be tempted with selfishness.
The fact that holiness is often misunderstood does not give us an automatic “get out of holiness” card. The call of God is scripture is clear. We are to be holy. If ever there was a time when we need to rediscover what this means, that time is now.
Here are a few things I continue to learn about holiness and the holy life.
- Holiness requires a Holy Spirit initiated moment of repentance that is followed by a lifetime of decisions to renew that moment as the Holy Spirit makes you aware of areas of needed growth in your life. Yes, the call to the holy life requires a moment when we repent of selfish carnality. However, the call to the holy life requires a lifetime of renewing that moment.
- Holiness requires a commitment to the spiritual maturation process. You might call this discipleship in the School of the Messiah. The goal for your life is to be caught up in the life of Christ. He never burdens you with this reality but gently guides you into new understanding that helps you mature in your faith.
- Holiness empowers a life of transformed love. This is not a static transformation but an ongoing transformation. In other words, your understanding of love continues to grow as you are exposed to the love of Christ.
- Holiness empowers a life of active love. Our understanding of love is not intellectual but active. We love because we have been loved. We love because Christ continues to love. This love is not abstract. This is an active love that is lived and demonstrated every day.
- Holiness transforms how we view others. Holiness does not elevate or inflate ones view of self when compared with another person. Holiness allows us to see people through the lens of God’s grace and love people regardless of any sociologically divisive category our culture would create.
It is unrealistic to expect that any one blog post would resolve every question about holiness. However, I do hope that your understanding of holiness has been deepened and that you desire for something more in your relationship with God than you have ever known. One of the biggest gripes about “Church folks” is that too few of us represent Christ well. The bad news is that, in our own strength and power, we cannot represent Christ well. The good news is that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can represent Christ well.
Let’s run after Jesus, cleansed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and live the holy life today. Even though tomorrow the holy life will mean something new, live today in the dynamic flow of the Holy Spirit who will help you to live the holy life.