The importance of holiness

"But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do." (I Peter 1:15, NIV)

Holiness is a virtually forgotten subject for many of us. It is associated with old, bun-wearing ladies or prudes who have no clue what the "real world" is. However, these associations are anything but correct. Did you know that the Bible makes about 600 references to holiness or towards living a life of holiness? This means that holiness is a very important subject.

Yet, the question remains. If holiness is so important, why don't we hear more about it? This is a major dilemma. In some cases, holiness is not preached from the pulpit because the pastor is afraid of either offending their congregations or they are afraid of being exposed as frauds. If holiness gets preached, they will be expected to live out their own words.

In the above verse, we are called to live a life of holiness. We are told to do so because God is first and foremost, a holy God. All of the rest of his attributes, God's love, mercy and justice flow from this primary attribute. What this means is that even though God does love us all, he is also holy. This means that he will not tolerate our sin. In other words, yes, a loving God WILL allow us to choose ourselves over him, hell over heaven. His holiness can never be forgotten.

The thing is, our "holiness", our "righteousness" before God won't cut it. We may profess to be good people, and by many of OUR standards, we are. But guess what? "Good" isn't good enough. Isaiah 64:6 tells us that our righteousness is nothing but "filthy rags" before a holy and just God. In other words, our standards and God's standards aren't the same. We don't get our good deeds measured against our bad deeds, no matter how much we want to believe that. ALL of our deeds, when taken by themselves, don't measure up.

So now what? Are we all doomed to hell? The answer, quite frankly, is yes. By ourselves, we can't cut it before a holy God. THIS IS WHY JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Through his perfect life, he was able to be the perfect covering for our inadequate righteousness. Through his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead, we are given the ability to step out of our own "filthy rag" righteousness and to take own the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

What's the catch? Well, we have to accept IN FAITH, that we have the need to be covered first of all. We BELIEVE that Jesus is the Lord of all and we BELIEVE IN FAITH that he will save us. This means that we confess that we are sinners who are doomed to hell before a holy God. It also means that we are confessing that we want Jesus Christ to cover us before God. In exchange for that, we agree to live a life that reflects our love for Jesus Christ.

That life of love is the essence of holiness. You see, holiness living is NOT what gets us into heaven. Remember, it's not about what we have done or will do!! It is all about the work of Jesus Christ. Because of this, we can't just sit back and relax. If we do, we are showing that we are UNGRATEFUL for the work that Jesus did. We are saying that he isn't really the LORD and SAVIOR of our lives. By continuing to live as we did BEFORE we invited Jesus into our lives, we are showing that we were really only trying to get out of going to hell. In other words, we are holding Jesus in contempt. We want to keep on doing our own thing while still holding on to heaven.

Do you see the dilemma? If we don't choose to live a life of holiness - what is called Christian maturity by some - we aren't really demonstrating the FAITH that is required of us. How does it make us feel when we really go out of our way for someone we love, when we buy a really expensive gift for them yet they don't ever use it? Wouldn't you feel like you really wasted your time and money? Is it fair to think that God is different? If God gave US the PERFECT gift in Jesus Christ, shouldn't we accept that gift and use it?

How do we "use" this gift? We do it by giving ourselves to the gift. We let him take control. We are called to "consecrate" or to surrender our lives to Jesus by asking for the Holy Spirit - the 3rd member of the Holy Trinity" to fill us with the strength that we need in order to show God that we love him and are thankful for his gift of Jesus Christ. This is a fair and reasonable thing to do. Romans 12:1 puts it like this: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual (reasonable) worship." (NRSV)

We are then to live a life of holiness, which is empowered by God in order to show God that we are so thankful for him and we love him. In the next few blogs, at least, I will go into what this life of holiness is about, what sanctification is about and how we can begin to live a life that pleases the Lord. Once again, holiness is not a subject to take lightly or to dismiss as archaic or Victorian. The Bible calls us to live a life that is DIFFERENT - holy- from the rest of the world. If you are wondering what that means, do this.

First, ask yourself if you are a Christian. If that is true, then what kind of things are going on in your life that would show that to be true? Is your love for God about more than one hour a week on Sunday morning? Is your Bible dusty? Have you been in prayer for more than just a minute or two lately - and I don't mean prayer for your team to win a game or some silliness like that. If someone else was watching your life, would they be able to tell that you love Jesus with all of your heart? Would what the Bible commands and what you live stack up? If not, you have some work to do. Remember, all of us are still growing, myself included. Still, progress must be shown, as demonstrated in Galatians 5, the fruit of the spirit MUST be evident in the life of a Christian, or else we aren't living by the Spirit, but by the flesh. "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." These are the HALLMARKS of a holy life. I'll go into more detail about these later.

One final word, I am not talking about living a works-based life in order to gain God's favor. God's favor is won when we ACCEPT Jesus as our Savior. Holiness is showing our love for God with all of our hearts, souls, strengths and minds - just as Jesus commanded. To settle for anything less is to hold Christ in contempt. Next time, I'll address this statement. Did you know that you can live a life that is FREE FROM SIN and LIKE IT?? Thanks, Dr. Schenck!