Being Holy: Biblical Perspective, Part 3

Part 2 deleted, accidentally. My apology.

you choose to continue to sin, will it be easy to bring you back, listen to what God says through the author of Hebrews in chapter 6 and verses 4-6, ‘For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.’

Has He not called us by grace. Yes, indeed He called us by grace but to what? Let’s read I Thess 4:7, where Paul says, ‘For God did not call us to uncleanness but to holiness.’ Verse 8, ‘Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.’ This is not teaching of a man but is from God. You reject God when you choose to live an unholy, sinful life.

This call to holiness is obvious when you become a Christian or when you gave your life to Jesus, repenting of all your sins. It is obvious for a Christian to be holy. We came to Jesus because we wanted freedom from the bondage of our sins. Did we not? Sin held a sway over our lives. Did it not? Far from overcoming it, we were not even able to deal with it in an effective manner. Then, we heard the good news of Jesus Christ and his wondrous work on the cross, shattering the power of sin and delivering us from our sins. God gave us the same power through which He raised Jesus from the dead. Now having received the forgiveness of their sins and power over sin, these disobedient believers have turned back to fulfill their own lustful passions and fleshly desires. Did not Peter refer to these believers as dogs and pigs in II Peter 2: 22? II Peter 2:22, 'But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire." Revealing that these people were never saved in the first place? 

Does Bible brand dogs and pigs as unclean animals? No, not at all. Listen to what Paul says in I Tim 4:4, 'For every creature of good, and nothing is to be refused...' Dogs and pigs have an inherent quality. That is, a dog will vomit and eat the same and a pig, though it has been washed and cleaned will return to filth. Unless that inherent quality, attribute is changed, dogs and pigs will continue to revel in that kind of behavior. Salvation or born again means that you have been transformed completely. The inherent nature to wallow in sins has been removed. Listen to what God says in Ezekiel 36 and verse 26 and 27, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them." II Cor 5: 17, 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.'

Were we saved to fulfill our own lusts and sinful passions? Paul in I Thess 1:9 says, ‘….you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God…’ We have turned from idols, from sin, to God, to serve Him, to obey Him, if indeed we have turned.

Others argue that the call to holiness is just a talk and there aren't any examples of Christians in the real world who live or have lived a holy life. Let's confront this argument by referring to Hebrews 12:1,2, 'Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith...' The word, therefore, is used to make a conclusion on the basis of what has been said earlier. In chapter 11, the author refers to a great list of stalwarts of faith. In verse 2, he asks us to look to Jesus, stay focussed on Jesus cos He is the author of our salvation, He is the one who will complete our salvation. So, rather than demanding an example to follow, the author asks us to look to Jesus.

Being Holy: Biblical Perspective, Part 1

We once again open our Bibles to see God’s perspective in the matter of holiness in the lives of Christians. Holiness and the lack of it, has always been and continues to be a matter of grave concern to me as well as to our Lord. My heart aches when I see and hear God’s people indulging in sin and being open about it. It saddens me when the church condones these acts and behavior. It is a continuing sorrow to me to see the lack or absence of reactive and proactive measures taken by the church in confronting, reprimanding, correcting, and ultimately banning the erring believer from being a part of the church. Because the church does not want to deal with these issues head-on, for whatever reasons, young men and women in faith continue to indulge, wallow and take pleasure in sin, lacking an understanding of God’s Word and God’s take in the matter of holiness. These believers continue to pander to their fleshly desires, impulses and emotions by distorting God’s Word and by taking refuge in Romans 7. These believers refuse to study God’s Word. Without having a full understanding of God’s Word, to their own hurt and destruction, they continue to indulge in sin and despise holiness in their personal lives. These unholy, sinful, disobedient believers, both young and old, then get involved in the activities of the church, are given prominent positions, duties, and recognition to the utter disregard of God’s call to holiness. These believers then exercise their influence over other immature believers and believers who are new to the faith, thereby dragging them too in their net. To address these issues, we’ll open our Bibles to see God’s perspective in this matter of Holiness in our lives.

Let me clarify at the very beginning that this call to holiness is only for the saved, redeemed. Only a saved, regenerated, transformed person has the source and the capability to be holy. Only a person who is saved, redeemed, regenerated, transformed by the blood of Jesus Christ will have a desire, longing to live a holy life, pleasing to God. It is due to the indwelling Holy Spirit that God is able to initiate the desire in the saved person to be holy. It is God who initiates a desire in us to shun evil, to pursue holiness. In Phil 2: 12-13, Paul commands the believers at Philippi, 'to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.' Paul in this verse is not saying that we need to do ‘works’ to achieve salvation. How do I know? In Phil 1:1, Paul refers the letter to 'all the saints in Christ Jesus.' You do not become a saint unless you are a saved, right? So, what does fear and trembling means? I looked up few commentaries to understand what Paul meant when he used the words, fear and tremble. Pastor John MacArthur says, 'it is to live a life in full surrender and dependence of the Holy Spirit as Christ lived and live daily, moment by moment yield to the control of the Spirit, a process which we must carry out the remainder of our life on earth.'

The question Christians ask is how to live a holy life? That is a wrong question. That is a self-centric question. That question seeks personal achievement. The question should be how should I live a life that pleases God? That is a God-centric question, which focuses attention on God rather than us. We need to get our priorities right. It is to please God that we lead a holy life. An unsaved person may have a longing to do good works, would do good works also, take part in good works also, but in the words of Pastor John MacArthur, ‘His tongue is deceitful, his lips are poisonous. His throat is an open grave; his eyes are full of adultery. His ears are deaf to God's voice and truth. His hands do evil. His feet run to shed blood. His mind is depraved and reprobate. His heart is desperately wicked. His will is hard and unrepentant. He resists God. He refuses life. His conscience is evil. In and out he is polluted.’

For part 2 in the series, please click,