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, 

Being Childless: Bible's Perspective, Part 5

For part 4 in the series, please click, Being Childless, Part 4

Does it mean that all the other barren women in history are sinful? Of course not. Does it mean that all the other barren women in history failed to have the divine intervention in their life? We do not know. God while executing his wonderful plan of bringing glory to His name in the lives of these five barren women, He also revealed that a barren woman is not cursed. I talk to the believing women and not to the unbelievers. If you have not repented of your sins and have not given your life to Jesus Christ, God’s wrath is on you. You are cursed, whether you have a child or you do not have a child. Will you be able to bear a child, once you repent? I do not have the authority to say that. You may, you may not. You don’t come to Christ because your needs are met, you come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

God’s redemptive work is complete. Through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection on the third day, God has completed the redemptive work. God’s Word is complete. We cannot add to it, neither can we subtract from it. All the examples of the Old Testament are for our exhortation and not to increase our suffering. That is why He commanded in Matt 28: 19, ‘to go and make disciples.’ You do not make disciples by continuing to wait for the Lord to help you conceive. You do not fulfill the command by wasting the best years of life wallowing in self-pity, medication, suffering, humiliation, loneliness and pain.

Were we not saved by grace? Are we not adopted ones? After the redemptive work was complete, only then did He adopt us to His family. Right? Originally, we are not a part of his family but because of the work on the cross, we can call Him, ‘Abba’, ‘Father’. Don’t we? Then, how is it that you refuse to adopt a child into your family and provide a child with parents? How is it that you do not want to give a child the opportunity to call you ‘Dad’, ‘Mom’? Do you want to start in grace and finish with the work of the flesh? Is the work of Christ in vain? Did you not receive grace that you refuse to be gracious? Have you not receive mercy that you refuse to be merciful?

We spend our whole lives preaching and proclaiming the gospel of Christ. And after all the effort, the soul of an unrepentant sinner is not in our hands. God gives repentance. He opens the heart of individuals to repent and turn away from their sins and come to the saving knowledge of Christ. I am yet to claim even one individual as my child in Christ as a result of my preaching.

Is it not wonderful, that God has made you barren and given an opportunity to save an orphan from this wicked world, rescue him from hell, provide him/her with godly parents, raise him/her in the fear of the Lord? Are you so ignorant that you do not know, understand the purposes of God? You who have children, are not excused, refuse to adopt children, when you have sufficient resources to provide and care for the child. I talk to Indian Christian parents.

You decide. Is it not easy for a child to be rescued from hell than a man with all the knowledge, sinful experiences and influences that pull and drive him? Will not the child spend the first eighteen years of life under your care and influence? Will you not be able to impact his/her life through your prayer, study of the Word and love?

We live in a period of grace. Miracles were designed to happen along with the preaching of the gospel, to enable the world to see the hand of God behind the preaching of the Word. God is not in the business of opening wombs but in the redeeming of sinners from hell. He is not in the business of performing physical miracles but spiritual miracles. He died and rose again to change people’s heart.

God wants you to be happy. He wants you to be satisfied. His command is that you be content. You have a choice to be on His side or your own. You are not ‘incidentally childless, you are not ‘unfortunately childless’. God designed your family life that way. He is in control. He has occasioned that you be happy and content by adopting in your family a child and bring glory to his name by helping the child to see, know and experience God’s love, redemptive power, and grace. At the same time, fill your life with joy, thrill, excitement, energy, love and desire for each other.

My joy is complete when I know that you obey God’s Word. Continue in grace.