This is a sermon I preached a few weeks ago that a couple of people have asked for a copy of - here it is in note form. Enjoy, endure or ignore as you see fit!
Follow: The Pursuit of Holiness
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16). “It is written” is a reference to three points in Leviticus where God commands Israel, and Peter extends the command to us, “be Holy, because I am Holy” (11:44, 19:2, 20:7).
Follow: The Pursuit of Holiness
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:14-16). “It is written” is a reference to three points in Leviticus where God commands Israel, and Peter extends the command to us, “be Holy, because I am Holy” (11:44, 19:2, 20:7).
So holiness is an essential part of following Jesus. In fact, properly understood, holiness IS the pursuit of Jesus. But holiness has become an uncomfortable subject, with two extremes arising in Christian culture.
On the one hand there is pharasaical rule-keeping
religious Christianity, where the call is "obey in order to be accepted by
God". This being entirely untrue, some have then over-reacted to the opposite extreme, preaching that because God loves you just as you are, he's far too nice to ask you to change, he's far too polite to disagree
with your choices, and even if he did, he's far too timid to do anything about
it. Holiness is a thing of the
past, they say, and it doesn't matter any more.
This is a huge topic and what follows is no more than a basic framework, scratching the surface at a couple of points. But my prayer is that even as we scratch the surface of a biblical view of holiness, God will pierce our hearts, changing us and drawing us closer to him to make us more like him. That's the point.
Justification vs Sanctification
The most important thing to grasp when dealing with this topic is the distinction between two wonderful theological words. Justification and Sanctification. True Christianity must include both, and all of the tension over this issue comes down to our understanding of this distinction. It is vital, as it cuts to to the core of Christianity itself. It hits the very core of the gospel.
Justification
Justification happens the moment you give your life to Jesus. At that instant, you were justified
before God.
The bible describes that transformative moment in a number of ways:
The bible describes that transformative moment in a number of ways:
- Being cleansed
from every sin and stain. 1 John 1:7
- Declared Not Guilty. Romans
3:23-26
- Made right with God. Romans
3:29
- Made right in his sight. Romans 5:1
- Restored to friendship with God. Romans 5:10-11
- As of that moment, there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1
- You are assured of his glad welcome. Ephesians 3:12
- You are perfected forever. Hebrews 10:14
- Made right in his sight. Romans 5:1
- Restored to friendship with God. Romans 5:10-11
- As of that moment, there is no condemnation. Romans 8:1
- You are assured of his glad welcome. Ephesians 3:12
- You are perfected forever. Hebrews 10:14
Because of Jesus, when you say yes, you are immediately,
fully, completely justified. That means more than just forgiveness or the absence of punishment. So much more.
It means being completely restored to perfection in the eyes of God. A restoration to right relationship. If you have given your life to Jesus, God sees
you as completely clean, completely new, completely perfect, completely
justified. There is no lingering suspicion, no secret grudge against you, no
reluctance to embrace you. You are completely, utterly and wonderfully restored
into perfect intimate and loving relationship with God. You are justified.
And yet... if we’re honest with ourselves, we know we’re not perfect.
And that realisation is the beginning of sanctification.
Sanctification
Hebrews 10:14 captures this perfectly: "For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy”
Hebrews 10:14 captures this perfectly: "For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy”
At once, we are already perfected
forever, and yet still being made holy. It is the now and the not yet tension of the Kingdom of God. God has declared you holy in his sight, and now he is
setting about the work of making you holy. Sanctification follows justification. You are not saved by your holiness – you live a holy life
because you have been saved. As John put it last month in his sermon, we don't "do in order to be", rather you "be, in order to do".
No effort of yours or mine to live a holy life
can ever save you. We are saved by the
grace of God - unmerited, underserved. A scandalously and ludicrously free gift of God, when you turn to him and place your trust
(faith) in him.
And once you have been saved by the unmerited, undeserved
and unstoppable grace of God, the command comes “be holy”.
Misunderstandings
Often we misunderstand this pursuit that is so close to the core of what it means to follow Jesus. When we misunderstand the nature of the pursuit of holiness, it can influence the
motivations and attitudes we carry into our relationship with God. I know I have caught myself living in accordance with these various false statements from time to time - I wonder if you can relate to any of these?
1.“Be Holy in order to be assured of salvation”
In other words - be really good, just in case God's grace doesn't stretch as far as my sin... be holy just in case his grace isn't good enough. This mixes up justification and sanctification. It leads to a guilt-ridden pursuit of the perfect life, driven by
insecurity in our salvation. It means we attempt obedience, but we are driven by guilt, shame and fear.
It is the trap the Galatians fell into, and Paul corrects them in the strongest possible terms in Galatians 3:2-3: “Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”
Romans 8:15-16: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”. If you have accepted Jesus Christ and have decided to live life in relationship with him, then you do not need to be concerned about your salvation – you don’t need to live in fear, trying to obey because you’re secretly not sure if this grace thing can really stretch as far as my sin. Rather, you are brought into an intimate father-child relationship. And the father is asking you, as his child, to be obedient to him.
It is the trap the Galatians fell into, and Paul corrects them in the strongest possible terms in Galatians 3:2-3: “Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”
Romans 8:15-16: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”. If you have accepted Jesus Christ and have decided to live life in relationship with him, then you do not need to be concerned about your salvation – you don’t need to live in fear, trying to obey because you’re secretly not sure if this grace thing can really stretch as far as my sin. Rather, you are brought into an intimate father-child relationship. And the father is asking you, as his child, to be obedient to him.
2. “Be Holy in order to
win God’s affection”
You say, ok - I've got my 'get out of hell free' card. I accept that the salvation part is done. Maybe you're not trying to earn salvation - but you're trying to earn affection. Maybe you are someone who had a difficult relationship with your parents and you felt you had to perform in order to earn their affection – to make them proud. Maybe you put that on to your relationship with God: obey in order to be loved.
But the bible says the opposite: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When you became a Christian, you were adopted into God’s family, and he said “you are my son/daughter, and I am fully pleased with you”. Those were the words spoken to Jesus in Matthew 3:17 – and that same love, acceptance and affirmation was given to you because of the cross (Romans 8:16-17).
You say, ok - I've got my 'get out of hell free' card. I accept that the salvation part is done. Maybe you're not trying to earn salvation - but you're trying to earn affection. Maybe you are someone who had a difficult relationship with your parents and you felt you had to perform in order to earn their affection – to make them proud. Maybe you put that on to your relationship with God: obey in order to be loved.
But the bible says the opposite: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When you became a Christian, you were adopted into God’s family, and he said “you are my son/daughter, and I am fully pleased with you”. Those were the words spoken to Jesus in Matthew 3:17 – and that same love, acceptance and affirmation was given to you because of the cross (Romans 8:16-17).
We are not striving for the affirmation of the father - he
has given it! And from that relationship where we are affirmed sons and
daughters of the father - loved and fully pleasing to him - he calls us to holiness.
3. “Act Holy on the outside so people don’t suspect what’s going on inside”
This is one of the false statements we perhaps most easily fall into. We put on masks of the perfect Christian
lives. God told me to be holy – so I better not admit that I am
struggling in marriage, struggling with temptation, struggling with dilemmas of
integrity, struggling with spiritual disciplines. Even worse, I certainly won’t
admit that I gave into temptation, that I gave up my integrity, that I
haven’t read my bible in a month.
Holiness is not about looking good on the outside. It’s about being changed from the inside. And often that looks awful on the outside for a while! The Pharisees were all about looking good on the outside: Jesus said to them in Luke 11:39 “You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!”. In interesting analogy Jesus uses, isn't it? Think about the cup: what matters more for its use? A clean and sterile inside? Or a clean outside?
Holiness is not about looking good on the outside. It’s about being changed from the inside. And often that looks awful on the outside for a while! The Pharisees were all about looking good on the outside: Jesus said to them in Luke 11:39 “You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!”. In interesting analogy Jesus uses, isn't it? Think about the cup: what matters more for its use? A clean and sterile inside? Or a clean outside?
In Romans 12:2 it says “Let
God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think”. It all begins on the inside.
4. “God loves me, so why should I change?”
We can sometimes forsake the pursuit of holiness out of a wrong understanding of grace. The pursuit of holiness was part of the salvation package. God loves us and accept us just as we are, but he loves us far too much to leave us that way. A Christian is a disciple – someone who is learning to follow and become like the teacher, Jesus. He expects us to be committed to it too: he says to count the cost before following him, because following Jesus means change.
4. “God loves me, so why should I change?”
We can sometimes forsake the pursuit of holiness out of a wrong understanding of grace. The pursuit of holiness was part of the salvation package. God loves us and accept us just as we are, but he loves us far too much to leave us that way. A Christian is a disciple – someone who is learning to follow and become like the teacher, Jesus. He expects us to be committed to it too: he says to count the cost before following him, because following Jesus means change.
The moment of becoming a Christian is often called “repentance” which literally means turning – I've been looking after number one, following the false Gods of this world, and now I am going to turn and follow Jesus. Following in the knowledge that I will make mistakes, with the awareness that I have so far to go before I am what I should be, but my heart has turned towards Jesus Christ.
Christianity is the pursuit of holiness.
The Nature of Holiness
Holiness is not a religious exercise in sticking to
a set of rules
When we do that, we usually just pick a particular rule to judge ourselves and each other by. For example we obsess about sex: you can gossip, you can oppress the poor, you can be malicious and anger prone and bitter and jealous - but if you want to be holy just don’t have sex.
When we do that, we usually just pick a particular rule to judge ourselves and each other by. For example we obsess about sex: you can gossip, you can oppress the poor, you can be malicious and anger prone and bitter and jealous - but if you want to be holy just don’t have sex.
Maybe your religious rule of choice is religious observance: Holiness means spending three hours in prayer per week and attending four services per month.
Holiness is not a record keeping exercise in self-discipline.
You can discipline your body, you can discipline your time, you can even to some extent discipline your thoughts. The Pharisees loved this kind of holiness. They were good at it. They lived by the law, and they were good at it. But they fell well short of the standard required by holiness.
Law v Grace
The difference between 'law' and 'grace' is a wonderful thing to study - Galatians is a good place to start (I don't have time or space here to fully explore it). The Pharisees were offended by the early church because they preached you can't be saved by the law. They thought that Christianity was an easy way out - "you don't need to keep those rules anymore". I know Jewish and Muslim friends of mine often feel that way when discussing the concept of grace.
But the standard of grace is actually higher than the standard of law. Law says love your neighbour. Grace says love your enemy too. The law says give 10%. Grace says give everything. The law says don't commit adultery. Grace says don't even look at a woman with impure thoughts in mind. The law says don't murder. Grace says don't even speak a word in anger.
The difference between 'law' and 'grace' is a wonderful thing to study - Galatians is a good place to start (I don't have time or space here to fully explore it). The Pharisees were offended by the early church because they preached you can't be saved by the law. They thought that Christianity was an easy way out - "you don't need to keep those rules anymore". I know Jewish and Muslim friends of mine often feel that way when discussing the concept of grace.
But the standard of grace is actually higher than the standard of law. Law says love your neighbour. Grace says love your enemy too. The law says give 10%. Grace says give everything. The law says don't commit adultery. Grace says don't even look at a woman with impure thoughts in mind. The law says don't murder. Grace says don't even speak a word in anger.
Holiness requires a
transformation of the heart
Holiness requires more than keeping the rules. the holiness that we are to pursue, having been saved by God's grace, requires a complete transformation of the heart. The inside of the cup.
Holiness = set-apart-ness
God is described as Holy Holy Holy…. Completely set apart from everything. We are to be Holy… set apart for God – marked as his. My wedding ring tells the world that I am set apart for my wife. So our transformed lives should tell the world that we are set apart as God’s.
Be Holy = Be Different
As a child, being a Christian was great - lots of bouncy castles and singalongs. When I hit teenage years it became more difficult because it meant actually being different. Having a different view of sex, alcohol, drugs. Having a different attitude to the class loser. It meant being different. But that's the point! Even as you look at the most obscure laws in the old testament (like not boiling a young goat in its mother's milk) the reasons they are in place are to mark God's people out as different to the pagan cultures around them at the time.
Be Holy = Be like Jesus.
Holiness requires more than keeping the rules. the holiness that we are to pursue, having been saved by God's grace, requires a complete transformation of the heart. The inside of the cup.
Holiness = set-apart-ness
God is described as Holy Holy Holy…. Completely set apart from everything. We are to be Holy… set apart for God – marked as his. My wedding ring tells the world that I am set apart for my wife. So our transformed lives should tell the world that we are set apart as God’s.
Be Holy = Be Different
As a child, being a Christian was great - lots of bouncy castles and singalongs. When I hit teenage years it became more difficult because it meant actually being different. Having a different view of sex, alcohol, drugs. Having a different attitude to the class loser. It meant being different. But that's the point! Even as you look at the most obscure laws in the old testament (like not boiling a young goat in its mother's milk) the reasons they are in place are to mark God's people out as different to the pagan cultures around them at the time.
Be Holy = Be like Jesus.
Be holy because HE was and is holy (John
14:9 – Jesus shows us the father, Holy Holy Holy). The only man who's eyes
never looked at a woman with lust. The only man who never acted in jealousy or
selfish anger. A man for whom nobody was too low on the social ladder to be
worthy of his time, affection and love. A man who spent his life with his will
aligned to his father's, listening to his voice and acting on what he heard. A
man who sacrificed his life out of love for a broken and needy world.
Holiness is Christlikeness. That is the standard each one of us is called to.
To say in every situation, as Jesus did “your will be done”.
It means prayer. Not for the sake of ticking the box, but because our hearts hunger for his presence, and our eyes have been opened to our need for him.
It means worship. Not out of religious obligation, but because we have seen a glimpse of God and our hearts have been changed to love him.
It means sexual purity. Not because God wants to keep from you from having fun, but because your heart is being transformed, your view of women is being transformed. Because you start to see in sexuality something beautiful about the very self-giving character of God, and you start to see in the world’s version of sexuality the opposite of that – selfish hedonistic sensuality.
It means love. Genuine, selfless, boundless sacrificial love.
It means honesty and integrity. Not because “good boys don’t lie” but because you love that person, so why would you cheat them? You care about that person – so why would you gossip about them?
It means doing the will of God when it makes sense and when it doesn’t – because it means trusting that God is good, and that his will is good.
Holiness looks like Jesus
It means prayer. Not for the sake of ticking the box, but because our hearts hunger for his presence, and our eyes have been opened to our need for him.
It means worship. Not out of religious obligation, but because we have seen a glimpse of God and our hearts have been changed to love him.
It means sexual purity. Not because God wants to keep from you from having fun, but because your heart is being transformed, your view of women is being transformed. Because you start to see in sexuality something beautiful about the very self-giving character of God, and you start to see in the world’s version of sexuality the opposite of that – selfish hedonistic sensuality.
It means love. Genuine, selfless, boundless sacrificial love.
It means honesty and integrity. Not because “good boys don’t lie” but because you love that person, so why would you cheat them? You care about that person – so why would you gossip about them?
It means doing the will of God when it makes sense and when it doesn’t – because it means trusting that God is good, and that his will is good.
Holiness looks like Jesus
How Does Holiness
Happen?
Holiness happens as we follow Jesus. It is the unavoidable
result of any genuine relationship with God. We talk about this all the time in
the language of fruit. We know that as Christians we are meant to produce good
fruit – John 15. We know that in our lives we should be developing the fruit of
the spirit – Galatians 5. Anyone who has every been into gardening knows that you don’t plant a seed and then the
next day drink fully pressed apple juice from a full-grown tree. It is a
process of growing.
That raises an interesting question: is it my job or is
it God’s job?
That’s another one of those questions to which the answer is
both, neither and somewhere in between.
It comes from your relationship
with Jesus.
Paul talked about his ministry in these terms: “I work
very hard at this, as I depend on Christ’s almighty power that works within me”
– Colossians 1:29
He counselled the Philippian church in Philippians 2:12-13
“Work hard to show the results of your salvation,
obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For
God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases
him.”
Romans 12: 2 “Don’t copy the
behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person
by changing the way you think.”
It takes God's commitment, and it takes our commitment.
We know about Jesus' commitment: Philippians 1:6: “God, who began the good work within
you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ
Jesus returns.”
So what about your commitment?
There is a wonderful prayer that a pursuer of holiness
prayed long ago – found in Psalm 139:23-24 – “Search
me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me
along the path of everlasting life.”
With that kind of prayer we lay
ourselves before him and say: take every part of me. Show me the areas of my
life where habitual sin still lurks. Show me the thoughts and attitudes that
don’t glorify you. Make yourself Lord of every dark and hidden corner of my
heart.
That kind of prayer is a marker of an intimate relationship
with God. That is the kind of prayer that God loves to answer. Because he is
committed to making us holy.
Products of Holiness
1. Deeper intimacy with God: as you open up the most
vulnerable and secret parts of your life to God, you begin to see him change
you deeply, and that makes you love him even more deeply. By the same token
when we begin to pull a veil over parts of our lives, keep them for ourselves,
we start to place barriers between us and God.
2. Other people notice: Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot
be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a
basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone
in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father". Holiness shows God to the
world: let your good deeds shine. 1 Peter 3:15: “You must worship Christ as
Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be
ready to explain it”. The
implication is that if you are worshipping Christ as Lord – i.e. if the fruit
of holiness is becoming apparent in your life – only then will people start to ask about the faith you have.
