In Pursuit of Holiness

God is holiness. Another way to say it is absolute perfection. God is unlike any other (see Hosea 11:9), and His holiness is the essence of that “otherness.” His very being is completely absent of even a trace of sin (James 1:13; Hebrews 6:18). He is high above any other, and no one can compare to Him (Psalm 40:5). God’s holiness pervades His entire being and shapes all His attributes. His love is a holy love, His mercy is holy mercy, and even His anger and wrath are holy anger and holy wrath. These concepts are difficult for humans to grasp, just as God is difficult for us to understand in His entirety.

Is it possible for us in all our humaness to be Holy? " Be ye holy; for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:15-16). In other words, "It is written, recorded, settled once and for all: We are to be holy, as our God is holy!"

Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4, "Since the very beginning of creation, we have been called to live holy and blameless!"

"God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (1 Thessalonians 4:7). God hasn't called us just to salvation, or to heaven, or to receive forgiveness. These things are benefits of our one true call - which is to be holy as he is holy!

Holiness is a state of the soul which satisfies the plan of God for its Salvation. There are no human standards to qualify the holiness of someone.

Holiness must be the cry from the deepest part of your heart: "God, I want to be like Jesus. I want to walk holy before you, all the days of my life!"

Jesus was spotless, blameless, perfect. How on earth could anyone live up to that standard? Besides, doesn't the Bible say, 'There is none holy as the Lord'?"

That was the very purpose of the law - to show us it is impossible for us to measure up to God's standard of holiness. No amount of human willpower, strength or ability could ever make us holy. Therefore, if there is none holy but the Lord, there can only be one way for us to become holy:

Because we are in Christ, we are made holy by virtue of his holiness.We are holy only by faith and the grace of Christ.

Jesus, who is Holy and blameless, has a body and we are that body! By faith, we are made bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.

From the time of the cross, all who repent and believe in Jesus are gathered up in Him: "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many" (1 Corinthians 12:13-14). Even orphans are part of a family-God's family.

There is no longer any black, white, yellow, red, brown, Jew, Muslim or Gentile. We are all of one blood - one new man - in Christ Jesus!

And because of Jesus' work on the cross, we could no longer attempt to be holy by keeping the law and the commandments. Nor could we become holy by good works, righteous deeds, human effort or strivings of the flesh.

Only one person would be accepted by the father - the new, resurrected Jesus! And when Jesus presented to His Father all who had faith in Him, Dad responded, "I receive you all as holy - because you are in my Holy Son!" "...he hath made us accepted in the beloved" (Ephesians1:6).

Moreover, we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit: "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ...in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians:10, 13).

Holiness is not something we do, or attain, or work up. Instead, it is something we believe! God accepts us as holy only as we have faith in Jesus and abide in Him. The path to holiness is not through human ability, but through faith!

This is God's wonderful answer to the anxious cries of multitudes of Christians, who thirst for an understanding of how to be holy. We are holy only as we rest in Christ's holiness! Our holiness is His holiness - flowing to us, the branches, from the root.

To better understand how to be holy, lets go back to the Old Testament and examine the account of Moses at the burning bush.

Moses was all alone on Mount Horeb, herding his father-in-law's sheep, when a strange sight grabbed his attention: A bush was burning brightly, as if on fire - yet it was not consumed!

Moses decided to go for a closer look - and as he stepped nearer, God called to him out of the bush: "Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush..." (Exodus 3:3-4).

God was present in the bush. That's why it was burning, yet not consumed. It was a visual representation of God's holiness. Wherever God is present, that place is holy!

"...Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Do we fully understand the tremendous depth of this verse's meaning? I've heard many conflicting opinions of what God means in commanding Moses, "Take off your shoes." Some scholars say this means, "Take off your pride." Others say it means, "Take off your arrogance."

I believe the phrase goes much deeper than either of these things. I suggest it has to do with how to be holy.

Moses was about to be called into God's eternal purpose for him - to deliver Israel out of bondage. Before he could do that, God had to show Moses the ground upon which He, the Lord, was to be approached: It had to be holy ground. Moses was being called to a face-to-face communion with a holy God - and he had to be prepared for it!

How was Moses dramatically changed? What transformed him from being someone who hid his face in God's presence, to a man whose face shone brightly after conversing with the Lord face-to-face? It was because Moses had a revelation of the kind of ground upon which God must be approached!

It is impossible for any of us to achieve holiness in God's sight by our own strength or willpower. There is only one way to be holy and one principle by which to approach the Lord in our Christian service. We must come to him saying, "Lord, I have nothing to give you. You have to do it all!"

You can be free of all lusts, of every evil desire, and still not be holy. You can be a wonderful person, a loving mate, an upright and honest person, and still not be holy. All of our human goodness is as filthy rags in God's sight!

So why do we continue thinking, "If I could just get victory over this one last sin, I'd be able to live holy?" We take the sword of willpower, promises, good intentions and we set out to kill the enemy in our hearts, in an attempt to gain victory.

But it will never happen! We can never be holy while standing on the ground of self-righteousness. The shoes of flesh have to be put off!

Total trust in Jesus, is not only trust in His saving power, but trust in His keeping power as well. We have to trust His Spirit to make our life conform to his, to keep us in Christ!

Think about it for a moment. At one time you were cut off from God by wicked works. So, what good work did you do to make things right with him? None! No one has ever been able to make himself holy. Rather, we are brought into Christ's holiness by faith alone - by accepting what God's word says: "If you are in Christ, you are holy, as he is holy!"

Dad wants our daily walk to measure up to our faith walk. To do this we have to believe in Him and trust in His promise to give us the Holy Ghost, who will conform us to Christ's likeness in our daily walk.

"If you continue in faith..." Jesus is saying, "Just continue trusting in me, living by faith. And I will present you as clean, faultless, unblamable - holy before the Father!" (Colossians 1:21-23).

That is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit: As the Spirit empowers you to mortify the deeds of the flesh, He will lead you by both His conviction and His comfort.

There is but one holiness - Jesus'! And no one Christian is "holier than thou." There are no degrees of holiness - only degrees of maturity in Christ. You can be a baby Christian and still be absolutely holy in Jesus. So it is foolish to measure yourself against someone you picture as being "holy." No! We are all measured by one standard - the holiness of Christ. And if we are in Christ, His holiness is ours in equal measure!

You can never again look at another Christian leader or layperson and say, "Oh, I wish I were as holy as he/she is!" You may not have that person's discipline; you may not have their prayer life; you may struggle more often and make more mistakes than they do; but they are no more accepted by the father than you are. You are to compare yourself to no one - because no one is more loved in the eyes of the father than you!

References:
The Holy Bible
Pulpit Series by David Wilkerson
www.theworkofgod.org