PERSONAL HOLINESS
TO BE OR NOT TO BE: THAT’S THE QUESTION
The fact of the matter is that our society is in a state of decay. Just look at the news (serial killers, bombings, rape etc). Besides the news, which informs us of real life events about what is happening throughout the world, just turn on the television during the day. The films, soapies, music, all act out that which we hear from the news. Through these we are subtly taught the wrong way to deal with relationships, manage our money, what we should value etc.
Although the TV is not the only source of decay for our society, our
culture is more and more becoming a mirror image of what it sees on the screen.
WHAT ROLE MODELS ARE
CHRISTIANS EXPECTED TO HAVE?
Christians are called to be more like Christ, not like people they see on TV.
Lev 11: 44,45 [“I am the Lord your God, consecrate
yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.”]
Lev 19:2 [“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy”]
Paul also appealed to believers to live a life consecrated to ethical
holiness and moral conduct. [1 Thess 4:7]
The word ‘holy’ in various forms occurs more than 600 times in the Bible. Leviticus is a book devoted to the subject of holiness. The Bible gives us an instruction in these passages to be Holy.
My talk this afternoon is therefore on that: “PERSONAL HOLINESS”
here and now, not when you are in heaven, or when you are 85 years old but
right now in the prime of your life. Remember Eccl
12:1 [“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of
trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in
them””]
HOW CAN WE BE HOLY?
It is not at all easy to be holy because of all the irresistible temptations, which stand between each of us and our goal of personal holiness. Let us read the bible for some advice.
Lev 20:8 [“keep my laws and follow them, I am the Lord your God who makes you holy.”] Take note that this passage does not say keep some of my laws, which you are comfortable with, it says, keep all my laws. The good news is that God does not expect any of us to be holy all by him/herself. His grace and Holy Spirit will be right there with you giving you the power to accomplish His will.
To live a holy life, then is to live a
life of conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the
sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by “putting off of the old self, which is being corrupted by
its deceitful desires … and putting on the new self, created to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness” Eph 4: 22,24
We
have been Christians for a while now:
If a friend or colleague was asked to describe you, would you be described as a holy person among the other descriptions?
Would you have even thought of that word?
Most probably not, WHY?
Holy seems to be a word associated with the following connotations:
· Getting up at 4am
· Thinness
· Beard
· Fasting
· Desert
· Hours of prayer
· Long robes
· Sandals
Holiness seems like a word suitable to describe monks, pastors, elders. Also, the picture of Jesus as painted in the bible also suggests to us that to be holy you are even to dress the way Jesus dressed. We tend to isolate His dressing from the fact that at the time that He was on earth that is how people dressed like. Can you even imagine Jesus dressed in jeans and a cap? How do you think he would dress like if he had come in our days?
WHAT DOES THE WORD ‘HOLY’ MEAN
Literally, the root of the word ‘holy’ means ‘to separate’. Holiness includes the big concept of separation. You separate something from something to something else.
If God instructs us to be holy, it therefore means that he wants us to be a ‘separated’ individual. 2 Cor 6: 17, 18 [“Therefore come out from them and be separate, Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 “I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty.” The Lord is calling us to come out and be separate from that which is unclean and enjoy the wonderful Fatherhood of the Lord God Almighty in a depth you may never have experienced before.
It is also clear that we are to make the effort of ‘coming out’ ourselves. We are not going to be dragged out. Remember Lot and his family, they had to finally come out themselves. We are also informed in this passage of a reward once we obey the instruction and ‘separate’ ourselves from that which is unclean, the Lord will be our Father and we will be ‘his sons and daughters’.
HOW DO WE BECOME HOLY
To be holy,
one needs to have gone through some kind of a defining moment i.e. the moment when you decide to choose Christ
above everyone and everything. You need to have gone through this experience to
become a full – grown disciple of Christ. NB We need to know that calling
yourself a Christian doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a full – grown
disciple of Christ because not all Christians have gone through this defining moment.
After you are saved, you need to face the Lord’s call in your heart. He wants to be the master of your entire heart and if you don’t choose to present yourself to Him, you will never be a truly, holy man.
HOLINESS always starts with the heart i.e. the internals not the externals. Not with a set of rules and regulations but with the relationship of trust and complete dedication. Mat 16:24 [“If anyone desires to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”] You need to have a desire first because without that desire you will never pay the price He asks.
Let us look at
what Sister White had to go through to pay her price because of Her desire to
‘come after’ the Lord. Life sketches p.132, she saw in
a vision, while she was very sad and discouraged about her little success after
all the sacrifices she had made especially that of not being with her kids, an
angel that informed her that ‘every self-denial, every sacrifice, is faithfully
recorded, and will bring its reward.’
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN IS BAPTIZED AFTER THE DEFINING MOMENT
The Seventh-Day Adventist 27 fundamental beliefs, addresses
this question in chapter 10.
· God does more than forgive our sins.
· He makes us righteous and pronounces us ‘not guilty’ i.e. He forgives our sins.
·
The process by with our peace is made
with God and pronounced righteous is called justification. Rom 5:1 [“Therefore since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”]
·
On top of justification, God also
sanctifies (sets us apart for His own exclusive use) us i.e. He begins to share
His Holiness with us.
·
He begins a process within us to make
us fit for his divine use.
·
He begins by his HOLY SPIRIT to make
each of us holy.
Let us look at
a few term closely to find out exactly what they mean. 27
Fundamental beliefs
JUSTIFICATION:
The term ‘justification’ is a translation of a Greek word ‘dikaioma’ meaning ‘righteous requirement, deed’ and ‘dikaiosis’ signifying, ‘justification’, ‘acquittal’. The related verb ‘dikaioo’, meaning ‘be pronounced and treated as righteous’, ‘be acquitted’, ‘be set free, made pure’. Justification, as used theologically, is ‘the divine act by which God declares a penitent sinner righteous, or regards him as righteous’. It is the opposite of condemnation.
SANCTIFICATION:
The word ‘sanctification’ is a translation of the Greek word ‘hagiasmos’ meaning ‘holiness’, ‘consecration’. Verb ‘hagiazo’, meaning ‘to make holy’, ‘to sanctify’, ‘to set apart’. The Hebrew equivalent is ‘qadash’, meaning ‘to separate from common use’.
TROUBLE:
· We all did not anticipate the intense struggle and the dismal failure that came later.
· We failed to understand the nature of the struggle that neither the Holy Spirit nor our sinful tendencies would ever reach a compromise.
WHAT HAS GONE WRONG WITH THE SANCTIFICATION
PROCESS?
[We should first remember that the transformation process
takes a lifetime, it’s not overnight.] Rom 12:2 [“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”]
To answer that question, we need to look at the two views of Holiness:
· Passive view
· Active view
THE PASSIVE VIEW: (LET GOD: LET GO)
Simply relinquish control to Christ. Paul says: [“Not I but Christ,”]. According to this view, the Christian does not struggle to control his anger or temper or any of his sins, but allows Christ to handle all those ill-feelings Himself.
ACTIVE VIEW:
The Christian is called to “wrestle and fight and pray”. Activities like prayer, meditation on the scriptures, fellowship with other believers, a careful effort to maintain ‘good works’; a deliberate attempt to refrain from sin and to perform active Christian duties cannot be done away with.
THE BIBLE:
Phil 2: 12,13 [“…. Continue to work out your salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according
to His good purpose.”
This expresses both points of view. In this context, it appears that God does not only work on us but also makes us do what He wants by actually making the decision inside us. This therefore says that we are to work because God is working in us.
This is one of the mysteries of the bible: the mystery of the interaction between our will and God’s will. Let us simply agree with both views by saying if yielding (passive) means bowing down to the Lord as King, let us day by day, hour by hour yield every part of our being in allegiance to Him and reserve no part of our lives to serve our selfish interests and ambitions. Having done that, let us take His armor and by miraculous strength declare war on all that is evil within and without
WHERE HAS HOLINESS GONE TO?
1. Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own ‘victory’ over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God. W.S. Plummer said: “We never see sin aright until we see it as against God. Remember David said: “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.” God wants us to walk in obedience, not in victory. Obedience is oriented towards God and victory is oriented towards self.
2. Our second problem is that we have misunderstood ‘living by faith’ Gal 2:20 to mean that no effort at holiness is required on our part.
3. Our third problem is that we do not take some sin/s seriously. We have mentally categorized sin into that which is unacceptable and that which may be tolerated a bit. Many examples come to mind e.g. homosexuality vs. teenage pregnancy.
Are we now willing to call sin “sin” not because it is big or little, but because God’s law forbids it? We cannot categorize sin if we are to live a life of holiness. God will not let us get away with that kind of attitude.
IS IT REALLY NECESSARY TO BE HOLY CHRISTIANS?
Heb 12: 14 [“Make every effort to live in peace with all men
and to be Holy, without Holiness no one will see the Lord.”]
HOLINESS HAS TO DO WITH MY HEART
Holiness starts inside a person, with a right purpose that seeks to express itself in a right perfomance. A holy person’s desire / motivating aim and drive is to please God, both by what one does and by what one avoids doing. One must therefore practice good works and avoid evil ones. Good works begin with praise, worship, and honouring God as the constitution of one’s own life. Evil works start with the neglect of these things, and coolness with regard to them.
Remember the PHARISEES!
IS HOLINESS STILL VALUED TODAY?
The television programs do not suggest that
Binding one’s conscience to God’s moral law, confessing and forsaking one’s sins, making restitution for past wrongs, grieving before God at the dishonour one’s sins have done Him, and forming a game plan for holy living
Coming to Christ, trusting His promises, believing that God knows what He is doing with our lives and hoping for heaven
Which do we stress more: faith or repentance?
There is talk today of private morality/immorality and that it matters to nobody else except the persons directly involved. Some Christians even say that repentance is not a necessity but rather a mere beneficial option. Christians even discourage each other when one is doing something good by saying: ‘Uyakuba nesithukuthezi ezulwini.’ I ask again if Holiness is valued at all in our days.
When you explain the gospel to others (non-believers), do you emphasize repentance, and the Holiness by which repentance is expressed, as a spiritual necessity?
CONCLUSION:
·
Holiness is commanded, God wills it,
Christ requires it, and all the scriptures call for it.
·
Holiness is the goal of our
redemption. As Christ died in order that we may be justified, so we are
justified in order that we may be sanctified and made holy. Holiness is the
object of our new creation. We are born again so that we may grow up into
Christlikeness.
·
Holiness defeats Satan in his designs
on our lives. Lack of concern for Holiness and failure to practice the purity
and righteousness to which we are called, play into Satan’s hands every time.
Please read Eph 6: The Armour of God that will
advise you on how to fully defend yourself against Satan.
·
Holiness gives credibility to witness,
Holy ways will enhance our testimony, while worldly ways will undermine it.
Remember Mat 5: 14,16 [‘You are the light of the
world. … let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and
praise your Father in heaven.”]
·
To be fruitful in evangelism, we must
cultivate Holiness of life.
·
Holiness is the substance of which
happiness is the spin-off. Those who chase happiness miss it, while to those
who pursue Holiness through the Grace of Christ, happiness of the Spirit comes
unasked. We too can say: [“I delight in Your commands
because I love them ….they are the joy of my heart.”]
·
For every Christian without exception, Holiness is important.
PART II
BECOMING SUCCESSFUL IN HOLINESS
HOW?
ABIDING IN CHRIST: THE SOURCE OF HOLINESS
John 15: 4,5 [“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you,
unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in
me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
QUESTION:
Agree / Disagree
Christian maturity is understanding the principles of the
Bible and trying as best we can to live by them.
Christian maturity is Christlike character.
Answer
It’s true that
understanding the principles of Scripture is essential for Christian maturity, but
that in itself is not Christian maturity. If you know all the principles but
don’t have the character, then you are only a ‘resounding
gong or a clanging cymbal’ that is without love (Cor 13:1)
Becoming a
Christian does not mean that we have more power in and of ourselves. It means
that we are inwardly connected to the only source of power that is able to
overcome the laws of sin and death, which is the law
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus Rom 8: 2
THE PRACTICE OF ABIDING IN CHRIST
This involves two basic practices:
1. It means that we nourish ourselves through faith in all that Christ is to us; and
2. It means that we follow Him in obedience to His commands
Put simply, these are the two concepts of trust and obey.
THE EVERYDAY BUSINESS OF HOLINESS
Holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and the things we do, hour by hour, day by day.
Holiness consists in thinking as God thinks and willing as God wills. That thinking and willing is a process requiring discipline and perseverance and is a joint effort: God’s and ours.
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
I was having a discussion with one of my friends, a Christian from another denomination. We were talking about all the different problems being encountered by the churches and I asked her what she thought was the greatest need of the church. She said: “absolute surrender to God is also a factor.” If you have ever taught children at school you will have noticed that the kids that surrender everything to being taught by you will understand you the most than those who think that they can do better by themselves.
The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is ‘absolute surrender’ to Him.
Are you willing?
Before you answer, think about the following 5 points
1. God claims it from us. Yes, it has its foundation in the very nature of God. He cannot do otherwise.
2. God not only claims it, but God will work it Himself.You won’t have to do it all by yourself. Do you think that Abraham did it all by himself apart from God?
3. God not only claims it and works it, but God accepts it when we bring it to Him. Even if you surrender yourself to Him with a trembling voice and do not feel the power, God will accept you.
4. God not only claims it, works it and accepts it when I bring it, but
God maintains it. You just have to believe it. One
man was asked his secret for happiness and of all the blessings with which God
had visited him. He said that the first was that he had been enabled by grace
to maintain a good conscience before God day by day, the other was that he was
a lover of God’s word. I call that a life of absolute surrender.
5. This absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless us.
MAY GOD BLESS US ALL AS HE GIVES EACH OF US A TASTE OF WHAT HE HAS IN STORE FOR US AS WE ABSOLUTELY SURRENDER OURSELVES TO HIM SO THAT WE MAY EXPERIENCE HOLINESS
AMEN