Holiness

Holiness is not the way to Christ,
Christ is the way to holiness.












Holiness

The Word of God demands that we as believers live “Holy”

… “ that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Ephesians 1:4b

and “separated” lives unto the Lord.
“Don’t be unequally yoked together with unbelievers;
for what fellowship is there
between righteousness and unrighteousness?
And what communion does light have with darkness.”
2 Corinthians 6:14]

To walk in such a holy and separated way
we must choose to place our lives before God –
to lay ourselves at the Cross
and be delivered from our own sinful and selfish nature.

Without such a holy exchange, we will never be free from self and sin;
and the character of Christ Jesus
will never developed in us or seen fully through us.

The enemy is continually looking for ways to get us to settle
for something less than holiness.
Oh yes, he says, ‘get wrapped up in a good cause,
feed the poor, minister to the unloved,
but don’t throw yourself in the briar-patch of holiness and purity.’

In the Scriptures, the predominant feature of this call to holiness
contains a holy urgency.
For without a release from self and sin
the true life of God cannot fully appear in men.

We should rejoice in this knowledge,
no matter how difficult it may be to embrace.

For if the accuser of the brethren can succeed in persuading us
that his zircon is as good as the Lord’s diamond,
he and his dominion will rejoice at our double-mindedness.
Our failure to embrace the meat of His Word,
will cause us to be “unstable in all our ways.” [James 1:8]

The fruits of God’s Spirit cannot be fully realized
until we have come to the unity of the faith,
and we have gone with Christ to the grave.
There alone we will find his proclamation
“I am the resurrection and the Life;
he that believes on Me though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
John 11:25

Without death to self and sin,
the resurrection life of Christ is hampered from flowing through us.
Christian’s who try to walk on the edge of this road,
do so at their own peril - and that of the Church.

This kind of thinking hinders the Gospel message of Christ,
and exposes our own compromise and hypocrisy.
The world is quick to see such double-mindedness,
and call much of the Church what it is – ‘ fraudulent’.
The eyes of the world are quick to perceive
the slightest indication of selfishness and sin in us (the Church)
who are professing to be abandoned to our Masters will.

Although some might proclaim that the standard they use is too high,
and unquestionably twisted in view of their own actions,
the truth of the matter is that our standard of “holiness” is far too low.

The majority of Christians preach and teach
about the abundant life in Christ Jesus,
which of course is true;
but they miss the necessity of reaching the high goal of death to their old life.
It is utter delusion to think that holiness can be obtained without cost.
Some think it comes with church membership, or the ritual of baptism.
If such were true then the church would be
filled to capacity to sanctified saints walking in perfect purity and unity.

In some aspects, we have indeed, attempted
to make saints through program and rituals,
rather than through intimate relationship with the Lord and self-sacrifice.
The compelling fact is that without a close personal relationship with the Lord,
His Word and the edification of His Church, holiness will not be attained.

The ‘appearance of holiness’ may be put on like a tattered garment,
but the inner man will smell like a whitewashed sepulcher.
Sin is not arbitrary in nature.
It is indeed the assertion of one’s own will,
and self thought which is actually against God’s proclaimed Word and Will.

As long as we abide in our own self-love and lower thought life,
we will miss the manifestations of God in us, and through us.

While we are sinners, saved by the grace of God,
that does not excuse us from knowingly engaging in sinful acts. God forbid, we are instead called to be over-comers, through the finished work of Christ Jesus. Teleos!

“You are of God, little children,
and have overcome them:
because greater is He that is in you,
than he that is in the world.”
“They are of the world;
therefore they speak of the world,
and the world hears them.”
1 John 4:4-5

Our position must be to seek to walk in obedience to the truth,
and appropriate the inheritance of the completed work of Christ.

“Though we walk in the flesh,
We do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations,
and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (my emphasis bold/underlined)

The center of man’s affections will either be in himself,
in other creatures or creation itself, or in God.
He may say that he loves them all, and that may be true to some extent,
but he will only love one supremely.

If that center of love is found in self,
it will be consumed in our own thoughts, will and emotions.
Such a self-centered love will never bring about holiness,
for holiness is the antithesis of selfishness.

When love is centered in self
it inevitably will yield rebellion and disobedience.
Self-love is not only our enemy, it is the enemy of God.

Our hope is rooted in the power of God
to resurrect us in the Life of Christ and circumcise our hearts.
He will not circumcise what we withhold.

That is why it is essential that we seek His face
and His perspective of our spiritual condition:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart,
try me, and know my thoughts….”
Psalm 139

For the human heart is ‘deceitful and desperately wicked’ and full of self love.
Jeremiah 17:9

“And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23-24

The way everlasting, is to put what God reveals, back on the alter,
and have it cleansed by the Blood!

We must learn to make God what He truly is – the All in All,
the Completion of All Things, including ourselves.

We will never be able to “run with horses”
until we are able to contend with men,
and the Adamic nature within ourselves.
(Jeremiah 12:5).

We must allow our own idols to be overturned at the Cross
before we can be over-comers in spiritual battles.

We must purify ourselves and our own realm
before we try to win the world for Christ.

If we deny the fire of God’s holiness
then we are denying our discipleship of Christ.
It is this fire alone that brings about a holy exchange
which causes us to hate the sin in our lives,
and brings a renewed passion for holiness as a lifestyle.

The outcome of such a lifestyle is a life
that seeks God in Spirit and in Truth,
filled with the love of Christ
and an intense desire to see the lost come to Christ.

This is the high call for us to become Christ-like.

May God open our eyes
that we might see the marvelous things in His Word

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