What do you think about when you hear the word, holiness? Obviously, it means to be separate; to be set apart. But, when I think about holiness, invariably, I think about it from a religious perspective. In other words, I think about holiness as the characteristic that I am to achieve if God is going to be pleased with me. I think about what I need to put on if I am to enter into God’s presence, since God is holy. My religious upbringing has taught me to think about what I am to abstain from and what my life is supposed to look like. The whole, “don’t drink, chew, or go with girls that do,” perspective creeps in. Often, when I hear about holiness, I look for a rock to crawl under because my first thoughts, if I am honest, point out how I am not holy. The word itself condemns me and I am undone. Attempts at holiness, however successful I might be in overcoming sin, putting off old behavior, or acting a certain way, always fall short because there is always a new definition of holiness that I am not living up to. I am always falling short of what someone proclaims as “holy.”
I think that we have done the word a great disservice, however. We know that God is holy and we declare Him as such. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty” we sing along with the angels and the multitude from Revelation. God is holy. We know that much. But, what does it mean? Then, you add in that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:47) and without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), and we are all undone.
So, what do we do to reconcile all of this? How are we to be holy? Some, have retreated to the monastery. They have built walls around themselves and have completely withdrawn from the world. Their view of holiness is shown by what they are against and by what they disagree with. They focus on the “putting off” of Ephesians 4:22-24 and show their holiness through outward things. Others, focus on justification and God’s grace and the imputed righteousness that comes from faith in Christ. They often do not make it around to actually living like Christ, but that is okay. They aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Both of these views miss the bigger picture of what God’s holiness really is.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship tells Martin Luther’s journey to true holiness, and I think that it is a story that bears repeating. He says,
When the Reformation came, the providence of God raised Martin Luther to restore the gospel of pure, costly grace. Luther passed through the cloister; he was a monk, and all this was part of the divine plan. Luther had left all to follow Christ on the path of absolute obedience. He had renounced the world in order to live the Christian life. He had learnt obedience to Christ and to his Church, because only he who is obedient can believe. The call to the cloister demanded of Luther the complete surrender of his life. But God shattered all his hopes. He showed him through the Scriptures that the following of Christ is not the achievement or merit of a select few, but the divine command to all Christians without distinction. Monasticism had transformed the humble work of discipleship into the meritorious activity of the saints, and the self-renunciation of discipleship into the flagrant spiritual self-assertion of the “religious.” The world had crept into the very heart of the monastic life, and was once more making havoc. The monk’s attempt to flee from the world turned out to be a subtle form of love for the world. The bottom having thus been knocked out of the religious life, Luther laid hold upon grace. Just as the whole world of monasticism was crashing about him in ruins, he saw God in Christ stretching forth his hand to save. He grasped that hand in faith, believing that “after all, nothing we can do is of any avail, however good a life we live.” The grace which gave itself to him was a costly grace, and it shattered his whole existence. Once more he must leave his nets and follow. The first time was when he entered the monastery, when he had left everything behind except his pious self. This time even that was taken from him. He obeyed the call, not through any merit of his own, but simply through the grace of God. Luther did not hear the word: “Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness.” No, Luther had to leave the cloister and go back to the world, not because the world in itself was good and holy, but because even the cloister was only a part of the world.
Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world. Now came the frontal assault. The only way to follow Jesus was by living in the world. Hitherto the Christian life had been the achievement of a few choice spirits under the exceptionally favourable conditions of monasticism; now it is a duty laid on every Christian living in the world. The commandment of Jesus must be accorded perfect obedience in one’s daily vocation of life. The conflict between the life of the Christian and the life of the world was thus thrown into the sharpest possible relief. It was a hand-to-hand conflict between the Christian and the world.
Because the monastery was a place that Luther had retreated to justify himself and protect himself from the contaminating evils of the world, it actually became a part of the world system. Everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God is a part of the world system, even if it looks really good on the outside. Luther could only be justified through faith in what Christ had already done for him and he only came to a point of faith in Christ when he quit believing in himself.
But, here is what really strikes me about all of this: For Luther, and for us as well, holiness was not found in the monastery. It was found in engaging the world as an emissary of Christ. When he tried to separate himself from the world through withdrawing, he just demonstrated the world’s ways of self-justification. But, when he died to himself, renounced the world’s ways, and engaged the world for the sake of Christ, he was acting in accordance with holiness. It is all upside down from what we thought, isn’t it? The reason for this is because Christ is holy. Only Christ makes us holy and we are declared righteous only by faith in Jesus. But, that righteousness plays out in and transforms our lives when we are conformed to the image of Christ in our thinking and our behavior. We reflect the image of Christ when we become like Him. What did Jesus do? How did he act? Who did he care about? What moved him with compassion? Holiness is not just a state of declared righteousness that comes from faith, but the outworking of that holiness involves doing what Jesus did. Caring for the sick, the leper, the persecuted, and the downtrodden is holy. Rescuing the sinner is holy. Proclaiming justice to the nations is holy. Dining with tax collectors and prostitutes to show them the Kingdom of God is holy. Forgiving others is holy. Loving your enemies is holy. Everything that looks like Jesus is holy. Holiness is not just putting off certain behaviors. It is that, depending on what those behaviors are, but more than that, it is thinking about things differently and putting on the character of Christ. Humbling yourself before others and serving them is a holy act. We could go on and on. Holiness is not just a state of denial of certain things, it is action that demonstrates the in-breaking Kingdom of God. Holiness means that we live according to the "Otherness" of God apart and separate from this world system. It is a positive action, not just a negative renunciation.
We need more holiness in our churches. We need to put off the old life and see the world differently. Correspondingly, we need to put on the new life, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:22-24). Our evangelicalism became destructive when it promoted a life that affirmed withdrawal from the world for the sake of its truncated conception of holiness. Jesus did not withdraw from the world. He engaged the world and brought healing and redemption as He did the will of the Father in all respects. THAT is holiness and that is what God wants from us.
Instead of feeling condemned by the concept of holiness because I know that I do not measure up to someone’s artificial standard, I now see holiness as being the outworking of God’s character and life in every area. To see the beauty of holiness in a primarily negative (i.e. what we put off) sense is surely an abomination and it is entirely incomplete. But, to see holiness the way that Jesus demonstrates and to know that we have been called to be like Him is amazing, creative, beautiful, and life affirming! It is something that causes me to want to be holy and to violently pursue Christ and lose myself in obedience to Him as He brings restoration to the world!
The Good News is that Christ became sin for us, and is now our holiness. We get credit for his righteousness. "None is righteous, no not one" is a true statement. Only those that are holy can enter into the presence of God. You're right, we would be undone. And that's where our intercessor comes in, imparting to us the holiness we do not deserve and cannot earn. Jesus, hanging on the cross, is the propitiation for our sin. Sometimes we can substitute a better word for an old one; and sometimes we just need to learn what the word means, you know.
Posted by: Clark | April 06, 2009 at 07:37 PM
Dining with tax collectors and prostitutes to show them the Kingdom of God is holy. Forgiving others is holy. Loving your enemies is holy. Everything that looks like Jesus is holy. Holiness is not just putting off certain behaviors. It is that, depending on what those behaviors are, but more than that, it is thinking about things differently and putting on the character of Christ. Humbling yourself before others and serving them is a holy act.
Wow! Alan I had not thought of this in the terms of being holy. But I see what you have said above clearly. Thank you for teaching me something eye opening today. This is dynamite stuff.
Posted by: Debbie Kaufman | April 06, 2009 at 07:45 PM
Clark,
I fully understand the doctrine of justification by faith. I understand what imputed righteousness means. I am not the least confused about what Christ has done for us and how He has made us holy. You are right. I used to be confused about all of that and thought that unless I acted holy, I could not approach God. Then, I came to understand what Christ had done for me and I only need believe in Him. Justification was made clear.
However, even though we understand that we are justified by faith and that Christ's righteousness has been imputed to our account by faith, we still carry over a truncated view of holiness when it comes to our actions. Even though Christ has done all of this for us, we are still expected to cooperate with Jesus. We are expected to live out the Christ life. We are expected to be conformed to the image of Christ, are we not? If an understanding of Christ's imputed righteousness causes us to eschew pursuing holiness in our actions as an outflow of the life that He has placed within us as we walk by the Spirit, then we are nearing antinomianism. The purpose of this post was to proclaim that holiness was not just found in putting off certain behaviors, but it was also found in putting on behaviors that reflected what Jesus did. Even if we have been right on justification, we normally talk about one half of sanctification, the putting off part. When we talk about what we are to do, we rarely frame it in terms of acting in a holy way.
That is what I was trying to clarify, not confuse our justification with our sanctification.
Posted by: Alan Cross | April 06, 2009 at 08:08 PM
Some related thoughts on the meaning of the word "holiness" in itself found at:
http://nuallan.livejournal.com/49222.html
Posted by: NN | November 14, 2009 at 02:52 AM