Holiness

Monna said:

I would greatly like to hear some people's understanding of the concept of holiness, in terms of both the holiness of God and our being called to perfect our holiness (2 Cor 7:1). What is the "splendour of God's holiness,"(1 Chronicles 16:29; Psalm 29:2; Psalm 96:9), what is the significance of God swearing by his holiness (Psalm 89:35; Amos 4:2)?

1 Corinthians 1:30 suggests that Christ Jesus "has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (wisdom = righteousness + holiness + redemption). The word 'holy' comes from the root 'whole' implying complete, or all-encompassing, fullness (and therefore without shortcomings, fault or blemish).

I do not want a theological, doctrinal exposition. I would like to know how readers relate to this personally, how God's holiness affects their daily lives. Are you conscious of becoming more holy? Is this seen as a good think among your work colleagues? How often do you even think about it? When you do, how does it make you feel, how does it affect your behaviou? How real is it in your life? Please illustrate and tell us your stories or encounters with holiness. Feel free to cite other scriptures that refer to holiness.

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Shalom Monna, I suppose the greatest hindrance to holiness are the passions of anger and lust. Oddly, I felt more self-control in my younger years from age 26 to age 56. After losing my job, my house and my wife to suicide I let depression and despondency rule my life for several years. I went really wild for several years. The most blasphemous lyrics of heavy metal songs turned me on. Yuck! LOL I've learned to focus that angst on Lucifer and his agenda since then, though. Unfortunately the world is full of this including the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd degree Masons having to take a Luciferian initiation, the claim by a high-ranking witch that Harry Potter material turned out to be a superb "recruiting tool" for Wicca, and way too many other things to mention in one sitting. Sexual desire is another huge hurdle. I'm 63 and the expression 7-year itch needs some tweaking in my opinion. The 7 needs a zero behind it to make it 70 instead of 7. LOL Instead of "beating myself up" all the time about this huge struggle, the words of James 5:17 have become an immense help... "Elijah was a man of like passions..."

Hidden In Him said:

No, no. Now read what I'm saying carefully. I said NOT that we are expected to be perfect. It's like this: Imagine a father has two sons. One is not perfect and occasionally messes up (forgets to do his chores, complains about the rules, etc), but he clearly expresses a continual willingness to submit to His father nevertheless. Then you have another son who rebels against His father's authority and defiantly refuses to submit. This is the difference between one who understands what is required of an adopted son and one who is blatantly breaking the terms of the relationship. He has been adopted into the household of God, yet he refuses to honor the father's authority and enter into obedience. NOT sinless, flawless, perfect obedience, but rather a willingness to walk in obedience; a willingness to acknowledge when he is sinning and messing up, a willingness to repent, and a willingness to return to proper standing in the relationship by doing so.

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I like your use of 'repent' and 'return' in that last sentence. Myles Munroe said that the 're-' in repent denotes 'returning' and the '-pent' ending has to do with the "highest place" as in the case of a penthouse apartment being on the highest floor. You put 're-' and '-pent' together and you have "returning to the highest place."
Truly our English language is far more rich than we suspect at times...

I think we underestimate the Lord's anger and the Lord's power sometimes. But please remember that it only took one of his angels to destroy 185,000 Assyrians in one night in 2nd Kings 19:35. This makes me feel very sorry for people who feel like they can keep putting God to the test their whole lives without any consequences because the fact is "Whatever goes around, comes around!"

Monna said:

I would greatly like to hear some people's understanding of the concept of holiness, in terms of both the holiness of God and our being called to perfect our holiness (2 Cor 7:1). What is the "splendour of God's holiness,"(1 Chronicles 16:29; Psalm 29:2; Psalm 96:9), what is the significance of God swearing by his holiness (Psalm 89:35; Amos 4:2)?

1 Corinthians 1:30 suggests that Christ Jesus "has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (wisdom = righteousness + holiness + redemption). The word 'holy' comes from the root 'whole' implying complete, or all-encompassing, fullness (and therefore without shortcomings, fault or blemish).

I do not want a theological, doctrinal exposition. I would like to know how readers relate to this personally, how God's holiness affects their daily lives. Are you conscious of becoming more holy? Is this seen as a good think among your work colleagues? How often do you even think about it? When you do, how does it make you feel, how does it affect your behaviou? How real is it in your life? Please illustrate and tell us your stories or encounters with holiness. Feel free to cite other scriptures that refer to holiness.

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Holiness is in regard to being set apart for a specific purpose. God is set apart for the purpose of creating a spiritual family through the redemption, reconciliation, and restoration of the world. We are set apart for the purpose to know and be known by God, to love and be loved, to bless and be blessed, to give glory to God and be glorified, and to partner with God's ministry of reconciliation. In that regard, God has given instructions for how to live in accordance with His holiness (Numbers 15:40, Deuteronomy 33:3-4). In 1 Peter 1:13-16, we are also commanded to do what is holy for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus, such as Leviticus 11:44-45, where God was giving instructions for how to do that, so obedience to God's instructions is how to act in accordance with His holiness is to affect our daily lives. In Matthew 15:18, Jesus said that comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person, so holiness begins with controlling our tongue, and it does no good to follow God's other instructions for how to act in accordance with His holiness if our tongue is continually out of control. We must refrain from evil speech, so we must not say anything that would harm someone's reputation, even if it is true, with few exceptions. Anyone who is able to control their tongue is able to keep their whole body in check (James 3:2). I should add that we are not to do what is holy in order to become holy, but because God has made us holy, in much the same way that we are not to do what is righteous in order to become righteous, but because God has made us righteous.

Hidden In Him said:

What I was asking was, why should we fear Him?

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There is a fear of being close to someone who is evil and a fear of being separated from someone who is good, and the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom of the fear of being separated from Him.

Monna said:

Adstar, are you a follower of Christ? If so, have you ever sinned since you determined to follow Christ, knowing you were doing sinning? Have you ever sinned 'without thinking' but then realised that what you did was sin?

If so, would you call that deception?

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Yes i have sinned since i became a follower of the LORD Jesus Christ.. Why,,, because i am a faulty sinning human being.. My sin does not make my belief and trust in the atonement of the LORD Jesus Christ fake or deception.. On the contary it makes me cling even more desperatly and value even more the mercy of His Atonement that is the ONLY way a sinner like me can ever be saved from the eternal lake of fire...

When i sin i aknowledge my sins as sins to God and thank him for the Atonement He has lovingly secured for my salvation knowing only too well that i do not deserve such a awesome gift..

Monna said:

Could you clarify this for me please Soyeong? Are you implying that God is not holy if he isn't set apart for a special purpose. God is God. Who set him apart? Other parts of Scripture use terms like 'anoint' or 'anointed,' 'send' or even 'choose' or 'chosen' when a special purpose is in mind.

1 Samuel 24:10
David says of King Saul "I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the Lord's anointed."
Luke 4:18
Jesus himself said "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;..."

In both cases it was God that did the anointing.

In Isaiah 3 7-9 we have God looking for someone to send with a message, Isaiah volunteers and God sends him. In John Jesus said to his disciples "as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."

1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

Notice that Peter calls those he is writing to "a chosen generation... an holy nation...that you shoud show forth...."

God is holy in and of himself. We, like Isaiah, are "of unclean lips," not the least bit holy. But we are clothed in Christ's holiness, we are accounted as holy, chosen and sent. We are not holy because, or as a function, of our mission.

But perhaps you are seeing it from a different perspective?

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Leviticus 8:10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them.

To anoint or consecrate something is to set it apart for a holy use. For example a basin that was used to catch the blood of the offering was set apart only for that purpose and was not to be taken home and used for some other purpose. In Genesis 2:3, God made the Sabbath holy, not for its own sake, but for the purpose of resting on it and spending time with our Creator. The NT talks about being anointed by the Holy Spirit, which is setting us apart for only the purposes of God. God is pure, true, and good and it set apart from that which is not, but God is not set apart just for the sake of being set apart, but for the purpose of drawing us to Himself and causing us to reflect His image or to live in accordance with His attributes. We are made holy when we are anointed by the Holy Spirit, so we are therefore required to follow God's instructions for how to do what is holy.

Monna said:

In your view is there a difference between "imputed holiness" (as in we are clothed in Jesus' holiness, even as we are accounted righteous through him) and actual holiness?

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I'm note quite sure if I understand your question correctly. It is not clear to me why the holiness imputed to us does not count as actual holiness. It seems to me that they would be the same thing.

As to the second part of the quote, I have always thought that all people are/were required to follow God's instructions, starting with Adam and Eve. It is because none of us do, that we have fallen short of what God intended us to be - actually fulfilling the image of God in our lives, as Jesus did. And so, even while we have an "imputed holiness" being in Christ, we are only too well aware that we are in daily life not at all holy - at least I am not. That is why I must go daily to the Father and repent, be cleansed and healed.

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I think that there is a huge difference between saying that none of us follow God's instructions and saying that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I've fallen far short, but that doesn't mean that I've never obey a single one of God's instructions. According to Galatians 5:14, loving your neighbor fulfills the entire Law, so this is something countless people since Moses have done. After all, God did say that what he commanded was not too difficult for us (Deuteronomy 30:11-14), which is also confirmed in the NT (Romans 10:5-10). While our goal should be perfect obedience because we love God and have faith in Him to guide us in how to rightly live, there is a big misconception that we need to be perfectly obedience in order to be considered righteous or holy. If someone somehow managed to be perfectly outwardly obedient, but didn't have faith, then they would not be righteous because the one and only way that there has ever been to become righteous is by faith, and it is by the same faith that we are therefore required to be careful to do what is righteous. If we have faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live, then we have been declared righteous even though we don't always do what is righteous, but when we do not, we practice repentance, and that is key. No prophet came with anything like the message that someone was doing a good job of obeying God's Law, but they sinned once and now that won't be considered to be righteous, but rather every single prophet up to and including Jesus came with the message to repent from our sins.

We have been made holy:

Hebrews 10:10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So we are therefore required to do what is holy. The problem is that many Christians teach that God's instructions for how to do what is holy have been done away with.