What is holiness??

[oworm]

I have my own views on this.(Which i will post later) If id been allowed i would have preferred to have a poll on the subject. Anyway, what do you think holiness is for you as an individual and do you think it is neccessary for the Christian to be holy?

 

[Pseud]

In my opinion, nothing or nobody can be Holy except God.

 

[WesleyJohn]

The most basic meaning of the word holiness comes from qudosh (spelling?) which means "separate / separateness." Basically, to be holy means to be separate from the world, something we are all called to do.

We are told to be holy in Scripture, and so I have a hard time believing that God would call us to something that is not possible for us (with the assistance of the Holy Spirit) to do.

It is important to note that we are not called to be "separate from the world" for the sake of our own personal piety, but that we are to be "separate unto God."

I do not believe that holiness is something we can acheive on our own, but that God desires to cleanse us and fill us with His Spirit on a consistent basis, making us holy moment by moment.

I posted this on this thread:

Is it possible for the Holy Spirit to entirely sanctify you so that for one brief instant in time you are completely holy and without sin?

If we can imagine that it would be possible to be without sin for one instant, can we imagine two instants? Can we then imagine those two instants to be right in a row? Can we imagine a third instant? a fourth? a fifth? and so on? And can we imagine that those instants were all strung together so that instead of an instant we are granted a single second of complete holiness?

And, once given a second...can we imagine two? or three? and can we imagine that those seconds might be strung together so that we were experiencing greater periods of complete surrender to God's will in our lives?

Oh, that the Holy Spirit would continually baptize us with fire, cleansing us from sin and purifying us so that we might experience more and more of those instants, seconds, and minutes of complete holiness.

Peace,

WJ

 

[Heinrich]

Thankyou wesleyjohn!

I agree with you.
Althought I don't think it is trivial I do believe man can be made Holy and rigthous. (sp?)

Since God is like a flame that burns away all sin you will have to increase in Holyness as you come closer to him

God bless

 

[Pseud]

In my opinion, nothing or nobody can be Holy except God.

Just wanna expand on this after thinking baout it a bit more. When we die, and are cleansed, and be with the Lord, I think we'll be holy.. until then, we're just getting closer and closer.

 

[endure]

somepeople esteem sin too highly, they worship it as if it was greater than God, they dare not act like they have dominon over it or that even God had dominion over it becuase they dont believe that God can ever do anything that would enable them to stop sinning.

people like to ask the most irrelevant question in the world
"well have you stopped sinning?"
were not talking about me, were talking about the word of God and God himself.
theres alot of truths that i have not worked out yet, but im not God nor a fit representation of him, thats why i am not the bible.

in 1 pet 4.1 the bible makes it verly clear that anyone who is willing to suffer for the cause of Christ can cease to sin.

if you are sinning, it doesnt mean you cant stop, you arent the word of God dont ever look to yourself for truth, the bible says you can.

i understand that we must GO ON unto perfection.... hebrews 6.1
and we are changed from GLORY UNTO GLORY... is a process.
but that doesnt mean we cant defeat sin in the power of God.

we who are dead to sin, should sin no more. romans 6.
also in romans 6 the bible says the body of sin was destroyed, i believe that means the old life or body you had that couldnt stop sinning has been destroyed.
john wrote letters so that people would not sin... 1 john 2.1
how much more does God not want us to sin?

but as the bible says in hebrews 6 we can go on unto perfection.
and he wasnt talking about in heavon, this was something he was wishing for them now.
and also in 2 cor 6.1
it says for us to cleanse ourselves of all the filthy sin of our flesh and our spirits.
we are told by the word of God to live sin free lives.
and this wasnt some kind of out of reach goal God made to keep us jumping.
this was paul speaking to a church, exorting them to do this in their lives.

 

[endure]

1 john 2.1
My little children these things i right unto you, that ye sin not: and if anyman sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous.

i havent stopped sinning, and i love my advocate with the father.
but i also look forward to the day when i am grown up in Christ enough to realise and come into and fullfill the true purpose of the word of God, that i not sin.
i am thankful God has made a better way, i dont have to keep on sinning...
but untill i reach that place i have an advocate with the father.

 

[oworm]

In my opinion, nothing or nobody can be Holy except God.

So how do you reconcile your statement with this:
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.

2PE 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives

 

[Pseud]

So how do you reconcile your statement with this:
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.

2PE 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives

Ah see, well, my opinion changes after reading that

 

[IKTCA]

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[futureyouthpastor85]

Hebrews 12:14 tells us that here is a holiness without which we cannot see God.

So obviously, there is a holiness we must have, but I think Christians go about it the wrong way.

The first fact we MUST accept is that we in ourselves can in no way be holy, and it is only through the wonderful Grace of God that we are saved. After this however, it is our job to pursue holiness. How? We stay constantly in a position where the Spirit leads us. We must never ask "What can I get away with and still be called a Christian?" but rather we should ask "What do I have to do to get closer to God." Once we have the mindset acknowledging we are imperfect but it is the regeneration of the Holy Spirit that makes us perfect before God's eyes, we can truly pursue the holiness we must have. If we sin, grace abounds, but as Paul says, God forbid we purposefully sin so that grace may abound.

Pursue holiness, cherish grace.

 

[IKTCA]

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[jesus_freak_for_life]

holiness- the active pursuit of God.

 

[Parabler13]

holiness, IMO, is humility and openness before the numinous mystery that is God.

 

[IKTCA]

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[endure]

iktca
i think you do know, stop and listen to what your heart tells you about you.
not your feelings or thoughts...but what your heart says.
your spirit is sincere, i think it can tell us about ourselves.
it reminds us when we lie, we say things that arent true and it suddenly says "you know thats not true, and you say things and it suddenly says "you know you dont mean that" you say things and do things and it suddenly says " you know your doing that for the wrong reasons..."
listen to your spirit. if you can get quiet and still enough to do that.
the bible says your spirit is the candle by which God searches your inward parts.
God will search you and expose you to yourself, by your spirit.
your heart.

oworm
i read something awesome today that showed me i was wrong about somethings and showed the truth about "grace-law" and how faith and worls ought to work together.
becuase there are people who try to WORK, and dont have faith in grace and fail.
but there are also people try to have faith, but dont do works, and think all works and the law is dead, and also fail. they think that becuase of faith grace there is no need for works or law, and dont believe either are possible anyway.

romans 3.23-24
for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

so salvation is of grace not works!
no one is saved of the law! not one! it is only of faith and grace, so no one can boast!

romans 3.31
do we then make viod the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Just becuase we are under grace and saved through faith and not works, does not mean the law is void, does not mean we dont need to work!
he said he established the law, that word means to make stand, to hold to, etc.
we are still supposed to be righteous and holy, doing the things the law said to do, still being as holy as the law commanded us to be.
grace and faith, does not make viod the law.
we are under grace and faith, and thats what saved us, but we still have the law in our lives.
we are still commanded to be that holy.

im not talking about honoring rituals and things, but the holiness of the law is still commanded of us.
grace did not free us from the law.
it forgave us of ever breaking it and offered an everlasting grace and mercy to always justify us.
it also gave us access to glory and power and holiness through Gods power in us, and we commanded to take it and use it.

Lee.

 

[jesus_freak_for_life]

K let's put it this way:
We're sinners. We're always gonna be sinners as long as we're in this body. Our acts will never equal holiness, because the problem isn't the world around us, or what we do, the problem is deeper, it's inside of us.
We can't expect to change ourselves. Change comes FROM active pursuit of the True and Living God. When you chase God with ALL YOU HAVE (like Esau and Jacob), GOD WILL BLESS YOU. HE WILL CHANGE YOU INTO THE PERSON HE WANTS TO BE.
In short, holiness is the absense of sin. We know we can't have that. So God sent His Son so that we can have holiness in the PURSUIT of God.
Make sense?

 

[Carico]

Actually be drawn to this forum is one way we are actively seeking to become closer to God. Most of my thoughts center around attitudes and beliefs that He wants me to have. I gravitate to TV shows about religion and religious history. My biggest purpose in life now is to pass on Jesus's words. I love talking to Him and trying to discern what He wants for me. I actually sometimes resent things that take me away from pursuing His will for me! This is so different from the way i used to be. I think the Holy Spirit keeps nudging us and the more forgiveness, love, and mercy we receieve from Him, the more we want!

 

[futureyouthpastor85]

Jesus freak I must respectfully disagree. Hebrews 12:14 specifically states that without holiness, we cannot see God. When Jesus saved us and we accpeted him, we were without sin and God forgot all about it. When we do mess up (and we do it often), grace abounds, but we constantly pursue that holiness and keeping that grace and Spirit in us

 

[IKTCA]

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