God’s grace frees us so that we can pursue personal holiness.
Before we do anything else we need to define what that means. What is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? The word holy can be used two ways.
We call someone or something holy when God has set that someone or something aside for His use. All Christians are holy because God has chosen us and set us aside to be His people; that makes us holy. This is the meaning of 2 Peter 2:9 (NIV), But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
We can also use the word holy as a description of moral character. When we use the term as a description of God’s moral character, holiness means being morally perfect. When we say God is holy we are saying that God is perfectly and completely loving, just, good, truthful, gracious, and dependable.
When God says in His Word that we are supposed to be pursuing personal holiness what He means is that we should be striving to conform to the moral character of Jesus Christ. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:48, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Now, we are never going to be perfect, morally or otherwise, this side of heaven. But the Holy Spirit which has taken up residence in our hearts is going to be moving us in that direction until we are made morally perfect when we get there.
Scripture makes it clear that this freedom to pursue personal holiness has always been the purpose of God’s saving grace.
- Leviticus 11:45 (NIV). I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
- Romans 6:19-23 (NIV). Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 1 Peter 2:16 (NLT). Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
God’s grace is given to free us from the control of sin so we can pursue personal holiness.
The reason we are to pursue personal holiness is because we are united with Christ through the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NIV) says, he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. This unity we have with Christ is often explained by analogy:
- Jesus taught that we are united with Him as a branch is united to a vine in John 15.
- Paul says our union with Christ is like a body with each of us being a part of that body and Christ being the head in 1 Corinthians 12.
- We are united with Christ in the way that individual bricks are built together into a single building with Jesus being the chief cornerstone in Ephesians 2.
- We are taught that our union with Christ is like the union between a husband and wife, that in fact, marriage is patterned after Christ’s union with us in Ephesians 5.
This explains why we enjoy God’s presence and blessing when we are actively pursuing personal holiness, because we are acknowledging our union with Him by our pursuit. Jesus says,
God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.
God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them.
God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full.
God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs (Matthew 5:3-10 NLT).
This also explains why we feel more distant and disconnected from God when we are not pursuing holiness, because we are denying our union with Him. When we are not pursuing personal holiness, we are no longer working at submitting our heart and life to God. That’s the same as a husband or a wife who stops pursuing his or her spouse. The minute that pursuit stops is the same minute marital trouble starts. If that is not soon corrected, the temptation of divorce will inevitably rear its ugly head.
When we stop pursuing a relationship, it shrivels up and dies. When you continually, knowingly, and unrepentantly sin, when you are able to rationalize that sin doesn’t matter, that your private happiness is really all that counts, you erect a wall between you and God. We are warned very clearly in Ephesians 5:5-6 (NIV),
For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a man is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
If you don’t care about personal holiness, beware of where you and God sit. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 6:7-9, NIV).
If that cuts to the quick, remember that while it is true that grace frees us to be holy, we are not saved by our holiness. We are saved by grace. Period. Preston Sprinkle was right when he said, “We are precious in God’s eyes; we are loved by our Creator; we are honored, helped, and comforted by our King not because of what we do, but because of who He is. Not because of what we’ve done, but because of what He has done. We are prone to wander; God is prone to pursue” (Charis: God’s Scandalous Grace for Us, page 116). Remember that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6, NIV).
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 