Holiness

I wanted to clear up what I believe to be common misconceptions of holiness. Holiness has nothing to do with what we've done or failed to do, much like our righteousness. It isn't something you can work for nor is it something you can obtain by obeying laws or doing good works.  Being holy doesn't even mean that sin is absent from your life (though for sure holiness puts to death sin in the flesh to make us alive in the Spirit).  So what is really meant by Christians when we call something "holy"?

There exists to us only one thing that is in and of itself holy, and that is the Holy One, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  That is, to say that anything is holy is to point to the Holy One as maker, reconciler, and sanctifier of his creatures.  Thus anything we call holy must in some way gain its holiness from such a Holy One.  The Church is Holy because God is the Holy One in our midst.  Christians are holy because they possess the Holy Spirit who indwells among them.

Paul calls the Holy Spirit a mark, seal, or a guarantee on a persons' life that sets them apart from the world. (Eph 1:13)  That is the definition of Holy, to be set apart for God's purposes and thus obedience (having the mind of the Spirit talked about in Romans 8) to the Spirit is key. Many people believe that since obedience is required for holiness, than being holy is something that you are responsible for but the result of such a theology is something akin to Puritan legalism.  When it is up to us to be holy we will always fall short.  Therefore there must be a reliance on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because we absolutely cannot obey apart from Him, else the law would be sufficient and Christ's death in vain. Those who possess the Holy Spirit belong to Christ and obey his voice, constantly repenting and returning to Him. The constant repentance from sin is a mark of holiness, not an indication of its absence. Thus the concept of holiness is a relational concept to be understood from how the Holy Triune God relates to himself and to creation.  Holiness cannot be separated from God's work of election, redemption, and sanctification.

Think about those without the Holy Spirit, do they repent and feel conviction? Do they hear the shepherd calling them? They cannot because they have not been drawn by the father and have not repented and received the Holy Spirit. If ever you meet a Christian who is stubborn and rebellious, living in sin and disobedient to the Spirit, truly I tell you he is no Christian. Every Christian knows the voice of Christ speaking through His Holy Spirit and obeys.  The presence of God opposes sin whenever it is encountered, so if a person is holy (i.e. God's spirit resides and  works within them) sin is put to death. This is always the case.  Therefore the difference between a holy and an unholy person is NOT the amount or presence of sin, but whether or not that sin finds its opposition in the holiness of God.  God is for our good and naturally obliterates anything that comes between the creature's life with God.  Sin is opposed to God's work as savior and sanctifier because it seeks to destroy the creature and therefore God opposes it whenever the two meet.  God destroys sin by fellowshipping with humanity.  The other side of God's putting sin to death is bringing us back to life in the Spirit.  It is a constant death and resurrection.

God's holiness does not refer to his being "wholly other" or radically different than anything in creation (though certainly that is true).  People say often that the reason God hates sin and cannot bear it is because of the fact that he is holy.  This is a radical misunderstanding of what is the biblical account.  God does not oppose sin because it offends Him or his coming into contact with sin would somehow defile his holiness. In reality, the holiness of God is the reason why he draws near to us as sinners!  God opposes sin because it seeks to destroy the life of his creation.  God's holiness is not what distances or separates him from us, but what has caused him to condescend to dwell (tabernacle) with his people.  This is seen clearly in Jesus Christ, the perfect image of the invisible Father, who eats with sinners and tax collectors.  This is a God who calls and makes for himself a people to be holy as he is holy.  This is fundamentally a God who seeks to create a Holy Nation by wishing to dwell among his chosen people.  This is God who elects as the Father, saves as the Son, and sanctifies by the Holy Spirit.  Our holiness as Christians comes directly through how our Holy God has chosen to relate to us.  God's holiness does not keep him bound from ever fellowshipping or dwelling with sinners and locking him into pure separateness.  Rather, as the Holy One, God is the one who does not simply remain in separation, but comes to his own people to purify them and claim them as his own.  God has defeated sin once and for all so that it no longer has power to destroy that which God has created for those who are found in Him.  We are holy because we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

In summary, God's holiness has everything to do with God's role as creator, savior, and sanctifier and little to do with our works or the presence of sin.  God convicts us of our sin not so that we can say "Ok, I'll work on that so I can be holier."  It does not depend on us.  A filthy rag cannot wash itself.  God is the one who sanctifies us, he is the one who makes us holy because he is holy.  Galatians 3 makes great reading on this.  Holiness is not grasped through relying on the law but only through faith. It describes how God interacts with his creation.  You are holy if you belong to Christ, no ifs, ands, or buts.  This is really good news!  Consequently, there is no such thing as degrees of holiness.  There is only holy or unholy, no holier or holiest.

Much of the content of this article is through my own personal reflections of Scripture and a book entitled "Holiness" by John Webster.