RIGHTEOUSNESS VS HOLINESS: LEGALISM OR GODLY OBEDIENCE? Those who wish to remain in a Laodicean state of lukewarmness, fight against the command to take up our crosses and abstain from the carnal desires that wage war against our soul. 1 Peter 2:11-12- We realize and understand, that holiness (the ability to do what the Lord expects of us) or sanctification, is wrought into us by the Holy Spirit. And thereby we are enabled to live in a state of holiness. Holiness and sanctification are the direct flow and organic proof of our state of Righteousness before God, in faith, through Grace. The modern love gospel that permeates and condones a sinful lifestyle for the Christian, says its an insult to Christs sacrifice on the cross for us to strive to be Holy even as He is Holy. 1 Peter 1:14-16- Therefore, they call us Pharisees, fundamentalists and legalists. If this is the case, Paul, Peter, John and especially James mustve been quite insulting to Christs sacrifice and propitiation for our sins on the cross. Because it is through their writings, that the Holy Spirit communicates how a Disciple of Christ is to conduct himself after Salvation. Actually, Christ Himself was an insult to His own sacrifice, if we are to follow their illogical train of thought. Because it is through Him, we learn, that in order to be counted worthy of being His Disciple, we are to take up our cross and follow Him through the narrow gate leading unto life. And to forsake the broad road (our carnal desires) unto destruction. Mat 7:13-14-Mat 16:24- What we see in Christs teachings are the seed or definition of Christian conduct. What we see in the teachings of Paul, Peter, John and James are the expectations, explanation and practical application of Christian conduct. Its faith in action; not just in definition. Really what it all comes down to is a misunderstanding, twisting or misappropriation (whether intentional or Not) of the words Righteousness and Holiness. Righteousness is from the Greek word Dikaiosune. It is used in Romans 10:9-10-if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved ; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Righteousness is a gift from God through Jesus Christ. We attain it through faith and NO works of our own. This word is used 86 times in the Greek New Testament. And it ALWAYS refers to what Christ did on the cross. So then, what is Sanctification or Holiness? Its a completely different word altogether. The English word “sanctify” or “sanctification” is built on the Latin word sanctus which means “holy.” We don’t have a way of turning the adjective “holy” into a verb in English. The world “holify” does not exist. But in the language of the New Testament, the adjective “holy” (hagios) can be made into a verb (hagiazō), which means “to make holy” or to “treat as holy.” And that same adjective for “holy” (hagios) can be made into three different nouns (hagiosmos, hagiōsunē, hagiotēs) which sometimes mean “the condition of being holy” (“holiness”) or “the process of becoming holy”—which would be “holification” if such a word existed, but since it doesn’t, we use “sanctification.” Here’s the crucial point: Any time you read in the New Testament any form of the word “sanctify,” you know you are reading about holiness. Being Holy or becoming Holy is a responsibility where our conduct is concerned. Whereas Righteousness is the free gift of God, that Holiness or Sanctification permeates and organically stems from. Holiness in our living is the proof or fruit of our righteous standing before God, which was wrought through grace on the cross. And the reason I use the terms “being or becoming” holy is that the New Testament refers to our holiness in both of those senses—a condition of being holy, or a process of becoming holy. This is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2-Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are BEING saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. We were saved by grace. But true children of God are in a continuous state of sanctification through holiness. Which is a state of being saved. This is the method by which God uses to keep us in a state of readiness, for His return or for our bodily death. Holiness is a safeguard to lukewarmness and Laodicean deceit. And it protects us from shrinking away in shame at His appearing. And from the possibility of being excluded from the marriage feast and reigning with Christ in His Kingdom. Another place to see this is Hebrews 10. In Hebrews 10:10, the writer says, “By [God’s] will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” So there is a sense in which all those who believe in Jesus “have been sanctified.” They are holy. And then four verses later (verse 14) we read, “By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” So there is a sense in which Christians are both perfected already (are perfectly holy) and are “being sanctified” (being made holy). Both the condition of being holy and the process of becoming holy are prominent in the New Testament. Neither is minimized. The most obvious way to see the prominence of the Christian condition or state of holiness is to see that Paul calls Christians “saints” 40 times in his 13 letters. Paul’s favorite name for Christians is saints. And the New Testament word behind the English “saint” is simply the adjective for holy turned into a noun—“holy ones” (hagioi). You can see the connection between the condition of being sanctified and the name “saints” in 1 Corinthians 1:2: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified (hēgiasmenois) in Christ Jesus, called as saints (klētois hagiois).” So the picture is that God calls us, and unites us by faith to Christ, so that “in Christ Jesus,” we are holy, sanctified, and the name that we get therefore is “saints” or “holy ones.” But the process of becoming holy (“sanctification”) is just as prominent in the New Testament. We saw Hebrews 10:14, “By a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” And we see it in 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1). So if we are bringing holiness to completion, there is a PROCESS of becoming fully holy. We are not there yet. Philippians 3:12-Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Or 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely”and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This prayer shows that our becoming holy is not yet complete. So Paul asks God to complete it. And its completion is just a continuation or proof of what was wrought into us at the time of our being born again. That is, holiness in our conduct which results in our sanctification. So the upshot of all this so far is that whenever the New Testament talks about sanctification, it is talking about holiness. And when it is talking about our holiness, it is either talking about the condition of our being holy (because we are in Christ Jesus—and thus saints), or it is talking about the process of our becoming holy through God’s work in our lives. So, what is holiness? Or what does it mean to be holy and become holy? It seems to me that the most important thing in defining our holiness is to notice its connection to God’s holiness. For example, in 1 Peter 1:14–16, Peter says, “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” So the basis of God’s command that his people be holy is that he is holy. And Peter explains this not as an arbitrary demand, but as a family trait. “As obedient children . . . be holy in all your conduct.” Peter is thinking the same way John is in his first letter when he says, “No one born of God [that is, who has God as his Father] makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not PRACTICE righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:9–10). The command to “be holy” is a command to show that we are God’s seed. Our holiness or state of becoming holy is the proof that we are children of God. We have his spiritual DNA, the genetic code of his holiness. We are his children (those who are saved). Without this proof or state of being; that is, without practicing the very righteousness one claims to have obtained through faith, by grace...WHAT PROOF DO THEY HAVE THAT THEYRE EVEN SAVED? And I ask this question to those who fight against becoming holy by calling it legalism or fundamentalist Pharisee-ism...faith apart from works is useless. James 2:20. The works of holiness or sanctification are not a way or method by which one obtains salvation. On the contrary; Its merely a demonstration of what naturally flows forth from true children of God. Righteousness is our state and standing before God. Holiness is righteousness in action before our fellow man. If a child is to grow into the fullest expression of his Father’s character, he needs both the DNA by virtue of birth (being saved through faith), and the practice (holiness) of that character with the help of his father. In other words, we need regeneration by God’s seed, and we need sanctification by God’s Spirit—in order grow up into the full participation in his holiness. Or here’s the way Paul puts it. We need a “new self (a new man, a new creation), created after the likeness of God in true . . . holiness;” and we need to “put on” that new holy self (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, Christians are holy and must become holy. What we already are; we need to become even more. We have the seed of God’s likeness—God’s holiness—imparted to us when we are born again, and we must grow into that likeness—that holiness—to show the world who our Father really is. “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God” (1 John 3:10). “As obedient children be holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14–16). “[Our Father] disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.” (Hebrews 12:10). “If you are left without discipline . . . then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Hebrews 12:8). It really bothers me and makes me exceedingly sorrowful when I see and hear of professing Christians propagating sinful lifestyles. They are either completely deceived and backslidden as the church in Laodicea was and in need of severe repentance before the Lord (Revelation 3:15-17) ; or: as in 1 John 3:9–10 they are indeed NOT born of God because of their Hell-Bent nature and obstinacy to continue in their sin by refusing to repent or acknowledge any wrong-doing. If they had the righteousness they claim to have, it would be self-evident by their lifestyle. As Peter says in 2 Peter 1:4-So you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. Someone who is indeed a partaker of the Divine nature of Christ surely cannot then make excuses and provision for the flesh. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not from God. Its really just a matter of common sense. Whoever has no proof or practical expression of a supposed inward and divinely inspired trait...simply doesnt have it at all. Holiness is merely the PRACTICE of ones inner righteousness. Its the smoke to an inner flame. If one has no practice it may mean he doesnt have the inner righteousness he professes to have. Or perhaps, such a one was once saved, but has completely apostatized into the devils lies, the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts of carnal and temporal pleasures. But one thing is for sure: No matter if your an apostate, backslidden, disobedient or in a current state of intimacy with Christ: Holiness is ALWAYS expected. We are not legalists who wish to please God by honoring Him in our conduct. We are obedient unto pleasing God in our conduct. We are simply doing what He has enabled us to do through our initial salvation experience. We are simply doing what the Spirit is organically causing us to do. We are righteous because of His work on the cross. We are holy in our conduct because of what He has sown into us through His work on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and sending forth of the Spirit. And we will continue in this process of becoming holy until we are taken to be with Him. One who is in constant communion with Christ, in prayer, study and fellowship; will not find the need to muster up works of holiness. They will organically bubble to the surface, from the very heart of God Himself. A river needs not our help for it to flow freely...nor does the rivers of living water that freely flow from the heart of an obedient and committed believer. Were already righteous because of what He has done. Now let us all become holy, through obedience unto sanctification by the power of His Spirit and through the righteousness He provided on the cross.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 23:44:46 +0000
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