Living a Holy Life...

Chapter Thirty:

As believers and disciples of Christ, we strive to leave our sinful life behind, not just because we are told to, but because we desire to. We know that becoming holy will only result from allowing God to work in us, and to work out of us those things that are displeasing to Him.  If something is displeasing to Him, then we should be of the mind that it has to go.   You have to be willing to give up any vice, any desire, any habit...anything that is within you that holds you back from becoming holy.  Do not slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires.

 

Second Timothy 1:9 says, " He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time...". Because of Jesus' death on the cross we believers are no longer under the law but are under grace... since we have died in Christ, grace exempts us from the law.  Being under grace is the way to holiness.  We must remind ourselves that the purpose of our life is not to be happy, or healthy or content.  The purpose of our life as believers is to become holy.  Unfortunately we have allowed outside distractions to draw us away from this ultimate goal.  First Peter 1:15,16  tells us, “ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;  for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

 

It should be the desire of our heart to be totally submitted to God.  Unfortunately sin also seeks that position within us as it is not content to be just a 'little' sin in our lives, but is only content when it owns all of us. We must completely yield ourselves to God so that even the slightest sin is quickly repented of so that we can live the holy life we seek. If we are honest with ourselves we know that the carnal, fleshly nature is constantly trying to pull us back into living a sinful life.

Sin is a very domineering force and as much as we strive to keep in under control, we ultimately cannot. The only remedy, then, in order to live the holy life that we desire is by having a hatred for sin...for not only what it can do to us, but also how it causes a breach between us and God.  Fortunately First John 4:4 encourages us when it says, " You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." We are assured in Romans 6:14 that "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." 

The first step towards living a holy life is to longingly desire to become holy. The next step is to pray fervently for it. The end result is that we are so desirous of following God that we will walk away from any iniquity we have allowed to overtake us, even the small ones.  We also need to stay in prayer that the Lord will show us when we sin in the future so that we can quickly repent and ask forgiveness. Holiness is simply becoming perfectly conformed to the likeness of Christ. We must go after holiness with every ounce of our being...it cannot be a half-hearted desire or attempt. While we will never be able to totally escape sin in this lifetime, it is within our reach to live as sin-free as possible with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Second Corinthians 7:1 challenges us when it says, " Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  In this Scripture, Paul is encouraging believers to reach their destiny of living  with  a pure character and holiness of life. Paul is telling us that we already have the ability to do these things...it is not some far off place we have to wait to reach.  We can begin today to live pure and holy before God and men. 

Some churches have compared holiness with perfectionism. Others have gone to the other extreme and say that obtaining holiness is an impossible task. There are some churches who prompt their followers to live lives that outwardly impress others, but inwardly they are empty. 

Charles Spurgeon, said "It is not by personal holiness that a man shall enter heaven, but yet without holiness shall no man see the Lord. Holiness is better than moral­ity. It goes beyond it. Holiness affects the heart. Holiness re­spects the motive. Holiness re­gards the whole nature of man. A moral man does not do wrong in act; a holy man hates the thought of doing wrong. A moral man would not commit outward sin; a holy man would not commit inward sin. And if committed, he would pour forth floods of tears."  

He also said, "I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness which remains in him. You will not gain holiness by standing still. Nobody ever grew holy without consenting, desiring, and agonizing to be holy. Sin will grow without sowing, but holiness needs cultivation. Fol­low it; it will not run after you. You must pursue it with determination, with eagerness, with perseverance, as a hunter pursues his prey." 

To the degree that you are holy, to that degree your testimony and work for God will be effective. Desiring to live a holy life does not mean we detest one type of sin but put up with another.  We realize that sin is sin and know the detriment it can bring to our living a holy life. We must have a strong desire to become holy, to labor and agonize for it as this is God's ultimate desire for us...to be holy as He is holy. 

One of the things you will realize is that the closer you get to holiness, the more aware you will become of your unresolved shortcomings. The more light we receive, the more of our own darkness is revealed. This can cause us much grief.  It is not that we have become worse sinners, but that we are now more sensitive to it in our lives. Where we may have once overlooked it, we no longer can. Nor must we stop short of purging all sin from our lives.  

We feel good about ourselves when we have gotten rid of some sin in our life, but we must not stop there.  We must continue as there is always hidden sin, sin that we may not even be aware of until the Lord shines the light upon it.  And be prepared, because He will.  Not out of meanness, but out of love for us and His desire that we will become as sinless and holy as possible.  Not only does living a holy life help us personally, but it brings honor to God.

God will not force holiness upon you. He desires you to become holy, but He will not force you to pursue it.  He leaves it up to us to strive for it. We must strive after it and determine to not give up until we have obtained it. The way we do this is to do our utmost to cleanse ourselves.  We can simply say, "Oh, I have a bad temper" and accept that that is just how we are.  We have got to overcome it.  Or if you are naturally lazy, you simply cannot say this is just how you are.  While sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit, He expects us to do our part. 

Sanctification means that the holy qualities of Christ have been given to us.  Sanctification is imparted to us from Christ, it is given to us, granted to us.  It is not achieved by our outward human efforts of simply acting as we think Christ would. When Christ imparts His Holy qualities to us it flows out from our inner being and is not something we do in our own strength. 

God has saved us by His sovereign grace but as Philippians 2:12-13 says, "... continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling..."  We are being told that it is up to us to endeavor to do our best so that our labor is not in vain; however, we must still remember that we depend upon the grace of God for our salvation.  It may be a difficult task, but it is a task we must do nonetheless. We may have to fight with our old nature, but if that is what is required then we must do it if we want to achieve holiness. 

Oswald Chambers, another one of my favorite authors, said, "Do I believe I need to be holy?  Do I believe that God can come into me and make me holy? If through your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I then resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me.  God has only one intended destiny for mankind--holiness. His only goal is to produce saints. God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and He did not come to save us out of pity--He came to save us because He created us to be holy.  Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any longer.  Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means absolute purity of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your mind--placing every detail of your life under scrutiny of God Himself.  Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life."

I believe a word of caution is needed here, given our human nature to go from one extreme to the other.  While holiness is a most worthy goal, we must take care not to try to obtain it by our own means as we may end up doing it solely for our own personal benefit. What we need to realize is that a life of total surrender and walking without sin (and repenting of it as soon as we realize we have done it) is where we develop true holiness, not through our own human efforts. You cannot live a holy life by your own efforts as only God can make you holy as He works in you. The most wonderful part of living a holy life is that it does not come from imitating Christ, but in allowing His perfect qualities to shine through you.  Remember, becoming holy is the result of allowing God to transform you, and the fruit of becoming holy will be that it draws others to Him.