Outside of certain religious groups, the idea of holiness is seldom discussed, and if it is discussed, it is heavily tilted toward a “God alone” paradigm (i.e., God is Holy). My question for consideration is: Does holiness have more to do with us than many allow or teach? When discussing holiness, should we lengthen the distance of its reach? Should it tether from the infinite to the finite? Does holiness have a biblical expectation that envelopes humanity, not just the divine? I believe it does, and to launch into this lesson, let’s go through a few scriptures:
Hebrews 12:14 — 14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Hebrews 12:14 — 14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
King James Version compared with NIV
Ephesians 4:22–24 — 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 4:22–24 — 22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
King James Version Compared with NRSV
Romans 12:1–2 — 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
King James Version
1 Corinthians 3:16–17 — 16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
King James Version
It is clear from these four New Testament texts that the call, mandate, and expectations of holiness apply to the New Testament church and each individual member of that church community. As such, it would be impossible to divorce holiness from the doctrine of salvation based on these texts. As we saw in John 3, except a man is born again of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Likewise, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.
A Holy Nation; A Holy People
In the Old Testament, only one nation among all the nations of the world received the express commandment that “ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy…” (Lev. 11:44). This was not asked of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites, or any other major civilization of the Ancient Near East. Only one nation was saddled with the burden of consecration[1] that would answer back to the divine requirement of holiness.
The call to Holiness[2] broke into the daily existence of the Israelites in a way that captured time, space, and their existence within both time and space. They were commanded to cease working on the Sabbath, cutting into human productivity, creativity, and ingenuity. Their time was held to the decree of divine procedures carried out daily around and in the Tabernacle and annually by the fixed calendrical events of holy feasts. Their movements were confined to the divine directive of the glory of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Expectations of their resources included but were not limited to the sanctification of harvests through first fruits, tithes, and offerings and the setting apart and ransoming of the firstborn male of both humans and animals. How they dressed, what they ate, who they married; every feature of their lives was held captive to a divine expectation of holiness. [3]
Why isolate the call to holiness and the subsequent demands of God’s nature to one nation alone? Holiness seeks and demands both sacred time and space. God, while everywhere present and at the same time, is not manifested everywhere at the same time. God, as one that is Holy, demands and seeks out space and time to allow for his manifestation. We saw this with the burning bush experience when God commanded Moses to “take off his shoes” due to the place Moses was standing was holy ground. As it related to the nation of Israel, the Tabernacle was the answer for the inauguration of a holy nation in that, through the means of a sacred space penetrated by sacred times, a Holy God could dwell amid a human nation.
The holiness codes (laws) were how this one nation could foster the nearest thing to an earthly enthronement of a Holy God. Understand that Israel’s identification as a holy nation resulted from the manifest dwelling of God’s presence among them. They were holy because He was holy and in the midst of them. As such, the nation of Israel was demanded to adhere to the moral, ethical, and ritualistic laws as a means to maintain an environment conducive to the dwelling of a Holy God in their midst.[4]
Holiness Then and Now in the Church
Following Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and descension[5], the Church (the body of Christ) becomes the new distinctive means by which the Holiness of God is manifested throughout the world. As there was only one holy nation of Israel, there is only one Holy Bride of Christ, which is the one Holy Body of Christ (Eph. 4:4; Col. 3:15; I Cor. 10:17; 12:12,13, 20). After receiving the Holy Ghost, each individual who has become a new creature (II Cor. 5:17) becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost (I Cor 6:19) and is called upon to present their bodies (members) as “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.” (Rom. 12:1). We become the sacred space through which God dwells in the earth.
The call to holiness is a lifelong pursuit of self-denial that continues to carve out a sacred space for the Holy God to serve as the head of the Body of Christ. Each member of that body understands that they are to become dead to sin by yielding their members as instruments of righteousness, all to ensure that the Temple of the Holy Ghost (our bodies, and ultimately, THE Body) maintains an environment suitable for the Holy God that is in and through us all.
Romans 6:11–19 — 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
King James Version
God is no longer dwelling above a Tabernacle or in a Temple built by man, but through the infilling of His Spirit, He now is Tabernacled in the Body of Christ. Even though we are not under the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, Holiness is in and of itself a Law that does NOT cease to exist after the introduction of grace. Holiness hearkens back to the immutable nature of God, who, according to the Bible, “changes not” (Mal. 3:6). The same expectation of holiness that carved out space and time for God in the Old Testament is the same expectation placed on the Church of the Living God, of which we are individual members!
1 Peter 2:9— 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (Exodus 19:6)
King James Version
As Peter declared, the New Testament church has received the same inherent call to an identity of holiness that the nation of Israel received. Why would we think the call to holiness lessens after being filled with the Holy Ghost? God was not just in the midst of the Israelite church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38) but is now in the midst Church in the Redemptive Age! Expectations for holiness increase; they don’t decrease! [6]
Expectations for holiness increase; they don’t decrease!
T.C.Hadden
We will take up the conversation of separation, boundaries, and other principles that emerge from the foundational idea of holiness in other articles.
[1] While I see holiness as a privilege, many articulate it as a burden. If we use burden in the sense of it being a burden to the carnal nature of man and a burden one must lift that answers to the call to self-denial, then I agree with the sense of holiness being a burden.
[2] The Jews call the book of Leviticus “Vayrikra” meaning “and He called”
[3] In a sense, the limitations of the desert that pushed against carnal tendencies were further enhanced by their dependence on the divine for food, water, and protection. The immediacy of God’s glory in their midst and the consequences of violating God’s holy expectations curtailed the base human reflex to violate the sacredness of their situation. Isolation (their time in the wilderness) made the call to holiness far more manageable than after they were planted as a collective nation among all other nations. The danger of milk and honey, a metaphor for divine blessings in the Promise Land, is the sudden distance from the accountability of the immediacy of the glory of God via the Tabernacle. A holy nation, not only segmented and dispersed throughout the land, is faced with the bordering civilizations who heed no call to holiness. The paradox of mitigating risks for a church congregation is found in the importance of being in the world but not of the world. Some congregations, considerably isolated from other communities and the cultural pitfalls of large cities, can often resist or avoid many of the issues that metropolitan churches may face.
[4] Exodus 33:15–16 (KJV 1900) — 15 And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. 16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.
[5] The outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2:1-4 marked the birth of the Church, the new Body of Christ.
[6] Don’t forget that throughout the Gospels, Jesus clearly articulated a “higher than” expectation on the era of redemptive fulfillment, as seen in the discourse of Matthew 5:27-47 where Jesus places the cherry of such an expectation on the top of the discourse by admonishing, “be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48).