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Can you think of a time when you acted out completely against everything you believe and are? Maybe it was a time when the kids pressed your buttons enough for you to go off the deep end, leaving you screaming and ranting out of control. Maybe you had a person enter into your life that seemed to do all they could to be extremely annoying all the time and at some point you lost it with them and bit their head off.
When you did these things how did you feel? I can remember one time many years ago when we had foster teens that one of them threatened our family and I lost it. To me it felt like an out of body experience where I was watching someone else act out. That was the last foster teen we had.
All of us have times in our lives when we act out in ways that are so bad that we can’t believe we actually did that. We wonder why as Christians, we don’t have victory over some areas of our lives as we should. We study the scriptures searching for all we need to gain victory over these areas but often it seems like we never gain any headway in them. We read passages like Rom. 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. and ask ourselves if this is really true because it does not seem to be working for me. Does the Bible really have the answers I need for my life?
Be assured, it does and there is hope. We can live the holy life we are called to as we walk in obedience to God and His word. In fact, God expects us to do so as we will see. Holiness is not just expected behavior for every Christian it is also the promised birth right for every believer. This being said the statement Paul makes is true, sin shall not be our master. 1 Pet. 2:9 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.
But, what is holiness? What does it mean to you to be holy? For some it is a list of rules and regulations that seem outdated and unrealistic, especially in the world we live in today. Often when people think of holiness they see people walking around judging others for their unholiness, the holier than thou crowd. But God expects His children to live holy lives and this includes us. The word holy appears in its various forms in the Bible some 600 times. The book of Leviticus is dedicated to showing Israel how they can be holy before God. Lev. 11:44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.
But how can we be holy? When you think about holiness what picture comes to mind? Is it a list of dos and don’ts? Isn’t that what the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were condemned for? Luke 11:46 Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
How do you feel about perfection? Is it obtainable for us and does it mean the same thing as being holy? When you think about perfection or holiness do you get discouraged because it seems so far off from us and our lives? Matt. 5:48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Do you know the definition and meaning of being holy”? It is to be morally blameless, separated from sin and consecrated to God, acting like the one we belong to.
Maybe the best way we can understand what holiness is would be by looking at how the NT writers use the term and concept of holiness. 1 Thess. 4:3-7 Paul uses holiness as a contrast to a life of immorality and impurity. 1 Pet. 1:13-16 Peter contrasts holiness to the lives we used to live where we did all we could to please our evil desires. Rev. 22:11 Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” For John holiness is the contrast between those who do wrong and are vile, wicked, to those who strive to do right.
For us to live a holy life we need to conform to the principles of the Bible and live in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. This is what the passage we began with is focusing on, putting off our old way of living and put on the new. Eph. 4:22-24 The old self is characterized as being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Gal. 5:19–21Instead of living like this we are to put on the new self which looks like Christ, created to be like God, righteous and holy. Gal. 5:22–23 Holiness is basic to the Christian life. If this is so then why do we not experience it more in our daily lives? Why do so many Christians constantly feel defeated in their struggle with sin? Why does the church today look so much like the world around it instead of different from it?
There are 3 basic reasons why this is so: Our first problem is our attitude toward sin. It is more self-centered than God centered. We are more concerned about our victory over sin than we are about how our sin grieves God. Its all about me and not the one we hurt so badly. We are so success oriented that the battle is all about me and how I acted instead of about God and how offensive it is to Him. Only when we realize how offensive our sin is to God will there be a change of attitude toward it. David says, Psalm 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. The Prodigal son says, Luke 15:18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. When we realize how offensive our sin is to God we will take our eyes off ourselves focus on God and our relationship with Him.
How often have we read in the Bible if you love me, obey? God wants us to walk in obedience not in victory. Obedience is focused on God, victory is self-centered. Our self-centered attitude is the root of many of our struggles with sin. Until we face this attitude we will not be able to walk consistently in holiness. When we do, the by product will be victory over sin. Our second problem is we misunderstand what living by faith means. Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. There are many people who believe that it takes no effort to be holy, even so that they think if you expend any effort it is just a fleshly act, we are trying to do it ourselves. The problem with this is that the Bible no where says we don’t have to do anything to be holy in our living. Phil. 2:12–13 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. We must put forth the effort for us to make progress. Paul says as you have always obeyed, that is an action. Peter told us in 1 Pet. 1:13 to prepare for action, be self controlled and obedient. We have a personal responsibility for our walk in holiness. Only when we accept responsibility for our unholiness will we be able to take action to do something about it.
The third problem is that we do not always take sin seriously. We excuse it away as our humanness or we categorize our sins, some worse than others. The problem here is that every sin eats away at our holiness. Song of Solomon 2:15 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom. 1 Cor. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? When we compromise with the little things they lead to greater downfalls. Sin is sin in God’s eyes. What it comes down to is the question, “will we be obedient to God or not?” Will we obey His commands or not? This is where Adam and Eve went off the track. They were manipulated into thinking they could eat from the one tree they were told not to eat from. They weighed it out and did not think it was such a big deal after all it was just a piece of fruit, so why not disobey God.
What it comes down to for us to consider, are we willing to call sin, sin? Not because it seems a little or big thing but because God forbids it? If we categorize sin then we will never live the holy life we are called to. And God will not let us get away with that either.
We will be studying these problems deeper as we go on in our series. For right now we need to consider these things in our lives and hearts and choose how we will respond to them. Will we look at our sin as an offense to God instead of a personal defeat? Will we take responsibility for our sin? Will we obey God in every aspect of our lives no matter how insignificant they seem? Are we willing to put forth the effort to live the holy life we are called to? Until we can answer these questions we will not be moving down the road to holiness but catching ourselves acting out wrongly.
