Lie #38 - You Grow in Holiness
by Steve McVey
The way that a person is made holy had been one of the most hotly debated biblical issues in the church world for many, many years. Entire denominations have been formed over differences on this matter. The interesting (but sad) thing about it is this: These differences among people on this subject generally seem to arise from looking at the question from the wrong angle from the very start.
Ask the question, "How does a person become holy?" and you're likely to get many answers, but the answer will most likely all have one thing in common. They'll speak to the issue of what a person needs to do. Some people think we need to read our Bibles and develop a strong prayer life to become holy. Others think we achieve it by fasting. Still others think it comes from giving up bad habits and beginning to do the things we believe God would have us to do in our daily walk. There are many different answer people offer, but they all take the same approach. As with all legalistic views, it's all about what we do. As you've learned by now, grace doesn't run on that track. Grace is about what God does.
What does it actually mean to be holy? The definition of the word is "to be set apart by God." The idea is that the thing made holy has been set aside from common use and is now reserved for a particular purpose by God. That definition describes you! Your Father has set you apart for Himself and for His own purposes. It's not something you have done that caused it, but it is an act of grace that He has done in your life.
The reality is that you don't become holy by what you do, and you can't become more holy than you are right now. You have been set apart, and it's not possible for you to cause yourself to become "more set apart" than you already are.
The idea that you can grow in holiness is wrong on a number of grounds, not the least because it fails to recognize the finished work of Christ at the cross. The Bible teaches us that in Jesus Christ we have already been given holiness. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God lives in you. Verse 17 says that "the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." You don't grow into holiness, and you don't gradually become holy. Holiness comes to you in the person of Jesus Christ.
Many struggle to believe they are holy because they often don't feel holy, and because they don't always act holy. We need to know that truth isn't determined by what we fell or how we behave. Truth is based on what God says.
You may not always act holy or feel holy, but that doesn't change the reality of who you are. Your identity is determined by what Christ has done, not by what you do. So your feelings and actions have nothing to do with the objective reality that you have been made holy in Jesus Christ. If you want to see your lifestyle changed, then apply and appropriate the truth of the holiness that is yours in Christ to your life, and you'll see a transformation come into your day-to-day actions and attitudes.
The Truth Is So Much Better!
If you think holiness has to do with moral perfection, I encourage you to take a look at the New Testament Church in Corinth. To say that these people misbehaved is an understatement. Inside that church existed divisions, drunkenness, jealousy, sexual immorality, and many other sinful behaviors.
The apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians a letter, and he began it this way: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling…" (1 Cor. 1:2). Paul said the Corinthians were "sanctified in Christ Jesus." He knew about their behavior and even addressed it later in his letter, but Paul knew something that many believers today don't understand. Our behavior does not determine who we are! These Corinthians were saints, regardless of their behavior. They were saints, even if they were "saints behaving badly." Their holiness didn't have a thing to do with what they did or didn't do.
Paul reminded them a little later, "But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). He say that is was God's doing that they were in Christ, and that Christ is their sanctification—or holiness. Again, we see that the Corinthians were already holy in God's sight.
The New Testament Scriptures are very clear as to HOW we have become holy. The writer of Hebrews says that God did it through Christ: "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).
It is by Christ's work that we have been made holy. What about places in the Bible where the Scripture seem to teach that we are to seek holiness? Consider, for example, Hebrews 12:14: "pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." What does the verse mean when it tells us to "pursue" sanctification (holiness)? The answer has to do with what we mean by pursuing it.
If you define pursuing sanctification as getting better and better at keeping rules, you will find yourself right back in legalism, but we have already seen that rule-keeping is not the meaning of holiness.
To pursue it means that we act diligently to agree with God concerning what He has said about us, and we act like it's true because it is true! You have Jesus Christ, and He is your holiness. So we are pursuing sanctification or holiness when we are living out of the reality of His indwelling life. We grow in the expression of holiness in our thoughts and attitudes and even in our actions, but we don't become more and more holy. You are holy. That is what you are! Remember 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
Clarify Your Thinking
If you believe the lie that you must grow in holiness, there will be no other option than to start asking yourself what you need to do in order to make that happen. Believe the truth of the New Testament. You have already been made holy, and you'll find yourself becoming more and more motivated to live your lifestyle based on that truth.
Yes, we all find ourselves behaving more and more "holy" as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of who Jesus is in us and who we are in Him. That doesn't mean we are growing in holiness, though. It means that our actions are catching up with our identity. We are acting more and more like the person we already are.
The answer to the lie that we grow in holiness is to affirm that Christ Jesus IS our holiness and simply accept His finished work as the basis for our holiness. When we do that, we honor the cross and the Christ who gave Himself for us so that we might be made holy.
Please watch the following 2 minute video for more spiritual edification!
http://youtu.be/c6PoAp6p7sY
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
by Steve McVey
The way that a person is made holy had been one of the most hotly debated biblical issues in the church world for many, many years. Entire denominations have been formed over differences on this matter. The interesting (but sad) thing about it is this: These differences among people on this subject generally seem to arise from looking at the question from the wrong angle from the very start.
Ask the question, "How does a person become holy?" and you're likely to get many answers, but the answer will most likely all have one thing in common. They'll speak to the issue of what a person needs to do. Some people think we need to read our Bibles and develop a strong prayer life to become holy. Others think we achieve it by fasting. Still others think it comes from giving up bad habits and beginning to do the things we believe God would have us to do in our daily walk. There are many different answer people offer, but they all take the same approach. As with all legalistic views, it's all about what we do. As you've learned by now, grace doesn't run on that track. Grace is about what God does.
What does it actually mean to be holy? The definition of the word is "to be set apart by God." The idea is that the thing made holy has been set aside from common use and is now reserved for a particular purpose by God. That definition describes you! Your Father has set you apart for Himself and for His own purposes. It's not something you have done that caused it, but it is an act of grace that He has done in your life.
The reality is that you don't become holy by what you do, and you can't become more holy than you are right now. You have been set apart, and it's not possible for you to cause yourself to become "more set apart" than you already are.
The idea that you can grow in holiness is wrong on a number of grounds, not the least because it fails to recognize the finished work of Christ at the cross. The Bible teaches us that in Jesus Christ we have already been given holiness. The Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God lives in you. Verse 17 says that "the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." You don't grow into holiness, and you don't gradually become holy. Holiness comes to you in the person of Jesus Christ.
Many struggle to believe they are holy because they often don't feel holy, and because they don't always act holy. We need to know that truth isn't determined by what we fell or how we behave. Truth is based on what God says.
You may not always act holy or feel holy, but that doesn't change the reality of who you are. Your identity is determined by what Christ has done, not by what you do. So your feelings and actions have nothing to do with the objective reality that you have been made holy in Jesus Christ. If you want to see your lifestyle changed, then apply and appropriate the truth of the holiness that is yours in Christ to your life, and you'll see a transformation come into your day-to-day actions and attitudes.
The Truth Is So Much Better!
If you think holiness has to do with moral perfection, I encourage you to take a look at the New Testament Church in Corinth. To say that these people misbehaved is an understatement. Inside that church existed divisions, drunkenness, jealousy, sexual immorality, and many other sinful behaviors.
The apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians a letter, and he began it this way: "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling…" (1 Cor. 1:2). Paul said the Corinthians were "sanctified in Christ Jesus." He knew about their behavior and even addressed it later in his letter, but Paul knew something that many believers today don't understand. Our behavior does not determine who we are! These Corinthians were saints, regardless of their behavior. They were saints, even if they were "saints behaving badly." Their holiness didn't have a thing to do with what they did or didn't do.
Paul reminded them a little later, "But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). He say that is was God's doing that they were in Christ, and that Christ is their sanctification—or holiness. Again, we see that the Corinthians were already holy in God's sight.
The New Testament Scriptures are very clear as to HOW we have become holy. The writer of Hebrews says that God did it through Christ: "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).
It is by Christ's work that we have been made holy. What about places in the Bible where the Scripture seem to teach that we are to seek holiness? Consider, for example, Hebrews 12:14: "pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." What does the verse mean when it tells us to "pursue" sanctification (holiness)? The answer has to do with what we mean by pursuing it.
If you define pursuing sanctification as getting better and better at keeping rules, you will find yourself right back in legalism, but we have already seen that rule-keeping is not the meaning of holiness.
To pursue it means that we act diligently to agree with God concerning what He has said about us, and we act like it's true because it is true! You have Jesus Christ, and He is your holiness. So we are pursuing sanctification or holiness when we are living out of the reality of His indwelling life. We grow in the expression of holiness in our thoughts and attitudes and even in our actions, but we don't become more and more holy. You are holy. That is what you are! Remember 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
Clarify Your Thinking
If you believe the lie that you must grow in holiness, there will be no other option than to start asking yourself what you need to do in order to make that happen. Believe the truth of the New Testament. You have already been made holy, and you'll find yourself becoming more and more motivated to live your lifestyle based on that truth.
Yes, we all find ourselves behaving more and more "holy" as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of who Jesus is in us and who we are in Him. That doesn't mean we are growing in holiness, though. It means that our actions are catching up with our identity. We are acting more and more like the person we already are.
The answer to the lie that we grow in holiness is to affirm that Christ Jesus IS our holiness and simply accept His finished work as the basis for our holiness. When we do that, we honor the cross and the Christ who gave Himself for us so that we might be made holy.
Please watch the following 2 minute video for more spiritual edification!
http://youtu.be/c6PoAp6p7sY
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
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