Holiness Is Not a Suggestion
How holiness is possible & why God's call on our lives is purposefully unrealistic.
Over the last few weeks we’ve taken a brief look at the responsibilities that come with following Jesus.
Part 1
Part 2
To be a disciple means we have the responsibility to emulate Jesus in every way possible and apply every teaching of His to our lives.
This isn’t easy, of course, but it is our responsibility.
In fact, one of the most consistent phrases used by God in the Bible is some variation of, “Be Holy as I am Holy.” (Leviticus 19:2, 20:7, 20:26, 21:8; 1 Peter 1:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:7)
Which Jesus repeats in the Sermon on the Mount.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
—Matthew 5:48
God fully expects us to do everything possible to be like Him. Following Him became a lot less complicated when I accepted and embraced this truth.
What does He want me to do? Exactly what He did.
How should I think about this? Exactly what He thinks.
What should I say here? Exactly what He said.
God wasn’t kidding. He wants me to Be Holy as He is Holy.
Which means, when I signed up to follow Him 14 years ago I was signing up to die to myself in every way and live with Christ in every way.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
—Galatians 2:20
But…How?
Anyone with a pulse knows this is impossible. Yet Jesus is unashamedly instructing us toward holiness. So what do we do?
We work hard to combine the following three things.
God’s Power
God’s Truth
God’s Effort (through us)
Putting these three things together is our only shot. For those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus for salvation, the Bible has promises that help us here. Let’s take a look at a couple verses.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
—2 Peter 1:3-4
There are two things 2 Peter says we have been given.
Divine power
Precious and very great promises
God’s Power + God’s Truth. What does the combination of those two provide us? “Through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
Partakes in divine nature — meaning, the ability to live like Jesus
Escape from corruption — meaning, the ability to put to death our sinful flesh
It’s by God’s power in us and God’s truth for us that we can walk away from the sinful patterns and behaviors in our life, thus, living a holy life. But if it’s those two components that make it possible, how does it become our reality?
For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
—Colossians 1:29
In this passage Paul is discussing the nature of his ministry, but it’s this principle that helps us unlock the key to living a consistently holy life.
Paul is toiling, struggling, with what? All His [God’s] energy that He [God] powerfully works within him [Paul].”
In other words Paul is saying, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to do the ministry God gave me and I’m not relying on my own power, I’m relying on His power.”
Peter echoes a similar sentiment back in the 2 Peter 1 section.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
—2 Peter 1:5-8
Peter tells us to make every effort to live a godly life in all the areas he mentions.
He goes on to say that our efforts need to result in “these qualities…increasing” because in doing so we will be fruitful in our knowledge and relationship with Jesus.
God’s Power (the Holy Spirit)
+ God’s Truth (The Word of God)
+ God’s Effort (Working through us that we cooperate with)
= A Consistently Holy Life
It’s God’s Power that will overcome all other powers at work in us or against us, enabling us to live holy.
It’s God’s Truth that will uproot the lies we believe or the lies people are telling us, enabling us to live holy.
It’s God’s Effort at work within us that will give us all manners of energy and discipline, enabling us to live holy.
Does God have unrealistic expectations?
Too often we (and I’m guilty here too) read the scripture and dismiss the commands of the Bible because they seem unrealistic.
Maybe they are unrealistic.
And maybe that’s the point.
God’s life for us will only be explainable by God. Which means to live the live the abundant life He has planned for us it will require method’s only explainable by Him.
It is unrealistic to live a holy life.
But it was also unrealistic for someone to come back to life after being dead for three days.
Jesus came back to life by the power of the Spirit and we can live holy by the power of the Spirit.
But, let me remind us all of this important passage:
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
—1 John 2:1-2
The more effort we put in toward living a holy life the more we’re going to realize how far short we fall. When we do sin and fall short and when we do realize just how far we have to go in our life with Christ, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
The Son of God is at the right hand of the Father pleading your case. He is the one who made you holy (Ephesians 1:4), will keep you holy (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24), and will present you as holy one day before the Father. (Jude 24-25)
We can go to Him boldly, asking for help to be holy today.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week.
good word again :) i appreciate the encouragement during the week, it seems more & more that the evil one is doing all he can to distract me with busyness & drama during the week. I'm thankful for peaceful moments by myself to settle down & concentrate on what i should be wanting to do for Jesus, & allowing His Spirit full access to my mind & heart.
So good to have Him as my advocate. Thank you Jesus!