Holiness.
Holiness is one of those words we understand, but are still kind of confused about. We know it means to be ‘set apart’ in some way. We know it means to be set apart for God in particular. But, if you ask yourself the question, what does it actually mean for a Christian to be Holy…..I think often our answers can be a bit vague and ill defined. Ask 100 people and you will get 100 different responses all focussed in different ways.
But, we know that this really matters. We read verses like Hebrews 12:4, where the author states that without Holiness, no-one will see the Lord. We read books like J.C. Ryle’s tome ‘Holiness’. We lament our failures when it comes to our personal holiness. We know that it matters.
In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul writes these words:
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
When I think about Holiness, this verse is fairly significant in my mind.
It is those two words that have the big impact → To will and to work for his good pleasure. Behind those words in v13 is the work of God in us. He is at work to cause us to will and to work according to his pleasure.
Holiness and Godliness
Let’s step back and have a look at the issue more broadly and think a bit more historically.
Something that matters
Firstly, we must allow it to hit home just how critically important this issue is for everyday discipleship. Let me say that again in a much more direct way. If you are a Christian believer, then I understand that the clear directive to us in the Bible is that Holiness and Godliness is to be near/at the top of our agenda and mind, each and every day. It is that important.
In 1 Peter 1:15, Peter writes this – “as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Here lies a clear command to holiness, rooted fully in the character of God. And it is a comprehensive call. Be holy in ALL your conduct.
As we referenced previously, that verse that was so important to men like J.C. Ryle, Hebrews 12:14.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
This isn’t to be some idle pastime or added bonus if we can get it. No. Holiness is something we strive for. Seek after. Chase it down, without diversion or distraction.
In Colossians chapter 3, we have the double edged commands. In Colossians 3:5, we are commanded to “put death therefore, what is earthly in you”. And then, on the other side in 3:10 we are commanded by the apostle to “put on the new self”. In both cases, we are given some detailed insight into what this means in practice.
All of this, and more led John Owen to pen the famous line therefore, “be killing sin or it will be killing you.” This is life and death. This is not something that we can ignore, or leave for a later time of life. According to the Scriptures, our holiness is top priority. It is death for our sin and life for us.
Something we lost….
There is much more I need to learn about the history of all this in order to speak with any authority on it. However, my reading so far conveys a sense of emphasis on holiness and how that has shifted over the years. To be honest, I find this fascinating.
It comes across to me that from the days of the puritans, right up to men like J.C. Ryle in the late 1800s you have a deep emphasis on godliness and on holiness. The men of this age had a deep conviction that the grace of God in Christ drove them to be devoted to and to strive for holiness. It was a holiness rooted in the gospel of grace and, by and large, grounded on God’s mercy, love and salvation. But, holiness was seen as critically important for the every day Christian believer in a way that I think we would struggle to recognise in our times.
As we move into the early and mid 20th Century, this prior emphasis began to change and to shift. In many ways, the emphasis was there still, but the foundation and the root was what shifted. In short, the message was changed. It became a distorted gospel that led to the idea that if you are good enough, then God would accept you. By the time we reach the post war era in the UK at least, this is the message that you were most likely to be taught in churches across the land.
It really saddens me actually to think of this. It is a message that is worlds away from what the Bible teaches and nothing like what the reformers taught (and so what the Church of England, for example, was founded on) and a message that is quite far removed from what would have been taught and understood just 70 odd years before.
If you grew up in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, most likely, the understanding of the Christian faith that you would have encountered was something like, ‘try to live as good a life as you can, and if you are a good, kind and moral then God will see that and He will welcome you in.’ It is critical to pause briefly to highlight that there is a difference between culturally defined moralism and ‘goodness’ and biblically defined holiness. They may overlap but one is rooted in fear of man and seeks his approval and the other is rooted in fear of God and seeks His glory.
I do not know why this happened. I am sure there are many factors involved. I do have a theory as to one of them though….
Before we go on, we need to track forwards to today. As you move into the latter half of the 20th Century and into today, we see another emphasis emerging. This is a reaction by gospel minded, evangelical Christians to combat the false message of “be good enough and God will let you into Heaven.”
We see gospel preaching really going for that idea and grabbing it by the throat! It is NOT that we preach. That is not the Gospel. We are saved by GRACE and by grace alone, through faith. That is biblical by the way. There are loads of places you can go to hear this wonderful good news.
Perhaps one of the clearest is Ephesians 2:8-10. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
What we find therefore, is a significant emphasis on salvation by grace, and alongside that an emphasis that our works do not contribute to our salvation at all. This is wonderfully true, praise God. However, it can be heard by us, you are saved by grace therefore your good works do not matter. Which is not the same thing.
I have wondered if we are sometimes a little scared to level our sermon applications towards our godliness and holiness of life for fear of inadvertently denying salvation by grace alone. Or perhaps, we fear laying burdens on the people of God that are above and beyond what we are supposed to bear? Perhaps we know that perfection can never be achieved in this life and so we don’t want to set false expectations.
It does feel a bit like, as we look at the history of the past 200 years in the UK, our understanding of holiness, our emphasis on it and how we see it as relating to the gospel of grace has chopped and changed quite a bit. I fear that all of this has led to some very confused positions that we hold.
Holiness of Heart
Hypocrisy. I said it.
Hypocrisy is all about play acting.
It is about pretending to be something that you are not. It is about outward appearance but not inward truth. Hypocrisy is all about the ‘optics’.
Someone I know, and for their sake I won’t say who they are or what relationship they have to me, used to tell me what really put them off ‘the church’. It was hypocrisy. It was seeing people be one thing in church on a Sunday, but something else as they took their family back home and for the rest of the week.
Another friend spoke of ‘the miracle of the church car park’. How all manner of family strife is somehow ‘resolved’ as soon as your car enters the church car park.
And here in lies the ‘theory’ which I flagged earlier. Hypocrisy. An emphasis on how things are seen, on outward appearances, but devoid of inward reality.
You see real holiness is not just about what we do. Even more critically, it is not just about how things are seen.
A sadness of mine in my life is the number of times that I have been involved in decision making and communication processes that have focussed around the phrase “we need to consider the optics” or “we need to be seen to be above board here”.
I fear that much of this could just be hypocrisy.
I am hesitant to comment in detail on some of the scandals etc that have rocked churches and evangelicalism in recent years. I do not know the facts. I have asked myself the question though, in all of this, to what extent has our concern been focussed on how things are seen and how we appear, rather than on the truth?
The same could be said in all our communication, personally as well as in a more corporate context. For example we make a decision for reason A. But, we think people won’t accept reason A. So, when communicating it, we cite reasons B, C, D, E & F. These things never really factored that highly in our thinking, but they are more palatable we believe.
It is all about how things are seen, not about how they actually are in truth and so it tends to hypocrisy.
It is not holiness.
Holiness, is about having a transformed heart, a transformed mind and a transformed will. It is transformation from the very core. Inside to out.
Holiness from the inside out
This is pretty clear from the Bible actually. When God makes His big promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, He explicitly states in v32 that the problem with the Old Covenant is that the people did not keep it. This New Covenant will be different as God will put the Law within His people, writing it on their very hearts. In Ezekiel 36, we have the same idea. God will give us a new heart. He will remove from us our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh and give us His Spirit. This will cause His people to walk in His ways.
This is what God promised to do.
The New Testament makes it clear that this is what God has actually done.
In Romans 8, we learn that as Christian people, God has put His Spirit within us. And there is so much in the chapter that follows on from this. The indwelling, presence and work of the Holy Spirit transforms how we live, where our minds are focussed, how we pray, gives us assurance and so much more. Read this chapter, dwell on it.
Later in Romans 12, Paul says that we are not to be conformed to this world, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The fulfilled promise of internal transformation is to issue forth in changed living.
In Galatians 5 we have a whole excursion on walking by the Spirit and putting to death the desires of the flesh. In both cases, the outward behaviour is coming forth under the direction of the inward reality. It leads to the famous list of the fruits of the Spirit in 5:22. These are things that issue forth, that grow out of, having the Spirit of God within us.
And of course, there is the verse we began with. Philippians 2:12-13. God is at work in us. Bringing us to will and to work according his good pleasure.
You see the point. Holiness, true holiness, is something that comes from the inside out. From the very core.
So we come to Holiness of Heart, not just of life or behaviour.
What I mean is this. Our hopes, our fears, our ambitions, our desires, our wants, our perception of ourselves, our perception of others. Our values, our vision, our goals and objectives. The things we consider important. The things that matter. All of this is transformed by and conformed to Christ. All of this changes for the Christian and in turn, this impacts our outward behaviour in every day life.
This is Holiness of heart.
Not just how things are seen. Not merely how they appear. Not just establishing a few patterns of godly living currently in vogue. Not just our speech. Not just any of that.
This is TOTAL transformation. From the very core. From the inside out. This is everything that we are being taken hold of and being set apart for God….alone. Fully.
You cannot fake this. You cannot force this. It only happens through a miracle of grace.
The more and more I consider Holiness, the more I feel this is the Holiness we should be seeking after. A transformed heart and mind. A new affections. Redeemed values, ambitions, desires, hopes, priorities and perceptions of self and others.
Would it not be wonderful to be a people who were genuinely more concerned about righteousness than about reputation. More concerned about truth than narrative. More concerned about being devoted to God than we were about ticking certain godliness boxes?
Where then does discipline fit in?
When I was young, there was a Peugeot advert that did the rounds. A man has a car – an old banger. He sees the new Peugeot 206 driving past and is filled with a desire to have a car like this. So, he takes his banger to a makeshift garage and sets to work. Cue a montage of driving into walls, getting an elephant to sit on the bonnet, bashing the chassis of his car with a sledge hammer and attacking it with some kind of powered circular saw.
The final scene he is driving along in a car that has been beaten and smashed into the same shape as that Peugeot he wanted so badly. Is this what Christian discipline is?
We beat and bash ourselves in self flagellation to make ourselves look like people who look like Christ? But….if you pop the bonnet and look under the hood, nothing has really changed? No, this is not genuine biblical discipline. This kind of thing is actually more of that hypocrisy we spoke of earlier.
Discipline is actually part of the transformation process.
Some approaches to the work of God in us let themselves down here. It is all or nothing. Once my heart has been changed then my life and conduct will change with it. It’s instant. If my conduct is struggling, then maybe I don’t have the new heart.
Thankfully, the New Testament is not like this. Throughout the New Testament it is recognised that our hearts and minds being transformed is both an ongoing process and only the first step of the process (albeit the primary one). Paul makes this clear in Romans 7 & 8 and then reinforces it in chapter 12.
In Romans 7:18-20, Paul says this:
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Then again in 8:7 he says:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
A hostile mind transformed
Part of the point he is making is that those in the flesh, cannot please God. They are hostile to him and therefore will not, indeed cannot submit to God’s law. A mind hostile to God does not have the desire to do what is good. It will never have a mind that desires to honour and serve God.
Paul however, does have this mind. The mind of the Spirit. The holiness of heart that is worked into him by grace. He has the desire to do good but not the ability to carry it out.
In short, Paul describes a battle between his transformed heart and mind, and his actions. He is a transformed sinner. Transformed yes, but still a sinner. Therefore, the good he desires, he struggles to carry out.
In Romans 12:1-2 therefore, Paul gives his readers a big command.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Transformed to no longer conform
We are not to conform to the pattern of the world. I.e. to our previous patterns. Instead we are to be transformed by the renewal of our mind.
Discipline, is the decision of our renewed mind, therefore, to not be conformed to old patterns but to set about a transformed life, consistent with the transformation worked in us already.
Discipline is the act of our renewed and transformed mind and heart and will ‘stepping in’ to strive so that our old patterns no longer dominate. The renewed mind decides for Christ and therefore works to take measures against what sinful instincts still remain.
It is therefore, effectively, deciding for holiness, intentionally planning to take that path and then taking steps to aid yourself in walking that path. Discipline is not contrary to transformation by grace, but part of its fruit. Hypocrisy is striving to appear holy, not because we have been transformed to desire it, but because we want to fit in or maintain a platform. It can be hard to tell and discernment here is probably the subject of another post.
Discipline in practice
Discipline might mean setting alarms and reminders to get up, to pray and to read the bible. It is actively deciding that this is what you want to do and so taking steps against the short term, ‘me first’ desire you might feel to do something else, in the moment.
It might mean deciding that you want to love and care for people and to be concerned for their life and well being. So, you make notes on things they tell you and plan in advance when you might pray for them or contact them to effect that care and concern. It is taking steps against the innate self focus we all have that tends towards only remembering the things that directly concern ourselves.
Perhaps, your redeemed and transformed self does not want to fall into a particularly challenging sin again and again, therefore you make a decision to avoid situations where that temptation will be forced upon you. Or perhaps it is as simple as marking out time in your calendar or diary to spend with family and loved ones. You intentionally decide this is important and so make intentional plans to safeguard it against all the things that look more important in the moment.
I could go on.
The transformed heart will serve Christ by living in holiness as a direct fruit of that work of grace. It will also manifest its fruit in discipline by making decisions and taking action with the intention of smoothing the path of holiness. By battling against and taking measures against the sinful patterns and instincts that will always remain until we are perfected in the New Creation.
The expulsive power of a new affection
The Scottish minister Thomas Chalmers of the 1800s is perhaps best known for his essay – The expulsive power of a new affection.
His basic argument begins with the idea that all humans have a need to strive after something. Something upon which we set our affections, our hopes and our ambitions and striving. In modern ‘productivity’ talk, this is often referred to as your ‘North Star’.
His argument develops as he makes the point that no amount of demonstration of the folly, stupidity or moral wrongness of the thing upon which our affections are set will be sufficient to break us of that desire and striving after it. Even achieving success in what you strive for will not expel your desire for more!
Hence the title of his work – the expulsive power of the new affections. The only way to conquer an unhealthy, unwholesome, foolish or just plain wrong desire and ambition and object after which we strive, is to replace it with a new affection.
Only a new affection can expel an old one.
The new affection we receive by grace, is Christ himself.
And so, the way to expel our love of the world, is only through a love of God through Christ.
The point further develops that a love for God is only kindled and developed in our hearts and our affections as we comprehend and have revealed to us the love of God for us and the grace of God to us in the gospel.
Only through seeing the love and grace of God to us in the death of Christ. Only through seeing our salvation as a completely free gift, given already to us out of the sheer and unmeasurable love of God for us, can truly kindle in our hearts a love for God that will expel our affections for the world and for ourselves.
So, he says, the more we see the salvation in the gospel as a free gift of love and grace, and the more it is received as such, then the more it will lead us to godliness. In this way, salvation by grace delivers us both from the judgment of God and the grip of the world on our hearts.
This is the basic point of the essay.
Conclusion
And so, I am increasingly convinced that the holiness of heart that we need to seek after, the transforming power of the gospel in us, this is inextricably linked to the revelation of the grace of God in Christ to us. This revelation is a miracle of grace that comes by the Spirit through the Word of God.
As blindness is a lifted (a miracle) we see Christ and understand who he is and what he is done. We come to comprehend the love and grace of God in Christ. This sets in our heart a new affection. This expels from us an old affection. This transforms us to will and to act according this His good pleasure. This bears fruit in holiness of heart. A holiness that grips our will, our ambition, our values, our goals, our perception of ourselves and others.
This bears fruit in our very core. This bears fruit as we take measures and enact discipline to walk in holiness. This is why Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus: ”And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,”
So we conclude by saying that we look to Christ for, knowing his love and grace is the key to holiness of heart.
