A Radical Look at Holiness

This is a follow-up to my article titled, "A Radical Look at Sin."

There are several texts I could go to that shows that the Christain life is not just about abounding in grace, but actually following what Jesus says such that they embody His words of "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." But I find these 3 verses will suffice.

The first is from Jesus' own words where he says,

Matthew 5:48 ESV

“You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

How might one do this?

Jesus tells us several ways. The main gist is to not applaud yourself for your righteousness, but rather, do good in secret. This is carried out throughout all of Jesus' words in Matthew chapters 6-7. In other words, if you are doing good just to show you are a good person, then you are not actually doing good. Rather, the thinking here is to do good knowing the only one who can repay you for your good deeds is the Father who is in heaven.

Having said that, we can't but help to do things without seeking some sort of reward for it - even if that means getting a dopamine hit in our brains.

The second text comes from Peter:

1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV

“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.””

What is the purpose of our good works here? Peter says later in the same paragraph,

1 Peter 1:21 ESV

“so that your faith and hope are in God.”

How peculiar. We do good works so our faith and hope are in God? In an answer to that I may even think that Peter was familiar with what Jesus said in Matthew 5:48 (quoted earlier) and that whatever good we do, it ought not be because we want to be seen as good. For Peter talks about the manifestation of how good works ought to be formulated in our lives when he says,

2 Peter 1:5–7 ESV

“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.”

And that is a good description of what it means to be holy. So it is not that doing good works leads to faith, but that faith leads to love, and love is the endpoint of faith. Love is the purpose of faith, and love is simply a way of saying good works. So then, our good works we have by faith, and it is by good works that we prove the fruitfulness of our faith.

The third text comes from Revelation.

Revelation 22:11 ESV

“Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”

This simply compounds on the previous two example verses. For whatever evil deed a person does, it is counted against them even and especially in cases where one does good for the sole purpose of looking good. A text that sheds light on this verse from Revelation is here:

2 Timothy 3:12–17 ESV

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

It is not in absence of good works that we suffer, but instead because of it. Naturally, it is not enough to simply have scripture memorized that produces good works, but rather by living it out. And by living it out, it proves that we know the scripture from that which our good works come from.

So, what might I say about all these texts that have to do with good works for the believer if I said in my last article, "Man cannot do what is not sinful,"? There does seem to be a tension here. For if one is in sin, then can they be holy? It is not so much a question of meeting the standard of perfection that is the problem because no one can reach that standard. Rather, it is in seeing improvement or decline in one's attitudes both toward God and their own sin. For if one comes to realize that they are "without sin" they are deceiving themselves. But if one sees that they are making improvements in sanctification, then this is a good thing and a work of God in their lives. Nonetheless, while we long to see improvement in sanctification in our lives, in some respects this carries with it the fact that we become more acutely aware of our own failings as sinners.

To end, it is a grace that we do not see all the sin in our lives at once as bearing the weight of our sins would most certainly put us to immense shame and perhaps death, just as it is a grace that the Holy Spirit reveals hidden sins in our lives we would otherwise have no idea that they existed and this is the evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in sanctifying us.

God bless you! Until next time!