My main thought from yesterday was this - Holiness = separateness or set-apartness UNTO something.
In clarification, here are some more thoughts. Being Set Apart / Sanctified / Made Holy - doesn't necessarily mean being Set Apart for the sake of ISOLATION. Someone or Something is Set Apart in order to be useful. Usually that usefulness has to do with something SPECIAL. Here is just one example.
In Exodos 30:34ff the Lord commanded Moses to have special incense made specifically for use in the Tabernacle. The Israelites were prohibited from making anything like it or burning it for their own enjoyment - it was to be used solely in worship to the Lord. In this way - the incense formula was Set Apart. It was special, it was to be used ONLY for this purpose and not for common or everyday use.
This concept doesn't often jive with our preaching with regards to Holiness. Lemme 'splain for just a moment.
(***Big Disclaimer*** These thoughts pertain to me - in the context of when, where and how I grew up and the churches I have been a part of, lest we forget - this is my blog! Nevertheless, I have observed this line of preaching ALL over the place!)
Holiness is usually preached in the context of staying away from "bad" things. We are also discouraged from associating with "bad" people for fear of being either tainted by them, or being seen as tacitly approving of what these "bad" people do. Our personal righteousness is usually tied in with this point - which is only half-right in my opinion. There is very rarely a distinction made between personal righteousness and the true deeper meaning of Holiness - being set-apart. By focusing on behavior I believe that our preaching is often just the same old "Guilty by association" logic that we Christians are so good at***.
(***Pardon my grammar. This is just the sort of poor grammar that, up with, we shall no longer put. I shall try to do better in future posts.) Now where was I?
Back in the day, Steve Taylor had a song by the same title "Guilty By Association" - which was a satire of our isolated Christian sub-culture. It went something like this:
- So you need a new car? Let your fingers take a walk, through the business guide for the "born-again" flock. You'll be keeping all your money in the "kingdom" now. And, you'll only drink milk from a "Christian" cow!" (Watch it from the link above - it's a great song!)
However, I believe we run into danger when we equate a believer's behavior with their right-standing with God. Righteous behavior does not LEAD to Holiness. Holiness is God ordained, outside of the believer. It is His decree, God calling us to be who He called us to be. Righteous living then, is the RESULT of our right-standing with God. Holiness is something God does - he set's us apart - UNTO righteous living, not because of our own righteousness. God does not keep a "balance sheet" of all our good and bad deeds and reward us accordingly. All have sinned! There is none righteous - not one! We cannot do it apart from what Jesus has done for us.
Putting it another way, saying that my own righteous behavior LEADS to Holiness is quite like saying that I drink lots of Root Beer BECAUSE I belch a lot. It really IS and should be seen the other way around. Righteous behavior is the RESULT of what God did in setting us apart unto himself - our behavior should fall in line. Because my eyes have been made Holy (set apart unto God) - I will look upon no unclean thing. Because my hands have been made Holy (set apart) I will not use them to steal. Because my tongue has been made Holy I will not curse, lie or slander my brother. That is the distinction.
By focusing on behavior we fool ourselves into believing that we can be good enough to please God. That is not Holiness - it's legalism.
(See Galations if you don't believe me!)
3 comments:
Very interesting that you are writing about this. A lady at church gave me a word after the last time that I preached that I would be preaching about Holiness soon. So, in stepping into that I got a bunch of books on the subject and have been studying through them. I in the last chapter of Jerry Bridges "Pursuit of holiness" now and it has been very transformational. Thanks again for your thoughts... It would be great to get together some time and chat about it.
Jason
In my Hebrew History and Literature class we are currently going through the book of Isaiah. My professor pointed out how in Isaiah 6, the seraphim call God "Holy, Holy, Holy". He then went on to explain how the Hebrew word used here qadosh (my improper transliteration), means set apart, but also unique. Unique in that God is the only one of his class, the only kind, there is no other God but God, kind of thing. This got me to thinking about our call to be Holy, we are to be that kind of unique.
What I find most interesting, when I put your blog and my professor together, is that by being set apart/unique, God still decides to slum it with us and even shows us how to be Holy through coming in the flesh. As a human I am not unique, there are many humans and they are all essentially the same. As a follower of God and of Christ I become unique, yes, there are other Christ followers, but we are all, really, unique together. And this set apartness demands that we show this uniqueness and usefulness to the world. Salt and LIght, a call for Israel to be Israel also known as, a call for the people of God to be the people of God.
Jason, kinda cool how God does that sort of thing once in awhile. It confirms that I was at least trying to listen to his voice when I wrote this.
David, thanks for the thoughts. I agree - uniqeness is also implied - which is also the point of Jesus being monogenes - only begotten of the Father.
I also agree with you that in our Holiness we need to stand out as being different and unique and be who we are called to be as Christ's followers. Good call.
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