Our Need of Holiness

"Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: ¹⁵ looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled..."

Hebrews 12:14-15

The writer of Hebrews strongly asserts personal holiness is essential in the lives of Christians.  This is an exhortation to be Christlike and a warning against the negligence of examining ourselves according to God's Word.  Holiness is an established and constant quality of God's character, righteousness revealed in the Bible.  No man can be holy by the efforts of the flesh, but spiritual regeneration through faith in Jesus will lead to a life marked by holiness.  Ours is a faith that works.

To be holy is to be pure, and there is much in this world and in our own flesh which defiles.  It is always fashionable to the flesh to ignore sins as defined in scripture in ourselves and others.  We can use grace as a cloak for sin or otherwise the many warnings of Paul and others are without merit.  How we think and live matters, and every tree is known by its fruit.  The things we think about, what we do, and the desires of our hearts are clear indicators to the discerning if we are in Christ or not.  Since we are the ones God will hold accountable for our conduct and words in this life, it is wise for us to closely monitor ourselves in the light of His Word.

Our primary aim should always be to take our own sin personally when God reveals it:  to admit it, forsake, confess, and repent of it.  Then we ought to put into practice choices which honour God in obedience.  We live in an age of grace, and Hebrews suggests people fall short of it.  As Hebrews 12:16 continues Esau is provided as an example of a person poisoned by bitterness:  "...lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright."  As the firstborn Esau had the birthright, an inheritance, and a blessing his father delighted to give him.  But he was profane and a fornicator who missed out on everything.  His descendants (Edom) rejoiced to see the children of Israel in strife, plundered them, and delivered them to their enemies (Obadiah, Amos 1:11-12).  Hatred and bitterness toward Jacob began with Esau, and it burned for generations defiling many.

Holiness is completely foreign to human beings born in sin and steeped among sinners.  Holiness is not what seems good to a man but is defined according to God's unyielding righteousness and purity.  It is only through the Bible we know what holiness looks like (and like God it cannot change) and Jesus is the personification of holiness for us.  God's people were never to be like other people, and what is acceptable and promoted in the world will always be contrary to God.  The people who say they love Jesus but love the world do not know Jesus.  They cannot perceive the need for holiness.  God said to His people in Leviticus 20:7 as He did at many times and in many ways:  "Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God."  Because we have been born again through Jesus Christ our lives ought to be marked with God's holiness.

We are not made "holy" through keeping the 10 Commandments because they are incapable of changing us within.  Jesus came and fulfilled the Law so our sins could be washed in His blood shed on Calvary through faith in Him.  Having been born again, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us.  Since we are recipients of the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead, all believers are called to lead holy lives because we walk in His grace.  The way we once lived and approved of sin is well contrasted with the character of the indwelling Spirit in Galatians 5:19-25:  "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴ And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."

Is your life marked with the works of the flesh or the fruit of the Spirit?  Without holiness not one of us will see the LORD (regardless of your theoretical theology), and therefore personal purity is of great importance.  I close with a quote from Alan Redpath:  "God does not wait for clever people; He wants clean people.  Are we clean enough for God to use?  Are we humble enough for God to entrust us with blessing, or would we take the glory to ourselves?  I know that we can be sanctified only by the God of peace.  Yet though holiness, in the positive sense, is nothing more and nothing less than the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Ghost, expressing the life of the Lord Jesus in me, on the negative side it is the putting away of all known sin.  Have we done that?  Are we clean enough for God to give us revival?  Are we broken enough and humble enough for God to use us, or are we to go through our lives on the wretched wilderness level of failure and see nothing happen?" (Redpath, Alan. “Victorious Christian Living: Studies in the Book of Joshua.” Redpath Family, 2013, pp. 44–45.)