Sermon Central
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Holiness - What Is It?
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Apr 29, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: Can we even live holy lives? Or are we condemned to live in the shackles of sin until we are glorified at death? Are we a new creation or does the Father just see the blood of His Son covering our sins as we commit them once we're saved?
“Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Three categories of Christians:
Those who think they are Christians
Those who are believers but not fully committed to the Lord
Those who have totally given their lives to Jesus
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Those who think they are Christians:
Raised in a non-believing church all their lives
Never hearing about sin and salvation - only taught "be good and do good works"
Those who have said the “sinner’s prayer” as a magic incantation
Dangerous - to give assurance - (we don't know the heart of the person praying)
Have never “counted the cost”
Has everything moved to being under the control of God
Has His objectives become your objectives
Example of Audrey’s Grandpa on his deathbed - they "Got him to say the sinner's prayer."
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Then there are those who are believers but not fully committed to the Lord:
These are people who have actually repented and turned from their sins and have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation but have not put their entire life and being under the lordship or command of Christ.
This is a life of immense struggle as defined in Romans 7
Notice in this passage that the person struggling with sin never calls on God for help ...
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
“And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
“For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing.
“Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
“What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
Just look at the duality in that! In my mind a slave to God’s law - in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
What a horrible place to live. What a painful condition.
Knowing that you are saved by the grace of God
Knowing that you cannot overcome sin but are enslaved by it
Knowing that there must be something more
There are those who teach that this is the place where all Christians live as long as they are on this earth. Some people believe that this is the unavoidable plight of all Christians and that moving on to living a life of total devotion to God and holiness will only be achieved at death.
But, this place, between salvation and entire sanctification has a distinct function.
It will either drive you to complete devotion to God or back to the world.
We all like a nice comfortable chair, don’t we? Think of the last evening you spent sitting in an nice comfortable chair reading or visiting or watching TV. So, comfortable that you could almost fall asleep and you sat there for hours.
Now envision that same evening sitting on a fence. And, not just sitting on a fence but straddling the fence. You wouldn’t be staying on that fence for very long! You’d be getting off one side or the other.
That’s what the torture of Romans 7 will do for you.
It will either drive you back to the world or forward to holiness in Christ!
Look at these other memory Scriptures …
