“Holiness”
As someone who has grown up Pentecostal, I am very familiar with the term “holiness.” I’ve heard sermons on holiness from before the time I could even say the word. And I hear all kinds of people quoting “Be holy as I am holy” After all, several times God did say that to his people. And I agree with these people. Holiness is important. It’s something that we must achieve. The Pentecostal movement was birthed out of holiness movement. But it seems that somewhere in our growth and manifestations of the Spirit, by and large we’ve lost our holiness. I firmly believe that we must return to holiness.
But I think that one of the biggest problems with achieving holiness is that we really don’t understand what holiness is. I grew up in a church that said holiness was men not wearing shorts, long hair, or jewelry. It was women not wearing pants, makeup, jewelry, short hair, colored hair, pig tails, hair ribbons, hair clips (unless they were the same color as her hair), or red dresses. Holiness was not watching TV, going to the movies, dancing, gambling, playing pool, smoking, drinking, doing drugs, and a whole long list of other no-no’s. I suppose, even though we didn’t hear as much about it, that holiness also included a lot of do’s, like do read your Bible, do pray, do pay your tithes, do go to church every time the doors are open, and on and on. To sum it all up, holiness was a long list of do’s and don’ts. And if you did the do’s and didn’t do the don’ts you were holy.
Now, I’m sure, and I hope I’m right, that your definition of holiness doesn’t include all of the same things as mine did. Frankly, I went to a church that had a lot of rules. But even if your list isn’t as extreme as mine, your definition of holiness may consist of a list of things you must do and a list of things you cannot do. And as long as you follow that list, you’re holy. As soon as you deviate from that law, you’re unholy. By that definition, holiness basically means “do what’s right and don’t do what’s wrong.” Or “don’t sin.”
Now, in reading Exodus 29:36b, I have come across a problem with this definition. And I think that in examining this problem, we can begin to see what holiness really is, and then we can begin to achieve holiness.
Exodus 29:36b “Purify the altar by making atonement for it; make it holy by anointing it with oil.”
The first of the two lines says, “Purify the altar by making atonement for it.” Now, atonement was made through a blood sacrifice. And the purpose of atonement was a covering for sin. So this command means “sacrifice the proper animal and sprinkle it’s blood on the altar to “cover up” the sin that has defiled the altar. Now after this is done, the altar is pure. The altar is, at that point, without sin. Now if we use the definition of holiness, “without sin” then we could say at this point that the altar was already “holy” right? If holy means “without sin” and the altar has just been cleansed from sin, that would make the altar holy.
But God’s next instruction for the altar is “Make it holy by anointing it with oil.” Even when it was made sin-free by the blood, the altar still needed to be “made holy.” So then, what is holy? I’m not going to say that holiness doesn’t at least involve or include living a righteous life, free from sin. But that is not the summation of holiness. While holiness may include being sin-free, and we’ll examine that, sin-free is not the totality of holiness. Holiness, means “separated” or “set-apart.” In this specific case, God was talking about the altar. By anointing the altar with oil, they were signifying that this altar was not just an ordinary altar. This altar wasn’t for just any old purpose. This altar existed for a specific purpose and that purpose was to make offerings to God. No other use for this altar was permissible, because this altar had been set apart for this purpose.
I don’t know about in Vietnamese homes, but in American homes our mom’s have the “good dishes.” These dishes are usually kept in a cabinet on display somewhere because they’re so beautiful. When you want to make a snack or grab a bite to eat, you don’t put it on one of these plates. You use one of the normal dishes. You see these dishes only come out on special occasions, usually when there’s company around to impress. My parents have a beautiful set that I bought them for their 25th anniversary 2 years ago. We’ve used the dishes only once, for a big Christmas dinner. These dishes are “set apart” for a special purpose. They are separated. They are not stored with or treated like the ordinary dishes. These are special dishes.
Paul talks about these kinds of dishes in
2 Timothy 2:20, “In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.”
In the NKJ it says like this, “some for honor and some for dishonor.”
So living a life of holiness does not necessarily only mean, living a life that is free from sin. It means living a life that is separated or set-apart. It means we are not like ordinary people. We are a special people.
1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (NKJ)
Holiness means being different from the world. Now, some older translations, said instead of “special people,” “peculiar people.” And peculiar is a peculiar word. Some people thought that we were supposed to be a bunch of oddballs walking around, making people say, my aren’t they weird. And believe me, when we followed our list of do’s and don’ts a lot of people did look at us like we were weird. That’s why I’m glad that the modern translations have fixed it to read “special people.” While the world may indeed think that we are strange when we follow God’s ways, this is not the objective at all.
Now, one thing I’ve noticed in life is that it’s very often easier to accomplish the wrong thing. When I had a clear-cut list of do’s and don’ts things were much easier for me. Let me give you a true example.
When I was in second grade my teacher held a tiny party on Halloween. Now, if my parents had known there would be any semblance of a party, I would have stayed home, b/c parties were wrong. But they didn’t know, and it was only a teeny celebration. My teacher made toast and we could choose a peanut butter squirrel or a “fluff” ghost. (For those who don’t know “Fluff” is delicious gooey stuff made entirely out of sugar—kids love it. Just ask anyone from my kid’s class). Now the squirrel didn’t look like a squirrel and the ghost didn’t look like a ghost. That’s just what she called them. Now, I really wanted Fluff. I loved fluff. Peanut butter was yucky. We could have that whenever we wanted. But I knew that ghosts were Satanic. So, without hesitation I chose the peanut butter squirrel. It was easy for me, b/c right was right and wrong was wrong. There were no gray areas, just black and white. At that time it was really easy for me to live a “holy” life. The trouble is that it wasn’t really holiness. True holiness is more difficult than just following a list of rules, because it goes beyond just following a list of rules.
True holiness pervades every aspect of your life, controlling your every decision and action. But it does involve righteousness. Here’s how. Before we were saved, we may have engaged in all kinds of filthy behavior. We did all kinds of dishonorable filthy things. But it didn’t make a difference, b/c at that time we were filthy dishonorable people. The garbage man doesn’t mind getting dirty. The farmer will get dirty and muddy in the fields all day. But the high-class gentleman wouldn’t dream of going where they go. The high-class gentleman wouldn’t dream of doing the types of activities they do. And because of that the rich man may look down at the activities of these people. Oh, some of the things they do may be fun. Some of their activities may be pleasurable, but the snob doesn’t want to be contaminated with their filth. Now, I’m not suggesting that we all become snobs and look down on sinners. That’s the exact opposite of what I’m talking about here. But
2 Timothy 2:20 continues to 21, “20 In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. 21 If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.”
You see in order for us to remain separated for that special use, we must remain pure. Remember if not purified by the blood, the altar could never have been separated to be used for sacrifices to God. And the same is true of us. We are a special people. We are separated unto God. However, when we become contaminated by sin, we are like a silver cup that is tarnished. Now, I don’t know anybody who throws away tarnished silver, thinking that it’s now worthless. But at the same time, nobody is going to serve tea to their guests of honor with a tarnished tea set. It’s the same way with us. We don’t become less valuable to God when we sin, however, when we become contaminated by sin, we lose our ability to be used for special purpose.
We are like that snobbish gentleman. We don’t engage in the activities of sin, b/c we don’t want to lose our distinction or separateness by being contaminated by sin. Sure sin is pleasurable for a season, but it leaves stains that make it better left alone. We don’t miss the low-class pleasures b/c we know that our separateness gives us access to pleasures that far surpass what the other class of people can attain. Think about the rich man. He has his yacht, his mansion with his own golf course, tons of cars, and all kinds of things. Why would he ever stoop to kneeling in the mud in the middle of the rainstorm to change a tire. He doesn’t have to deal with the same things as “ordinary” people. And it’s the same with us. Because of our separated status, we don’t have to engage in the filth of this world. We are different. We are set apart. If we would act as snobbish toward sin (not sinners, but sin), as rich people do to poor, we would be much better off. If we would realize that we no longer have to sin, because we are separate, we would be much better off.
I think one of the things that makes it most difficult to be holy is that we’re always measuring our holiness by a worldly standard. We look at what the “sinners” around us are doing and we try to do better. We see that the bad people do this, this, and this, so we avoid doing those things. We try to remain very much a part of the world, and at the same time try to not to become contaminated by the world. However, this is the opposite of what holiness is.
2 Corinthians 6:17, “Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.”
It’s like in the movie “Lord of the Rings.” There is a ring in the movie, and it has a power. It was created by the evil force. And it has the power to corrupt whoever holds it. It makes the person very possessive of the ring, until a gentle, kind old man’s eyes fill with violent, hateful, fire b/c he thinks someone wants to take the ring from him. If the man just gives up the ring (which he does) it has no control over him. Now, they are on a quest to carry this ring to some certain place to destroy it. And all along, the boy carrying it must struggle against the power of the ring. All along the ring tries to control him, and there’s always the risk that he will succumb to it.
Sometimes we’re like that with the world and the world’s system. We want to do what is pure and right. And we try our best to. But the world has a power to corrupt people. The world’s system has a way of controlling people. Be it through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life, this world has a way of corrupting people. And we as Christians know that some of those things are wrong, so we try our best to avoid them. But we don’t want to give up the world. We try to hold onto the world and at the same time resist and resist the power of the world. Well, the fact is that the pull of the world is strong. The temptation is tough. And eventually if you cling to this world, it will get you. If you subscribe to this world, this world will win. The way of holiness is not to continue buying into this world’s system in a Christian way. The way of holiness is “come out from them and separate yourselves from them.”
Now obviously, you can’t leave the world right now. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m talking about is the same thing John spoke of in
1 John 2:15-17, “15 Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. 17 And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever.”
I’m talking about Christians that are exactly the same as the world, except they have the name Christian. Oh, they may be more honest, or more pure, or more anything else than the others. But the fact is that their lives are still lived for the same purposes as those who are not Christians “physical pleasures, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions.” That person’s life is a waste.
II. Now holy doesn’t just mean separated and that’s it. Holy means more than that. Holy means separated for a special purpose. That is, we are not just separate from the world, that’s it. Okay there are two categories of people. The world and those who are separate from the world. No, that’s not it. We are separated for a purpose. Well, really for more than one purpose.
A. One purpose for which we are separated is to be the Temple of God.
2 Corinthians 6:15-17 “15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the Devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: "I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17 Therefore, come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.”
Just as we were reading of the Tabernacle and the altar being set apart for worship of God in the Old Testament, so the Temple must be set apart for God. A Temple is a place where the presence of God dwells. And when we are saved, God’s presence comes and dwells inside of us. That makes us the Temple of God.
However, God cannot live in a Temple that is defiled by sin. God must live in a Temple that is set apart for him. You can’t come to church on Sunday and praise God and clap and sing and even shout and dance, but then live any way you want to on the weekdays. You are still the Temple of God on Monday, Tuesday, etc. You must be set apart. That means you exist for the special purpose of being a pure dwelling for God. It isn’t just something you do. It is something you become.
B. Another purpose for which we are separated is to show others the goodness of God.
1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” (NKJ)
1 Peter 2:9-12, “9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 10 "Once you were not a people; now you are the people of God. Once you received none of God’s mercy; now you have received his mercy." 11 Dear brothers and sisters, you are foreigners and aliens here. So I warn you to keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls. 12 Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world.”
Here Peter gives us the purpose for which we have been set apart, So that we can show others the goodness of God. Just in case the people had forgotten, Peter lists for us the things that God has done for us. He talks of the darkness we were once in. And how now we live in light. And in case any of the people want to be arrogant about their holy or separated status, Peter is quick to point out that we have received God’s mercy. That is, we deserved destruction just like everyone else. This is where my analogy of the well-to-do person ends. We cannot be arrogant, b/c we have not made ourselves to be what we are. We are where we are only because of the mercy of God.
So, we can see that the thing we have been set apart for is sharing the Good News of Jesus. Now, as I’m sure you all already know, I’m a proponent of sharing the Good News. I believe that we must tell others all about what Christ has done for us. I believe that we must be able to verbally present the Gospel to people.
1 Peter 3:15b, “And if you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.”
Now I have talked a lot in the past about sharing the Gospel. I still think it’s very important. But look at the way Peter says it, “If you are asked.” Why would somebody ask? What would lead somebody to ask? The answer is in 1 Peter 2, in the passage that we’ve been looking at. “They will see your honorable behavior, and they will believe.” Now this gives us a clue as to what real holiness is. When I wasn’t wearing shorts and my sisters weren’t wearing pants, nobody looked at us and said, “Oh I want to be like that.” It’s not following a bunch of ridiculous rules that make you holy. Now, I’m not saying that our actions should be determined by what others think. But look at the person who is holy, set apart for God. It is their actions and attitudes in everyday life that attract people to their faith. Even when the holy person is accused of wrong, they act in a way that is honorable. In this world, when someone is accused they become very defensive and often hostile. But the “set apart” person isn’t affected by the accusations of this world. His integrity carries him through, in such a way that the accuser in the end, wants to be like him.
When we are truly holy, people will want to have what we have. They will see the difference, and it will be an attractive difference to them. That is when we can explain to them how through Jesus Christ, they too can achieve the same thing. Because it’s not that we’re better than they are. It’s not that we’re special in and of ourselves. That’s why it’s dangerous to use the term “special.” We are special. But the fact is that anybody else can be special too. Our lives have been set apart for the purpose of bringing other men and women into the Kingdom of God.
When I was in college, I had a professor who said this over and over:
“What you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
III. The third thing I want to look at is how this holiness comes about.
In Exodus 29:36b, we have the answer. The purifying is done with the blood, just as we are purified by the blood of Jesus. The holiness comes through anointing with oil. Oil very often signifies the Holy Spirit. And indeed it is the Holy Spirit that sets us apart from the rest of the world.
2 Thessalonians 2:13, “As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth.”
Acts 1:8, “But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."”
Remember that the purpose of being set apart is to spread the Good News. We know that apart from the power of the Holy Spirit we are unable to effectively share with others the Good News of God. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the boldness, gives us the words to say, and gives us the power that makes the Good News more than just words on a page, but a reality in our lives.
Jesus said in Luke 4:18, 19, “18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, 19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
That was what set Jesus apart from all the other teachers. Lots of religious leaders have come and gone in our world. Lots of them have ideas. And they go around and they infect knowledge. They pass their knowledge on to others. They are all about their knowledge. And Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived. But if all he had were words, then he would be no better than all the other great teachers. But b/c the Holy Spirit was upon him, there was power in his words. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that brought the words that he spoke to pass. He had a message. But he had more than a message. He had the power to make that message happen.
I’ve prayed time and time again and told God, “If what I’m preaching doesn’t really work, I don’t want to preach it.” You know, anybody can say anything. And I would be ashamed to represent a religion, no matter how great it’s ideas were, if it didn’t work. But we don’t have just words and just knowledge at our disposal. Through the Holy Spirit, we have the power to actually experience the things that we preach. So, when we share the Good News, we don’t just share empty words. We share a living hope and a living message, one that is backed by the very real power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:12,13, “12 So, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live.”
Think back to before you were saved for a minute. You were estranged from God, because of your sin and you were completely powerless to do anything about it. If you had tried and tried your whole life to overcome sin, you could never have done it. It is something that cannot be done on your own. Then, in Jesus Christ, God offered you the free gift of salvation, and you received it by faith. The thing that you could never do was done for you.
Now, you try to live a holy life. And we, being people, who love to go back to our old ways, keep trying to do it on our own. We spent our whole pre-Christian life failing at trying to overcome sin. We submit, and allow God, through Jesus, to overcome for us, and then we go right back to trying to be holy on our own. No matter how hard you try, you will never be able to be holy on your own. You will never find victory over sin on your own. You will only struggle and fail and get up and fall and get up. It becomes a vicious cycle. However, when you submit to the Holy Spirit and allow him to work in your life, God once again gives you the power to overcome sin. It isn’t that you needed God for that first big hurdle and from there on you can handle it yourself. You must daily walk with God, b/c in the daily struggle you need the Holy Spirit to help you overcome every day.
We’re not the first people to think this way. The church in Galatia had the same problem, which Paul addressed in his letter to them.
Galatians 3:3, “Have you lost your senses? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”
Our own effort was enough before, and our own effort isn’t enough now. But just as the blood of Jesus was enough to save us, the power of the Holy Spirit is enough to keep us. The oil of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to keep us set apart from the world. Holy.
CONCLUSION
c. 2002
