Be Holy
--I Peter 1:13-16
Leviticus 20:6-9
Leviticus 20:6 - 9 (NRSV), “If any turn to mediums and wizards, prostituting themselves to them, I will set my face against them, and will cut them off from the people. 7Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God. 8Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the LORD; I sanctify you. 9All who curse father or mother shall be put to death; having cursed father or mother, their blood is upon them.”
I Peter 1:13-16 (NRSV), “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; £ discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. 14Like obedient children do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16for it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
“One day a young minister was being escorted through a coal mine. At the entrance of one of the dim passageways, he spied a beautiful white flower growing out of the black earth. ‘How can it blossom in such purity and radiance in this dirty mine?’ the preached asked. ‘Throw some coal dust on it and see for yourself,’ his guide replied. When he did, he was surprised that the fine, sooty particles slid right off the snowy petals, leaving the plant just a lovely and unstained as before. Its surface was so smooth that the grit and grime could not adhere to it.” [--Bible Illustrator Deluxe 3.0, CD-ROM, “Clean in a Dirty Place.” Omaha, Nebraska (Omaha: Quick Verse, July, 1986, number 23.].
Such is the picture of a Disciple of Jesus who lives a holy life. He or she is empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as pure a life in this sinful, corrupt, immoral, vile, evil, wicked world just as the flower could “blossom in such purity and radiance in that dirty mine.” In multiple places of the Old and New Testaments, the Lord commands us, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Besides our texts from I Peter 1:16 and Leviticus 20:7, the Lord issues this same commandment twice in Leviticus 11: 44-45 and once again in Leviticus 19:2.
Those of us who have gone through the Alpha ministry may remember Nicky Gumble’s personal desire and prayer during a ministry at Holy Trinity Brompton by the late John Wimber was for “power.” Certainly power is one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the life and ministry of His people, and God answered that desire and prayer for Nicky in a convincing way. The most persuasive evidence of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life, however, is a life lived in holiness. My personal prayer for my own life and for the continued ministry of our Church is that we all may “be holy as God is holy.”
God calls all His children to a life of holy living, and this call is not optional but imperative, for we are reminded in Hebrews 12:14 that disciples must “Pursue, or follow, peace with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” One who is holy is perfectly good and righteousness, morally and ethically pure. God is the root of all holiness, and God alone is by nature holy. Because God is holy, He is morally perfect, His totally separated from all evil. God is the only perfectly good, righteous, and pure Being. The prophet Habakkuk recognizes the holiness of God so well in Habakkuk 1:12-13:
“Are you not from of old,
O LORD my God, my Holy One? . . .
“Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing. . .”
God is absolutely holy so that His eyes are “too pure to behold evil.” He cannot look on, cannot accept, and cannot approve any form of evil. In contrast to the absolute, pure, holiness of God, we are, by nature, sinful creatures; but our Holy God, King of the Universe, expects us to be holy too, but how can we ever “be holy as God is holy?”
We can never do so through our own efforts and works or in our own strength and power. Holiness is a gift of grace. Our holiness is derived from His holiness. Our Holy God is more than able to make His people holy, as He clearly promises us in both our passages of Scripture this morning. Look again at Leviticus 20:7-8, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the LORD your God. Keep my statutes, and observe them; I am the LORD; I sanctify you.” God asks us to “consecrate ourselves” and then promises “I sanctify you.” I Peter 1:14-15 charges us, “Like obedient children do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct. . .” The words “consecrate” and “sanctify” in the Leviticus passage are the same Hebrew term. God promises “I sanctify you.” To sanctify is “to make holy.” God makes us holy where we are powerless to do so ourselves.
We have a part to play in becoming His Holy people. The Lord calls on us “to consecrate ourselves.” When we consecrate ourselves to God, He sanctifies our hearts; He makes us “holy as He is holy.” Along this same line Peter explains our part in the process is to come to Him “like obedient children.”
Andrew Murray, the great 19th Century Scottish missionary to South Africa and author of the prayer classic WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER, observes: “The secret of true obedience is the clear and close personal relationship to God. All our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to His abiding fellowship. It is God’s holy presence consciously abiding with us that keeps us from disobeying Him. I must consciously include the Lord in every thought, activity, and conversation until the habit is established.” [--Bible Illustrator Deluxe 3.0, CD-ROM, “Holiness Commanded, Index: 1598.” Omaha, Nebraska (Omaha: Quick Verse, n. d.].
Obedient children, seeking God’s holiness, come to Him in the same spirit as did Isaiah. When we enter the presence of our Holy God we are smitten with awe as Isaiah was in Isaiah 6: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
“The pivots£ on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.” [--Isaiah 6:1-4].
How did Isaiah react in the presence a Holy God? He confessed his own sinful nature and repented. The account continues:
“And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’” [--verse 5]. Isaiah came to God as a humble, repentant, obedient child and experienced God’s cleansing, sanctifying power.
Remember what happened next? “Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph£ touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’” [--Isaiah 6:6-7]. When we cry out for God to cleanse our unclean lips, hearts, and lives, our guilt departs, our sin is blotted out; we are sanctified, made holy. God sanctifies by His grace all who come to him in humble, childlike faith and repentance.
God calls us to be holy in order to fulfill His Great Commission as laid out in I Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,£ in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” As disciples of Jesus Christ, we the are His “chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, His own people so that we may proclaim to the world the mighty acts of Him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” It is my earnest prayer that you and I will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to fulfill that Commission until “Jesus Christ is revealed.”
“In His powerful book The Holiness of God, R. C. Sproul observes that unbelievers often feel uneasy in the presence of an obedient Christian. The holiness of God reflected in a believer’s life makes the non-Christian uncomfortable. Sproul then shares this truce incident to make his point.
“A well-know professional golfer was playing in a tournament with President Gerald Ford, fellow pro Jack Nicklaus, and Billy Graham. After the round was over one of the other pros on the tour asked, ‘Hey, what was it like playing with the President and Billy Graham?’ The pro said with disgust, ‘I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my throat!’ With that he headed for the practice tee. His friend followed, and after the golfer had pounded out his fury on a bucket of golf balls, he asked, ‘Was Billy a little rough on you out there?’ The pro sighed and said with embarrassment, ‘No, he didn’t even mention religion.’
“Sproul comments, ‘Astonishing, Billy Graham had said nothing about God, Jesus, or religion, yet the pro stomped away after the game accusing Billy of trying to ram religion down his throat.’ What had happened? Simply this: The evangelist had so reflected Christlikeness that his presence brought the same feeling to the pro as experienced by Isaiah. He knew he was ‘lost, a man of unclean lips, and living among a people of unclean lips.’ In the life of Billy Graham, the lost pro had sensed the presence of our Holy God.”
Holy disciples are living examples of Christlikeness to nonbelievers everyday. When by the power of the Holy Spirit we are made “holy as God is holy,” we daily live the reality of Colossians 3:12-14, “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord£ has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Holy disciples are clothed with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Holy disciples share one another’s burdens and are patient with each other.
Holy disciples forgive one another in the same fashion Christ has forgiven us; and above all else, Holy disciples are “clothed with Christ’s agape love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
When they are in our presence, are nonbelievers aware that the Holy God of the universe lives in us? If we walk with Jesus in holiness, they will, and we won’t even have to make a single comment about religion. May you and I always be so like Jesus that the world will see without any doubt that “we are holy as God is holy.”
