The Beauty Of Holiness

"...you have taken off your old self with its practices 10

and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Col. 3:8-10)

Hating the garment spoiled by sin (Jud. 23)

Clothed w/ power from on high (Lk. 24:49)

Dressed in the righteousness of Christ/God

Do you know what holiness is? I know, I know – you’ve been raised in a church and you’ve heard it all your life. But try to define holiness for someone who is a stranger to the term. I have a few one-liners that I think say some of what it means to me. They might be a little fresher than text-book descriptions (Zondervan Pictoral Bible Dictionary, "separate (from evil), pure...")

"Frightening"

"scary"

"terrifying" the terror of the Lord we persuade

"terrible"

"horrifying"

"fearful" to fall into the hands of the living God

"dreadful"

"Threatening"

"consuming" He’s a consuming fire

- moral purity

- absolute good – with no shade of bad

- innocent of any guilt

- absence of impurity or flair or corruption

- an absolute cleanness and uprightness - righteousness- known only to, and found only in the person of God (but He shares it with and imputes it upon us).

Holiness is a beautiful thing. There is nothing more attractive, more becoming, or more beautiful than the expressions of holiness. Peter says, it is not the outward adorning which is only cosmetic, but the adorning of the inward man which makes us appealing to the Lord. (1 Pe. 3:3-4) It’s true that men get all caught up on the outer, physical appearance. That’s what the Lord told Samuel, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7) Look at the magazine covers, you don’t see many normal people. They want you to be attracted by sight and compelled to buy their $4 magazine. I have never been asked to let my picture be published on the front of GQ or People. They pay models and super-models to pose for their covers. If you see a normal person on the front page it is usually because they are the feature story. Even Christian publications, for the sake of sales, yield to the pressure of appearance.

The plainest person (male or female) when engaged with the presence of God is a wonderful sight. Outer beauty fades while there is something about an inner beauty that radiates to the surface and makes a beautiful transformation even in the physical appearance. Very common and ordinary looking people take on an appearance of beauty when they worship the Lord. That might be part of what is meant in the Psalms when it says, "... praise is comely for the upright."(33:1) The simplest act is appealing when wrapped in the glory of God. Changing diapers can be a beautiful thing to watch. (More beautiful to watch than do!) Changing a tire can be a thing of glory when done by a worshiper of God in an atmosphere of praise.

(There is a billboard against smoking that shows the pictures of two women, both with cigarettes. One is young, pretty and poised, the other an ugly old hag. The caption under the pretty woman reads, "This is how you see yourself." Under the ugly old hag it says, "This is how he sees you.")