Why does Holiness matter?

1 Peter 1:15-16 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

We have spent the past several days defining and discussing holiness.  Today we want to probe further and ask this simple question: Why does holiness matter?  As we consider the answer to this question in light of the above verse, we will propose that the first reason holiness matters is because it Prioritizes Life around God. 

Exposing a commonly believed myth
The Old Testament is not the only part of the Bible that teaches about Holiness.  Many people mistakingly assume that the Old Testament teaches about Holiness and the New Testament switches to focusing only on the love of God.  If anything, the New Testament's emphasis on love derives from Old Testament passages that emphasize the importance of loving the Lord and one's neighbor. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18).  Likewise the New Testament adds even more emphasis to the priority of holiness in the believer's life, as we will see in the passages below. 

Holiness is important because it prioritizes Life around God in the following "realms" of one's life:

1. Prioritizing Church life around God
Romans 14:19-20 states - "So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. 20Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense." This chapter emphasizes much the same themes as Leviticus 11-12, the emphasis on what is "clean" in the context of how one eats.  The point being that a church that prioritizes life around God will cherish holiness, since concern will be for others above oneself.

2. Prioritizing Business life around God
2 Corinthians 6:14-16 states - "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,“I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE." We need to discern whom we make covenants with whether it be business, marriage or any type of covenant arrangement.  Whenever we make covenant with one another, my friends become your friends and my enemies become your enemies and vice versa. 

3. Prioritizing Family Life around God
Does Holiness matter in the realm of family life in the New Testament? Consider these words in Ephesians 5:25-27 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless."

4. Prioritizing your thought life around God
All Christian growth has its genesis in the realm of the mind.  1 Thessalonians 4:2-4 shows how holiness is the will of God in the realm of the mind - "For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus. 3For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor"  Notice there in verse 2 "by the authority of the Lord Jesus". Truly if the holiness of our thought lives is important to Jesus, it ought to be our priority too. 

As we have noted in past blogs, to speak of "The Holy" is tantamount to speaking about God Himself. (compare Isaiah 6:3).  We are not building our lives merely around an abstract concept of holiness, but around God Himself.  This is the first reason why holiness is important.  Tomorrow we will consider the second reason: namely holiness points to Jesus Christ. 

The Significance of being a sanctuary

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

The significance of being a sanctuary
The underlined word above, "temple", is used to describe the Christian.  Over time the place where God met with His people came to be termed a "sanctuary".  Wherever humanity and Deity would intersect one another, that "place" or "time" was considered "sacred".  That word sanctuary comes from a Latin term for Holy, sanctus.  In fact in Isaiah 6:3, where we see the Angels crying out "Holy, Holy, Holy", it would appear in the Latin "sanctus, sanctus, sanctus". 

Remarkably Christian people are termed the "sanctuary of God".  Wherever God's Eternal presence intersects the human timelines of God's people, and actually "meets with them", that time and place is termed "a sanctuary" or "sacred".  Thus a Christian is a living, walking sanctuary, since God Himself has seen fit to dwell inside the believer.

Other words we use in everyday life that come from this word "Sanctus"
As we already saw, a "sanctuary" is a place where God and His people meet.  When we are sanctifying something, we are making it ready for fit use - cleansing it and purifying it.  The act of "washing dishes" means "sanctifying them", getting rid of the dirt and preparing them for the next meal. 

As we've seen in the past couple of blogs, we cannot escape the concept of "the holy" or "sanctus".  We value clothes because the cover up those areas that are holy, special.  We wash or "sanctify our clothes", since wearing dirty clothes is unacceptable.  We wash or "sanctify our hands" before we eat.  It is impossible to escape the Holy. 

Another term we commonly use that incorporates this root word "sanctus" is the term "consecrate".  To "consecrate" means literally to "separate oneself or unite oneself with another" (con = with and sacra = to make holy, separate unto).  Consecration refers to surrender oneself to the ownership of another.  Thus when a Christian consecrates themselves to the Lord, they are acknowledging what is already fact, namely Christ's Lordship and ownership over their lives.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20 conveys this truth of Christ's ownership of us as being the reason for wanting to live a holy life in consecration to Him. 

A fourth and final word that we derive from this word "sanctus" is the word which we mentioned at the beginning of today's blog, the word "sacred".  When Jacob was encountered by the Lord in Genesis 28:10-22, he called the place "Bethel", since the Divine Eternal God met and intersected with the human timeline of Jacob.  That place became a "Bethel", a "House of God", a "sacred place" or a "sanctuary". 

I always pray everyday that Christ would be through me everything a given situation requires in order that I may be in Him all He desires. May we as Christians live as those who are the sanctuary of God, wherein and whereby He gladly lives, meets and expresses Himself. 

Transformed by Holiness

1 Timothy 6:16 “Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”



Holiness is the sum of all of who God is in the brightness of His glory and Goodness

We began looking yesterday at the concept of “holiness” or “The Holy”.  To be holy is to be in a unique class, special, separate, owned or pure in relationship to oneself or other things.  In looking at the origin of Holiness, the God of the Bible, holiness is the sum of all God's infinite goodness concentrated in infinite brightness. It’s like taking a magnifying glass and concentrating all of the sun's light into a specific point. Holiness is the very essence of who God is.



Holiness deals in the realm of God's relationship to people or things, and their relationship to Him

As we noted earlier, God is in a unique class by Himself. This is, in my mind, the closest we can come to identifying the nature of "The Holy". God is sufficient in and of Himself, not in need of anything. All other things derive their life and existence from God. However God alone has existed before all creation.



Although God is uniquely Holy, something interesting takes place when the presence of God enters a place or comes in contact with somebody. That object or person is deemed Holy. Exodus 29:37 tells us - "For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy." Jesus Himself taught this principle in the form of a question in Matthew 23:17 “You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?"



Thus when the Holy Spirit enters into a person at saving faith, that person is deemed a "saint" or a "holy one". (1 Corinthians 1:1-2; 6:19-20) Anything outside of the immediate vicinity of the area touched by God is considered "common" or "unclean" or "profane". When Moses was met by God in the burning bush in Exodus 3, God told him to take off his sandals, since the ground he was standing on was "holy ground". In other words, the ground in the immediate vicinity of the burning bush was "separated" or "made unique", cut off from the space around that area because the Lord Himself touched it and deemed it Holy, since He Himself is Holy.

Holiness 101

1 Peter 1:14-16 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

Yesterday we looked at defining and understand what is meant by "The Holy".  Today I want to give you some categories by which to think through this crucial concept in your understanding of God and the Christian life.  1 Peter 1:14-16 is based off of what we see written in Leviticus 11:44.  When I see themes repeated in both Old and New Testament, that is what we call an "absolute" or "principle".  The way the Bible proceeds to unfold the concept of holiness is in three ways: Practically, Doctrinally and Supernaturally. 

Practical definition of holiness = clean versus unclean
In Leviticus 11-12, where we were yesterday, God reveals to Moses the laws concerning "clean and unclean".  Nearly 50 times we find that phrase stated in those chapters.  Moses was addressing the practical matters of diet, sanitation and child birth to point the way to the doctrinal and ultimately to the supernatural. 

Once we have grasped the significance of the "clean/unclean" categories, we will then be ready for the next level of discussion. The Bible says of the priests in Ezekiel 44:23 "And they shall teach my people the difference between the Holy and the profane and cause them to discern between the unclean and clean." 

Any child from the earliest age discerns between "clean and unclean".  Little Johnny is taught to wash his hands, not play in the toilet water and drink only out of "clean cups".  Little Johnny further distinguishes between "tub water" and "drinking water".  In our raising of children, we are dealing constantly with "the holy" at the most practical level.

Doctrinal level of holiness = holy versus profane
When we come to understand God and the things of God, as well as the people of God, holiness is not just a static idea, but an idea that is inseperable from relationship.  Holiness all at once does "separate" but also "brings into proximity with itself" some things but not all things. 

As we saw yesterday, God's touching of a bush or the gold of the temple or indwelling people makes that object or person "holy".  People who have been converted and indwelt by the Spirit of God by grace through faith are called a "holy ones" or "saints".  Passages such as 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 exhorts the saints to "come out and be separate among them".  This is the law of the "clean and unclean" functioning in the doctrinal level of the Christian life.  Holiness is central to who we are as Christians. (1 Peter 1:14-16)  Before we can live holy lives, we have to first be converted by grace through faith by the Holy Spirit who brings us into contact with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The doctrinal distinctions of "holy and profane" find their root in who God is Himself.  How I live and why I live is never divorced from consideration of the holy versus the profane. 

Supernatural level - God and everything else
Its been said that God has at least 1200 attributes found throughout the scripture.  Out of all those attributes and names, only One is assigned the unique status of being mentioned in a three-fold way.  Isaiah 6:3 has the angels crying out: "Holy, Holy, Holy".  Revelation 4 and 5 repeat this refrain concerning the Triune God on His throne. 

God's holiness is at the heart of who He is.  It is not that God is more holy and loving, nor that He is more loving than holy.  All of God's attributes are perfect and infinite in degree.  There is never a time that God is not Holy that He is not also loving.  Yet Holiness functions as a "thermostat" that regulates all of the other infinite attributes. 

God's holiness means God cannot love sin for example.  Furthermore, God is not holy because of a standard outside of Himself.  Rather good and evil are distinctions that derive simply because God Himself is the standard by which all norms are measured. 

Even when he created all things and deemed them good, in comparison to God, all creation, visible and invisible,  was "less holy", meaning that its perfection and goodness was "borrowed" and "credited to by God", who alone is unendingly and uniquely Holy. Job 25:5 notes - “If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight..."  Without holiness, the God of the Bible would cease to be.  He is the only God who is Holy, meaning then He is the only God period. 

What is holiness?

Leviticus 11:44 For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.

From childhood you learn about holiness
Though we may not know God redemptively prior to salvation, we nonetheless can know things about God through the general revelation of creation and the conscience. (Romans 1:18-20; 2:15). One of the things we understand from childhood is the distinction between what is clean and unclean. Leviticus 11-12 is like a class in "Holiness 101", for it begins with outlining things that are "clean and unclean".

Practically we learn that the distinction between "clean and unclean" is a distinction revealed through the law of God written on our hearts.  This leads then to the next level concept of "the pure or holy" and "the profane or common".  Thus when you wash dishes, you are "santifying them" or "setting them apart" to be used for cooking.  We even make distinctions between the water we drink, water we cook and wash clothes and water for sanitation.  Without holiness, human life as we know it would cease. 

How holiness is revealed from General Revelation to the special revelation of scripture
As a little child, how many of you were told to "wash your hands"? Why? Because they had been made dirty or unclean and needed to be washed. Why is it that we wear clothing? Because we understand that clothing covers up what is literally "holy, special". No matter how much mankind tries to run away from "the holy", all people at some point will complain when they percieve an "injustice" or "unfairness". That entails a distinction between that which is holy and unholy.

What is meant by the term "holy"? In scripture we travel from the basics of clean/unclean to pure /profane to that of God's Holiness over against sin and the world.  Holy or holiness comes from a Hebrew word and corresponding Greek word that carries with it the following ideas:

1. To be Holy primarily means to be in a class of one's own.  To be separate or unique.

2. Holiness secondly speaks to something that is special or owned by someone.  Thus The Lord's people are called Holy due to the fact that He has redeemed or purchased them by His blood. (Acts 20:28)

3. Holiness thirdly takes this idea of "Special" or "unique" and applies it in the moral realm - thus purity and morality are the natural outcomes of holiness

4. Practically speaking holiness speaks to that which is clean as opposed to that which is unclean

5. Then finally, holy is a synonym for God Himself.  New Testament Scholar D.A Carson has suggested that when we see the angels crying out in Isaiah 6:3 "Holy, Holy, Holy", they are not crying "separate, separate, separate", but rather "God, God, God" or "Lord, Lord, Lord". 

Why Christians must affirm biblically defined marriage

Matthew 19:4-6 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, 5and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? 6“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

In today's blog I want to address three reasons why Christians must affirm the Biblical view of marriage.  A few days ago our President made a public declaration of his support of same-sex marriage.  Our culture in general, and some Christian denominations in particular have demonstrated increasing non-clarity on what defines marriage and family.

Can a Christian still consistently affirm core Christian convictions and yet agree with the rationale of including same-sex marriage in the overall definition of marriage?  Or is including same-sex marriage in one's overall defintion of family and marriage in conflict with a consistent Christian worldview?  I would submit the latter: namely that one cannot consistently hold to the core truths of Biblical Christianity and affirm same sex marriage. 

Below I will spell out briefly three reason why Christians must affirm and reaffirm the following statement: Marriage is a union between one man and one woman in covenantal union with God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Christians must affirm marriage because: Culture is built upon a sound definition of marriage
Jesus affirmed what God said through Adam in Genesis 2:24-25:
"The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” 24For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."

When God established the institution of marriage, he stated it before he had revealed government and before he had initiated the institution of God's people (Israel and later the Church).  Marriage represents the most fundamental unit of meaning, identity and culture.  It is marriage which acts as the beach-head in preventing the erosion of cultural morality and meaning in the realm of relationships. (Genesis 2; Deuteronomy 6; Malachi 2; Ephesians 5; 1 Peter 3:7)

Marriage is designed to raise up Godly and responsible human beings who will promote justice, godliness and equity in culture. (Malachi 2:15)  Think of marriage as the brickwork of the wall of culture.  What happens when the bricks are suddenly changed in shape?  The wall will first teeter then tumble. 

Marriage functions in the wider circle of the church as providing the fundamental family units who will raise their children to promote and communicate the Gospel.  As Christians, we must affirm marriage if cultural stability is to continue. 

2. Christians must affirm marriage because: Christianity is pictured by marriage
Ephesians 5:25-26 states - Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.   Jesus Himself draws the parallel between the institution of marriage between one man and one woman to that of His relationship to His people, the church. 

Same-sex marriage is incompatible with Christian life, faith and practice because it does not and cannot communicate anything meaningful about God nor His people.  Over 100 passages in God's word speak on the subject of marriage.  Quite often in the Old Testament God used marriage to picture the redemption His people out of sin and restoring them to relationship with Himself. (Hosea 2 is an example) 

As Christians, we must affirm the uniqueness of Christian marriage in order to rightly and effectively communicate the story and theological thrust of the Gospel - namely the Son by the Holy Spirit gathering for Himself a Bride to cherish, wash and prepare for eternal wedded bliss. (Genesis 24; Hosea 2; Ephesians 5; Revelation 21-22)

3. Christians must affirm marriage because: Consistent morality requires the affirmation of marriage
When we come to Romans 1:25-26 states - "For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error."

Morality cannot thrive amidst a people who are only reacting to what is wrong.  Rather morality can only advance amidst a people who are affirming what is right.  Same-sex proponents advocate their views due to what has been the consistent undermining of marriage in our culture.  According to Dr. Robert H. Coombs, Professor of Behaviorial Sciences at UCLA, the rate of people living together before marriage as increased 533% since 1970.  Studies have shown that among those co-habitating versus those who are married, alcoholism is 15% higher, suicide occurs at a higher rate and domestic violence is three times more likely.  Statistics alone demonstrate the link between a redefinition of marriage and the negative moral outcomes.

When marriage suffers, morality suffers.  Furthermore, when marriage suffers, children suffer.  A reactionary movement is unstable because it lacks the ability to sustain any long term positive affects on a culture.  By supplementing the definition of marriage to include other arrangements between men and women or those of the same-sex, we end up supplanting the very foundation of morality and ethics. 

We are reaping the affects of the reactionary movements of the 60's and 70's which advocated "living together" and the "sexual revolution".  They attempted to change the landscape of families and culture - and they did so - at the expense of moral and ethical decay.  Reactionary movements never have and never will progress culture, Christianity nor morality. 

Marriage between One man and One woman is the only view that can communicate the necessity of God-centered existence in the family
Same-sex advocates often speak of monogamy as the ethical high-water mark of their movement, something of which they say is common-ground shared with the historic view of marriage.  However, monogamy itself only grew out of the soil of historic marriage itself!  Other arrangements outside of marriage have never been able to consistently sustain a rationale for monagamy without borrowing from the very institution which they claim is outmoded and outdated. Furthermore, the highwater mark of the historic view of marriage is not monogamy only.  If anything, the husband and wife's covenant relationship with one another and God Himself communicates the highwater mark of marriage, which is the reason behind marriage's unique ability to consistently affirm monogamy. 

Marriage functions as the lense for picturing Christ's relationship to His people, the church.  Any other lense leads to a radical man-centered agenda and worldview, where pleasing people, rather than God consititutes the highwater mark for ethics.     

The Biblical view of marriage alone is proactionary. It operates from the standpoint of affirmation, not defense.  I say lets affirm Godly Biblical marriages - since culture, Christianity and consistent morality requires us to do so.

Godly Ministry in the New Testament

Mark 1:14-15 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Yesterday we covered the subject of Godly Ministry.  We looked at the beginnings of the priesthood in the Old Testament in Leviticus 8-10 and noted five absolutes of Godly ministry in that chapter.  We used the acrostic "G-O-D-L-Y" as an aid in remembering the five absolutes or principles of Godly ministry:

Grounded in scripture
Ongoing reliance on God's approval or anointing
Dependance upon the blood
Leverage from God's power
Yearning for fellowship with God

As we saw Godly ministry in the Old Testament, we see it even more fully in the New Testament.  As we take these five absolutes, we find them in the ministry of Christ and the Apostles.

Grounded in the scriptures - the basis of Godly ministry
Jesus Himself lived out, referred to or fulfilled nearly 600 Bible passages in the course of His 33 years here on earth.  Five times in Matthew (4:17; 7:28; 11:1; 13:53;19:1) we read of Jesus going to do something with the phrase "after He ended these sayings".  Jesus spoke some 60 or so parables that highlighted things from the scriptures.

The Apostles in the Book of Acts preached some 15 sermons, with an additional one being preached by Stephen, the first martyr in Acts 7.  In the first sermon alone, Peter in Acts 2 alludes to or quotes nearly 20 passages from the Old Testament.  No doubt, ministry in the the New Testament was grounded in the Word.

Ongoing reliance in God's approval or anointing
In Luke 4:18 Jesus says from the onset of His ministry that "God has anointed me".  In 2 Corinthians 3 the Apostle Paul notes that his confidence for doing ministry derives not from man, but from God.

Dependance upon the blood
If you were to take the contents of all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), you would find that a full 30% of their material focuses upon the final week of Christ's life leading up to the crucifixion.  Through the remainder of the New Testament we find around 130 references to Christ's blood and all He accomplished on the cross.  All Godly ministry never bypasses the blood, the cross.

Leverage from God's power
In the course of Jesus' ministry we see 35 miracles depicted.  In John's Gospel the sequence of the narrative is moved forward by seven "signs" that Jesus performed in the first twelve chapters.

In the ministry of the Apostles, the power of God was marked by the thousands of people converted through their ministry.  In Acts 4:4 we read that 5,000 people were saved as the result of the Apostolic preaching.  The Apostles did not draw the power for ministry from the appeal to popularity nor the taking of polls.  Rather they drew their strength from the power of God in Jesus Christ. (Colossians 1:27-29)

Yearning for fellowship with God - the goal of Godly ministry
As Jesus closed out his time with his disciples in the upper room in John 13-17, we see Him pray what is perhaps the most holiest prayer in the Bible.  His chief point in that prayer is to attain the fellowship with the Father He had with Him from Eternity past.  Furthermore He is praying that all those who are converted in subsequent generations following the preaching of the Gospel will get to share in this fellowship too. 

The Apostles made such a point of fellowship with God as the goal of Christian growth, theological study and prayer.  I will list some passages below from each of the main Apostles to give you a sense of the premium they placed on fellowship with God as the Goal of Godly ministry.

1. Apostle Paul - Philippians 3:7-10
2. Apostle Peter - 2 Peter 1:4-11
3. Apostle John  - 1 John 1:5-2:2

I would urge you to look at those texts and ask God to make that the yearning of your heart.  Godly ministry has as its beginning and end God in Jesus Christ.  May we as believers aim ourselves to be and practice the Godly ministry that God has called us to do.