The Grace of Holiness

Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19:2).  

“… you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites”(Ex 19:6).

“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (1 Thes 4:7).

“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

John was raised in the church and was baptized, confessing his personal faith in Christ at an early age. Now twenty-nine years old, through a careless life, John has become addicted to porn.

He still attends church regularly and serves as an usher. His enslavement is his well-hidden secret, disguised by a Christian façade. But in his own heart it is a secret that is eating him from the inside out. He has thought of confession, but he’s not sure who to confess to—who can be trusted. Shamed, he feels it is better to remain under the radar and bear the burden alone.  

After repeated commitments and attempts to leave pornography behind, followed by many repeated failures, John feels that holiness is beyond his reach. He fervently practices spiritual disciplines as best as he knows how but to no avail––he has fallen into despair.

He feels trapped in a self-created prison without a way of escape. He wonders why everyone else in church lives a holy life, while he alone fails. He sees himself as a victim of his own making, convinced that somehow he is defective.

Guilt and shame are an unwanted, ever-present garment he wears from morning to evening. Every passing day hopelessness weighs upon his mind and rules his life.

How can John escape his prison of despair? How can the power of addiction over his life be broken? What ingredient is missing from John’s life of faith, robbing him of the victory that God has chosen for his life?       

One very important responsibility of the Lord’s people is to guard the honor of the Lord’s holy name. We are commanded to be holy as he is holy so that as the holy people of God we might preserve his holiness in the sight of all the inhabitants on the earth. As children of God we are called upon to testify to a lost world that the true and living God is separate from sinners and all that is sinful––by nature completely and forever holy.

The children of Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament, though having good intentions, found that guarding God’s holiness in a world of temptation was beyond their reach. Their story as recorded in the holy writ is one of continuous failure––merciful restoration––and again failure––never obtaining the lasting holiness that God demanded of them.  

The pull of the Adamic fallenness within their own souls was too much for them to resist and overcome. They therefore failed to reflect the holiness of God. Holiness was their calling, but they found that holy living inevitably, repeatedly, escaped them.

Though the law was good and perfect (Rom 7:12), their rebellious sinful flesh was their master. Therefore rather than being changed by God’s holy presence they feared it and ran and hid from it (Ex 20:18–19).    

What can we learn from the failures of Israel? Like Israel, we fail in our pursuit of holiness when we search for it in the wrong manner (Rom 10:3). Even the most devoted religious practitioners fail when holiness is pursued through an improper means.

God calls us to be holy but in our practice of law–keeping we fail. We fail to do what we know we should do—to leave the wrong and do the right—rather we find the power of sin still ruling within us, entrapping us in spiritual defeat (Rom 7:14-20).

In our inadequacy we run, fear, and hide in guilt or we self-deceptively boast in what we feel we have accomplished (more than others). Either response brings only further bondage––true God-honoring holiness evading us.

Like John, we find ourselves trapped––addicted (whatever form it may take), living on the treadmill of repeated promises given and repeated failure. Like John, recovering some equilibrium after an episode of failure, we tell ourselves that this time will surely be different; only to eventually lose heart again because of another dreadful letdown. Mental exhaustion sets in from once again landing face down in the same addictive hopelessness.     

A despair settles into our mind, being convinced that there is no escape––entrapped by the fear of being exposed and of the judgement that surely awaits. Our personal faith in the Savior seems to be somehow broken––though we are not sure how or why. We ask, “Why am I the person who so miserably fails?”

We fail to see that knowing and acknowledging our helplessness is our only hope in a world of demonic temptation. Our only hope is a confession of our complete inadequacy and a disclosure of our remaining, inner, sinful brokenness to the One who has a storehouse full of delivering mercy and grace.

We need a flood of unmerited grace to be poured out into our sinful souls. We need the power of Calvary’s infinite favor to purge us and sustain us. We must be nailed to the cross with Christ so that we can arise in newness of life with the risen Savior. Yes, there is our hope!

We must daily, moment by moment, preach the gospel of delivering grace to ourselves. We must accept immeasurable grace––freely given––with an open heart, internalize its power, living every day in yielding to the Holy Spirit who lives within us.  

We must stop trying harder and surrender to the ocean of God’s mercy and grace, allowing its power to set us free and to sanctify us deeply and completely (1 Thes 5:23). To obtain the holiness that God requires we must receive the heavenly gift of God’s unending, unmerited, grace and love.  

It is through surrender that the Spirit of grace envelops us, empowering us unto holiness. We honor our Lord as a holy God as the Holy Spirit makes us holy through daily sanctification (2 Cor 3:18).

What self–effort could never accomplish, surrendering to immense, transforming grace powerfully attains. It is his children who are daily plunged beneath the waters of his love and grace that find daily power to live free from every addiction and thereby honor him through guarding the holiness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.