The Holiness of God P4

Recap

Last week talked a little more concerning what it means to be holy. God is holy and those who are to be called his people are by virtue of His calling, holy.

We are to be holy simply because He is Holy. He elected you and separated you from the rest and so you are to be distinct from the rest in all you do. At the same time understanding that simply following the rules will not make you holy because in and of yourself you require the power of God in order to follow His rules from the inside. It is not to be just an outward manifestation.

When it is all said and done, you will begin to reflect the holiness of God from the heart outwardly to your thoughts, words, and deeds.

We stated emphatically that the standard of holiness is a person and not a law. what we did not talk about was who that person is. Yes it is God, but it is God in the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the standard of holiness.

Colossians 1:15–23 (NASB95)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

This is a description of God the Son.. Jesus Christ. He is said to be the image of the invisible God. The word translated image here is from the Gr. eikōn from which we get our English word icon. Consider the relationship that exist between a computer program and its icon. Linux command users almost have to speak computer language in order to access specific programs while windows and Mac users only have to click on the icon which is the exact representation of the program which is is virtually invisible.

Jesus is the likeness or perfect image of God and is in the very form of God consider

Hebrews 1:3 (NASB95)

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

He has been this from all eternity

God is spirit and therefore invisible to the human eye. But additionally (aoratos) it also means unable to be known

In Christ we see a visible manifestation of the invisible God. eikōn in this sense means the very substance or essential embodiment of something or someone.

Jesus explains this by simply saying,

John 10:30 (NASB95)

“I and the Father are one.”

He did not go into the painstaking explanations that Paul did, but He did assert that if you see Him you see the Father (John 14:9).

Then Paul asserts that He is the firstborn of all creation. This term can refer to one who was chronologically born first, but most often refers to preeminence in position, or rank.

Hebrews 1:6 (NASB95)

And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him.”

Firstborn cannot mean first created because the worship of any created being is a violation of the 1st and 2nd commandment in the decalog.

God refers to the nation of Israel as His first born Ex 4:22 but Israel was not the first form nation, yet it was the preeminent nation.

through Him and by Him and for Him all things were created any and everywhere. I does not matter if they can be perceived by the senses (seen, touched, smelled), or invisible things like gravity.

Likewise call categories of angelic beings and their ranking systems were created by Christ and are ruled by Him.

He was here before all these things, created all these things and he holds them together so that they do not fall apart.

He is the head of the head of the body the Church. The same way your body is ruled and controlled by your head, your brain, the metaphor here is of Christ controlling the activities of the Church throughout the ages which includes reconciliation of its members to Himself by means of the Cross.

We were once one thing and through Him we are now another.

Colossians 1:19–22 (NASB95)

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—

All the fullness of what it means to be God Almighty is to be found in Jesus Christ. Meaning every one of the attributes of God is to be found in Christ. There is nothing in the father and the Spirit are that are lacking in Christ. He contains all fulness of power, authority, and attributes.

Colossians 2:9–10 (NASB95)

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;

In other words, when we say that God is not just holy, not even just holy, holy, but holy, holy, holy. We are now to say that Jesus Christ, our Saviour, yes the one born of a virgin in human form who was beheld by the gospel writers, the One that could and actually did suffer and died, He is not just holy, not even just holy, holy, but is Himself holy, holy, holy.

He was set apart to be the God-man and through his humanity He has separated from from among all humans, those who are to share in his divine holiness.

Thats why he says “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach”

It means set apart to Himself, cleansed completely form sin and completely set apart to God and His service. Consecrated to Hod and dead to the world, which shows itself in the way we live.

When I told you that the standard of holiness is not a rule but a person, that person is Jesus Christ.. Who has sanctified you, purified you.,

This is not of your doing, as all of us were vile creatures who could not have cared less about God.

2 Corinthians 5:17–18 (NASB95)

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

All of these things are from whom? From God

Ephesians 2:8 (NASB95)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

God has made you holy, you cannot holify or sanctify yourself. To sanctify is to make holy.

Leviticus 20:7–8 (NASB95)

‘You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ‘You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

yodhevave mekoddishkem

So it is the work of God and yet……

Colossians 1:22–23 (NASB95)

yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

It is crystal clear from Scripture that you have a part to play in all of this. You do not get to claim this and sit and live like you’ve got no sense.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (NASB95)

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

There simply is work for you to do as a result of your declared holiness

2 Peter 1:5–7 (NASB95)

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

And these qualities must be ever increasing.

Hebrews 12:14–17 (NIV)

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

There is work to do… Yes we believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone and yet there is the seemingly paradoxical ideas that the Bible teaches parallel to each other and so we do not get to embrace one and discard the other.

Paul ends the 6th chapter of Romans with the admonition that now that we have become free from the power of sin and become enslaved to God we must do those things that lead to holiness which result in eternal life… Why? because the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus.

Jesus did the hard part. He died for our sin and in so doing satisfied the anger, wrath of God and reconciled us to God… now take His yolk upon you for His yolk is easy and his burden is light… He says learn from Me.. be holy because He is holy.

It is something you can do because you are not alone. He has empowered you. You have His Spirit to guide you into all righteousness. When you sin, quickly repent and seek his grace which is abundant…

We must take the person of Jesus Christ as the single most definitive explanation of God’s holiness. When we consider what holiness means to us in our lives, Jesus must be the standard. We are called to imitate Jesus, and so our lives must reflect the person of Christ in all that we do just as he reflected the Father.

Jesus is the icon of the Father and we must be the icon of Jesus.