Untitled Sermon (19)
23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. 24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Called to Be Holy
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
7 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
HOLINESS, HOLY. The Heb. words qādôsh, “holy”; qōdesh, “holiness”; and the Gr. hagios and hagiōsynē mean basically separation from what is common or unclean, and consecration to God (Lev 20:24–26, RSV; Acts 6:13; 21:28).
Holiness refers primarily to the quality of God, denoting his transcendent apartness from the rest of creation, his uniqueness, and his total purity. When the term is applied to people, things, or places that have been touched by the presence of God or dedicated to God, it connotes the idea of being set apart for God and thus belonging to the realm of the divine, which is morally and ceremonially pure.
Chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people. “Holiness” and the adjective “holy” occur more than 900 times in the Bible. The primary OT word for holiness means “to cut” or “to separate.” Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and consecration to what is pure
But the NT more often discusses holiness in relation to individual Christians. Believers in Christ are frequently designated as “saints,” literally meaning “holy ones,” since through faith God justifies sinners, pronouncing them “holy” in his sight. A justified sinner is by no means morally perfect, but God does declare believers to be guiltless before the bar of his justice. Thus, although Christians at Corinth, for example, were plagued with numerous sins, Paul could address his erring friends as those who were “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Cor 1:2). Despite their problems the Corinthian believers were “holy ones” in Christ.
The NT, however, places great stress upon the reality of practical holiness in the Christian’s daily experience. The God who freely declares a person righteous through faith in Christ commands that the believer progress in holiness of life. In God’s plan, a growth in holiness should accompany believing.
Paul urged Christians at Rome to “yield your members to righteousness for sanctification” (Rom 6:19). The Book of Hebrews urges believers to strive for “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (12:14). A goal of the Christian life, therefore, is conformity to the moral image of God. In this sense Paul enjoins believers at Ephesus to “put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). God graciously provides the spiritual resources to enable Christians to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4).