Knowing the Holy One- Part 2

The Role of Faith in the Life of Holiness

“It is impossible to be holy without faith in Christ who alone is the source and root of holiness for a sinner. It is impossible to overcome he world without union with Christ who has overcome it.” —Thomas Charles

1 Peter 1:14–16 ESV

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.”

Colossians 2:23 ESV

23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

1 Corinthians 1:30–31 ESV

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Christ is much more than the one who gives pardon and justification; Christ is the holiness of every believer.

How do I get from I Corinthians 1:30-31 to I Peter 1:14-16?

Faith is the choice to live upon what God reveals to be the truth. It is refusing to live upon the apparent and making our choices based upon the true.

“The way in is the way up.”

Romans 6:11 ESV

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:12–13 ESV

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

Romans 6:2 ESV

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:3 ESV

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:4 ESV

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:5 ESV

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Common Destructive Errors

Ignorance of Scripture

Romans 10:17 ESV

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

If you are willfully ignorant of large portions of the Bible, you are fundamentally undermining all hope of living a holy life by faith.

Allowance of an Imposter

Positive thinking- if we think positively about a situation, then we can create a degree of positive reality.

Faith looks upon the real and lives upon it. Positive thinking denies the real and attempts to create an alternative reality by a kind of mental self-manipulation.

Thinking of Faith as a Response of only Part of You

If we are gripped with the factuality of something it will first alter our thinking, but next it will also change our desires and our will.

Faith and Holy Living

Faith is like a pipe that taps into a great reservoir and channels the water to our home.

Faith is nothing for us to hope in. If we trust in our trust, hope in our hope, believer in our belief, we will soon find that it is a very shaky foundation.

Faith is only a pipeline; it needs to be connected to something bigger and better than itself.

1. Faith unites us to the sanctifier

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Paul uses the phrases “in Christ” and “in Him” over 160 times in his letters.

Faith is the response of the believer which unites him or her to Christ.

2. Faith is a gift from God

Philippians 1:29 ESV

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

3. Faith embraces all of Christ

Faith embraces the whole of the Savior—prophet, priest, and king.

4. Faith views a reconciled God

Until we see God reconciled toward us through His Son, all efforts at holiness will flow from a wrong source.

5. Faith appreciates the loveliness of Christ