God the Son-Holy

Holy

Be Holy! What does that mean? When God commands us to be holy, it means two things. Being holy is an activity; it requires action. But it is also a quality assigned to us by God.

Holy means, “set apart.” Take this deck of cards. Essentially, all the cards are the same; they have the same size and shape. They differ in the value assigned to them, Ace, King, Queen, Jack, etc. But if I want to make one card, “holy”, I have to set it apart from all the others. In some games, when you set one card aside, it becomes the “trump” card.

In a similar way, when we recognise the salvation offered to us by Christ, and accept him as our Lord and Saviour, He sets us apart, as it says in John 1:12-13 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” All humanity bears the image of God. But only those who are born again, are sons of God. That is what sets us apart. There is nothing special about this card. But when I call it the trump card, or the wild card, it takes on a new identity and I can use it differently from the other cards.

When Christ imparts His righteousness upon us, we change; He makes us holy, He makes us children of God. God assigns a new value to us! We take on a new identity and we behave differently from other people.

God sets us apart. When God calls us to be holy, because He is holy, we can do it, not on our own strength, but because of what Christ has done already. The responsibility for our holiness does not rest solely upon our shoulders, but on Christ’s. That’s the identity given to us by God. That’s our starting point. When we make an effort to be holy, we have to understand that holiness first comes from God, and that holy living is a response we make because of what God has already done.

Adopted

Question 33 asks, “Why is he called God’s “only Son” when we also are God’s children?” The answer is a simple one. Jesus is God’s only Son because he is the eternal natural son of God. No human being can make that claim. Jesus is completely different; he is one of a kind. The words of John 3:16 are probably familiar, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Those we received Jesus, who believe in Him, receive that everlasting life because God adopts believers as children of God—adopted by grace through Christ.

Suppose a child’s parents die in a car crash. That child will remain an orphan unless a couple adopts him. When the legal process of adoption is completed, the child is no longer an orphan; he has a new identity. He shares in the identity of his new parents. They impart their identity upon him, through the legal process of adoption.

Due to original sin, all humans are essentially orphans. Our parents, Adam and Eve were dead in their sin. But God offers new life through adoption in Christ. His death paid the price of adoption. He gives believers a new identity. We are Christians. Christ shares everything with us, even his son ship.

That’s our identity. That’s who we are. We are children of God. We are set apart, because God is set apart.

Be Holy

But the Catechism also recognises that there is a practical side to Christianity. Christianity is more than just a name. There is more to adoption than taking on a new name. That’s why it asks, “Why do you call him “our Lord”? Remember that we are still studying Jesus as confessed in the Apostle’s Creed. It is interesting that though we are children of God, that we should still call Christ Lord. Shouldn’t we just call Him brother? What do we mean, when we call Him Lord?

The reason, stated in the answer to question 34 is that Jesus bought us, that is, he paid for our adoption with his own precious blood. He has set us free from the bondage of sin and the tyranny of the devil, the bondage that condemned all humanity to sin.

And because we are free from the bondage to slavery to sin, we are free to be holy. That’s what Peter calls us to be: holy. In his exhortation, he calls us to action. He tells us to “prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” What this means is that being a Christian is not just something that sets us apart from other people, it means that we behave in a certain way. Peter says we do this by preparing our minds for action.

Preparing oneself for action means removing any entanglements, or things that prevent you from freely doing the task at hand. In the time Peter lived in, it meant hitching up your long robes so you wouldn’t trip on them. Peter tells us to hitch up our minds, so that errant thoughts don’t trip us up. Things that might trip us up are the cares and concerns of the world, vain desires. Calvin says, “Whosoever, then, really wishes to have this hope, let him learn in the first place to disentangle himself from the world, and gird up his mind that it may not turn aside to vain affections.” It does not necessarily mean that we have to become like the Amish, who refuse all contact with the world, but rather it means that we refuse to let the world dictate who we are and what we do. He tells us to be self-controlled. But he tells us to do this, not on our own strength, but by setting our hope fully on the grace, which Christ will give to us when he returns.

Holy Obedience

He goes on, by calling us to Holy Obedience. Peter identifies those who are in Christ as obedient Children. Again, the obedience is not something we do on our own, or that we could ever do on our own. We are obedient because we are God’s children. God produces obedience in us, through the Holy Spirit. Peter is reminding us of our new identity. As Children of God, we no longer conform to the evil desires of the flesh. He who called us is holy. He conferred His holiness on us, and he calls us to act holy. This means we set ourselves apart, be holy, in all we do.

This is similar to when God set the people of Israel apart in Canaan. He commanded them to be holy to be set apart from the heathen that surrounded them. Moses knew how easy it would be for the Israelites to follow the nations around them, thus he calls them to focus on God, to follow only God.

When God calls us to be holy, it is not as though we will suddenly be exactly holy like God. But rather, we realise that we are moving forward in holiness. When we encounter God, we must not stay as we were. God changes us; he calls us from ungodliness to holiness. Every day, we strive to be more and more holy. We strive for holiness in all areas of our lives, not just in our church life, not just in work, in all areas!

Verse 17 is important. It states that God judges all people’s work impartially. God will judge all people, including Christians. God will examine the work we do for his kingdom. As God is an impartial judge, he does not judge us by outward appearance, but by our hearts. We cannot deceive God by faking it. Others might think we’re great Christians, but God knows our hearts; he is not so easily deceived.

Peter warns us, in light of this impending judgement to live as strangers here in reverent fear. This present life is not our reward. This life is not our focus—we are always looking forward to everlasting life with Jesus. Reverent fear is properly understanding God’s holiness, reverence, awesomeness. Reverent fear is knowing that God’s eyes penetrate to the deepest, darkest places of our hearts; therefore, let us walk with God very carefully. We should think of ourselves as pilgrims on a journey. This land is not our land. We are merely passing through, so let’s keep ourselves from getting too attached to the things of this world.

Indeed, Peter says, the things of this world, the things that the world values, gold and silver, and such were not worth enough to purchase our pardon. See why Achan’s choice was such a poor one?

Speaking of Achan, can I take a moment to better answer the question, “How can a good God do what God did to Achan?” The question presumes that a good God has done something not good, to a good person. But Achan, by confessing his sin, admitted to being a bad person. His punishment was just, and according to the terms of the covenant God made with Israel. The question is actually the wrong question. The right question is this, how can a good God forgive wicked and evil people! John 3:18 puts it this way, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” It is not as though they are prevented from believing in Jesus, they willfully chose not to believe.

Therefore, instead of looking at God as being so mean, let’s consider how God is so good, loving and forgiving. Think of a time when someone sinned against you. How easy was it to forgive them? It cost you something, didn’t it? So, then, let us consider the cost Christ paid, let us set our hearts and minds on Him. Let us let go of the material things of this world which so easily consume us. We must believe what Peter says, “Through Him, which is through Christ, we believe in God, our faith and hope are in God.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book, The Cost of Discipleship spells it out beautifully.

[True grace] is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.

Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden light.”

Costly grace compels us to turn away from sin, and to turn toward holy living. Costly grace, far from providing us with reasons and justifications for keeping sinful behaviours, identities, and the like, turn us away from sin, away from temptation, and turn us toward holiness.

The more we focus on Christ, and all he has done, the less we will focus on the world and the desires of our sinful natures.

Take a moment to think of the things that captivate your heart. Think of the sins, the things you do, that you know is wrong. Now, think of ways in which you can focus your heart and your mind on Christ, rather than on those things. Think about praying something like this, “Father, I am being tempted, I am entertaining sinful thoughts. I am considering acting on them as well. I give them over to you, I crucify them with Christ. Help me! I need Jesus to live in me this moment. I focus my heart and mind on Him. Amen.

Jesus died for you. He paid your penalty. He loves you. He lives in you through the Holy Spirit. Honour him with your life! Amen.