Holiness- "What it is and isn't"

1 Corinthians 1:30
Romans 8:32
1 Peter 1:15, 16
Ephesians 5:27
2 Corinthians 6:17, 18
Hebrews 7:26
John 17:15-17
Psalm 11:4
Exodus 19:23
Leviticus 18:26-30
Mark 8:38
1 Peter 2:9
Matthew 5:48
1 Corinthians 6:11
Hebrews 10:10, 14
Colossians 2:10
1 Corinthians 1:2
2 Corinthians 3:18
1 Peter 3:1-4
Galatians 2:16

There is no denying that there is a lot going on in the world. As born-again Christians, we should be asking ourselves who we should be in the midst of it all. Believers in the church should not only set the example for the world to follow, but should also be clearly and distinctly different thaneveryone else. To be holy is to be different from the world, and to have the same qualities as Jesus Christ; when we are in Him, we have righteousness, wisdom, and everything else that makes us the light of the world. There is widespread confusion as to what true holiness actually is. To be holy is not to be separated from sinful people or to be morally perfect, but to be whole and complete, like Jesus. When we realize this, we will spare ourselves endless toil and self-effort trying to become something we already are.

I. We need to understand what it means to be holy. The world has no concept of this.
1. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).
a. Holiness is a fruit of grace. Jesus’ blood made us completely righteous the moment
we got born again; under grace, we grow in holiness by the way we live our lives.
2. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32).
a. Jesus has been made available to anyone who wants to receive Him. In Him, we are
made righteous, holy, and wise.
3. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy (1 Peter 1:15, 16).
a. To be holy like God, we must first understand what it actually means to be holy. To
do that, we need to know what holiness is, and what it is not.

II. Holiness is not being perfect through our own efforts, or avoiding people who sin.
1. Holiness is not avoiding all sin.
a. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or
any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27).
b. God was holy even before there was any sin in the world to avoid; He certainly does
not need to make any effort to avoid it. Therefore, if we are to be like Him, we do not
need to work to do anything He does not do.

2. Holiness is not being set apart from something.
a. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and
touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and
ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:17, 18).
b. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26).
c. If this means to remove ourselves from the presence of sinners, then Jesus violated
this requirement.
d. Jesus was a friend to sinners, yet He was separate from them. He was able to
minister to them because He was untouched by sin.
e. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth (John 17:15-17).
f. Jesus did not pray that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would be
sanctified in it.
g. Our salvation does not depend on what places we frequent or who we spend time
with. True holiness allows us to be in the world without being affected by it.

3. Holiness is not being set apart to God.
a. This is used to describe holy objects in the Old Testament, such as temples and
mountains.
b. The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his
eyelids try, the children of men (Psalm 11:4).
c. And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou
chargest us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it (Exodus 19:23).

4. Holiness is not moral perfection.
a. This sounds noble and religious; however, it comes straight out of the old covenant
of the law. Additionally, perfection through our own merits is unachievable.
b. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of
these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth
among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were
before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye
defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. For whosoever shall commit
any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from
among their people. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any
one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye
defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 18:26-30).
c. The covenant of the law, with its rule-keeping requirements, does not work.

5. Holiness does not mean worthy of devotion.
a. God is certainly worthy of worship; however, angels are also holy (Mark 8:38), yet we
do not worship them. Also, we are defined as a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:9).

III. Holiness does mean wholeness, with nothing missing and nothing broken in our lives.
1. To say God is holy refers to His wholeness and fullness. He lacks nothing.
a. Holiness is not just one aspect of God’s character, but the whole package in perfect
unity. It means perfection in the sense of completion.
2. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
a. When Jesus exhorted us to be perfect, He was inviting us to a life of wholeness and
holiness; we cannot be holy without being whole.
b. Jesus came to make broken people whole. His body was broken so that we could
be whole. We are holy if we have been born again.
3. We are complete in Christ. He makes us holy and sanctified.
a. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians
6:11).
b. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all… For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified
(Hebrews 10:10, 14).
c. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power
(Colossians 2:10).

4. To be holy is to be uncommon from the rest of the world.
a. Holiness means to be whole when the world is not whole, to be complete when the
world is incomplete, and to have wisdom when the world does not know what to do.
b. Religious teachings confuse everyone about what holiness is, and what it is not.

IV. We are not made holy by our own efforts, but by being in Christ. He is our root.
1. Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
both their’s and our’s (1 Corinthians 1:2).
a. When we are sanctified through Christ, we are no longer sinners.
b. When God tells us to be holy, He is actually telling us to be who we really are. He
made us to be whole and complete, not to be like the rest of the world.
c. Holiness is not something God calls us to do in order to become holy; it is something
we are to do because we are already holy.
d. Jesus has made us holy; our part is to mature in who we already are.

2. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).
a. Maturing in Christ is not done instantly; it is a gradual process.
b. We have everything we need in Christ, and we lack nothing; we simply need to work
out who we already are.
c. Holiness is a fruit, not a root, of salvation. Jesus is the root of our salvation.
d. True Christianity comes from the inside out. A good heart will change a man’s
actions,but a man’s actions cannot change his heart.

3. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word,
they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they
behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that
outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price (1 Peter 3:1-4).
a. There is a wrong teaching that says women’s holiness depends on how they dress,
how they wear their hair, and whether or not they wear makeup. This is false teaching.
b. We must not focus on outward appearance, but on what we are like inwardly.
Holiness has nothing to do with external factors.
c. Our righteousness is not based on what we do, but on what we believe.
d. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified (Galatians 2:16).