The Holiness Conundrum Part 3

Having girded up the loins of our minds, and having become sober, we are then instructed to rest our hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. No, we ought not to rest our hope in our own abilities, or in our pastors, our denominations, or in our evangelists, but rather upon the grace that we receive at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

My hope is in Him. It is not in myself, it is not in my abilities, my hope is in Jesus, and in what He accomplished on Calvary.

‘But what about your whole holiness kick, and the things we are instructed to do? How does that fit into the hope we ought to have upon the grace we received at the revelation of Christ?’

Simply put, I know, without doubt, that if I do all that I am instructed to do via the Word of God, His grace is sufficient to carry me, no matter how far it must. I must obey the Word, and do the things it instructs me to do, knowing that in and of themselves the things I do will never get me to heaven, but also knowing that the grace I received through Christ Jesus, will.

It’s like someone with a heart condition going to the doctor and the doctor telling him he must eat better, start exercising, and watch his stress levels in order to improve his heart, and the individual saying to the doctor, ‘no I don’t, I don’t have to do any of those things, it will just get better on its own.’   

The Word of God tells us to gird up the loins of our mind, it tells us to be sober, it tells us to be holy that we might be able to rest our hope fully upon the grace that was brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, and many believers today are simply responding, ‘no, no we don’t, we don’t have to do any of those things!’

How is it that these selfsame individuals are beside themselves when the emptiness gets to be too much, and no one answers when they call out in their time of distress?
How can you hope to have God’s favor, how can you hope to rest fully in the grace of Christ, if you did not do what you were instructed to do by the Word of God in the first place?

Another thing we are called upon to do, another thing we are instructed to do, is not conform ourselves to our former lusts, as in our ignorance, but rather to be holy in all our conduct.

‘But how can this be when we’ve been told time and again that we can just keep on sinning, and that grace will cover it up every time?’

How can we possibly be expected not to conform ourselves to our former lusts when preachers today don’t have the wherewithal to call even the most vile of practices sin anymore?

‘Be holy? But that would mean stop sinning wouldn’t it? That would mean not returning to our own vomit like dogs so often do. That would mean actually pursuing holiness in all our conduct wouldn’t it?’

Yes, yes it would, and that is exactly what God expects of each and every single individual who calls themselves a son or daughter of His. His expectation is that we not conform ourselves to the former lusts, whatever those former lusts happened to be, but rather to be holy.

So can holiness be like a part time job? Can we be holy half the time, and then do what the flesh wants the rest of the time? Can we be holy only when we’re around other Christians, or when we’re in church but then let our hair down when no one’s around?
I will let you decide what the word ‘all’ means, since we are instructed to be holy in all our conduct. Finally, as to why we ought to be holy, it is pretty simple: because it is written, ‘be holy for I am holy.’ Anything more would be superfluous.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.