Be ye holy (10)

The scripture leaves no doubt that holiness is our responsibility. If we are to pursue holiness, we must take decisive action. The action we are to take is to “put to death the misdeeds of the body” [Rom: 8:13]. Paul the apostle admonishes the Colossian believers “put to death your members which are on the earth: fornications; uncleanness; passion; evil desires and covetousness, which is idolatry [Col: 3:5]. Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature! Again in Gal: 5:24, Paul makes it clear that, “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”.

What does the expression “put to death” mean? The KJV uses the term “mortify”. According to the Dictionary, mortification means “to destroy the strength, vitality, or functioning of; to subdue or deaden.”44 To put to death the misdeeds of the body, then, is to destroy the strength and vitality of sin as it tries to reign in our bodies.

Grace demands mortification. Without it there is no holiness. John Owen writes graphically: “Let no man think that he makes any progress in true holiness who walks not over the belies of his lusts.”45 It must be clear to us that mortification, though it is something we do, cannot be carried out in our own strength. John Owen makes it very clear for he further states: “mortification from a self strength, carried on by ways of self-invention, unto the end of a self-righteousness, is the soul and substance of all false religion.”46

hrough the Holy Spirit, the works of the flesh are mortified. Mortification must be done by the strength and under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Owen says further, “The Spirit alone is sufficient for this work. All ways and means with out him are useless. He is the great efficient. He is the one who gives life and strength to our efforts.”47

In scripture we see that cleansing precedes holiness [2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 5:26, 27; 2 Tim. 2:21]. Cleansing is the taking away of that which is filthy. It is of great importance for Christians to understand that within them are two natures which strive against one another [Gal. 5:17-25; 6:8; Eph. 4: 22-24; Col. 3:9, 10;

1 Pet. 4:2; Rom. 7:14-18; 8:2, 9; 1 Cor. 3:1 etc.]. Sin comes from the flesh. The reason why Christian still sins is that he yields to the flesh and does not walk by the Spirit. Every Christian has the Spirit and can live by the Spirit, but every Christian does not walk by the Spirit. If we walk by the Spirit we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh [Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 3:1-3; Gal. 5:16, 25].

So long as there are strife and envy in the Christian, the Word of God calls him “Carnal”. He would like to do good, but he cannot. He does what he should not, because he still strives in his own strength and not in the power of the Spirit [Rom: 7:18]. The flesh remains under the law and seeks to obey the law. But through the flesh the law is powerless, and the endeavor to do good is vain. Its language is, “I am carnal, sold under Sin: to will is present with me, but to perform that which is good is not” [Rom. 7:4, 6; 8:3, 8; Gal. 5:18; 6:12, 13]. This is not the condition in which God would have His people remain. The Word says, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” [Phil: 2:13]. The Christian must be a spiritual man, and live entirely under the leading of the Holy Spirit [Rom: 8:14]. They must put to death the misdeeds of the flesh.

Without the Holy Spirit’s strength there will be mo mortification, but with out our working in His strength there will also no mortification. According to Jerry Bridges, there are two qualities that we must develop if we are to put to death the misdeed of the body. Those qualities are Conviction and Commitment.48

1. Conviction:

We must develop Convictions for living a holy life through the exposure to the Word of God. Our minds are for too long been accustomed to the World’s Values. The World around us consistently seeks to conform us to its value system. We are bombarded on every side by temptations to indulge our sinful nature. Don’t let the World around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God makes you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed [Rom: 12:1, 2]. Only through God’s Word are our mind remolded and our values renewed. Jesus said, “whoever has my commandments and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” [Jn: 14:21]. Obedience is the pathway to holiness, but it is only as we have his commands that we can obey them. David said, “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you” [Ps: 119:11]. God’s Word must be strongly fixed in our hearts, that it becomes the dominant influence in our thoughts, our attitudes and our actions. This leads to the Second Quality we must develop if we are to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh.

2. Commitment:

Jesus said, “whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” [Luk: 14:33]. We must honestly face the question, “Am I willing to give up a certain practice that is keeping me from holiness?” It is at this point of commitment that most of us fail. We have developed habit patterns of Sin. These habits must be broken, but they will never, until we make a basic commitment to a life of holiness without exceptions.

The apostle John said, “My little children, these things I wrote to you, so that you may not Sin”[1Jn: 2:1]. He was saying in effect, “make it your aim not to Sin”. God is calling us to a deeper level of commitment to holiness.

Jonathan Edward, one of the great preachers of early American history, used to make resolutions. One of his was, “Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”49 Dare we twenty first century Christians make such a resolution? Are we willing to commit ourselves to the practice of holiness without exceptions? It is only by learning to deny temptations that will ever put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. Then we will no longer as in Romans 7, a new born babe seeking to fulfill the law but as in Romans 8, the Spirit will set as free from the law which gives no power but brings death, and we will no longer walk in the oldness of the letter but, rather, in the newness of the Sprit!

Holiness Is For Us

You and I can walk in obedience to God’s Word and live a life of holiness. Holiness is the promised birth right of every Christian. Paul’s statement is true: “For Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under the Law, but under Grace” [Rom: 6:14].

When God saved us from Sin through Christ, He not only saved us from the penalty of Sin but also from its dominion. Paul said, “For the Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age”[Titus: 2: 11, 12]. The same Grace that brings salvation teaches to renounce ungodly living. We cannot receive half of God’s Grace. If we have experienced it at all, we will experience not only forgiveness of our Sins, but also freedom from Sin’s dominion. Paul wrote, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of Sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to Sin because any one who has died has been freed from Sin”[Rom: 6:6,7, NSAB].

What does Paul mean by his expression “died to Sin”? He means we died to the dominion of Sin, or to the reign of Sin. Before we trusted in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we were in the Kingdom of Satan and Sin. In which we walked according to the course of this World, according to the Prince of the Power of the Air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” [Eph: 2:2]. We were under the power of Satan [Acts: 26:18] and the dominion of the darkness [Col: 1:13]. We were slaves of Sin [Rom: 6:17]. We were born in to the Kingdom of Sin, Slavery and Death. But through our union with Christ, we have died to the realm of Sin. We have been set free from Sin [Rom: 6:18], rescued from the dominion of darkness [Col: 1:1:13] and turned from the power of Satan to God [Acts: 26:18].

Though Sin no longer reigns in us, it will constantly try to get at us. As Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones says in his exposition of Romans 6, “though Sin cannot reign in us, that is in our essential personality, it can, if left unchecked, reign in our mortal bodies.”50 So we see that God has made provisions for our holiness. Through Christ, he has delivered us from Sin’s reign so that we now can resist Sin. But the responsibility for resisting is ours. We must mortify the misdeeds of our flesh. God does not do that for us.

The Process of the Cross in Sanctification

In First Corinthians 1:18, Paul says that Cross is the power of God to those of us “who are being saved”. Notice the present-tense there: who are (continuously) being saved. The Bible Speaks of Salvation in three tenses. The Bible says: “I have been saved”, “I am being saved”, and “I will be saved.” I have been saved from the penalty of Sin, I am being saved from the power of Sin and there will come a day when I will be saved from the presence of Sin.

I have been saved from the penalty of Sin that is justification. I will be saved from the presence of Sin, which is glorification. But at this very moment I am being saved from the power of Sin, that is sanctification. This is what Paul deals with in verse 18.

Salvation, some one has said, is a crisis followed by a process. It is a decision followed by a dynamic. Our problem is that we sometimes tend to leave the cross in the past. But the cross should be a part of our every day lives.

Three things still bother me even though I have been Saved for almost forty years. Sin still bothers me. Satan still bothers me. And Self still bothers me. Those are the three great enemies of every Christian. You are not only saved from the Penalty of Sin, you are being saved from the Power of Sin, Satan and Self. The Cross, not only represents the Power of God in my Salvation, it represents the Process of God in my Sanctification. You see, I have to come to the Cross for pardon, but I must get on the Cross-for Power. The only way you can live the Christian life is to let the power and person of Christ live through you. Now, how do you do that? You get crucified!

Paul gave this principle, “I have been crucified with Christ; It is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” [Gal: 2:20]. Now, here is the process: Jesus died for me. I died with him. When I died to me, He lives in me. When He lives in me, I can live for Him.

We need to come to the Cross, not only for our Salvation, but for Sanctification; not only for Pardon, but for Power. We have to get on the Cross every day and die to Self. Paul said, “I die daily” [1 Cor: 15:31]. For you see, it is when I die that I really live. The victorious Christian Life occurs when you crucify Self and allow His Resurrection Life and Power to live in you. That is sanctification, the process by which we become more and more like Jesus, and daily experience victory in Jesus over Sin, Self and Satan.