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Be Ye Holy (8)
By Dr. T.K. Koshy Vaidyan
August 2006

Paul the apostle, recounting Jesus’ words spoken to him on the way to Damascus, says that Christ sent him to the Gentiles to “turn them from darkness to the light… so that they may receive… a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” [Acts: 26:18]. Faith is one of the outstanding means of sanctification. How is Faith a means of Sanctification?

It is by faith we continue to grasp our union with Christ, which is the heart of sanctification. Christ dwells in our heart by faith [Eph: 3: 17]. It is by faith we accept the fact that in Christ sin no longer has the mastery over us [Rom: 6:6,14]. It is also by faith we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, which enable us to overcome sin and live for God [Eph: 1:17, Rom: 8:13]. Faith is the shield with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one [Eph: 6:16]. The Apostle John points out the significance of Faith: “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” [I John 5:4].

God himself must work within us; the Holy Spirit must live in us and this comes as a result of our living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! We must believe in him for our sanctification just as we have believed in him for our pardon and justification.

In his writings, Peter the apostle, many times refers to faith as being an active agent in bringing us to holiness. In his second epistle, we read, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” [1:4]. Then he challenges us to “add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” [II Pet: 1:5-8]. It is unmistakably plain to us that a clear operation of faith is essential if we are to be partakers of God’s holy nature. It is by faith that the “exceeding great and precious promises” are appropriated in to our lives.

In commenting on Paul’s statement, “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption”. [I Cor: 1: 30, RSV]. W.E Evans wrote, “Christ is indeed all these things to us, but in reality, He becomes such only as we appropriate Him for ourselves. Only as the believer, daily, yea, even momentarily, takes by faith the holiness of Jesus…to be his own for the need of that very moment, can Christ who by His death was made unto him sanctification in the instantaneous sense, become unto him sanctification in the progressive sense, producing in the believer His own life moment by moment. Herein lies the secret of a holy life, the momentary appropriation of Jesus Christ in all the riches of His grace for every need as it arises. The degree of our sanctification is the proportion of our appropriation of Christ.”30

Then in belief of the truth that Christ Himself is our sanctification, we have to take and receive from Him what is prepared in His fullness for us [Jn: 1:14-16]. We must be deeply convinced that Christ is wholly and alone our sanctification as He is our justification. We must believe that He will actually and powerfully work in us what is pleasing to God. In this faith, we must know that we have sufficient power for holiness and that our work is to receive this power from Him by faith every day [Gal: 2:21, Eph: 2:10, Phil: 2:13, 4:13].

We Are Sanctified By Obedience

Our obedience brings us to holiness. Peter speaks of the “sanctification of the spirit unto obedience” [I Pet: 1:2]. Among the greatest hindrances to holiness is disobedience to the Word and known will of God. All the process of sanctification stops during times of rebellion.

When Jesus prayed to the Father, petitioning Him to “sanctify them through your truth,” God has joined sanctification and truth together. If God has to sanctify us though His truth, two factors must accompany. First, it must be quickened in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and second, it must be obeyed in our lives. If we will not obey of our own free will, and cannot be enticed to obey by the wooing of the Holy Spirit, God the Father will chasten us to obedience to bring us in to His holy nature [Heb: 12:9,10]. Whether we have consented to obey the truth or have been chastened unto obedience, Paul the apostle says, that we must function, “in behavior as becomes holiness” [Tit: 2:3]. In his epistle, Paul urges Titus to exhort the saints to exemplify sanctification of life and holiness of character through obedience to the Word of God [Tit: Chapter 2].

In Romans 5, Paul declares that because of disobedience Sin entered [vr.12], Sin abounded [ver.20], and Sin reigned [ver.21]. But in Romans 6:13, he urges to “present yourselves to God as being alive from dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God”. We must overcome not only the entering and abounding of Sin in our lives; we must also overcome its reign. The exercise of the self-will against the divine will of God is the surest essence of Sin.

Oswald Chambers puts it “by sanctification the Son of God is formed in me, then I have to transform my natural life in to a spiritual life by obedience to Him… I have the responsibility of keeping my spirit in agreement with His Spirit, and by degrees Jesus lifts me up to where He lived- in perfect consecration to His Father’s will, paying no attention to any other things.”31

What God wants from His people is obedience, no matter what the circumstances, no matter how unknown the outcome. Holiness is the complete surrender of self in obedience to the will and service of God. Or as Mother Theresa sums it up, “complete acceptance of the will of God.”32 In Jerry Bridges’ words, holiness is “conformity to the character of God and obedience to the will of God.”33 He further states: It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are “defeated” by this or that sin. No, we are simply disobedient. It might be well if we stopped using the term “victory’ and “defeat” to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the term “obedience” and “disobedience.”34

In the words of Mother Theresa, “our progress in holiness depends on God and ourselves- on God’s grace and our will to be holy”. The Christian life begin with obedience, depends on obedience and results in obedience. There is no other way, for our Lord said, “he who has my commandments and keep them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” [Jn: 14:21]. Holiness is obeying God. According to Charles Colson, “holiness is the everyday business of every Christian. It evidences itself in the decisions we make and the things we do, hour by hour, day by day.”35 He further elaborates his statement saying, “holiness is obeying God, loving one another as He loved us.”36 “Holiness is obeying God-even when it is against our own interests.”37 “Holiness is obeying God- sharing his love, even when it is inconvenient.”38 Holiness is obeying God- finding ways to help those in need.”39

Observe the connection between the doing of righteousness and sanctification in Romans 6: 19-22: “So now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life”. The doing of righteousness, in conduct and in action, is the way to holiness. Obedience is the way to become filled with Holy Spirit. And the indwelling of God through the Holy Spirit is holiness. We know a true believer not by what he confesses but by the fruit to holiness [Rom: 6:22]. Jesus clarifies this by saying, “Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not every one who says to me. Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven” [Matt: 7:20, 21].

The result of thinking that we can be saved or sanctified without obediently living as those who have been forgiven and saved is what Bonhoeffer calls “Cheap Grace.” Cheap Grace is grace without obedience. It says that Grace alone does everything, so every thing in our lives can remain as it was before. It means that since we depend on God’s Grace and not our works for salvation anyway, we can model our lives on the World’s Standards. The Christian answer to this kind of reasoning is that God does not forgive, accept and love us on condition that we become righteous, but he does forgive, accept us in order that we may become righteous.

When we take Bible seriously, we discover that it hardly ever speaks of Grace or Faith without corresponding obedience, of theology without corresponding ethics. There is no such thing as Christian faith with out Christian life. God’s Word always relates God’s Grace and God’s commands together [Deut: 6:20-25; Exo: 20:1-18]. We are chosen and saved by Grace in order to serve him here and now [Matt: 7:21; Eph: 1:4; Col: 1:21, 22].

The obedient Christian life is not a terrible burden, for the Lord said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” [Matt: 11:30]. That does not mean that Christian life is easy. It is difficult and costly. But the Christian can take this yoke with a kind of light-hearted, cheerful confidence because he knows that God Himself gives what He demands. Guthrie points out the same truth, for he wrote: “we can confidently give ourselves to obedient Christian actions, and we can hope for progress in our own lives and in the World, not because we have faith in ourselves and our own goodness, but because we have faith that God does not stop with forgiving our Sins, loving and accepting us. He promises also to work in us, accompanying us every step of the way, enabling us to do what we could never hope for, if we were left to ourselves.”40 Paul emphasizes this truth in Phil: 2:13, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”. In Sanctification, by God’s Grace we become obedient children of God.

We Are Sanctified By Imitating Christ.

Paul the apostle wrote about the Thessalonian believers, “You become imitators of us and of the Lord” [I Thes: 1:6]. Christians are imitators of Christ. We must have the “mind of Christ”[I Cor: 2:16] who left His disciples an example, “ that you should do as I have done for you” [Jn: 13:15]. When Peter urges Slaves to live as ”

Christians, he tells them: “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps” [I Pet: 2:21]. Peter is applying to Slaves a general principle, which governs all Christian living. His language is graphic: example [hupogrammos] or [write under] is a word for a written copy. It belongs to the world of elementary education, where the teacher writes letter on one line and tells the child to copy them on the next line. Peter is urging Christians to write the biography of their own lives with one eye on the lifestyle, which Jesus had written. Imitation of the incarnate savior is the essence of Continuing Sanctification.

The ways to achieve Sanctification is to follow Christ, walk in His footsteps or imitate Him-the theme of Great Fourteenth Century Christian Classic- The imitation of Christ! The Bible speaks of two types of conformity, a two-fold likeness which we bear [Rom: 12:1, 2]. We may be conformed to the World or Jesus! The one excludes and drives out the other. More than anything else, Conformity to Jesus will be secretly prevented by Conformity to the World. And Conformity to the World can be overcome by nothing but Conformity to Jesus.

Two things especially are necessary for a true imitation of Jesus in His example and for growth in inward Conformity to him. These are, a clear insight that I am really called to this, and a firm trust that it is possible for me.

God really wants that every believer in Christ must be conformed to His Son Jesus Christ [Jn: 13:15; 15: 10-12; 17:18; Eph: 5:2; Phil: 2:5; Col: 3:13; I Jn: 2:6]. We are called to be in the World even as He is. And we must believe that the Holy Trinity is at work in changing us in to the image of the Son [Jn: 14:20; 17:19; Rom: 8:2; 2 Cor: 3:18; Eph: 1:19].

The pattern of Sanctification is likeness to Christ! God originally created us in His image and likeness [Gen: 1: 26, 27]. Through the fall into Sin, however, the image of God in man becomes perverted. In the process of sanctification, that image is being renewed. Conformity to the image of Christ is the purpose for which God chose us [Rom; 8:29]. God himself is renewing us in His likeness by making us more like Christ. This transformation is brought about in us by the Lord, who is also the spirit [2Cor: 3:18]. However, we also have a responsibility in this matter, namely to seek to become more like Christ by following His example [Jn. 13:14, 15; 1Cor: 11:1; 1 Pet: 2; 21]. Christ is our ultimate example and we have to pattern our life after that of Christ. Following Christ’s example is not an incidental but an essential aspect of Christian Life. Likeness to Christ is the pattern of Sanctification!!

When Peter told us that Christ left an example for us to follow in His steps, he spoke particularly of Christ’s suffering without retaliation, but in the following verse he said also that Christ committed no Sin [1 Pet: 2:22]. On numerous occasions the Scripture testify that Jesus during His time on earth lived a perfectly holy life. He is described as “without sin” [1Pet: 2:22], and in “him who had no sin”[2Cor: 5:21]. The apostle John stated, “In him is no Sin” [1 Jn: 3:5]. The Old Testament describes Him prophetically as “the righteous servant” [Isaiah: 53:11] and as one who “loved righteousness and hated wickedness” [Ps: 45:7]. The sinless ness of Christ is the universal teaching of the Bible. Even more compelling, however, is Jesus’ own testimony concerning Him. On one occasion He looked at the Pharisees and asked, “can any of you prove me guilty of Sin?” [Jn: 8:46]. Here was Jesus in direct confrontation with people who hated Him. Further more, he asked this question in the presence of His disciples, who lived with Him continuously and had ample opportunity to observe any inconsistencies. Yet Jesus dared to ask the question because He knew there was only one answer. He was without Sin!! But the holiness of Jesus was more than simply the absence of actual Sin. It was also a perfect conformity to the Will of His Father. He stated that He came down from Heaven “not to do my Will but to do the Will of Him who sent me” [Jn: 4:34]. Perhaps His highest testimony to his positive Holiness was this statement, “I always do what pleases Him’ [Jn: 8:29].

Thus Sinless Holy life of Jesus Christ is meant to be an example for us. Consider then His statement, “I always do what pleases Him”. In the words of Nineteenth Century Scottish Theologian John Brown, “ Holiness does not consist in mystic speculations, enthusiastic fervors or un commanded austerities, it consist in thinking as God thinks, and willing as God wills.”41

Neither does Holiness means as in so often thought, adhering to a list of do’s and don’ts. When Christ came in the World, He said, “I have come to do your will O God” [Heb: 10:7]. This is the example we are to follow. In all our thoughts, all of our actions, in every part of our character, the ruling principle that motivates and guides us should be the desire to follow Christ in doing the Will of the Father. This is the high road we must follow in the pursuit of Holiness!