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True Biblical
Holiness
by Joseph Chambers
When a person understands the truth
about Biblical Holiness, it becomes the most desirable possibility in all of
human experiences. There is nothing
so beautiful, so satisfying and so natural in all of human life. The very reason for your creation, the
purpose for which God made you and the most complete life, is found in Biblical
holiness. It is not just a standard
someone is trying to live. It
certainly is not legalism or narrow-mindedness. Holiness is the work of the Holy Ghost
by the Word and by the Blood. It
actually lifts man into the image of God.
In holiness, we become God-like and God-filled.
No, No, I'm not talking about
righteousness. Righteousness is
what happens in our body, soul, and spirit when we begin to experience holiness.
Righteousness is the work of Holiness. Righteousness is the joy of obedience to
God's ways that results from the inner work of holiness. Holiness cannot start
or continue or be completed by righteousness in the many expressions of our
living. Holiness is never subject
to righteousness. Instead,
righteousness is subject to Holiness.
The only righteousness that man can produce without Holiness is what the
Bible calls self-righteousness and it is deplorable to God Himself. But we are all as an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags..." (Isaiah 64:6).
Jesus Rejected The Pharisees
Biblical Holiness is why Jesus died
on Calvary. He did not die to
produce another sect of Pharisees.
He had just rejected the sect He already had to deal with. In fact, it was the Pharisees that
helped bring Him to trial and death.
These men did not break or disobey even one of His laws of
righteousness. The great Apostle
Paul, said of his condition before He met the Lord, "As touching the law,
I was blameless." (Philippians
3:6). But, this apostle-to-be was
not holy, he was righteous, self-righteous, empty, and even repulsive. Much of our religious world has at least
some semblance of righteousness, but Holiness? I fear not.
Holiness is a relationship in Jesus
Christ in which the individual is being transformed into an ever-expanding
likeness of Christ Himself. This
relationship has no point of action except in the sanctifying blood of the
exalted Son of God. A holiness
person is not seeking after holiness, but after Jesus Christ, because there is
no other source of Holiness.
Holiness is the nature of Jesus Christ manifest by the work of the Holy
Ghost applying the Word of God made alive by His blood. People that seek Holiness as its own
object will often add one legalistic addition after another. Every great Holiness movement has always
destroyed its own self by transferring the hunger for "HIM" to a hunger for
perceived Holiness.
This is why the Apostle Paul that
had experienced the righteousness of the law before the Damascus turnpike was
careful to never fall into the trap again.
He bellowed out, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I
unto the world." (Galatians
6:14). His "righteousness of the
law" before he met the King had no comparison to the "holiness" of his
Christ-centered life. In his
righteousness of the law, he had to crucify himself. In the holiness of knowing Jesus Christ,
he was dead to the world. Herein
lies the difference between the multitude of strict religious people and the
genuine remnant of godly people.
God's people do not want the world because its nature is so unclean. It's like walking through a dump after
one has showered and dressed in sparkling clean clothes. The scene alone is almost
unbearable.
Another of the great warnings of
the Scripture is the need to never allow His holiness in us to lose His love for
the unclean. Of course, as long as
we truly have His holiness, we will love His world. When you walk in the power of His Holy
Ghost's cleansing, you will weep over the world, instead of turning your nose up
at its repulsiveness. This was the
miserable failure of Judaism in the Lord's day. Jesus was condemned for "eating with
publicans and sinners" (Mark
2:16).
Are You Ready To Be A Holiness
Christian?
Some have witnessed the
hard holiness people that seek holiness of itself and find its value in endless
lists of "no-no's." Others are
lovers of themselves and want no experience with God that requires the death of
self. The multitudes have no idea
of what we are talking about and will never take the time alone with God to
experience Him in the truly "Born Again" life. Most people who claim to be born again
have nothing but a head-religion.
Somebody told them to just say that they believe in a few Bible points
and then take for granted that they are now Christians. Most of our so-called altar calls are
like fast food shops. There are
multitudes of church members have never been transformed by the power of
God.
Joy Unspeakable Awaits The Hungry Soul
Please do not take my word for the
information about whether or not you are truly "born again." How can you have the joy of the
Christian life as promised in Holy Scripture? Nothing in the world will give you the
joy that a transformed life will give you.
". . . Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." (1Peter 1:8b). It is peace that passes all
understanding. (Philippians
4:7). He wants to completely
change, cleanse, renew, and leave you a brand new person. He wants to make you a new
creature. "Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new." (II
Corinthians 5:17).
Holiness can be understood by
remembering how you feel after coming home absolutely filthy from a long
workday, ballgame, or overnight camping in the woods and then you get a soaking
bath. Once you are completely
clean, even soaked, and have put on good smelling, freshly washed clothes, you
feel like a new person. That's what
the Word, the Blood, and the Holy Spirit does to your whole person inside and
out. You are completely transformed
into a pure, blood-washed individual.
True Biblical Holiness
True Biblical holiness is not
hardness, legalism, or mean-spirited people making everyone miserable with their
own list of concocted standards.
The Bible is a Holy Book from Genesis to Revelation and every standard
set in Scripture is the joy of transformed saints. Godly women or men will separate
themselves from activities that are declared off limits by the Holy Bible. No godly woman wants to look like a man
or dress like a man. The same is
true of godly men. The body is the
temple of the Holy Ghost and He dwells in every saint to possess them, body,
soul, and spirit. There is no such
thing as being a partaker of God's grace, while the body is left to wallow in
sin. You cannot possess the true
faith in your spirit and leave the body in the clutches of unclean living. A born again person is repulsed by the
suggestion that they can continue the old lifestyle of breaking the commandments
of God while still professing righteousness.
Listen Carefully!
At the same time, genuine born
again Christians are repulsed by the hardness of many ministers and laity in
conservative church circles. These
modern day Pharisees disobey the truth of God by adding to the Word and creating
their own "doctrines of men." It is
just as wrong to add to the Scripture as to take from the Word. John the Revelator stated, "For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are
written in this book: And if any
man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19). It is serious to add one line, one idea,
or one restriction to God"s Word and teach it as an obligation in the Christian
life.
There are many good people who have
become slaves to the hardness of modern Pharisees. The true standards of godliness suffer
when the self-proclaimed police of hardness are allowed to operate among the
saints. These men and women are out
to make disciples for themselves and to gather around their feet clones of their
own self-righteousness. Apostle
Paul warned us of this kind of deception.
"Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to
draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased
not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God,
and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an
inheritance among all them which are sanctified." (Acts 20:30-32).
The Word of God is Pure
The standards of holiness are set
forth in Scripture in a plain and clear fashion. Isaiah describes the "Highway of
Holiness." "And an highway shall
be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean
shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though
fools, shall not err therein."
(Isaiah 35:8). The prophets
of hardness will pick words out of the plain statements of truth and exaggerate
them to support their doctrines of men exactly like the Pharisees did in Jesus"
time. These hard teachings are
always based on some highly suspect method of interpretation. Isaiah's statement precludes this kind
of religious fantasy. He said that
God's "highway of holiness" was so plain and so pure that a wayfaring man though
a fool (simple-minded) should not err therein. If you have to produce a scholarly
sounding defense for your doctrine of hardness to prove your point, you have
already disproved yourself. The way
of purity and holiness is simple and available for the uneducated mind. Just obey the plain Word of God, adding
no intricate meaning or disobeying no simple truth. Holiness is the standard of God's laws
and commandments produced in the heart by the sanctifying Blood of Jesus
Christ.
Conclusion
Bible holiness is
beautiful. There is a remnant of
godly people that the Father Himself has reserved to Himself for this end-time
generation. These saints are both
pure in lifestyle and attitudes.
They do not seek attention nor are they ashamed of their testimony. The Bible is there "paper pope" and they
live by every Word of God. Jesus
said, "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4).
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