The holiness to which God calls us should be the basis of all of our lifestyle decisions.
"Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev 19:2), says our loving, holy, heavenly Father. His words reveal His deep desire to restore in us the image of God in which we were created. The Bible testifies that holiness comes to us "from above," from God Himself, manifested in divine revelation, confronting us in our sinful world, and transforming our thoughts and actions.
The Holiness of God
A Central Theme
The Bible uses the terms "holiness" and "holy" more than 900 times. Holiness is a central theme of Biblical revelation and faith. The Bible always associates it with God; there is no holiness independent of God or outside of a relationship with God. Holiness is the "chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people."1 God is defined by holiness (Lev 11:44-45) no less than by love (1 Jn 4:8).
The holiness of God, then, must command our first attention. An unusually rich summary of the holiness of God appears in Hosea 11:9 NASB, "I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." God by nature is different from man. This difference in His nature gives Him capabilities far beyond those of man. For man it is impossible to love the one who has broken the covenant, but with God all things are possible. Hosea shows the amazing truth that the holiness of God does not demand the sinner's death, but that God still loves him. Since the Holy One, the holy God, is also the loving God, He is in mankind's midst. He is the One calling for the sinner to return.
Isaiah's Portrait
The book of Isaiah features a recurring phrase, "the Holy One of Israel" (Isa 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11-12, 15, etc.), as a major designation for the uniqueness, exaltedness, loftiness and otherness of God. The heavenly beings sing to Him, "Holy, holy, holy" (6:3) and Isaiah is overwhelmed with his own sinfulness, his moral uncleanliness (vs 5). Yet this seemingly unapproachable Holy One sends a heavenly messenger to cleanse Isaiah and thus prepare him to fulfill his mission as God's messenger (vs 7).
The Holy One is not to be trifled with. He is a light and a flame, and to those in constant rebellion against Him He will be a fire (Isa 10:17) which devours the rebels (5:24). Yet Isaiah also gives the other side, picturing the Holy One as the one who saves (30:15). The Holy One of Israel is the Creator to whom we look longingly for help (17:7). The needy and afflicted find joy and rejoicing in the Holy One of Israel (29:19). "And the holy God will show himself holy in righteousness" (5:16). He is just in His judgments.
He is both Creator and King: "I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King" (43:15). As Creator of His people He is king over them. But He is more—He is also Redeemer: "And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth" (54:5).
Broad Picture of Holiness
Here we have an unparalleled concentration of different facets that together provide a broad picture of God and His holiness. God's holiness is this: He is totally other; He is sublime and supreme over all His creation; He is exalted, majestic, unsearchable and utterly incomparable (Isa 40:25). These descriptions focus on His separateness and uniqueness, qualities theologians call His "transcendence."
Isaiah depicts yet another side of the holiness of God, revealing Him as Redeemer and Savior. This aspect of God—His nearness, His involvement with His creation—is what theologians call His "immanence." Yet His drawing near, His immanence, is not done in spite of His holiness but as a part of it. He draws near in order to help, deliver, and save as well as to judge. In His holiness He cares for the needy and the afflicted and brings judgment on the rebellious.
The very first petition of the Lord's Prayer takes up the theme of God's holiness: "Hallowed be Thy name" (Matt 6:9). The "hallowing" of the Name means among other things to honor God the Father and what His name stands for above everything else. It means making God and His kingdom supreme.
Of course, holiness is not restricted to the Father; it is also ascribed to the Son. Holiness is inherent in Jesus throughout His eternal human existence. In the announcement of Christ's birth the angel said, "For that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Peter later said to Jesus, "We... have come to know that You are the Holy One of God" (John 6:69). Jesus is the one "who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David" (Rev 3:7).
The Holiness of God's People
A Devoted People
From the very first God has intended to establish for Himself a holy people, a community in some sense an extension of Himself in this world of sin, suffering, alienation, and estrangement. A holy people means a people completely devoted to the God who is their Redeemer from slavery to sin and their Savior from suffering.
After the Lord redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, the land of slavery, He led them to Mt. Sinai where He invited them to enter into a covenantal relationship with Him that would keep them as His special people. In Exodus 19:6 God invited them to be His "holy nation." Here is the first occurrence in the Bible of terminology pointing to a holy people. The idea of being holy did not in the least contain the concept of a "holier-than-thou" attitude or status. Not at all. It expressed the divine purpose and goal to have a people here on earth that would be totally separated from the world and committed to Him. His "holy nation" was to be set apart from all the other peoples of this world to accomplish His plan. It was to belong fully to God and to reveal in the quality of its total life experience the blessings of the Lord's covenantal relationship.2
Holiness and the Commandments
Israel was to be a "holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples..." (Deut 7:6). This "treasured possession" of the Lord "should keep all his commandments" and thus be a "consecrated [holy] people to the Lord" (Deut 26:18-19).
It is striking to note that the holiness of the people is connected directly to the keeping of the commandments. "The Lord will establish you as a holy people unto Himself, as He swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in his ways" (Deut 28:9). For God's people to be holy means for them to keep His commandments faithfully and to walk in His ways always. Commandment-keeping results from remaining in a continuous faith relationship grounded in the covenant, since the covenant terms are expressed in the divine commandments.
Awareness that God has called us to be holy will affect all our lifestyle decisions.
Promise of "Holy Seed"
Centuries after Sinai, the Israelites found themselves in a state of departure from God. In the face of their failure, God promised that a "holy seed" (Isa 6:13) would survive. God's plan for a holy people had not come to an end. The promise of a future "holy remnant" is also recorded in Isaiah 4:3: "And it will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy." God's plan to have a "holy people" was not crushed by Israel's failure to remain faithful.
Discipleship is not emotional hype on the day of worship. Discipleship is an experience entered into every day of the week.
The New Testament asserts that the "holy nation" spoken of in Exodus 19:6 is now the church (1 Pet 2:9). Members of this body of Christ are called to a new life of holiness and obedience, based on God's own holiness (1 Pet 1:14-16). They are called to be "saints" (literally, "holy ones") by divine election (Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2). Believers are not "holy ones" or "saints" because of their own efforts but because they are "sanctified by faith" in Christ (Acts 26:18).
The concept of a holy life for a believer seems more and more alien in today's secularized world. The cheap grace so rampant today simply calls people to accept Christ, but the fruit of such acceptance has receded into the background. What does it mean today for Christ to have commanded us to "make disciples of all the nations" (Matt 28:19)? True believers are called to conduct themselves in this world "in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God" (2 Cor 1:12).
Empty Slogan
The slogan of love, acceptance, and forgiveness sounds pretty empty if we disregard the call of our Lord for self-denial and to "take up [your] cross and follow Me" (Matt 16:24). What does it mean for the believer of today to accept Jesus' challenge, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls" (Matt 11:29)? There is a cost of discipleship; and let us not be fooled. There is also a reward for discipleship: "And I will give you rest."
Discipleship is not emotional hype on the day of worship. Discipleship is an experience entered into every day of the week; it is a life lived with Christ and under Christ and on the basis of the constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to be "saints" and to live in holiness. Only in this total experience in Christ can we truly worship our Creator on His Sabbath which He has sanctified or made holy for us.
Saintly Life
Saints are to live a saintly life, "poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith" (Phil 2:17). To be a "saint" in the New Testament sense is to function in a holy state. The holy state manifests itself in holy behavior. The apostle Peter writes, "Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior" (1 Pet 1:15). In view of our knowledge that "all these things are to be destroyed in this way [by burning], what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (2 Pet 3:11-12)?
The call to each member of the end-time remnant is to live under Christ "in obedience to the truth" (1 Pet 1:22) and in "holy conduct and godliness." True believers are called to conduct themselves in this world "in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God" (2 Cor 1:12).
The fact that holiness makes them different from their surroundings will not deter God's remnant people. God, their deliverer, has said, "I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God. Thus you shall be holy for I am holy" (Lev 11:45).
Lifestyle Basis
The holiness God calls us to is to be the basis of all of our lifestyle decisions. It is to be rooted in God's own holiness, revealed in Christ's holy character, and made possible through the Holy Spirit's enabling power. Holiness is God's accomplishment in us. The Lord sanctifies us or makes us holy (Ex 32:13) so that we are for Him a "holy nation" and "a people for God's own possession" (1 Pet 2:9).
Awareness that God has called us to be holy will affect all our lifestyle decisions. It will direct our choices of food and drink, of apparel and appearance, of entertainment and expression. A holy people will be distinguishable from those to whom a covenant relationship with God is not important.
The fact that holiness makes them different from their surroundings will not deter God's remnant people. God, their deliverer, has said, "I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God. Thus you shall be holy for I am holy" (Lev 11:45). They consider it their honor and privilege to "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called" (Eph 4:1). That He may be glorified, they desire to have Jesus be able to say of them that they "have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy" (Rev 3:4). In reply, those only who have walked close enough to their Lord to reflect His holiness in their daily living will be able to sing with the angels, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" (Rev 5:12).