HOLINESS

Holiness, or sanctification (R.V.), signifies separation to God. “It is predicated of God and describes a characteristic godlikeness in those who are sanctified and thus called saints” (Vine). Because God is Spirit, it follows that godlikeness is spiritual in character, and it is in that sense that His people are like Him.

Holiness then, is the intrinsic spiritual standing of the believer, separated to God spiritually by the quickening of the Holy Spirit in salvation; holy because in Christ the Holy One.  It follows that when Peter exhorts, “Be ye holy (aorist tense) in all conduct” (1 Pet. 1:15) he is referring to the requirement for intrinsic holiness to be demonstrated by appropriate spiritual conduct in the fellowship, echoing Paul’s exhortation to Timothy, “That ye may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God” (1 Tim.3:15).  The flesh has no part in it.

So holiness is initally a work of God, not of man, and a subsequent holy life has reference to the spiritual activity of the new God-given nature in a believer. Clearly, therefore, the holy life does not consist of a puritanical secular life, commonly referred to in religious circles as ‘holy living’ (Col.3:1,2). If that was the case then the unregenerate, good-living soul could claim to be holy! To ascribe holiness to ‘good living’ is gross misuse of the word, a contradiction of terms. Puritanism is exaltation of the flesh, error arising from failure to recognise that the old order of mankind is finished with in divine purpose, i.e. in the divine system of Christianity. Likewise, to interpret references to sanctification in the epistles in a naturalistic way is to be at odds with the same fundamental spiritual principle.

Practical holiness involves the growth of the new man, for he is called upon to be holy (1 Pet. 1:15,16 & 2 Pet. 3:11), that is, to so respond to divine revelation (Scripture) as to live spiritually as one separated to God (Eph.1:4). The exhortation to holiness is as He (God) is holy and, as already stated, that can only refer to the spiritual life of the believer.

The holy life is principally corporate, conducted primarily among fellow saints in house of God circumstances, the local assembly. Here, in divine purpose, the people of God are set apart as a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9), a holy temple (1 Cor. 3:17) and a holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5).

Holiness in the previous Judaistic economy or dispensation was associated with things, tangible, material things – holy ground, buildings, vessels, etc., consonant with an earthly people. But this is not the case in the Christian system, which is a spiritual religion, a called-out, separated-to-God spiritual people (1 Pet. 2:5) for whom holiness is exclusively concerned with spiritual things (2 Cor. 4:18), consonant with their calling. Hence, a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices, serving God in spiritual things.

However, the naturalistic mindset (the Pharisees’ error) sees things differently. This is the mind, prevalent in Christendom, that says Christianity, like Judaism, has to do with natural, tangible things. This arises because the natural mind cannot discern things spiritual (1 Cor. 2:14) and so can only interpret Scripture in natural terms. Of course, such a view denies the essential difference between the dispensations (Heb. 9:23,24) and, when taught in christian circles, ministers (spiritual) death to the people of God (2 Cor. 3:6).

A typical example of naturalistic interpretation would be the bodies of Romans 12:1, where the believers in assembly fellowship at Rome were exhorted to present or yield themselves as a living, holy sacrifice. This naturalistic view would contend that the bodies represent physical, tangible holiness; after all, what could be more visible and tangible than the body? But, as W.E. Vine points out (Dictionary of New Testament Words), it is not the physical body that is in view but the complete person, the entity, the whole being; this quite apart from the plain fact that the living, holy sacrifice is clearly the corporate gathering, the assembly.

Many other examples of the naturalistic mindset could be quoted, such as the holy hands of 1 Tim. 2:8, where it is the hands of holy men, not the physical hands of the brethren, that are in view. Suffice to say that when the renewed mind (Rom. 12:2 & Eph. 4:23) is applied to Scripture, it is apparent that there are no holy things in the Christian system.

Holiness is characteristic of every believer because it is the corollary of new life, and seeking after holiness is the pursuit of spiritual things, not good living in everyday life, which the unregenerate can aspire to and attain.