Holiness

Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. (Hebrews 12:7-10)

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. (2nd Peter 1:3-4)

The concept of holiness has been defined as utter separateness, or totally otherness. Whatever we are as creatures, we are nothing compared to the creator. God is holy. God is wholly other. 

The holiness of God is expressed in terrifying ways in the Bible. As God nears the mountains tremble. Great smoke and fire accompany the Lord's terrible appearance. (Exodus 19) Those who fail to treat the Lord and His ark as holy suddenly die. (2nd Samuel 6:1-11) The sons of Aaron did not follow the priestly ordinances and were consumed with holy fire from the altar. (Leviticus 10)

Look how the psalmist compares God to humans.

Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in their hearts;
there is no fear of God
before their eyes.
For they flatter themselves in their own eyes
that their iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit;
they have ceased to act wisely and do good.
They plot mischief while on their beds;
they are set on a way that is not good;
they do not reject evil.

Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:1-7)

God ways are higher than our ways. We cannot attain them. And yet this very same holy God who live in unapproachable light has called us to be holy as He is holy. We are called to share in His divine nature. In fact we were created for this. We were made in the image of holy God.

How can we attain holiness and share in the divine nature? Until we are set free from bondage to sin, we cannot hope to. We are helpless to be anything bu slaves to sinful passions and human weakness. We will have glimmers of the divine nature within and will at times act accordingly, but we will remain utterly separated from God until we share int he holy sacrifice of Jesus Christ through faith.

God is holy and He cannot look upon sin. (Habakkk 1:13) And yet God gave His people a way to atone for sin. They covered their sin through the blood of the sacrifice. Ultimately God offered His own begotten Son as the atoning sacrifice once for all.

Jesus is the only way to find freedom from sin and the resulting death sin breeds. The is no other mediator between the holy God of the universe and humanity. (1st Timothy 2:5) There is no other name under heaven given to mortals by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) Jesus' very name means "The Lord Saves."

When Jesus worked among us building the kingdom of God, He taught about the reign of God and provided signs of God's authority. He healed the sick and liberated those oppressed by demons. The liberation of those captives set them free to be reconnected to the God who rescued them. 

Perhaps the most dramatic tale of Jesus cleansing the possessed of demons is in Mark 5. Jesus travels to the gentile side of the Sea of Galilee and met a demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs. This tortured soul could not be bound. He broke the chains. He ran naked and crazed screaming and cutting himself with sharp rocks. When he saw Jesus, the demons within him recognized Jesus as the the holy one, the son of the Most High God. (Mark 1:24; 5:7) Jesus demanded the demon identify itself. They answered, "We are legion for we are many." Jesus drove the many demons out of the man and sent them into a herd of pigs which promptly ran into the lake and drowned. 

Look what happened afterward. 

They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed. (Mark 5:15-20)

The man was clothed, and in his right mind, begging to go with Jesus. He went and witnessed to everyone what Jesus had done for him. You see when people are freed from the bondage of sin and dark evil forces, they are set free to serve the God who sets that at liberty. Because their hearts and minds are no longer under the power of sin and darkness, they are more than happy to serve a new master, One who gives them life eternal.

Holiness is sharing, to the fullest extent, in the righteous and loving nature of God. Through Jesus Christ we are made holy through His sacrifice, and furthermore, through the workings of grace in our hearts through the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is God who works within us to become holy and He is holy. (Philippians 2:13) 

The mission of the church in making disciples includes introducing the oppressed souls of our time to the liberating power of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. It's God's job to transform lives. We cannot do that. We are only human. Our job is to arrange the meeting. We arrange for persons to meet Jesus so that they might be transformed by the power of the gospel and come to share in His holiness. 

Few of us are schools in rites of exorcism, but all of us know people enslaved to alcohol, drugs and other addictions. We all know people mentally oppressed by an illness of the brain. We all know people stuck in unhealthy modes of thinking that keep them depressed, cynical and hopeless. We all know people trapped in bitter hatred, prejudice and unforgiveness.  We all know people with their eyes full of lust and greed. We all know people trapped in unhappy situations and unfair working conditions. 

It is the liberating work of the church that helps addicts find freedom in their relationship with God. It is the liberating work of the church that helps people come to forgive and find release from their anger and grief. It is the work of the church which builds supportive community around those living with mental illness so that they too might have hope in Christ. 

All these little victories free us to love. As we love the tortured and trapped, we are setting them and ourselves free from fear and darkness. We are becoming like Jesus, the Holy One. We are sharing in the divine nature which is love.

Begin the liberating work of the kingdom by praying for those trapped and oppressed souls you know and look for means to bring them to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. And remember that you too must journey deeper in communion with the Lord so that you may more fully share in His righteous and loving nature. Add to your faith that which frees you of every earthly entanglement so that you are able to fully commit to Christ and His mission to make disciples.