The Challenge of Holiness
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them. — Ezekiel 36:26-27
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. — 2 Corinthians 7:1
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: Holiness involves consecrating ourselves to God and turning away from sin through obedient, blameless conduct submitted to Him. Although we are sanctified through Christ’s offering and renewed by the Holy Spirit, we must also pursue and practice holiness as we grow spiritually. We were not set apart to live in isolation or remain indifferent to injustice, but to become more like Christ while serving responsibly in the world. Humility, peace, brotherly love, devotion to others, and fleeing from passions make God visible through our testimony. Being holy does not mean merely appearing so, but expressing a transformed life that is useful to the Lord and prepared for every good work.
Holiness is not only being consecrated to the service of God, but also means turning away in obedience from everything that is not holy and consequently fleeing from the temptation and sin to which we will always be exposed
in the process of spiritual growth. The Christian must sanctify himself, that is, consecrate himself, but this is not enough. He also needs such consecration to implicitly entail blameless conduct that bears witness, a love for the things of God, avoidance of the passions of the flesh, and complete submission to Him.
Paul exhorted Timothy to practice a Christian life divorced from everything that was not holy: “If someone keeps himself clean, he will become a noble vessel, sanctified, useful to the Lord and prepared for every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).
The holiness of the Christian is the will of God. God’s desire is that we may express the life of Christ through our own. It is an exclusive work of the Holy Spirit when we are born again, when He makes us a new creation whose past was crucified on the cross of Christ. The holiness of the Christian who, through the work and grace of God, bursts into a new life in Christ is one of the many miracles God performs in the believer. We are called to it. Practicing it will allow us to live a calm and secure life without the fears that arise when we cease to focus on God and lend ourselves to dancing in the world’s unrestrained procession. Through Ezekiel, God prophesied that He would give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us (Ezek. 36:26a). Our limited minds are incapable of understanding the mystery of spiritual birth. The fact that the Spirit of the Most High God dwells within our being commits us to “doing what is holy,” to directing our conduct toward the holiness of God, and to making it our goal to become more like Christ.
Yes, the Bible affirms that we are already holy, but such separation for the service of God is not so that we may live in a glass bubble and watch the world collapse around us, displaying indulgence and indolent conformity without taking a stand on the matter. The Christian community that understands holiness as the challenge of seeking to become more like Christ while responsibly confronting the iniquities of the world, equipped with an arsenal of justice and love for others, will always be blessed. Holiness is like having an itinerary, a goal, a challenge that inevitably leads to the feet of Christ as we show ourselves open and supportive toward others in the way we serve God and our neighbor.
The Word says that holiness is something to be sought and practiced; it is not simply that we are already holy, and that is the end of it. The condition of being holy—set apart, consecrated, or sanctified for God—has no validity if the expression of our Christian walk is contrary to God’s will in our relationship with Him and with others. Humility, love, devotion to the cause of others, and continually fleeing from sin are, among others, Christian virtues that magnify God and sanctify us. In the process of maturing, the Christian must sanctify himself while immersed in the world, not with his back turned to it, being an agent of peace and harmony, devoting himself to the practice of virtue, forgetting himself (decreasing) so that God may grow within him and become visible through our testimony.
The Word says that “…we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). This verse teaches us that the dimension of holiness is no game, because overlooking it is to disrespect the cross and the death and resurrection of Christ. Holiness is brotherly love; otherwise, it is merely appearance and vanity. It is a matter of “being it, not appearing to be it.” The Lord reminds us: “As for brotherly love… God Himself has taught you to love one another… Nevertheless, brothers, we encourage you to love one another even more, to strive to live in peace with everyone, to attend to your own responsibilities, and to work with your own hands. This is what I have commanded you, so that by the way you live you may earn the respect of those who are not believers and may not have to depend on anyone” (1 Thessalonians 4:10–12).
God bless you!