
Somewhere in my checkered childhood, I heard a really stupid song. I thought about it recently. I didn’t remember much about the song itself, just the ending. So, I did what any highly educated person does today—I Googled it.
Turns out I was remembering a line from a song by Homer and Jethro, The Battle of Kookamonga (I hesitate to continue). That silly song lodged itself in my brain and remained there for decades. Probably explains a lot of things.
Anyway, it’s about a Boy Scout troop that sings, “We don’t smoke, and we don’t chew, and we don’t go with the girls who do.â€
That’s good advice. If you see a girl with tobacco juice running down her chin, it’s probably best to let someone else date her.
However, what resonated most with me was the idea that this is how some view holiness. Don’t smoke, don’t chew, don’t curse, don’t steal, don’t lie, etc. (And don’t go with girls who do.)
Is That Holiness Or Orderliness?
Now it’s good not to do that stuff. But that’s not the heart of holiness. At one time, many Christians thought that a holy life was a long list of “don’ts†designed to take all the fun out of life.
Today, holiness has simply taken its place as one of those theological words that soar into the spiritual stratosphere but have no meaning in our daily lives.
If our idea of a God-pleasing life is simply a list of do’s and DON’Ts, though, we are missing something vital about God. God is holy. Set apart. He’s the ultimate of every good thing—love, wisdom, power, etc.
A. W. Tozer, in “The Knowledge of the Holy,†defines God’s holiness this way:
“Holy is the way God is. To be holy He does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because He is holy, His attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy.â€
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!’â€(Isaiah 6:1-3)
R.C. Sproul comments on this in his the book, The Holiness of God:
“On a handful of occasions, the Bible repeats something to the third degree. To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree. Only once in Scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love or mercy, mercy, mercy or justice, justice, justice.â€
He Is Holy, But Me, Holy?
“But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.†(1 Peter 1:15-16)
Sometimes when I hear the word “holiness,†I feel like one of the children of Israel trembling before God’s awe-inspiring presence on Mount Sinai. The mountain was shaking and smoking. The people were shaking in fear. There was a whole lot of shaking going on.
“The people said to Moses, “You go near and hear all that the Lord our God may say, and tell us all that the Lord our God says to you, and we will hear and do it.’†(Deut. 5:27, NKJV)
And when I see how God is, I’m shaking and sorrowful.
I’m shaking because He’s perfect peace, (Romans 16:20) the God of all grace, (1 Pi. 5:10), the God of hope, (Rom. 15:13), the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, (2 Cor. 1) and the God who gives endurance and encouragement. (Rom. 15:5).
Yeah, but He is but I’m not.
I’ve got a way to go in all those categories.
I love God’s presence, but how can I enter the presence of a holy God? And He commands me to be holy, else I’ll never see Him. C’mon Lord. How?
The fellow who has checked all the “do’s and don’ts boxes,†may get proud and feel like he can strut into God’s presence to the accolades of the angels and the Lord himself.
“Look at me.â€
Or the flip side of the coin (for honest people). How can I enter God holy presence? Sure, I’ve done some good things, but I’ve screwed up, too. How could I hide my sins in the eternal light of God?
One Can
When God’s people saw Mt. Sinai shaking and burning, there was an injunction forbidding people to go on the mountain. Only Moses could go all the way to the top, into God’s presence. Moses’ action was a metaphor for what the Lord Jesus did for us.
Before Jesus died on the cross, there was a curtain in the Temple between God’s presence and the priests, except the High Priest who entered once a year to offer a sacrifice for the people’s sins. But Jesus entered the heavenly temple with His own blood to pay the price for our sins.
Jesus’ death on Calvary ripped that veil apart, and we can go boldly into the presence of God. Holiness isn’t a barrier. Jesus became our holiness. (1 Cor. 1:30, NIV). We are holy because he is holy. He lives in us. Does that mean we never fail? No, but it means we’re holy, set apart for God.
Our Acts Don’t Matter Then?
Holiness doesn’t make a difference in the way we act, then? Certainly, but our actions flow from what we are and not how we try to be holy. Now we have the power to live in a way pleasing to God by the strength of God’s Spirit within us.
It’s no longer just us, trying and failing, or checking all the boxes on the list. It’s God himself and His holiness living through us, giving us the power to live according to his Word. (Romans 8:1-4)mWe worship, we serve God and others, we separate ourselves from things that destroy us and those around us by His strength.
Holiness isn’t scary. Real holiness is beautiful.