Holiness

Sanctification is about holiness.  Strange as it seems to some, holiness is one word which frightens Christians.  If you want to make a group of Christians run in the other direction, start talking about holiness.  No one in today's church wants to be labeled with anything that smacks of holiness.   Unfortunately, it brings to mind images of stern and somber people dressed in body covering black who never talk about anything except religion.  To say that holiness has gotten a bad rap is indeed an understatement. 

 

The truth is that any follower of Jesus is called to embrace the sanctified life.  I Thessalonians 4:3 says quite plainly, "For this is will of God, your sanctification..."  And a few sentences later the Apostle went on to say, "For God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness."  (I Thessalonians 4:7)  Another Apostle would write in another place, "...for it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' "  (I Peter 1:16)  It is hard to come to any conclusion except the obvious ones.  God desires sanctification for us.  He wants us to manifest holiness in our living.

What becomes obvious to most of us in a hurry is that holiness is not likely to occur in our lives if we continue trying to make ourselves into the image of Christ.  Good living is a good thing, but it is not enough.  What we need to experience the something more God desires for us is a radical dependence on the Holy Spirit.  It is the kind of dependence which allows Him complete control in our inner being so that His shaping and transforming power is never quenched or limited.  Such is God's will for each one of us.