Holiness 101

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 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 1:13-16

Peter doesn’t mess around, does he? He says exactly what he means and doesn’t leave any room for misunderstanding – “Be holy.” Isn’t it weird, then, that in this day and age, when somebody says someone is holy, it usually doesn’t sound like a compliment. “Look at him. Doesn’t he think he’s all holy?”

The problem is, as will everything else in this sinful world, the enemy has worked hard to make sure that the qualities that God asks for have been twisted and misused until they don’t resemble their true definition any more.

Thankfully, God prepared for that and made sure we had some examples. One of the best of which is His relationship with the Israelites through His sanctuary.

Every part of the Sanctuary was a symbol for God’s desire to be in the midst of His children and to be involved in their daily lives.

If you had asked the Israelites of Moses’ time, David’s time, or even Jesus’ time, what percentage of their lives was “religious,” they probably would have looked at you like you didn’t have any idea what you were talking about. Religion wasn’t just a percentage of their lives. Being a Jew was their whole existence. It was their national identity, their religious identity, what they ate, where they lived, and who they married. It was even part of how they washed their hands. The problem is, with a few notable exceptions, the Jews became bogged down in their own rules and traditions instead of allowing God to set them free.

One of those exceptions was King David. Over and over again, in the Psalms, we can read David’s desire to meet with God in His Sanctuary. Psalm 27 encapsulates how David feels about the Sanctuary, specifically in verses 4-13:

“One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek:That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’ Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me. Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.”

David’s desire to experience that closeness with God that the Sanctuary represented consumed his life. Yes, we all know that David made some horrific mistakes, but He never lost his hunger for God. And God recognized and honored David for that – being called a man after God’s own heart should be something for which we all strive.

So, how can we find and maintain that “sanctuary relationship” with God? How can we “be holy?”

Well, we have to decide whether we’re going to admire Jesus or are we going to follow Him. Although those two things may sound similar, in this context, they are quite different.

“If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite—to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of ‘followers’ and ‘disciples.’”[1]

Many of the people who came after Jesus turned out to be admirers – they left Him when things weren’t easy anymore. David didn’t turn back from his love of God, even when he spent years hiding from King Saul or when some of his own sons turned against him and his family was torn apart.

Many of us want to experience the feel good times with Jesus but aren’t committed to sticking around when things get rough.

“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him in the humiliation of the cross.”[2]

 Being holy isn’t just being a Christian, going to church on a certain day or however many times a week. It isn’t praying before meals or reading our Bibles for a certain number of minutes every day. We can’t be holy sometimes and then sometimes not. Being holy is not about a particular denomination or how religious you are. Being holy isn’t a part of our lives, it has to be our identity in Jesus Christ. 

Does that mean we are exempt from making, sometimes, horrific mistakes? Afraid not. But we will, like David, center our lives on our God, our Savior and Redeemer, and our Best Friend.

“Christ says, ‘Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there. I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think are innocent as well as the ones you think are wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you myself: my own will shall become yours.’”[3]

That is my prayer. Is it yours?

---

[1] Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and theologian (1813–1855)

[2] Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ; found in: Tony Lane, Timeless Witness (Hendrickson, 2004), p. 188

[3] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 2001), p. 196-197 

Cheerleaders or Disciples?

We spend quite a bit of time talking about the men (and women?) who readily left everything to follow Jesus when He called, but other folks came to Jesus thinking they wanted to go with Him, but often walked away without making a commitment.  Why was that, do you think?

Several articles I read recently framed these events as Jesus weeding out the weak ones ahead of time so they wouldn't hold Him back.  I really am not comfortable with that scenario, though, because if He was going to weed out anybody, it would have had to have been Judas, right?  Plus, I'm not comfortable with the thought of Jesus rejecting people who come to Him, are you?

When we look at the stories of the scribe, the rich young ruler, Nicodemus and the others who came to Jesus, we do see Jesus saying some tough things to these guys even though they really sound sincere.  The scribe comes up to Jesus and tells Him that he will follow Jesus wherever He goes.  But when Jesus explains to him that He is essentially homeless, the scribe vanishes.  In his study guide called “What Keeps Men from Christ?”, John MacArthur quotes Bible commentator Lenski when he compares the scribe to someone who sees a military parade: “He sees the soldiers on parade, he sees the fine uniforms, he sees the glittering arms, and is eager to join, forgetting the exhausting marches, the bloody battles, the graves, perhaps unmarked.”  This is a man who is essentially saying, “My life is great, but I'd like to add Jesus in as well.”  I liked what MacArthur said when the scribe isn't mentioned again. “He probably  wasn't around.  He left in the white space between verses 20 and 21.”

Others offered Jesus part of their lives, maybe later, maybe in my spare time, if I can fit You into my busy schedule, if my wife, husband, mom, dad, sister, brother, boyfriend, girlfriend will come with me, if I don't have to do anything too uncomfortable or too hard or that I don't want to do...they wanted to be part of the show, close to the power, but not have to get in the middle of things.

I read an article called “Disciples, Followers, and Cheerleaders” by Gary North, which, oddly enough had almost nothing to do with Christianity.  It did, however, talk about the kind of commitment the would-be disciples had in mind.  They wanted to be groupies or cheerleaders.  North pointed out something that I had really never thought about before, and it came as a small shock to me.  Maybe you're way ahead of me here, but check it out:

“A cheerleader seeks attention.  He (or she) wants to be seen. ... He wants to be seen on the winning side.
“Cheerleading is an American institution. It serves no useful purpose, but it is always there at high school and college [and pro] football and basketball games.  Where there is a large crowd to see the team, there will be cheerleaders.  With sports where there is no crowd, there are no cheerleaders.
“Cheerleaders pretend that they control the crowd.  The crowd pretends that their organized cheers in some way help their team or thwart the opposing team.  They stand, they sit, they cheer in an organized way. ...These efforts have no effect.  The team pays no attention.  The outcome of the game is not influenced by the organized cheers. ...The cheerleader thinks of himself as part of the team effort.  He isn't.
“Cheerleaders want to bask in the glory of the team.  They want to think that the public recognition accorded to team members will be accorded to them....”

That might have been what the would-be disciples were wanting; to be on what looked like it was going to be the winning side, to be seen near the center of an important movement...as long as it wasn't too uncomfortable or expensive.  But not one of these people was turned away or rejected by Jesus.  Jesus explained the type of commitment needed to walk with Him and let each person make his (or her) own decision.  My personal feeling is that Jesus would have gladly accepted anyone who was willing to give up his life to follow Him.

One author in an article called, “Christ's Call to Suffering”, put it like this: “There is no place in [Jesus'] band for those who are not willing to accept inconvenience, sufferings and uncertainty.”

That'll make ya stop and think, won't it?

Am I willing to follow Jesus even if He asks me to do something I really don't want to do?  The rich young ruler wasn't.  He didn't want to give up all his money and the things that went with it.  He was like the others who came to Jesus; he wanted to go with Jesus, but... And a commitment with a 'but' is not really a commitment at all, is it.

Have you ever said to yourself, “But what if Jesus makes me go off to some poor third world country to serve Him?”  And so you've held back that part of your life from Him.  Yeah, I know, you can't fool me, because I've said the same thing to myself.  But do you know what I've learned?  Jesus doesn't MAKE anybody do anything.  He puts the option out there and it's up to you and me to make our own choice.  The rich young ruler could have surrendered his heart to Jesus and then selling everything and giving all the money to the poor would have been the one thing he most wanted to do and nobody could have talked him out of it.  And, who knows, maybe he thought it over and did decide to give it all to Jesus.  Maybe we'll get to see him in Heaven; wouldn't that be awesome?

I mean, when you think about him, the rich young ruler was the picture of what we would call a “nice young man”.  He was polite, religious, nice to children and pets, respected his elders, etc.  But when it came to sacrificing –really sacrificing, not just tossing a few bucks into the offering plate—he couldn't do it.  And I think that's where I am a whole lot more like him than I want to admit.  As Sari Fordham said in her article for Adventist Missions said, “I can give without really sacrificing anything.  Sadly enough, I have to admit that that's the way I like my good deeds.  Simple, affordable, fast.

“...I get scared of the very implications that the word 'sacrifice' holds.  Sacrifice means giving up everything.  How much is everything?  I don't think I even want to know.  The word terrifies me.  And I don't even have much.
“...Ultimately, that's what sacrifice calls for.  It calls for going out of your way.  It calls for stretching yourself in ways you never thought you could.  Sacrifice is drastic; it's life-changing.  It's what Jesus asked for; it's what Jesus did.”
“When Christ gave to His disciples the conditions of salvation, He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Self-denial and crosses lie directly in the path of every soul who will follow Jesus.”  E.G. White, To Be Like Jesus (2004) page 47.

Ya know, I don't believe we can be half-way or part-time disciples.  We have to set aside our fear and reluctance and realize that once we give our hearts to Jesus, anything He asks us to do, we will do it, even if it's uncomfortable and unpopular, not because doing that thing will save us, but because Jesus has saved us.

“To follow Jesus is to dare to keep going even when we can see on the horizon a cross...that is the cost of discipleship.”  Dr. W. Robert Abstein “Two Would-Be Disciples: A Picture of Judgment”

Ask yourself:  “Do I want to be a cheerleader or a disciple?”