"Holiness"
Hebrews 12:14
Nothing is more talked about in the
religious world and less understood than holiness. We must obtain holiness or
we cannot see the Lord. Where there is no holiness, there is no salvation. Here
are five aspects of holiness that need to be understood.
POSITIONAL HOLINESS - Before God,positionally, all his elect have been made postionally holy
in free justification by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to them and
the complete satisfaction of divine justice for them through the shedding of
his blood. In that sense it is declared,"By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified" (Heb.
POSSESSED HOLINESS -
PRACTICAL HOLINESS - Practical holiness is
Christlike behavior. It is not a Pharisaic code of conduct, or a return to the
yoke of legal bondage. Rather, it is the conscientious, spontaneous conformity
of a person's life to Christ who lives and reigns within. It is motivated by
love, not by law. It is demonstrated not by what one wears, eats, drinks, or
the way he speaks, but by his kindness, mercy, and love to other human beings
(Eph.
PERSEVERING HOLINESS - All true believers
continue in the path of holiness throughout their lives. They grow in the grace
and knowledge of Christ. We do not become "progressively holy"; but
we do grow in holiness. True Christianity is not found in fits and spasms of
religious duty, but in the insatiable desire of redeemed sinners to be like
Christ (Phil.
PERFECTED HOLINESS - This is our goal and
we shall have it! When we see him, we shall be like him (I John 3:2). Soon we
shall be replicas of Christ our Lord!
Don Fortner