Why the holiness kick? Why do I feel such urgency to challenge the church to take back holiness and the Law? The simple answer is FREEDOM.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. - Galatians 5:1
It is not only to win back our freedom and our family's freedom but to hold out this same freedom to a world dashing feverishly into every form of slavery.
True and absolute freedom is found in the presence of God. - A. W. Tozer
And that presence of God is devastating to our chosen and prized forms of slavery—especially our self-idolatry. When Israel encountered the presence of God as it descended on the mountain, they recoiled in fear and sent Moses up as a proxy instead. This was a death sentence for them because LIFE is found in the presence of the life-giver. We see the right response when Isaiah encountered the presence of God.
By man's standards, Isaiah was a comparatively holy and well-respected man among the Jews who were tasked with keeping God's holy laws so his holy presence would dwell with them. However, when Isaiah actually encountered the presence of God breaking into this world, he realized he was not at all holy in comparison:
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling out to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts;
all the earth is full of His glory.”
At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.
This is very similar to the description of the experience of the tribes of Israel. Note Isaiah's response though:
Then I said:
“Woe is me,
for I am ruined,
because I am a man of unclean lips
dwelling among a people of unclean lips;
for my eyes have seen the King,
the LORD of Hosts.”
The purpose of encountering the holy presence of God is so we can rediscover our proper position before a Holy God. This is HUMILITY. Humility is the infrastructure of a holy life of power because it positions us to receive the life Christ wishes to give and the power to return again and again. In humility, we see our need and respond in surrender. In humility, we receive Salvation and continue in sanctification. This is the power to live in his presence...to live a holy life.
What is this holy life? And what is this power—what is it for?
The holy life is living Christ's example of the restoration of all things. This starts with the restoration of our position lost in the garden of Eden: fellowship—a holy God dwelling with a holy people in a holy place. Then the restoration continues with the Great Commission: "Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously." (Matthew 10:5-8 Message Translation)
The pursuit of this life of holy power may currently be relegated to a select few senior citizens in many American churches but this is the church's singular purpose.
The personal holiness of the members of each church is the only true measure of strength. Any other test offends God, dishonors Christ, grieves the Holy Spirit, and degrades religion...
To mistake the true power of the church's strength is to mistake the true character of the church. When its character is changed, then all its efforts and aims are also changed. The strength of the church lies in its devotion to God.
The church's strength does not consist in its numbers and its money but in the holiness of its members. The church's strength is not found in these worldly attachments or endowments but in the endowment of the Holy Spirit on its members. - E. M. Bounds, Guide To Spiritual Warfare
The Holy Spirit endows us with the power to participate in Christ's holy mission. Reconciliation. Restoration. Freedom for the captive. Overcoming the curse of sin and death and all its effects. These are our mission. This is the purpose of the power of the holy life of Christ in us, which was poured out on those who waited in the Upper Room and birthed the church. The church is still utterly dependent on this power in order to fulfill its commission.
If the Devil can by any method shut the Holy Spirit out of the church, he has effectively prevented the church from being God's church on earth. - E. M. Bounds
Holiness is the antidote to the perversity within us and the chaos it has created since the fall. Without holiness, we have nothing to offer.
This is why it is grievous to the Holy Spirit to constrain his presence. We must pour out what we receive—channels of his presence.
Ephesians tells us this power of holiness is to spread the life of God so we can "grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" (Ephesians 3:14-20), Christ can "dwell in your hearts through faith," and be "filled to the measure (brim) with all the fullness of God."
It's clear the commission hasn't changed and we certainly haven't experienced the fullness of Ephesians...so why does the church resist holiness? Why, when we are so desperate for the power of the Holy Spirit, do we find ourselves marginalizing the Holy Spirit or even snuffing it out? Surrounded by a world so desperate for the spiritual it highly prizes fake spiritual power...why would some church leaders tell us to make do without the real thing? Or worse, obfuscate the Holy Spirit behind traditions, laws, or outward forms of holiness?
I think some avoid it or are averse to the Holy Spirit because it's easier to rely on ourselves than a spirit. It's easier to attempt to follow a law than to relate to a Living Flame (Hebrews 12:29). And, when we fail to follow the law or when that reliance on ourselves reinforces our self-idolatry and results in disaster, it's easier to let ourselves off the hook. It's easier to accuse God of not "coming through" rather than accusing the real culprit: our prideful idolatry of self.
When the church seems powerless—lacking in the sharing of the Gospel, very little discipleship and accountability, much less raising of the dead—it's easier to let ourselves off the hook with demonic doctrines that teach the Holy Spirit has changed and no longer moves as he has in the past. Or that we no longer need the fullness of his power. Or other superiority-feeding notions that deaden hunger for the revelatory experience of the Holy Spirit.
We must know that we bring nothing to this equation—even our response to God is by his Spirit. Transformation into Christ's image—being filled to the brim with the fullness of God—is by the work of the Holy Spirit.
It isn't easy to walk with the Holy Spirit who, on one hand, consumed the 250 rebellious Israelite leaders and on the other, landed on those waiting in the Upper Room to empower his church to arise. But it is necessary. The commission—all of it—hasn't changed. The captives still need deliverance. The untouchables still need restoration. There are plenty dying in need of life. God's holy life is the antidote to all that is broken and cursed in this world.
Without the holiness of God, the church will exist only as an empty shell. With it, we will be transformed into the Overcomers of Revelation 3.
Grace sends his Spirit to make us his.