Holiness - more than a fashion accessory!

Holiness is becoming increasingly fashionable – everyone seems to be talking about it - and as a result holiness is being misrepresented.

• Holiness is not self control
• Holiness is not self discipline
• Holiness is not self denial
• Holiness is not a desire to be one with God
• Holiness is not growth
• Holiness is not maturity
• Holiness is not Christ likeness
• Holiness is not spiritual formation!

Holiness may result in a manifestation of all of these things but none of them either separately or collectively are holiness.

Holiness is what happens when God creates within us a new heart and a new mind.

The heart is the seat of our emotions (our feelings, motives and desires) and our mind is the seat of our intellect (our will, our ability to understand and decide). The human heart and mind make Christian service impossible.

The closest that humanity has ever got to holiness without a new heart or mind is probably best illustrated in the life of the rich young ruler. Here was a man who had kept the commandments since his youth. When the disciples heard Christ dismiss his efforts as incomplete they were astounded and exclaimed ‘who then can be saved’. Jesus replied ‘with man this is impossible’.

When Jesus talked to Nicodemus he spoke about being the importance of being ‘born again’.

When David wrote his classic repentance prayer in Psalm 51 he asked God to ‘create’ in him “a pure heart.”

In Ezekiel chapter 11 God promises to replace old hearts ‘of stone’ with new hearts ‘of flesh’, and later in the same book (Ezekiel 18:31) he commands the Israelites to repent and to ‘get a new heart and a new spirit.’

In Romans 8:7-8 Paul says ‘The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.’

Holiness happens when God gives us new hearts and minds in which, he can (according to Ezekiel) actually move us to follow his decrees and keep his laws. Human hearts cannot follow God whereas holy hearts have a natural desire to obey him.

The provision of these new faculties is conditional upon.

• Desire.
• Repentance.
• Renunciation.
• Consecration.
• Faith.
• Obedience.
• Witness.

We must want a new heart, repent of all sin, renounce all that is doubtful, consecrate all that remains, believe in God’s power to work the change, faithfully obey God and speak to others about what he has done.

The creation of a new heart and mind (a new nature) in a believer is holiness, anything else regardless of its source or the apparent credibility of the author is bunkum.

Love and prayers

A