Without holiness...?

We must start to preach holiness! Pure, unadulterated, raw holiness.

Holiness happens when in response to divine conviction we voluntarily agree to renounce everything in our life that is sinful and doubtful and consecrate everything that is left to God. There can't be a Salvationist alive who doesn't understand what it means to renounce sin, but what does the word 'doubtful' mean? It means exactly what it says – if I'm not fully convinced it is a justifiable use of my time, money or resources then it is doubtful and it has to go!

Of course such a commitment will look different with different people because we can only respond to God in the light of current revelation. However, ongoing holiness fuelled by greater revelation must inevitably lead to a more fasted lifestyle and simple existence.

Holiness is tossed around these days as if it were nothing more than a theological discussion topic. Holiness cannot be treated in such a light-hearted way because without holiness a Christian cannot function – at least not for very long.

Following conversion there may be something of a honeymoon period when the enemy has had his nose so bloodied that for a short while he is groggy and unable to focus. However this is a temporary condition and must be followed by holiness if victory over sin is to continue unabated. Soon enough the enemy will return and without holiness the plight of the new believer will end up worse than it was prior to conversion.

²⁴"When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' ²⁵When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." (Luke 11)

The reality is that because holiness is not properly understood or taught in the western Salvation Army it is therefore hardly ever experienced. By default this means that the vast majority of Salvationists in the west are undoubtedly bound by secret addictive sin. They may have periods of respite, victorious days – maybe even months of abstinence but they are not free and will always ultimately return to their sinful ways. The simple matter is that 'without holiness' consistent Christianity can't happen.

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'.

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.

The provision of these new faculties is (as already stated) conditional 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.

Let me state categorically (and run the risk of being called 'judgemental' in doing so) that people who argue against holiness, or try and water it down, or refer to it as spiritual growth or gradual likeness to Jesus are without doubt slaves of sin. I say that, not in the role of judge and jury but based on simple logic. A man, who cannot swim and refuses the rope or lifebelt thrown to him because he doesn't believe in the ability of either to save him, must be drowning! If holiness is the only power that can deliver me from sin and I deny its power and authenticity then I cannot be delivered!

We need to start preaching this simple but uncomfortable message. We need to preach it with confidence. We need to preach it for the sake of those who are currently forced by sin into uncomfortable double lives where outward righteousness and inward moral poverty try to exist side by side. We must preach it because freedom from sin and full consecration are conditions of revival. We must preach it because only the 'fully saved' can be used to 'fully save' others. We must preach it because it is our God-given denominational witness to the church universal. We must preach it if our claim to be a holiness movement is going to retain any shred of integrity. We must preach it because 'without holiness none shall see the Lord!'

If we fail to preach it and live it we will, both as individuals in an eternal sense and collectively as an Army, die!

I bring my all to Jesus; he hath seen

How my soul desireth to be clean.

Nothing from his altar I withhold

When his cross of suffering I behold;

And the fire descending brings to me

Liberty.

 

Herbert Howard Booth

Grace and peace, A