The Meaning of Holiness and the Golden Chain

References:

(1) Justification is what the Lord Jesus did for us when He died on the cross for our sins.

(2) Sanctification is the process we undergo to become more like the Lord Jesus in our thoughts, words, and actions, a process of becoming holy, a process of formation of Christ-like character. Holiness is a final result of this process.

(3) Holiness is a goal that we, Christians, have to reach, because emulating a lifestyle that reflects God’s holiness is so important that the writer of Hebrews urged Christians to “strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which NO ONE will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

(4) Glorification is when we receive glorified bodies at the final day.

(5) Holiness is, perhaps, easier to DESCRIBE than to DEFINE. Rather than saying what it IS, maybe it is better to say what it is LIKE. In his book “Christian Holiness” J. Sidlow Baxter says that holiness is likeness to the MORAL CHARACTER of God.

(6) That will strike many in the audience as an IMPOSSIBLE TASK. But this is not the only thing that appears as an impossible task. In Eph. 5:1-2 we are called to be imitators of God. That, too, is perceived as an impossible task. But here the extra qualifier of our imitation is “as dear children.”

(7) The story of my 2-3 year old son imitating me mowing the yard.

(8) Holy has 2 major descriptions in Bible usage. The secondary description of holy refers to personal righteousness and moral purity. But the primary description in the Bible refers to something being separate, or other, or different. When the Bible speaks of God’s holiness, for example, the primary thrust of those statements is to refer to God’s transcendence, magnificence, utter uniqueness, superiority, as something higher than anything in the creaturely realm. God is completely different from every other thing in our experience.

(9) God desires — even commands — that His people seek after His holiness (Lev. 11:44).

(10) Being unclean according to the Law is NOT SYNONYMOUS with being SINFUL. The Old Testament Law speaks of 2 KINDS OF UNCLEANNESS — moral and ceremonial.

(11) The ULTIMATE PURPOSE for everything in the Law is SPIRITUAL. In the case of the laws governing uncleanness, the purpose was to show the people of Israel that God is HOLY and MANKIND IS NOT. We can be impure before God, even when we are not committing OUTRIGHT SIN.

(12) This golden chain also speaks of the three tenses of our salvation: past, present and future. In essence, “I was saved, I am being saved, and I will be saved” all accurately and Scripturally describe salvation, or the phrase “you are saved” found in 1 Corinthians 15:2. Believers in Christ are saved from the PENALTY of sin in the past (justification), from the POWER of sin in the present (sanctification), and will be saved in the future from the PRESENCE of sin (glorification).

This is episode 189.