Have you ever wondered about the state of your holiness? Have you ever been concerned you are simply not as holy as you ought to be? Then perhaps you would be helped by taking my little quiz:
- Do you believe in Jesus?
- No. You aren’t holy
- Yes. Go to Question 2.
- Has Jesus paid for your sin?
- No. You aren’t holy.
- Yes. Go to Question 3.
- Are you counted righteous in Christ?
- No. You aren’t holy.
- Yes. You are holy.
Here is the thing, you can’t be a little bit holy. You will not find any marginally holy people in the Bible. One is either positionally holy in Christ or entirely unholy outside of him. There are no slightly holy people. Holiness is a state of being; you either are or you are not.
The whole Old Covenant sacrificial system developed around one simple truth: God is holy and we are not. Why were Israel terrified at Mount Sinai and begged Moses to act as their intercessor? Because God is holy and they (rightly) deemed it too dangerous for them to approach God and for it to have no ramifications. Why was there a special caste of people who worked in the temple, and a huge curtain in the middle to stop even most of them going anywhere near the holy of holies? Because God is holy and they are not and there is no safe way for unholy people to be in the presence of absolute holiness without damaging consequence. Hebrews 12:14 makes it pretty clear: without holiness no one will see the Lord. The Old Covenant rituals were all designed with that truth in mind.
But clearly the Bible speaks about some of us being able to see the Lord. Much of the Bible is dedicated to the truth that it is possible for us to be in God’s presence. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple tore in two. The Old Covenant sacrificial system and its priestly caste was no longer necessary. Jesus died and made it possible for unholy men and women to be made holy. The plan of God, according to Ephesians 1:4 was that God has chosen us to be holy and blameless before him. 1 Corinthians 3:17 (and let’s not forget the pickle that church had got into at the point Paul says this to them): ‘God’s temple is holy; and that is what you are’! Even in Corinth and the concerning state of much of that church, Paul is absolutely clear: God’s temple is holy and they are that holy temple. No margins, no degrees, just a positional statement of being.
How is this possible? It all stems from our Union with Christ. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30: ‘It is from him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom from God for us—our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption— in order that, as it is written: Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.‘ We are made righteous, sanctified and redeemed in Jesus. Our sanctification, our being washed clean and made holy, is a matter of position in Christ. 1 Peter 2:9-10 makes clear we are holy in Christ: ‘you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.’ Our holiness is not a matter of doing, but a state of being. We are either perfectly holy in Christ or we remain outside of him and unholy altogether. There are no margins of holiness.
What are we to make of passages that call us to strive for holiness e.g. Hebrews 12:14, if we are already perfectly holy? It doesn’t seem this is saying anything different to what Paul picks up in Romans concerning righteousness. When Paul insists that there is a righteousness that comes apart from works of law in Romans 3, he is telling us (and continues to tell us repeatedly in Romans), that we are made perfectly righteous in Christ. It’s not a matter of our trying to become righteous or to do righteousness, but receiving righteousness through Christ. However, he later goes on to make clear that our justified position having received the righteousness of Christ means that we should live in line what what we now are. We are no longer slaves to sin, he says, but slaves to righteousness. We are righteous in Christ so we ought to live as those who are righteous in Christ. Similarly, if we are absolutely holy in Christ, we ought to strive to live in line with what we are as holy people.
Righteousness and holiness are not matters of doing, but matters of receiving. We are made holy and we receive Christ’s righteousness. They both stem from our Union with Christ whereby God looks upon us and though he were looking on his Son. We have the right to be called children of God in Christ, the right of access to the Father in Christ as holy people. Only the holy can access God, if we can access the Father in Christ, it is only because we have been made holy in Christ. Calls to live as righteous people or to strive for holiness are not suggestions that we may or may not be partially righteous and marginally holy so buck up your ideas and get to work filling up whatever is lacking. They are calls to live in line with what we are. Be what God has made you. If you belong to Christ, live like you belong to Christ. If you are perfectly righteous, live like someone who is righteous. If you are now holy, live as someone who is holy. Those who have no interest in living this way show, despite what they may claim, that they are not righteous or holy. But those who love Jesus have already been made perfectly righteous and absolutely holy and scripture simply calls us to live in line with what we are in Christ.
So, are you holy? If you love Jesus, he has paid for your sin and you have been united to him by faith then, yes – you are absolutely holy. If you don’t love Jesus and you don’t wish to follow him, then you aren’t holy. It is that simple. There are no partially holy people. There are holy ones in Christ and then there are unbelievers.