Christ is the Doorway to Holiness  

By Gary L. Cox

What is Holiness? Hebrews chapter 12:14 says, "Follow after peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord". What does this verse mean?  Holiness usually strikes us as unblemished purity and perfect righteousness.  However, holiness, as presented in the scriptures, means set apart. This is true of both the Hebrew and the Greek. The word for holy often refers to God's people, and is translated 'saint'. Frequently the scripture, in both the old and new testament, calls believers ‘saints’.

God’s people are holy. Christians are set apart for God's purposes exclusively. Forgiveness leads to holiness. If you are walking in forgiveness, then you have set yourself apart unto the Lord for his purpose and you have released the debt of others to you.  Holiness means to be set apart for the purpose which God has ordained for you. This means that your own purpose is not honored. In any situation, something is holy if God's purpose is honored.

Before Satan tempted Adam and Eve, God's purpose in them was being fulfilled, so Adam and Eve were holy. Now in this perfect and holy state which they created, they were naked and did not know it because they were filled with God's perfect purpose. When they sinned they changed God’s purpose for a lie, Satan's lying purpose.  Adam and Eve no longer were holy, or set apart for God’s exclusive purpose after sinning.   Now they were defiled. Doing you own will ruin’s God's holy purpose. That's what sin is. Sin is a violation of the purpose of God.  The fall of Adam and Eve marks the loss of holiness to the natural state of man.  From that dreadful day forward, holiness comes not from the natural function of man, but the supernatural revelation of God.

If we are going to walk in holiness, we are going to have to learn by the Spirit, what God's purpose is in every matter. Holiness for you and I is the restoration of the original intent of our Creator. God is working through Christ to restore his original purpose upon the creature, that's what redemption is all about. God restores his purpose in man that was perverted by Satan.  Something is holy when it is set apart for God's exclusive purpose that he ordained. This is such a practical idea. Today you can be holy in every little thing if you use it for the purpose revealed by God.  Holiness is practical. In any decision that you make, you are either walking in holiness because you are finding God's purpose and embracing, or you are pursuing your own purpose, which is sin.

Man is stained with sin and self interest. For Christians, holiness is a life long struggle. Second Corinthians 7:1 says, 'Seeing we have these promises let us cleanse our self from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.'  God's people get stained in their flesh and spirit. We are called to walk and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord.  When something is holy, it turns your focus to God. Holiness conforms to God's purpose and becomes an occasion to glorify God for his wonderful purposes in his satisfying provisions. These two things go together: His wonderful purpose and our satisfaction. When God is ministering, the only thing that hurts is the flesh, and God wants us to put off the flesh. But there is a deep satisfaction in the spirit when we get connected to God's purpose.  When Christ died on the cross he paid for our sins. This payment in his blood was the full purchase price necessary to buy back from corruption that which God created for Him in holiness.

When the world was created, it was created in holiness. When Adam and Eve fell, the world fell into a sinful state. The world fell into a use to glorify Satan and that is not the purpose of God who created it.  Because of the sin of Adam and Eve the rightful purpose of God got lost by that sin and Christ had to pay God's penalty in order to redeem man for God’s purposes. When we talk about holiness, we're talking about redemption for the Christian.  Don't ever separate holiness from redemption. Holiness is not doing better so God is pleased, holiness is God purchasing man out of his sin and giving back holiness, or the heavenly purpose of his original intent.  Christians are to be filled with the satisfaction of God's original intent; that's holiness. The believer is holy because he has been redeemed with a price. Now he is under new ownership and a new obligation: to glorify God with the deeds of his body. 

This is true holiness: to be set apart for the purpose and glory of God. Holiness results in true happiness: to enjoy the beauty of holiness and the rivers of eternal pleasure that flow from the Lord's right hand. The Christian life ought not to be so hard as we make us.  Holiness is this: God bought you back and now you're his and he himself has provided the means to conform you to his holiness. And so holiness is the work of God. The only thing that you and I bring to the table is the remembrance that we are not our own, we were bought with a price. You and I have no right to our own expectations whatsoever. The issue is this:  we we're sold into slavery, and God has bought us back. He has redeemed and returned us to His purposes. Now we have true liberty in Christ.

Christian liberty is never insisting on your desires or preferences. Christian liberty is walking in harmony with the Lord.  It's learning to hear the Lord say, 'this is the way, walk ye in it'.  When you walk after the purposes of God, he will show you the path of life, for ‘in his presence is fullness of joy; and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore’. (Ps 16:11)  Christian liberty is simply a freshness of relationship with God that is based on his purposes being brought to me by the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and in conformity to his Word.  God makes me holy. Everything I do by the prompting of the Holy Spirit is holy because it is set apart for the purpose of God. We walk in holiness because we walk in response to the Holy Spirit.

Perfecting the Fear of God. Now the difficult reality for you and I is that we must perfect holiness in the fear of God. You and I are in process in the Christian life.  Christianity is a growing process and that process could be summarized as perfecting holiness in the fear of God. When we're first saved, we're not perfect. Two weeks later we're not perfect. Gradually we grow and expand our recognition of the ways of God. Holiness is the discovery of the spiritual significance of life. The carnal values of sin, which have tainted his wonderful purposes are put away, now, we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and our hearts are filled with the vision of God's higher purpose. To get excited about God’s purpose is holiness.  Learning to yield your members as servants of righteousness by yielding to the Holy Spirit is a lifelong process of perfecting holiness.

This is the love of God’s abundant labor in Jesus Christ toward you!