Pursuing Holiness
In my 21 years of life, I have only discovered one passage in the Bible that no longer applies. I'm sure you've read it...it's that part where the apostle Paul says that he's the "Chief of Sinners". Well, that may have been true at the time, but I'm pretty sure I've got the guy beat when it comes to sin.
And I'm pretty sure you feel the same way.
But maybe that was Paul's whole point. The closer we get to Almighty God, and all of His holiness, the more we realize that we are indeed the most sinful thing on the planet. We are all the Chief of sinners. Check out what Paul says to buddy TImothy:
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."
Wow, isn't that amazing? Christ came to save really bad guys like me, to show his amazing patience to the rest of the world...in order that they might see me, and believe in Him!
This is where we start to twist things in our mind.
"Well...if Jesus' plan is to save others by his amazing patience with my horrendous sin...than the more horrendously I sin...the more amazing his patience will have to be...which will really cause people to believe on him and receive eternal life! After all "where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more!" Heck, I might as well sin that grace may abound...right?"
WRONG.
"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? "
And now we come to our commercial break.
My good buddy Joel Kayser has been recently telling me the amazing encouragement and insight that he has been getting from the writings of Jerry Bridges. I first heard of Dr. Bridges while listening to his messages at the Desiring God 2007 conference: Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints. I was encouraged by him then, but I have been especially encouraged since Joel convinced me to buy his little book "The Pursuit of Holiness" last week. I have only read two chapters thus far, but God has already used it to help convict me of my sin and convince me of my call to absolute holiness. I highly recommend getting this book.
Here are some passages that really hit me hard. I hope that they can be a help to you:
"God wants us to walk in obedience- not victory, Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self...This is not to say that God doesn't want us to experience victory , but rather to emphasize that victory is a byproduct of obedience. As we concentrate on living an obedient , holy life, we will certainly experience the joy of victory over sin."
I recently read the story in the Bible where Jephthah makes that rash vow: "Lord, if you let me win this battle I'll sacrifice on your altar the first thing that comes out of my house to greet me." If you remember the story, you'll remember that it was his only daughter that came out to greet him. Unfortunately, Jephthah had to follow through on his promise. I was reading the notes in my "Life Application Study Bible" on this passage and I was surprised by what it said: "God does not want promises for the future, but obedience for today". I thought about how many times I have made promises to God that I would "never, ever commit that sin again!" But then found myself entrenched in that very sin later that very same day. It's easy to feel defeated by sin and want to feel victory over our sin, but God wants us to obey him out of love and holiness, every minute of the day.
"We often say, "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." This is blessedly true, but too often we quickly rush over the first half of this statement to get to the second. We cannot escape the fact that God hates our sins. We may trifle with our sins or excuse them, but God hates them."
This is just like how we love verses that go like "If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins", but we don't really care for verses like, "He who is rebuked often and hardens his neck, will be destroyed suddenly and that without remedy." We love toying around with little sins like lust, because "Jesus loves us, this we know". But what did Jesus actually say about such things? "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell." So let's not fear the one who can only destroy the body...let's fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
"In the deceitfulness of our hearts, we sometimes play with temptation by entertaining the thought that we can always confess and later ask forgiveness. Such thinking is exceedingly dangerous. God's judgement is without partiality. He never decides not to bother, since the sin is only a small one. No, God hates sin intensely whenever and wherever he finds it."
Amen. Please buy this book everyone. And go listen to that Desiring God conference too.
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