An Honorable Holiness

 August 8 2021

John 17:14-19

         I am not sure everyone is aware of it or not, but my hometown of Dover now has the distinction of being the home of an Olympic Gold medalist. Hunter Armstrong, someone whose family we have known for a long time, ended up being the second fastest men’s backstroke swimmer in the United States. Needless to say,  that qualifies him for the U. S. Men’s Swim team. Now, he didn’t go far in his category at the swimming trials at the Olympics but he was called back to be part of the men’s 4 X 100 men’s medley relay team where he helped them place seventh which was good enough for them to compete in the finals. Even though he wasn’t part of the final relay team which won the gold because he helped them get through the preliminaries he was able to receive a gold medal just like the other relay swimmers. How cool was that? A young man, twenty years old, from a little town in Northeast Ohio doing something that was truly outstanding. It is kind of weird for those of us who knew him as this scrawny awkward kid at VBS and church camp to see him now as this muscular athletic Gold medalist.

         As I, like most of Dover, have been fixated on Hunters success at the Olympics, I began to wonder about Olympic athletes, in general. I wondered just what motivates them to put in the long hours of training, pushing themselves to their utmost limits, knowing that what will determine their success or failure is the matter of one-hundredth of a second. The stress to perform must be unbelievable! Then I wondered, are they motivated more for their own honor, so that they might get the accolades and the applause or are they pushing themselves like they do so that they can bring honor and fame to their country that they represent?

         Perhaps the reason that I am also fixated on this idea of honor and fame is that much like athletes competing for the gold, who push themselves for the prize because of the honor and fame that it brings not only to them but for the country they represent, this same motivation, this striving after honor, this is an important part of the subject of our tenth article of faith which is about holiness. This summer series we are going through is entitled Confident, because as we study just what it is that we believe, these sixteen articles of faith of the Church of the Nazarene, we should come away being more confident and assured  in what Jesus has done for us, that he is the one who has overcome the world and because he has overcome the world then we can be confident that we can overcome the world as well.

         Today we are going to look at the tenth article of faith which concerns Christian Holiness and Entire Sanctification. Here is what we find there:We believe that sanctification is the work of God which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. It is wrought by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit in initial sanctification, or regeneration, (simultaneous with justification), entire sanctification, and the continued perfecting work of the Holy Spirit culminating in glorification. In glorification we are fully conformed to the image of the Son.

         We believe that entire sanctification is that act of God, subsequent to regeneration, by which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and brought into a state of entire devotement to God, and the holy obedience of love made perfect.

         It is wrought by the baptism or infilling of the Holy Spirit, and comprehends in one experience the cleansing of the heart from sin and the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, empowering the believer for life and service. 

         Entire sanctification is provided by the blood of Jesus, is wrought instantaneously by grace through faith, preceded by entire consecration; and to this work and state of grace the Holy Spirit bears witness.

         This experience is also known by various terms representing its different phases, such as “Christian perfection”, “perfect love”, “heart purity”, “the baptism with or the infilling of the Holy Spirit”, and “Christian holiness”.

         We believe that there is a marked distinction between a pure heart and a mature character. The former is obtained in an instant, the result of entire sanctification; the latter is the result of growth in grace.

         We believe that the grace of entire sanctification includes the divine impulse to grow in grace as a Christlike disciple. However, this impulse must be nurtured, and careful attention given to the requisites and processes of spiritual development and improvement in Christlikeness of character and personality. Without such purposeful endeavor, ones witness may be impaired and the grace itself frustrated and ultimately lost.

         Participating in the means of grace, especially the fellowship, disciplines, and sacraments of the Church, believers grow in grace and in wholehearted love to God and neighbor.

         So, there you have it, holiness and entire sanctification, seems simple enough doesn’t it? Since this is perhaps the most important doctrine in the Church of the Nazarene, I have had many classes which required the study of this article of faith and trust me, the way that it has been written up has caused a lot of confusion and misunderstanding which is unfortunate. Perhaps the worst thing that has occurred through the emphasis on entire sanctification in our denomination is that it has caused there to be a division among its members between those who have experienced entire sanctification and those who haven’t which goes against the work of Christ to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth. This article of faith has also led to a focus on the outward actions that some attribute to what holiness should look like which ends up with people who are more holier-than-thou than they are actually holy.

         So, with all that in mind, lets consider just what is meant by holiness. Probably the best place to start is in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, where God instructs Moses to tell the people of Israel, that they were to be holy because God was holy. So, what is holy? We can say only that God is holy. In the New Testament, we have the prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples, “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed or holy be your name…”This tells us then that it is God’s name, his unchangeable character that is holy. Knowing this then we can say that God’s name which is that he is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness, this is the essence of holiness.  This helps us understand the connection in our scripture for today where Jesus asks his Heavenly Father to sanctify his disciples. The word, “sanctify” is just another way of saying, “make them holy”. The way that we are made holy Jesus tells us is through the truth, and it is God’s word which is that truth. Here we begin to see that it is the faithfulness of God which is the basis of the truthfulness of the word that he speaks. When God speaks, his word always results in the action that it calls forth. This is the essence of the truth of God and it is this truth which is what makes us into holy people.

         Now, another important idea to hold on to is that through what Christ has already done through his taking on our sinful and corrupt flesh, through his dying upon the cross and through his being raised from the dead, all of this has resulted in all of us being made holy. As we might remember from what we learned about Prevenient grace,  Christ chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In other words, the reason why Christ has united himself with us, taking on our flesh, making peace with us upon the cross, the whole point of all of this was so that we might be fully and completely holy. This idea is elaborated on in the book of Hebrews where we read in the tenth chapter, that when Christ came into the world, he came to do the will of his Heavenly Father. It was through this will, we are told, that we have been sanctified through the body of Christ, once for all. Let’s just pause for a moment and let what we just heard sink in. In a once for all action of Jesus, all of us have been made holy. This means that Christ, once again has accomplished what would have been impossible for us to do by making us fully and completely holy. We read further in this same chapter of Hebrews that when Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins he has perfected for all times those who are holy. So, just as Jesus was justified through his resurrection and because of this we can claim as people united with him that we too are justified, so too when Christ perfectly fulfilled the will of God being faithful unto death, an act reflecting the holy nature of God, we then are holy because of the holiness of Christ to whom we are bound to. This is why when Paul addressed the believers at Corinth in his first letter to them he could say, “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified, made holy in Christ Jesus, called to be saints or holy ones…’ So, we must never believe that holiness is something that must be achieved through our efforts but instead we must understand that through the finished work of Christ we are already holy and not just us but everyone for whom Christ died for. 

         Now, the reason why this holiness that has been accomplished for us by Christ is not more readily seen is that many have not heard of the grace of Jesus Christ, how he has made peace with us and has thus always been with us where we are at and when we are aware of this fact then we might begin to believe that we are united with him to be where he is at, ascended into heaven, in fellowship with our Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit. Have you ever considered that when you sat down at the dinner table that at that same moment you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places? This is what Paul tells us in the second chapter of Ephesians. The same thought is heard in the third chapter of Colossians where Paul writes, “If then we have been raised with Christ, this is our justification and new birth we receive through our union with Christ, then Paul tells us that we are to seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Why are we to seek these heavenly things? We are to have our minds focused on the things of heaven  because we have died and our life is hid in Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears then you will appear with him in glory.  The only way that it would be possible for us to consider ourselves able to be in the most holy presence of God is if that we were holy ourselves.

         This entering into God’s presence because of the favor or welcome that he shows to us is what we know as grace.  It is this grace, this hope of being able to be where Christ is, to be in that most glorious of places this is what we are to place our faith in. Now, that we live in the justification, this place where life now reigns, where we have been raised to new life through the Holy Spirit, so that we have no reason to fear the future because we know that Christ and his love for us is our future, in this reality, faith appears.  In Hebrews, the eleventh chapter, we are told that whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Jesus is the one who has come to us so that we might know with certainty that God exists and it is Jesus who is our certainty of our future reward.The importance of this reward that God desires to give us is found in something that Jesus says in the fifth chapter of John, where he tells a group of unbelieving Pharisees, “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes only from God? What Jesus is saying is that what destroys our faith is when we seek to be honored and thought well of by those around us instead of seeking to do those things which God honors. Our faith then is anchored in our understanding that we are to be living in light of the glory Christ has made possible when he died to make us holy. 

This seeking after the glory that only God can give us is important in our figuring out how it is that we are sanctified in the truth, the truth which is the word of God. In the seventh chapter of John, Jesus tells the unbelieving crowd, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether my teaching is from God, or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent them is true and in them there is no falsehood. Here we see the connection between seeking after the glory of God and being sanctified by the truth. It is only when we seek after the glory of God, only as we are seeking the reward that God has for us, only then are we true, because only God is true. If to be holy is to be people who bear the name of God being people who are people of steadfast love and faithfulness then the only way to be true to this way of life is to be people who seek after the glory that God has to offer us.

We continue in our understanding of just how it is that the word of God brings out in us the holiness that Christ has won for us in something Jesus says in the twelfth chapter of John where Jesus states that he had not spoken on his own authority, but the Father who sent him gave him a commandment-what to say and what to speak. Jesus further tells us that he knows that the commandment of the Father is eternal life. Here the reward for faithful fulfilling of the commandment of the Father is eternal life, a life lived in the eternal glory and presence of God. This commandment that the Father had given to Jesus was revealed to the disciples on the night in which he was betrayed when Jesus, after telling them that his time had come to be glorified, that he had a new commandment for them that they were to love one another; just as he had have loved you, they also were to love one another. So, if God is holy and his name, his steadfast love and faithfulness are holy then when the disciples are true to this word or commandment of Jesus, when they faithfully love one another this then is where holiness is at last revealed. What makes us and the disciples be faithful in our love is that we know that God will reward our faith that he will glorify us with eternal life. This is what Jesus promises in the twelfth chapter when he told his disciples, “If anyone serves me he must follow me all the way to the cross; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor them. You see, its this amazing idea that if we are willing to love faithfully even unto death that this act does not go unnoticed by our Heavenly Father but rather these acts of sacrificial love are exactly the ones he is going to reward.

So, yes, holiness, this idea of entire sanctification is not an easy idea to wrap our heads around probably because the ways of God are always beyond us. Yet, here is what we can say. First, what Jesus has accomplished on the cross has rendered us all holy. The certainty of this holiness gives us the certainty that we are now able to be where Christ is, in the most holy place of heaven. It is this knowledge that God will reward us with this glorious future, this is the focus of our faith. It is this glory that awaits us that makes us forget about seeking the glory of those around us. It is when we seek this glory that God has for us that we become true people who are under the authority of a true God. We obey his commandment to love each other as he has first loved us, willing to be faithful to love even unto death because Jesus has done the same. When we do so we know that our faith will be rewarded, honored by God. Yet, we do not do all of this apart from the Holy Spirit who is the source of our spiritual life because as Jesus told his disciples as recorded in the sixteenth chapter of John, the Holy Spirit will declare to us the thing that are to come. In a moment, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and the reality of our future glory and eternity is impressed upon us. This is when our faith becomes certain and this future that is waiting for us brings forth the holiness that has always been ours to experience. To God be the glory! Amen.