By Hoyt Wilson
Pastor, Flatwoods Baptist Church, Holladay
A boy scrubbed clean and dressed in his Sunday best went outside to wait for the rest of the family before church. He could not, however resist the puddles from the night’s rain. He was wet and dirty when he went back into the house. Mom was unhappy and fussed. “I’m sorry, Mom,” he said. “All right, now go wash and change clothes,” she responded. “But, Mom,” he said, “I don’t want to be clean, I just want to be forgiven.”
Isn’t that the attitude Peter was resisting and warning against? Forgiveness and conversion begin with the call of Christ and must be an act of one’s will as Christ is received and self is surrendered. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance,” Peter advised. Christians are not perfect, but they must be committed to allowing the Holy Spirit to continually guide them in the direction of holiness. “Be holy, as I am holy” is not a suggestion. It is a command from God. No saved person can remain as he was in his sin.
Paul emphasized a change in lifestyle when he wrote to the Corinthian church: “… let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (I Corinthians 7:1, NIV). It is true that we will not attain sinless perfection until we actually see Jesus, but becoming holy unto the Lord through receiving Jesus is every Christian’s calling. A. J. Gordon said: “If the doctrine of sinless perfection is a heresy, the doctrine of contentment with sinful imperfection is a greater heresy.” Christians are saved in sin from sin. We are not saved in sin to continue to sin. The apostle Paul stated: “We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer” (Romans 6:1, NIV)? Christians are purposefully saved — saved to glorify God in body and spirit because we belong to Him (I Corinthians 6:20). We must make it our purpose, then, to actively try to live and make decisions that achieve the purpose of glorifying God by the manner of our lives. No person will grow in holiness and the likeness of Jesus until he or she intentionally attempts to do so. There are incentives for doing this.
One of the incentives for changing our manner of living is that we have been redeemed. Redemption of sinners came at the highest possible cost — “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God planned in advance for the redemption of those who would believe in Jesus. Peter said of Jesus: “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” He put it like this: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
Redemption means to be purchased or bought. The cost of our redemption was not silver or gold, but the blood of Christ shed on the cross. It is an honor to live for the One who died for us. Peter reminds us of a second incentive when he says: “Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” In other words: “Be holy!” Perhaps the hardest question from God will be: “Well, what did you make of your life for Me?” Peter did say of those exiles to which he was writing in this first letter: “Now that you have purified yourselves … .” That is the effect Jesus has on sinners whom He has saved. How is it possible that they purified themselves? Simply this, they had been born again. Their sin had been forgiven and a new dynamic lived within them enabling them to be declared holy.
Christians should always be confident that they have been set apart for God, but they also should be aware of their constant need for becoming more like Him. Holiness is both a gift and an activity. We call the gift justification and we call the activity sanctification. Paul emphasizes how this occurs in I Thessalonians 3:13: “May He strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all His holy ones.” God still desires that people be holy as He is holy. Are you growing in holiness?