Holiness: what is it?

It has been said that we should, “Never ask a saintly man whether or not he is holy and get an honest answer.”

I’ll take it a step further and say that if we should ask the average church goer to define holiness and chances are 9 out of 10 you’ll get a blank stare, or at best some canned response like don’t wear this, or paint yourself of like some Jezebel or watch porno flicks. Never—or should I say, very seldom, do you hear anything positive like sanctify yourself.

Sanctify? What in the name of common sense has that got to do with holiness anyway? Well, the answer is everything. Yet, I dare say that the average parishioner has never heard a sermon on good old fashioned sanctification. Amazingly, however, Christ prayed for our sanctification—that is, our holiness.

"My prayer,” he said, “is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. “(John: 17: 15-21)

What then is sanctification, we may ask?

The simply answer, just happens to be the correct answer and can best be illustrated by saying that a pen is "sanctified" when used to write. Eyeglasses are "sanctified" when used to improve sight. So, in a Biblical sense, things are sanctified—that is set aside for an exclusive purpose—when they are used for the purpose God intends. A basin in the Temple to hold water, tongs to arrange hot coals on altar, and so-forth. A human being is sanctified, therefore, when he or she serves the purposes of God's intentions. Romans: 8:28-29 makes that very clear:

“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” 

So, we are truly holy when we are doing precisely what God intended for us to do. Firstly, we obey Him by becoming like Him. That means primarily that we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him—yes, and when necessary, even to our cross. This will most certainly kill us; but then, that was His intention for us in the first place. No one ever truly become a servant—which is part of the journey—unless they are willing to die to self and live for others.

Impossible, you say. No, not really, for Scripture tells us that,

[It] is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” [Philippians 2:13]

“It’s all about me,” may work as a slogan in a dog eat dog world of high finance, or entrepreneurship but in the Kingdom of God it is a sure path to failure. This great truth should serve as a reminder once again that as the old camp meeting songs says that,

“This world is not my home I'm just a passing through.

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.

Oh Lord you know I have no friend like you.

If heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do?

The angels beckon me from heaven's open door.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”

And, the rest of the verses for those of us who are strangers here on earth, it goes:

“I have a loving mother just over in Glory land.

And I don't expect to stop until I shake her hand.

She's waiting now for me in heaven's open door.

And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.”

Now, to realize that dream, we must walk softly in our Master’s footprints along the path of our earthly journey.