Holiness

In Christianity Today this month there is a great little article on holiness. It became available on line. Here's a bit to whet your appetite, but do read the whole thing. By the way, the full title of the article is Holy to the Core: We're tempted by moralism because we've forgotten what God wants at the center.

We act as if holiness were either outdated or something that characterizes only a small (if important) part of our lives.

This is partly due to our quest for cultural relevance, which is defended in the name of winning others to Christ. If we talk about holiness with unbelievers, won't that present just another hurdle for them to overcome on their way to Christ? For this and other reasons, we are rapidly forsaking our historic commitment to holiness. Recent polls show that many self-described evangelicals march in moral lockstep with mainstream American culture in practices of divorce, spousal abuse, extramarital sex, pornography consumption, materialism, and racism, just to name a few. While we tip our cap to the importance of holiness, many in our culture don't view us as morally different in any meaningful way—except to see us as hypocrites.

I believe one crucial ingredient to healing our moral confusion is the recovery of the biblical idea of holiness, which includes private morality but so much more—the very life of God in us. Holiness is not just for advanced Christians but stands at the beginning and center of God's call on our lives: "Be holy, because I am holy" (Lev. 11:44; 1 Pet. 1:16).

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If you have read this blog very long, you know that one of my burning passions is to see scriptural holiness in the lives of Christians. This article is a good start to pointing out that it is all God's grace, power, and mercy; none of the strength, power, or accomplishment comes from me.

Along those lines, I just started Ken Collins' new book The Theology of John Wesley in which he does a good job of articulating the fact that it is all God's holy love that allows a Christian to live a holy life, but more on the book later as I get into it further.
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