Impossibly Holy

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Lev. 19:2

Now it’s one thing to believe that God is holy (most religions don’t), but it’s quite another when this holy God expects us to be holy, too. This is particularly puzzling since his holiness is so far above ours that we want to run when encountering it. So how are we very unholy creatures expected, even commanded, to be holy like God?

The short answer is: it’s not possible. Wait a minute! God orders us to do something that’s utterly impossible? We’re told to become holy as God is holy, but we don’t have the spiritual equipment to fulfill the command. This sounds like the height of unfairness! And it would be, if it weren’t for one thing: God knows that it’s totally impossible for us to be holy on our own feeble efforts.

So if you’ve tried many times on your own to become holy as God is holy, then you’ve accomplished one of two things: either you fell exhausted in the futility of it all, or you’ve just managed to entertain your friends, for there’s nothing more laughable than self-made holiness.

In his letters to the Romans and Galatians, the Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that we can’t be holy in any literal way through our own righteousness. It was also Jesus’ point when he said that we won’t or can’t accomplish a single thing without him (Jn. 15:1-5). If it weren’t this way, we wouldn’t be open to hearing the real (the only) solution—the gospel of Jesus. Something we’re prepared to hear only when we’ve tried the wrong way, the way of self-effort.

Jesus Christ is the only answer to the perennial question of how fallen, sinful human beings can become holy. The theological word is “imputation”. The righteousness or holiness of Jesus Christ, the perfect and sinless Son of God, is imputed to us or is put to our account. It’s something done for us. We can’t do it.

In other words, we make an exchange: we give Jesus our sins to bear and he credits us with his righteousness. So God looks upon us as he would his own Son. He sees us through the lens of Jesus. Believers get full credit for Jesus’ perfection even though they’re anything but perfect. There’s no such exchange anywhere else on the planet. In every other belief system it’s a do-it-yourself sort of thing.

But there’s more. After imputation comes impartation. Not only does God impute to us Jesus’ righteousness, he works in us day-by-day by his Spirit to impart his righteousness. He doesn’t want us to stay the way we are: selfish, deceitful, lustful, malicious, covetous, greedy, and the like. No, he wants us to become more like him. Over time, his Spirit actually works powerfully to form the image of Jesus within us.

This doesn’t mean that we actually become righteous or holy enough to earn our salvation. Never! That won’t happen. We’re saved by and only by grace and mercy (a free, unmerited gift), but after regeneration has occurred, then the process of becoming more like Christ has begun. This is the result, not the cause, of our salvation.

So thankfully we do become better. At least we should. And if not, if we just stay the same year after year, never changing and never reflecting the holiness of God, then there’s something wrong somewhere and we need to find out what it is. Remember, when James, the Lord’s brother, gives examples of what it means to be a believer he doesn’t list how “religiously” we act or talk, but how we treat other people (Jas. 2:14-17). If others can’t see a measurable difference, then maybe it’s not there.

This is just a New Testament reiteration of what the Old Testament expects. What the Lord has always required of us is to love him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the essence of the Law and the sort of holiness God wants to see in us and will, in his time, create in us.

What’s the good news here for 2012? All thanks and praise to God, he always gives what he commands.