Expected to be Holy

{Ephesians 4:20-24; ESV}

But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When it comes to following Jesus we need to remember two important truths.

1. We are unable to live faithfully by our own efforts. Salvation begins and ends with God. He is the one who took the initiative to save us for Satan, sin, and death. Therefore we can be confident that He will finish what He started. The primary way transformation occurs in our lives is through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides our lives towards a deeper faith and a greater maturity. The Holy Spirit also brings healing to the wounds located in our hearts. Through the work of the Spirit, God does for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
2. God expects His people to be holy. What does holiness look like? Holiness looks like Jesus. To be holy requires us to live the way Jesus lived. We are only able to do that as we surrender to the guidance of the Spirit. We cannot become holy on our own, we need to God’s help, but we have to surrender our lives to Him.

Andrew Murray wrote; “Holiness is not something we do or attain: it is the communication of the Divine life, the inbreathing of the Divine nature, the power of the Divine Presence resting on us.” (Holy in Christ)

While God expects His covenant people to be holy, He doesn’t leave us to achieve holiness on our own. God bestows holiness on us through the saving work of Jesus and by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

These two realities don't get us off the hook for the choices that we make. They do remind us that we cannot faithfully follow Jesus simply by our own strength. The work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit declare that God wants us to be holy! Since God wants us to be holy, He is going to do everything within His power to make us holy. That is very good news!

Our responsibility for holiness falls within two areas:

1. We must put off the old. Our old way of living was nothing less than rebellion against God and His Kingdom. That is why it is important for us to declare that we are no longer part of the rebellion that started with Satan and continues to this day. I would encourage you, while you are praying, to declare that you are done with sin. Do this out loud and be specific. Name those sins that defined your old self and make it known that they are no longer a part of who you are because of what Jesus has done. We also need to take steps to remove sin from our lives, and the first step is renouncing our sins. While this action is often overlooked I think it is basic to discovering real freedom from sin.
2. We must put on the new. The Gospel declares that when we are in Christ we are “new creations.” That is the reality of our lives, but we must believe it and live it. This begins with asking God to fill us with spiritual wisdom and understanding. We need the eyes of our hearts open so we can understand what it looks like for us to live like Jesus. Embracing the new and living like Jesus enables us to meet God’s expectation of holiness for our lives.

You and I can be holy because God makes us holy. It is up to us to live out that reality in our lives.

Questions to Consider:

• How important is the pursuit of holiness in your life?
• What practical steps could you take this week in your pursuit of holiness?
• Does it provide a sense of relief to know that God makes us holy?

The Way of Personal Fulfillment

One of my core beliefs is that there are universal desires that reside in the hearts of all people. These desires may manifest themselves differently in our lives, but they are still the same desires.

One of these universal desires is the desire for intimacy. Each one of us crave to have friendships and other relationships where we feel accepted and valued by other people. This desire is core to who we are as humans. It is the reason God declared loneliness to be not good (Genesis 2:18).

Another desire that is common for people is the desire to have purpose. For most people throughout history this desire revealed itself in the desire to live. When every day is a struggle between life and death, there isn’t a lot of soul searching around the idea of the meaning of life. When life isn’t about daily survival we are afforded the opportunity to ponder about life and wonder if our lives have any greater purpose than mere existence. This desire morphs from the desire to live to the desire to make a difference in the world.

People want their lives to matter and to have a sense of personal fulfillment. No one wants their life to be a waste.

I believe people are doing one of two things: They are either on the pursuit to find personal fulfillment or they are looking for a way to numb the belief that their life doesn’t matter.

Spiritual formation in Christ is crucial because it is the only way to truly experience the personal fulfillment of purpose and meaning that our hearts crave.

“Jesus does not deny us personal fulfillment, but shows us the only true way to it. In him we ‘find our life.’ He would keep us from selling our birthright as creatures in God’s image - a birthright of genuine goodness, sufficiency, and power for which we are fitted by nature - for a mere bowl of soup (Genesis 25:30-31). Perhaps a little illicit sex, money, reputation, power, self-righteousness, and so forth - ‘the pleasures of sin for a season’ - or for the promise or possibility of such.” 

(Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 68)

The way of Jesus is the only true path for personal fulfillment, because only Jesus can lead us to live the life God created us to live. Only Jesus can infuse our daily activities, as mundane and ordinary as they appear to be, with Kingdom importance.

When our lives are marked with love, peace, joy, gentleness, and the like (Galatians 5:22-23) we are able to experience fulfillment no matter what task or activity is before us.

The way of true personal fulfillment, to live the life we were created to live, is the path blazed by Jesus.  We need to follow Jesus to experience true life!

Following Jesus is more than just believing in him and adopting a few moral principles. It  is actually  adopting the way Jesus lived his life. It requires doing those things which empowered Jesus to love, forgive, and to serve.

What activities empowered Jesus to live life? Jesus spent time studying Scripture, fasting, serving, and praying. Spiritual disciplines helped Jesus live life. We need to follow his example.

Following Jesus doesn’t keep us from personal fulfillment, rather it is the only way to truly experience it.

The First Step

Every journey requires a first step.

It doesn’t matter if the journey is an actual physical journey, like traveling from New York City to Los Angeles, or a metaphorical journey, like transitioning from being a salesperson to being an engineer, there is always the first action that sets things in motion.

Without a first step you will never be able to complete the journey.

The girl who wants to play the violin needs to set aside time in her life when she drops everything else in order to practice the violin. Only by taking that first step to practice the violin will she be able to master the instrument enough to perform before an audience.

The student who wants an A on his research paper needs to put time into reading and taking notes on the subjects he is going to write about. Only by taking that first step of taking his research seriously is he able to lay a foundation that is able to yield him an A.

The boy who wants to play basketball needs to put in time to shoot baskets, do dribbling drills, and run lines in order to have a good grasp of the fundamentals of the game. Only by dedicating time to learning the basics can he hope to play well in the game.

There is a foundational act the precedes growth and mastery of a subject.

This reality also applies to our Christian spiritual formation.

Dallas Willard wrote:

“Those who are not genuinely convinced that the only bargain in life is surrendering ourselves to Jesus and his cause, abandoning all that we love to him, cannot learn the other lessons Jesus has to teach us. They cannot proceed to any thing like total spiritual transformation. Not that he will not let us, but that we simply cannot succeed. If I tell you that you cannot drive an automobile unless you can see, I am not saying I will not let you, but that you cannot succeed even if I do.” (Renovation of the Heart, p. 66)

Our intentional spiritual formation in Jesus has a clear starting point, and that is our choice to surrender to him.

It is important to understand that surrendering to Jesus is more than declaring that we believe he is God’s Son who rose from the dead.

To surrender to Jesus requires us to lay aside what we believe life is all about, our habits, our beliefs, our politics, and follow him. We follow him, even if he leads us into  hardship and death.

If we don’t surrender our lives to Jesus, it is impossible for us to experience true spiritual formation. Spiritual formation in Christ requires that we trust him more than we trust ourselves.

Jesus told the apostles:

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” 

Matthew 16:24-25 (NLT)

The only way to experience the eternal life that is the result of spiritual formation is to surrender to Jesus, and that requires us to follow the way of the cross.

If we are still preoccupied with trying to create the life of our dreams, we will not follow Jesus wherever he leads. Instead, we will question him and hestitate to obey, only following when it makes sense to us to follow.

This is why Jesus’ demand for surrendering is necessary, because without it we will not follow him.

When we surrender to Jesus we are declaring that we believe Jesus will give us life, even in those moments when our obedience seems to take us in the opposite direction of life. The trust that is developed from our choice to surrender is crucial to our spiritual formation in Christ.

On the journey to become the person God created you to be, don’t neglect the first step.