NO EXCUSES...Without Holiness No One Will See The Lord

How many times in our Christian life have we told what we would call a "little white lie" or maybe left out a few details of a story to make ourselves look better...maybe we made an excuse not to do something because we didn't really want to go, got impatient with a coworker or friend who was really getting on our nerves, or maybe we signed off that we had read something for a class when the reality was we hadn't really done that? As you think back over just the past few months of our life guaranteed you will be able to come up with multiple occassions in which you justified some sin or sinful behavior because of a situational circumstance or some other excuse? The truth is this is something that seems to so heavily identify Christians today. We are a bunch of people who say we are pursuing holiness when in actuality we have a misconception of what that even means and looks like in our daily lives. The more we compromise, the more we deviate from that pursuit of holiness.

When we hear the word "holy", or when the world hears the word holy we automatically think of perfection and something that is either impossible to achieve or arrogant if we claim to be pursuing it. But is that what God thinks? What we find in Scripture is quite the opposite...The word holy occurs over 600 times in the Bible. In Leviticus 11:44 we read, "I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy." There doesn't seem to be any exceptions or any stipulations on that command.

But what does it even mean to be holy? I know I have written blogs on this before but the more I learn about the holiness of God the more I realize I have far from achieved an accurate picture of what it means for me as a follower of Him to pursue this. Holiness has many misconceived notions such as "don't drink, don't do drugs, don't club etc."...although these things are actions that mark the life of someone pursuing holiness, this is not what encompasses one who is striving for holiness. Jerry Bridges defines it by saying, "To be holy is to be morally blameless. It is to be separated from sin, and therefore consecrated to God. The word signifies separation to God and the conduct befitting those so separated".

Wow! When I think about what that means I am quick to realize that holiness is something I will never achieve to perfection on this side of heaven. The problem is that DOES NOT MEAN that we don't pursue it on this side of heaven. That means we pursue it with our whole heart because God commands it. God is holy and therefore we too are to be holy as His kids. The reason however that most of us don't pursue holiness like we should is because our view of sin is not God's perspective. We excuse sin or don't view it is something detestable as God does. But why? Why do we think that sin is tolerable? We have to stop! We need to put on the lens of our God and realize that EVERY SIN is DETESTABLE in His eyes...not even a little tiny one is okay! Nothing! When we begin to see sin the way God sees sin we are going to begin to stop sinning more and more because we too will hate it the way God hates evil. "As we grow in holiness, we grow in hatred of sin; and God being infinitely holy has an INFINITE HATRED of sin" (Bridges). We need to get the idea that holiness is an option out of our heads and know that it is rather a command but even more a natural conforming to Christ-likeness that WILL HAPPEN in the life of one who is truly saved. Because God is infinitely holy He can't excuse any sin. "Sometimes we try to justify to God some action which our own conscience calls into question. But if we TRULY grasp the significance of God's perfect holiness, both in Himself and in His demands of us, we will readily see we can NEVER justify before Him even the slightest deviation from His perfect will. God doesn't accept any excuses! God's holiness DOES NOT make allowance for minor flaws or shortcomings in our personal character" (Bridges).

So if this is true...if God is perfectly holy and hates sin with a passion and CANNOT have any part of it, even the little things then this too needs to be our standard. We need to pursue holiness with our whole hearts even though we know that we will never achieve it fully in this life, there are NO excuses, there can't be! And we need to stop making them today!! "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).