Holiness

So tonight I was privileged enough to speak to the CCU student leaders about holiness and what that practically looks like in the life of a believer.  The message was short and the point was simply this: holiness only comes from making much of Jesus in our life and in the lives of others.  Without a single minded pursuit of Jesus Christ, "holiness" isn't really holiness, but rather moralistic deism (what I mean by that is we do moral things in the name of a supreme being who has little to no bearing on our actual lives).

It is in the pursuit of Jesus that we walk closer with Him and see ourselves more for who we are: morally bankrupt rebels incapable of holiness.  I say incapable of holiness rather than incapable of good because the second phrase, while true, often gets lost in translation.  Sure, we are able to do things that the world sees as morally upright, but the prophet Isaiah is pretty clear as to how God sees those morally good deeds (it's not good).  The problem isn't that God is a killjoy, but rather than our baseline for moral good is so skewed that we can't fathom a perfect, holy God and his inability to be around sin.  We must become people who passionately run after Christ because it is only Christ's righteousness that matters.  It is his holiness, his righteousness, his character that we are given and that God sees, thus we must run hard after him.  It is not always fun, nor easy.  It will not at the end of the day leave you with a warm fuzzy about yourself and your character, but it will get you Jesus Christ.  And he is infinitely worthy, infinitely beautiful, and infinitely wonderful.

So my challenge to the leaders was simple, let us be people who make much of Jesus in all that we say and do and think.  Think about him.  Talk about him.  Run to him always.  Make much of him in life.  For, to paraphrase A.W. Tozer, the day is surely coming when all we have will fail us, health, wealth, friends, and prestige will be gone.  All we will have is Jesus Christ.  And that thought makes the heart that has been regenerate dance with joy, and leave the heart that is in darkness wondering what in the world I am talking about.